tapping off power from battery

trebs · Post by **trebs** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:18 am

Hi All,
Might be a dumb question, but it is "safe" enough to tap off power direct from the bike battery?
I want to power my PDA based GPS so need a feed. I thought of hooking up a fag lighter socket under the seat (as that's what the power cable uses) then close it in one of those waterproof power cable protectors.

Is that enough, or should I put in an inline fuse too?

Other tips welcome.

Cheers, Rob.

Max · Post by **Max** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:21 am

I would have thought that an inline fuse can never be a bad idea, if only to protect the PDA incase of weird things happening to the bike electrics.

Syntec4 · Post by **Syntec4** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:21 am

Use a 1A Blade fuse holder. (From Halfords or similar) 1A will alow the pda to charge but protect it if you get a big surge or the reg/rec blows. If you use the blade type you can get a replacement easily form most petrol stations if you have one blow whilst out for a ride.
I do exactly the same thing with my XDA and Blue tooth receiver. The receiver is stuck with velcro under the tailsection and powered all the time. That way I just put the PDA in the tank bag window. As a bonus you can use the lighter socket to charge the battery with an Optimate when its stood for a while.

Lee.

trebs · Post by **trebs** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:25 am

Syntec4 wrote:Use a 1A Blade fuse holder. (From Halfords or similar) 1A will alow the pda to charge but protect it if you get a big surge or the reg/rec blows. If you use the blade type you can get a replacement easily form most petrol stations if you have one blow whilst out for a ride.
I do exactly the same thing with my XDA and Blue tooth receiver. The receiver is stuck with velcro under the tailsection and powered all the time. That way I just put the PDA in the tank bag window. As a bonus you can use the lighter socket to charge the battery with an Optimate when its stood for a while.

Lee.

Lee, ta, that's great. The optimate bit for sure.
Do you give the lighter socket any water extra protection?

Cheers, Rob.

Syntec4 · Post by **Syntec4** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:35 am

Yeh I bought the lighter sockets from Maplins. They do one with a rubber boot that fits over the top when not in use. It also has a kind of O ring that fits snugly round the plug so it can vibrate out or let water in when it being used and its raining.

t00lkit · Post by **t00lkit** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:10 pm

Trebs

I have the Optimate lead connected to my battery permanently....

But I also use the fly lead to power my GPS or heated grips.
I have bought some extra plug/sockets that 'mate' with the optimate and have adapted the GPS cables and heated grips cables with these.

Therefore when the bike is not on charge, I can just plug in the GPS or Grips - hey presto- power.

Each one has an in-line fuse, I'm no lecky but it would be a bad idea not to have one, at least it will protect your unit.

Best of luck

trebs · Post by **trebs** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:52 pm

Done and tested...

Two wires plumbed in and run up to the toolbag area.

Found all the parts, fag lighter from a scrapped car - free
One of these ... for 2 Euro
plugsafe
An inline fuse with 1A fuse - 70c
Some cable and connectors that I had in the toolbox.

All the gubbins lives in the plugsafe, just power in, power out. Can all be removed very easily too. The plugsafe fits nicely next to the toolset, held down by the rubber band.

PDA/GPS cable runs up and out through the front of the seat and into the tank bag.

However, on testing I almost pooped myself. TomTom uses full speaker volume on the PDA... yeah, earbuds in. Lid on, got the end of the road and GPS-Jane hollers, "TURN RIGHT!!!"
Hearing has returned, volume adjusted. Now I'm digging about for some velco to stick the earbuds into the ear'ole area of the lid. Much more comfy.

If anyone wants pics of the setup, let me know.
Cheers for the tips, guys.

Rob.