Lost with wiring (power outlet mod for CBR 125) | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Lost with wiring (power outlet mod for CBR 125)

BioRouge said:
I'm not nearly electronics savy to start soldering any of my wires, it was to be a DIY - but I'm realizing I may be way over my head in this one.
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I posted in the Ajax rides thread, but if you want some help with it, I can do it. I have soldering equipment, heat shrink, connectors.... I can even put a relay in if you want.
 
BioRouge said:
i think this OP will just use the built in GPS battery and if it dies, there's always my blackberry to help me find my way home :)

I'm not nearly electronics savy to start soldering any of my wires, it was to be a DIY - but I'm realizing I may be way over my head in this one.
Appreciate everyones helps and thoughts.. thank you very much :)
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It's not over your head at all.

You have two minimal-effort routes you can take.

1. Hook the red wire of your 12 volt accessory socket to the positive terminal of the battery, and the black wire to the negative terminal or to a handy frame bolt or screw on your bike. This will give you power on that accessory sockey all of the time whether the bike is running or not. You should put a fuse somewhere between the red wire and your battery if you go this route.

2. Or you can connect the red wire of your accessory socket to the brown wire going into your taillight, and the black wire of the accessory socket to a handy frame bolt or screw on your bike. This will give you power that will turn on when you turn the key. You do not need a fuse if you go this way because the circuit already has a fuse on it, Fuse #4 in your bike's fuse box.

You do NOT need a relay. You do NOT need an inverter. You don't even need a toaster.

Don't be frightened by the other poster who everyone else knows to be way out in left field, in fact so far out on this one as to be way out in orbit. Either method 1 or 2 above is simple to do and should take literally a few minutes, and either is perfectly safe for your bike. Nothing will melt. Nothing will burn out. I went the second way myself for my GPS with zero bad effects.
 
turbodish said:
He's not tapping into the brakelight circuit at all.

He would be tapping into the running light circuit. The running light filament consumes about 5 watts, less than 1/2 amp. The wire going to the running light filament is plenty heavy enough to handle several times that amount of current, and the circuit it's on is fused for 10 amps with nowhere near that load actually required by the electrical loads on that circuit.

Your scare about melted wiring is more ridiculous nonsense coming from someone who has no clue about the wiring circuits and current capacity of the circuits on that bike.
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I doubt the guage of wire supplying the tail light is able to handle 10 amps of current. That means the fuse will be useless in preventing a melt down of the wiring when you are drawing current to power a gps and charging a cell phone. Honda designed the electrical to be used for the interanal bike operations.
 
TheDirty said:
I posted in the Ajax rides thread, but if you want some help with it, I can do it. I have soldering equipment, heat shrink, connectors.... I can even put a relay in if you want.
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Good on you! I was just going to PM the OP to offer my help. Would have been a shame for someone to give up on such an easy DIY that was made unnecessarily over-complicated.

OP: Feel free to PM me as well, I'd be happy to ride over to Ajax and offer assistance. I've put an accessory plug on every single one of my bikes I've ever owned.
 
ItIsWhatItIs said:
I doubt the guage of wire supplying the tail light is able to handle 10 amps of current. That means the fuse will be useless in preventing a melt down of the wiring when you are drawing current to power a gps and charging a cell phone. Honda designed the electrical to be used for the interanal bike operations.
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10A?!? My Blackberry power adapter outputs 5V/0.5A. So does my Zumo adapter. My iPod adapter outputs 12V/1.0A. To reach 10A, I would need to plug in about 15-20 devices...

Now if I plugged in a toaster...
 
Lightcycle said:
10A?!? My Blackberry power adapter outputs 5V/0.5A. So does my Zumo adapter. My iPod adapter outputs 12V/1.0A. To reach 10A, I would need to plug in about 15-20 devices...

Now if I plugged in a toaster...
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Can you read? The wire would melt before blowing the 10 amp fuse if the wire is not equipped to handle 10 amps.
 
OP be wary of those who wear their ego on their sleave and will stop at nothing to insist they are right and everyone else is wrong.

turbodish said:
It's not over your head at all.

You have two minimal-effort routes you can take.

1. Hook the red wire of your 12 volt accessory socket to the positive terminal of the battery, and the black wire to the negative terminal or to a handy frame bolt or screw on your bike. This will give you power on that accessory sockey all of the time whether the bike is running or not. You should put a fuse somewhere between the red wire and your battery if you go this route.

.
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Do this, do not power external circuits from the bike's internal wiring. Using a relay allows the power to be shut off from the dc outlet when the bikes off. If you don't use a relay you have to be sure nothing is plugged into this outlet when you are not using the bike. Another way is to add an on/off switch to your dc outlet.

posters who have to resort to insults to bolster their position are weak.
 
