Instrument cluster goes black!!!

[CAT in HAWAII]

11-28-2016 #450
Home To work 50% 28.7
To home 28.7.  25292.2   9%
Again, Screen just died at about mile 9 of my 28 mile drive home
Rpm gauge stuck at 3200 RPM
On restart (at home) appears normal,,,

11-27-2016 #449
Home To work 52% 28.7 cruise in
To home 28.7.   25233.9 10%
Screen just died halfway home,
Rpm gauge stuck at 3700 RPM
On restart (at home) appears normal,,,

So my instrument cluster just all of a sudden goes black, and speedometer is stuck where it was when bike went black,, I just relax the throttle a bit and hope to get home,,,
No problems, but don't know what my battery percent is, or my speed,,
I do get home,, but two days in a row and I'm thinking something is just not right with the bike,,

Anybody else ever happened to???
No warning Or fault codes when I turn it off and turn it back on when I get home,, appears normal,, the battery shows up when I restart, at about where it should be, and the mileage appears to also be correct,,,

[FreepZ]

I've had a few problems with the instrument cluster, but I haven't seen it go completely black. Does it turn off, or does the LCD turn all the pixels to black?

The issues that I've had were:

• Humidity in the cluster causing the LCD to be illegible. It would eventually dry out after a few weeks.
• Water in the cluster which caused the tachometer and the LCD to fail after some time. I don't know how the water got in there. I left it at a dealership to get serviced, and when I got it back, there was water pooled under the tachometer!
• (Note that the first two issues were with the original cluster, which wasn't very water proof. Brammo had given me a few replacement clusters, and then finally, after the latest issue, they gave me the new version, which is much more water resistant!)
• The tachometer range got shifted, so that it went from 4 K rpm to max, rather than from 0 to 9 k rpm. After a while, it fixed itself.

[CAT in HAWAII]

Yeah, there does not and never has appeared any water/condensation in my cluster,,
But it just went DEAD,, both times at night, ,,
Nothing displayed , just like there was no power going to it at all,, and also weird to me is that the tachometer just froze in place,, and like I said, when I got home and turned the key to off, and then back on,, it's just back to normal,,

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

Check all your connections around the headlight. I seem to remember something similar happen to mine, and it was just a loose connection at a plug. Now I am experiencing intermittent front turn signal function...the 12v connections are not particularly good on the Empulses.

[Shinysideup]

Sure sounds like a bad connection. Though why it comes on at home is a mystery.

If you stop on the road, turn the bike off and turn it back on, is it still black?

I've got no experience, though my tach will get stuck somewhere above zero at "idle" but only when the hot sun has been shining on it. My theory is a brass bushing expands and grips the needle shaft.

Hawaii (where I lived for 9 years) is notorious of wreaking havoc on electrical connections due to corrosion (warmth and salt air). My mechanic used to call my old rusty Nissan truck a "Rotsun."

I'd follow the wires out of the cluster and take apart/reseat all the connections (using ProGold contact cleaner on them) and reseat any fuses in the circuit. There's several modules under the "tank" (behind the gray plastic box/cover) that serve 12V circuits, so I'd take all of those out and reseat them. Lubing up wiring connectors with dielectric grease before reassembly is a useful preventative.

Intermittent electrical problems are right up there with my least favorite things, along with wet toilet seats.

[CAT in HAWAII]

Ok,, now I got homework this weekend,,
Thanks for the tips!

I had my bike repaired a few weeks ago, and they replaced the handelebars and other stuff,,
I'm thinking maybe that light have something to do with it,,,

[Shinysideup]

Sounds likely... may have tugged on a connector.

[kingcharles]

Well this is a coincidence for sure but today when I went home after work I found that the display was off but the bike was still plugged in and the small headlight and tail lights were still on.
Also the (green) lights indicator of the dash was on but nothing else.
So even while charging the dash can turn off.
Let's hope it's a one time issue... Fingers crossed

[FrankH]

the display was off but the bike was still plugged in and the small headlight and tail lights were still on.
Also the (green) lights indicator of the dash was on but nothing else.
So even while charging the dash can turn off.

That sounds a lot like the way my dash behaves. But that was definitely caused by water inside. After covering the electronics in rice for a week and some help from our dealer and an electronics shop next door, my dash is mostly working again (apart from the speedo needle and some lines on the LCD that don't work).

[kingcharles]

Well I'm moving from the very wet Netherlands to the not so wet Italy in January. I will let the dash dry there 
And I will have a garage so it won't be outside anymore.

Not many public charging facilities yet in Italy though, so not all good news for the little Empulse...