I wanted:
After some hunting around, I found there are lots of options for power cables, but not many that were appropriate. Lots are designed to wire into fairing/dashboards. The standard power plug for bikes seems to be the Powerlet/ISO4165/BMW Accessory Plug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4165) - basically a slightly smaller cigarette lighter. There’s loads of cables with those, or regular cigarette lighter sockets, and then you have to shell out on adaptors and waterproofing for those.
So, I found 3BR’s “TAPP” ports, which are pretty ideal: http://www.3brpowersports.com/products.php See here for a write-up: http://www.webbikeworld.com/r4/waterproof-power-ports
- USB socket (everything I would want to power for now is USB)
- Cable of sensible length to get from battery to handlebars
- Waterproof, including socket and preferably so I
- High enough amperage to charge a phone/tablet/camera (at least 1.5 amps, pref 1.8 - 2.1)
After some hunting around, I found there are lots of options for power cables, but not many that were appropriate. Lots are designed to wire into fairing/dashboards. The standard power plug for bikes seems to be the Powerlet/ISO4165/BMW Accessory Plug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4165) - basically a slightly smaller cigarette lighter. There’s loads of cables with those, or regular cigarette lighter sockets, and then you have to shell out on adaptors and waterproofing for those.
So, I found 3BR’s “TAPP” ports, which are pretty ideal: http://www.3brpowersports.com/products.php See here for a write-up: http://www.webbikeworld.com/r4/waterproof-power-ports
But, they’re slow and/or expensive to get in the UK and I was in a hurry (wanted for the weekend) so instead went for these from Powerlink plus one of their “splashproof” short cables. Probably not amazing quality, but arrived 2 days later for a total of £25.
Fitting was theoretically very easy, but eventful due to my own stupidity…
- Remove seat (allen key bolts at the back)
- Disconnect battery: unscrew negative terminal first then positive second, push existing cables out of the way
- realise that, as usual we’ve fallen foul of the worlds most annoying immobiliser, and reconnect the battery
- turn alarm off and put bike in service mode (alarm on, ignition on, hold alarm key till it beeps, engine off) and disconnect battery
- put up with annoying service mode beeping every 15 seconds till finished
- I realised there’s no where to fit the cable along the frame and it wouldn’t be secure, so the only option was to remove the tank and run the cable underneath it along with the other cables
- I cheated and just unscrewed the two tank bolts, lifted the tank for leverage and fed the cable through underneath…
- Remove the inline fuse and tape the open fuse cap to the cable to protect it and get rid of sharp edges. do the same with the cable ends
- Run cable battery-terminals-end first, downwards through the left hand loop beside the clocks along with the existing cables (do that first as it wont fit through socket first if you do it last… as I discovered on attempt number 1!)
- Feed cable through gap under other cables on left side of tank…
- …and out under the full/reserve switch
- Then feed up through the gap under the tank bolts, pulling out with pliers
- Remove tape, put fuse back, screw wires into battery with other cables (negative then positive)
- Use a couple of cable ties to fix to other cables to keep it in place
- Apologise to neighbours everytime you see them for setting off the alarm at 7am
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