ItIsWhatItIs said:
Can you read? The wire would melt before blowing the 10 amp fuse if the wire is not equipped to handle 10 amps.
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Honda uses 18 and 20 gauge wire in their lighting circuits. That's plenty big enough to handle 10 amps of current over the short wiring runs found in a bike. A typical taillight bulb is only 5 watts and requires less than 1/2 amp in current draw. There is plenty of extra current capacity in the wire leading to it.

As already mentioned, good design ensures that the fuse is always the weakest link in a wiring circuit. You do not put a 10 amp fuse in a circuit unless all of the wires in that circuit are capable of handing at least 10 amps of current and then some.
 
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ItIsWhatItIs said:
OP be wary of those who wear their ego on their sleave and will stop at nothing to insist they are right and everyone else is wrong.
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Ah, so that's what you're doing, wearing your ego on your sleeve. I would have thought it to be lower down and in a much darker place.

If you're going to give advice, you should have some idea of the subject you're advising on. So much of what you;ve said in this thread has little bearing on reality.
 
ItIsWhatItIs said:
Do this, do not power external circuits from the bike's internal wiring. Using a relay allows the power to be shut off from the dc outlet when the bikes off. If you don't use a relay you have to be sure nothing is plugged into this outlet when you are not using the bike. Another way is to add an on/off switch to your dc outlet.
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When the power to a switched circuit is off, the power is off to any load on that switched circuit. This is true whether that load is a GPS unit, or whether that load is a relay. Yes, a relay is also an electrical load in and of itself.
 
turbodish said:
Honda uses 18 and 20 gauge wire in their lighting circuits. That's plenty big enough to handle 10 amps of current over the short wiring runs found in a bike. A typical taillight bulb is only 5 watts and requires less than 1/2 amp in current draw. There is plenty of extra current capacity in the wire leading to it.

As already mentioned, good design ensures that the fuse is always the weakest link in a wiring circuit. You do not put a 10 amp fuse in a circuit unless all of the wires in that circuit are capable of handing at least 10 amps of current and then some.
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18 to 20 guage can handle 10 amps, really? Don't let CSA or the Electrical Safety Authority read this.
 
turbodish said:
Ah, so that's what you're doing, wearing your ego on your sleeve. I would have thought it to be lower down and in a much darker place.

If you're going to give advice, you should have some idea of the subject you're advising on. So much of what you;ve said in this thread has little bearing on reality.
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I am not the one trying to lure the op into an electrical fire on his bike. Your posts are revealing I would not let you anywhere near my bike.
 
turbodish said:
When the power to a switched circuit is off, the power is off to any load on that switched circuit. This is true whether that load is a GPS unit, or whether that load is a relay. Yes, a relay is also an electrical load in and of itself.
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Do you understand how a relay works. The coil energizes with current in the milliamps. That is not a load it's a signal. The power to drive the gps comes directly from the battery. Stop trying to wreck the op's bike.
 
ItIsWhatItIs said:
18 to 20 guage can handle 10 amps, really? Don't let CSA or the Electrical Safety Authority read this.
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I'm looking at an automotive industry wire size chart at the moment. http://www.tessco.com/yts/industry/products/itm/automotive/get_wired.html

According to that chart, an 18 gauge wire can handle up to 40 amps over a 3 foot run, 24 amps up to 5 feet, and 15 amps over a 10 foot run. These specifications include a working safety margin as does just about any industry load or capacity specification, so you "could" even exceed those recommendations to a certain degree without fear of wire heating or meltdown.

Now, how far is it from the 10 amp fuse in the fuse box to the taillight on a CBR125R?
 
ItIsWhatItIs said:
Do you understand how a relay works. The coil energizes with current in the milliamps. That is not a load it's a signal. The power to drive the gps comes directly from the battery. Stop trying to wreck the op's bike.
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A relay requires constant current (and not merely a "signal") to energize the solenoid. The current required to keep a solenoid energized is a load just the same as is the current required to run a GPS. The amount of current required by one over the other may be different by a 1/4 to 1/2 amp or so, but that current difference is insignificant as far as the current carrying capacity of the taillight wiring circuit goes. Neither will "burn" the bike down.
 
turbodish said:
A relay requires constant current (and not merely a "signal") to energize the solenoid. The current required to keep a solenoid energized is a load just the same as is the current required to run a GPS. The amount of current required by one over the other may be different by a 1/4 to 1/2 amp or so, but that current difference is insignificant as far as the current carrying capacity of the taillight wiring circuit goes. Neither will "burn" the bike down.
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Are you ok? The coil of a relay is not going to draw the same power as a GPS. The coil of a relay will be milliwatts and not watts.
 
ItIsWhatItIs said:
Are you ok? The coil of a relay is not going to draw the same power as a GPS. The coil of a relay will be milliwatts and not watts.
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You might want to check on your specs again. The type of relay you suggested to the OP requires between 1.6 and 2 watts of continuous power to keep the solenoid energized, and a bit more than when initially latching the solenoid. By your reasoning, that relay will cause the taillight wires to melt.
 
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