MotoCluster

Help & Setup

Motorcycle navigation and a live OBD instrument cluster. Maps work with no adapter.

Setting up your OBD adapter

The whole process, start to finish, on a real bike:

  1. Plug the ELM327 adapter into your bike's diagnostic connector, using the 6-pin-to-16-pin cable if your bike needs one.
  2. Turn the ignition on.
  3. Pair the adapter in Android Settings → Bluetooth. The PIN is usually 1234 or 0000.
  4. Open MotoCluster, long-press anywhere to open the menu, and pick your adapter under Paired adapters.

No adapter yet? Open the app anyway. Navigation, maps, search and Ride mode all work on a bare phone — speed comes from GPS. The adapter only adds the engine data.

Common questions

Will my phone survive the rain and heat?

This is the most common worry and it's a fair one. MotoCluster doesn't make your phone waterproof — use a mount with a rain cover, or a case, in wet weather.

On heat: the app dims automatically at night and does no background processing, but any phone in direct sun on a hot day will eventually throttle. Many riders use an old spare phone as a permanent bike display, which sidesteps both problems and is what we'd suggest if you're unsure.

What about battery drain?

Maps and GPS are the expensive part, not the cluster. On a long ride you'll want a USB feed to the bars — most riders running phone navigation already have one. Without the map screens the drain is much lower.

Do I need a phone mount?

Yes, for anything beyond checking a stat at a stop. Any standard handlebar or mirror-stem mount works. Get one with vibration damping if your bike is a single-cylinder — sustained high-frequency vibration is hard on phone camera modules.

Which bikes are supported?

55+ models are built in and detected automatically by VIN, across Royal Enfield, Triumph, KTM, Husqvarna, Yamaha, Bajaj, TVS, BMW, Honda, Harley-Davidson, Hero and Suzuki.

If yours isn't one of them, the Generic OBD-II profile still gives you rpm, speed, temperatures, throttle and fuel trims — and you can set your own tank size, gearing and redline under My vehicle.

Do I have to buy an OBD adapter?

Not to start. Navigation, maps, search, turn-by-turn and Ride mode all work on a bare phone, with speed from GPS. The adapter only unlocks the engine data — rpm, gear, temperatures, fuel and economy.

Which adapter should I buy?

A Classic-Bluetooth ("SPP") mini ELM327. We measured a blue SPP mini at 131 ms / 7.6 Hz against a no-name BLE clone at 150 ms / 6.7 Hz — the mini is both faster and completely reliable.

Avoid no-name BLE clones: several don't reassemble multi-frame replies and silently return corrupted data. Most bikes also need a 6-pin-to-16-pin cable. Budget around ₹900 for both.

Why is my route longer than Google's?

Because MotoCluster avoids expressways by default — two-wheelers are banned from most of them in India. Google's car mode will happily route you onto one.

Compare against Google's two-wheeler mode instead and the numbers line up closely. If your bike is permitted on expressways, switch Avoid motorways off in Settings.

Does it work with Android Auto?

No, and it can't. Google only approves Android Auto apps in the navigation, media and messaging categories — a custom gauge cluster isn't an eligible category, so it would be rejected at review. Use a phone mount instead; MotoCluster is designed to be readable at a glance on the bars.

How accurate is the fuel economy?

The live figure is a running estimate from engine load and airflow. It's good for spotting whether you're riding economically right now, but it is not a measurement.

The tank-to-tank figure, once you've logged two full fill-ups, is the real number and is what you should judge the bike by. Most bike dashboards are optimistic — mine reads about 10% high, which is what started this whole project.

Does it show air-fuel ratio (AFR)?

No. Road bikes ship a narrowband O2 sensor that only reports rich or lean either side of λ=1, so any "AFR" derived from it would just oscillate around 14.7 and mislead. Real AFR needs an aftermarket wideband sensor. We show STFT/LTFT fuel trims instead, which is the honest version of what people are actually asking for.

Will I lose my rides if I change phone?

No. Menu → Back up writes your rides, fuel log, calibration and settings to a file you keep, and Restore reads it back on the new phone.

Does it need internet or an account?

Maps need a data connection. Everything else works offline. An optional Google sign-in exists only to run the free Pro trial — the app is fully usable without ever signing in, and your rides never leave your phone.

Still stuck?

Email tb.tanmay111@gmail.com and tell me your bike, your adapter, and what happened. If it's a connection problem, that's usually enough to work it out.