Digital Speedometer From RN, Does it work if my cable is toast?

what if your running a VDO Vision speedo? Is there a plug and play out of the LT230 for the speedo to pickup?

CDeWan said:

what if your running a VDO Vision speedo? Is there a plug and play out of the LT230 for the speedo to pickup?

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It is the same as the SingleViu. This is covered in other threads. When I’m near a computer, I’ll try to dig up the threads.

The basic gist is that if you are running a stock EFI system you want one of the vehicle speed sensors that were used in Defenders or Discoveries. You can share that signal with the speedometer. If you already have EFI, then all that is needed is to tap a wire into the speed signal.

This covers some of it depending on if you want to keep the stock EFI sender or transition completely to a transfer case sender.

abraded said:

VDO Speedo Gurus, please chine in...

I have a 95 NAS D90 with the VSS box on the frame rail. In installing the speedo, I ran the wires per the VDO instructions for an inductive sensor (power to pin 4; ground to pin 3; and signal wires from VSS to pins 7 & 8). The speedo works and I was able to calibrate it, but the needle jumps...

www.defendersource.com

This covers some of it depending on if you want to keep the stock EFI sender or transition completely to a transfer case sender.

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Mine jumps as well as I made some rigging to get it to work. the cabling is not the same size so it is a bit inaccurate.

Red90 said:

It is the same as the SingleViu. This is covered in other threads. When I’m near a computer, I’ll try to dig up the threads.

Red O...that would be awesome if I could grab that info from you. I'll keep my eyes on this thread

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CDeWan said:

Mine jumps as well as I made some rigging to get it to work. the cabling is not the same size so it is a bit inaccurate.

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Running to pins 7 and 8 is the wrong setup. That is for an inductive sender by itself with no power. The stock VSS has power on one side, runs through the sender and then a resistor and then a signal wire to the ECU. You want to tie into the sender wire and run it to pin 8 (on a Vision series), pin 5 on a SingleViu.

Here is the wiring if changing to a Disco 1 sender with a Vision series gauge. The stock Defender sender includes the resistor.

Speedo is wired to the VSS! I tried calibrating it a few times over a 1 mile drive. It didn't do so great. When I'm at speed, it always shows a speed approximately 5mph less than what I'm going (by GPS). Then, when I stop, it stays at 20 mph for about 15 seconds, then bounces a bit and goes down to zero. Overall, better than last week! I think the wiring and grounds are good. Maybe a worn plug at the transfer case? I tried to set the pulses/min, but couldn't get it to allow me to do that. I'll work on it some more tomorrow!

Unless they have fixed the programming you need to program it to a kilometer.

Red90 said:

Unless they have fixed the programming you need to program it to a kilometer.

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I'll try that!

You can always email [email protected] for any tech help with your VDO purchases from us

Z.G said:

You can always email [email protected] for any tech help with your VDO purchases from us

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Thanks! I spoke with someone on friday on another issue, and they were very helpful. I'll call again on Monday.

Nearly resolved now! I have a new cable from the transfer case to the VSS, a new VSS, and it's marking speed well. Just one problem remains. When I stop, the needle goes to 0 (ish), then fires back up to 30mph and stays there! bad ground maybe? I'll check into it this week.

volleymdut said:

Nearly resolved now! I have a new cable from the transfer case to the VSS, a new VSS, and it's marking speed well. Just one problem remains. When I stop, the needle goes to 0 (ish), then fires back up to 30mph and stays there! bad ground maybe? I'll check into it this week.

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Curious where you are at with this problem? Did you get it to work correctly now?

emah said:

Curious where you are at with this problem? Did you get it to work correctly now?

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Short answer… no. Long answer… it does tell me how fast I’m going, if I’m moving. And as I slow, it slows. But when at idle, it shoots right back up to anywhere between 20-80mph. Insanely frustrating. I’ve been troubleshooting it off and on for months. No improvement.

volleymdut said:

Short answer… no. Long answer… it does tell me how fast I’m going, if I’m moving. And as I slow, it slows. But when at idle, it shoots right back up to anywhere between 20-80mph. Insanely frustrating. I’ve been troubleshooting it off and on for months. No improvement.

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That's bizarre, does it bounce around? I cant imagine where it'd be picking that signal up

Z.G said:

That's bizarre, does it bounce around? I cant imagine where it'd be picking that signal up

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Thanks for asking... it doesn't bounce at all. Isn't that crazy? I've tried several different ground sites, nothing changes. But of course I checked it again last night because I couldn't stop thinking about it and noticed that, in neutral at a dead stop, i'll rev the RPM's and the speedo jumps way up to 80! I don't know, I'm lost! I'll take some video and post it soon.

volleymdut said:

Thanks for asking... it doesn't bounce at all. Isn't that crazy? I've tried several different ground sites, nothing changes. But of course I checked it again last night because I couldn't stop thinking about it and noticed that, in neutral at a dead stop, i'll rev the RPM's and the speedo jumps way up to 80! I don't know, I'm lost! I'll take some video and post it soon.

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Very odd. I know Calef is working on VDO stuff today, I'll mention that to him

I would look into your alternator and make sure it is not producing AC voltage.

volleymdut said:

Short answer… no. Long answer… it does tell me how fast I’m going, if I’m moving. And as I slow, it slows. But when at idle, it shoots right back up to anywhere between 20-80mph. Insanely frustrating. I’ve been troubleshooting it off and on for months. No improvement.

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I was able to get this kit to work with the discovery 1 vss and the “speedo damper unit” from the disco 1 cluster. I made a diy on it as I needed the output to also go to the gems ecu for a speed signal. Prior to adding the “damper” the Speedo would jump around using the disco 2 wire vss, this fixed the issue

Edit: here is the link

For posterity, I was an early adopter of the RN Speedo kit and I love it. it was an easy install for a 96 ROW TDI and the instructions were probably the best I've seen of any kit.