Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Good Location to wire in GPS

Hi all,

I bought a motorbike GPS and I want to hard wire it into the closest wire that will activate when I turn the key on.

The first wire that comes to mind is from one of the lights but just in case, I wanted to check with the electrical gurus first.

Also, Here's the cct diagram just in case it makes it easier to explain or whatever.

So if anyone has already done this and for some reason having been there done that found a more suitable spot, I'm all ears.

Btw, if you don't know already, if the electrical diagram is too big (too big too big - sri) or small, just hold down the ctl key and press the - or + sign below the F keys on the keyboard. That'll be $10 thanks

Tah muchly to anyone who can verify or not what I'm thinking re splicing into a headlight wire.



cheers
stacka

My experience has been with a Garmin Zumo. I know, this is not an answer to
your question, but might offer some insight. The handlebar mounted cradle for
the unit is wired directly to the battery. Ran a garmin, fused, power cable
from the cradle, under the tank to the battery. An SAE connection in the loom
stashed under the faux (spit) left side air cleaner cover allows me to
unplug the power to the cradle. Never had a problem with hot wiring
the garmin. I used to unplug the power cable but stopped doing that a year or
so ago. I also ran next to the power cable an audio cable for the mp3 player.

Now regarding why I wired it this way, well, I was lazy. I couldn't see much
point in wiring to power up when the ignition was energized. The zumo has a 4
hour+ battery life, so having the cradle being hot all the time is not an
advantage in being able to use the unit with the power supply dead. Hot all
the time? Heck we have a plug already that is set up that way: The Auxiliary
power socket plug. And if your choice of a GPS unit requires power in
order for you to use the GPS device, well that blows. Or will when you are
trying to use the GPS with the bike turned off. Trying to find waypoints, lay
out a route, load a saved route, etc all while the bike is running or at least
has the ignition circuit energized? Seems to me that a full time power supply
would be the way to go in that instance.

When the zumo is in the cradle, it's batteries are being charged. Should the
cradle power supply be disconnected this will not occur. Nor will the zumo
play mp3s. Not that I listen to music with the bike turned off.

In summary:
I ran a power supply under the tank. Zip tied it to the top tube. Ran it under
the frame's 'Y' to on top of the air box, then fished it back out the left
side using an sae connector between the battery and the cradle under the air
breather cover. Zipped tied the excess cable on the air box to keep it from
being sucked into the bellmouth (or into the snorkel-Vera Lynn) Left enough
slack at the handle bar to allow steering stop to steering stop movement. The
Audio cable runs the same path. I left enough length to it to allow a behind
the left leg wrap over to connect to the ear buds. Behind the leg keeps the
audio cable from coming in contact with the tank. That cable gets stuffed
behind the air cleaner cover when not in use.

I have a Garmin StreetPilot 2820, which does not have a battery backup. So to use it you need power available all the time. I have a cradle for my Tiger, but have not used it on the America. If I ever decide to use it on the America I would do what Moe did, and just hard wire it from the battery. The only other option I would consider would be to hardwire a European power adapter and mount it somewhere near the handle bars, and then plug the GPS into it.

Tom

I never had any reason to use the running light on my headlight. So, I cut the connector off that and wired in a 12V power socket. I zip-tied it to the wire loom. Works fine, tucks away nearly out of sight. My GPS is right there, so no messy cables stretching back to the batter, etc. Cost about $5 at Autozone.

Thanks guys, after listening to your methods I think I might hard wire into the back of the standard powerlet connector I use for trickle charging and recharging my IPhone on the road.

I do like the idea of buying a powerlet handlebar charge point but they are dear as poison. The beauty of the GPS I bought is I can initially rig it this way but can remove even the backing plate easily enough as the wiring has a screw connector 12" from the backing plate. This will make it discreet and tidy till I internalise the wiring into my bars. Depending on how I feel at the time I've got several options to work on.

I'm going on a Two nighter around the Victorian high country so this will he a tidy intermediate fix until I do it as part of the bar wires being internalised.

Thanks for your input, it's helped a lot.

Stacka

Hi Stacka....this Powerlet cable may help you. It plugs into your Triumph power point and is a Y cable that has 2 SAE ends....one to power your GPS and the other for your phone. You can still charge your battery. You just need to find a spare SAE end to solder to your GPS cable. I use this set up for my GPS and Ipod power. Have a safe trip.


http://www.powerlet.com/product/powerlet-to-two-saes-y-cable/13

Don, you're very close to what I'm thinking. When I set mine up I'll show some pics to better explain. Thanks for the idea though.

Hi all, finished wiring the gps yesterday. I was going to take some pics but another day. In short I bought a powerlet handlebar mount (black) and wired into it. I wanted to be able to take off the entire unit, including the backing plate for the times I don't need it. I even did some soldering for the first time. Anyway, pics maybe next week after the ride I'm dying to go on come Friday. Praying it's nor raining to much though. Showers fine but regardless I've told my riding buddies I'm going anyway. Just make the rain part a positive ie, a ride I won't forget for example. Gotta look at the positives stacka

Good info - thanks for the thread. for what it's worth I mounted a relay under the seat and switched it with the always-on taillight circuit. I use it to power the gps and my heated grips. leaving the zumo on is no big deal but the grips could be bad.

just for future reference I'm going to have a look at that left air-cleaner area.

is this the one for our bikes?



The Web site

Any would work on our bikes, all you need is a positive and negative wire source. Not sure where you mount that piece our bikes, maybe on the plastic key cover?

Quote:

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is this the one for our bikes?



The Web site

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