Lost with wiring (power outlet mod for CBR 125)

[BioRouge]

ello,

I'm a little lost with the wiring - first time trying this sort of thing.

Heck its my first time opening up a bike period. After a few beers, decided to open up the fairings, remove the seat and check out the wiring. Did a bit of research on this form and online before i touched anything.

This is what I have in mind:

I was going to mount a Standard Aux power outlett from crappy tire. in my trunk just behind the battery firewall and run the power cables as well as my GPS power cord through a small hole to the right (ill drill one out) - see image below.

My understanding is that the power unit needs to be grounded (black wire?) and needs a power source (red wire?). If i use the battery directly, won't this thing just continue draining power if the bike is turned off?

I thought it might be a good idea to wire it with the brake light (always on if the bike is turned on). So i opened up the light assembly to see how that was connected.

Wiring Harness from bike to tail light:

Wiring Harness from tail light:

Is there some sort of a Y splitter that i can get to use with this harness? I'd hate to modify the stock wiring for this in case i ever do any mods to the tail lights...

Which one of the wires (green, green/yellow, brown) is the power and do i need any inline resistors?

I also saw this on the side - i'm assuming its a ground. Can I use this to ground the aux power unit?

Any help is always appreciated

 

[Brian P]

What you want, is a power source that is switched with the ignition.

The tail lamp ... not the brake lamp! ... will work for this, as long as the total current in your load, including all the standard lighting that the bike already has on that circuit, remains within the current rating (10 amps) of that circuit.

There is no way of doing this properly without cutting, soldering, shrink-wrapping, and re-taping the harness. Note ... Solder!! I have never had good luck with crimped connections or those cheesy connectors that bite through the insulation. Also note ... heat-shrink tubing. Electrical tape on its own is not enough.

At the taillamp connector, brown is constant power (taillamp), green is ground.

 

[BioRouge]

My tail lamp and brake lamp is one piece? it's one light bulb, just gets brighter when break is on (unless I'm missing something?)
Did i get the ground part right? on the side frame?

Haven't had to solder anything before.. this will be interesting lol

 

[just_luc]

My tail lamp and brake lamp is one piece? it's one light bulb, just gets brighter when break is on (unless I'm missing something?)
Did i get the ground part right? on the side frame?

Haven't had to solder anything before.. this will be interesting lol

it may be one lamp fixture, but there are 2 bulbs or atleast 2 coils within the bulb (unless irs led) but anyway, its not the bulb you need to worry about, its the wires leading to them, and there will be deperate tail lamp and brake lamp power leads.. i cant speak to the colours of each on your bike, but its the tail you want, not the brake.. poster above said it should be brown, so look for that.

yes the ground you chose will work fine.

soldering isnt that difficult, but realistically where not talking about your ignition wire, or something that would leave you stranded if it came loose.. it would just use self tapping connectors and you will likely never have a problem..

 

[turbodish]

My tail lamp and brake lamp is one piece? it's one light bulb, just gets brighter when break is on (unless I'm missing something?)
Did i get the ground part right? on the side frame?

Haven't had to solder anything before.. this will be interesting lol

The tailight bulb has two filaments. You will have three wires going to that bulb, one ground, one 12 volt constant power to the running light filament, and one 12 volt brake-controlled power to the brake light filament. You want to tap into the wire that provides 12 volts to your running light filament, and that's often the brown wire. You can check it with a cheap voltmeter or test light.

That wire will see 12 volts when you turn your key on. You can wire the ground for your power outlet to the green wire (ground), or put a terminal under it and attach it to your frame and get your ground that way.

 

[ItIsWhatItIs]

ello,

I'm a little lost with the wiring - first time trying this sort of thing.

Heck its my first time opening up a bike period. After a few beers, decided to open up the fairings, remove the seat and check out the wiring. Did a bit of research on this form and online before i touched anything.

This is what I have in mind:

I was going to mount a Standard Aux power outlett from crappy tire. in my trunk just behind the battery firewall and run the power cables as well as my GPS power cord through a small hole to the right (ill drill one out) - see image below.

My understanding is that the power unit needs to be grounded (black wire?) and needs a power source (red wire?). If i use the battery directly, won't this thing just continue draining power if the bike is turned off?

I thought it might be a good idea to wire it with the brake light (always on if the bike is turned on). So i opened up the light assembly to see how that was connected.

Wiring Harness from bike to tail light:

Wiring Harness from tail light:

Is there some sort of a Y splitter that i can get to use with this harness? I'd hate to modify the stock wiring for this in case i ever do any mods to the tail lights...

Which one of the wires (green, green/yellow, brown) is the power and do i need any inline resistors?

I also saw this on the side - i'm assuming its a ground. Can I use this to ground the aux power unit?

Any help is always appreciated

Buy yourself a 12 V relay that will have the coil energize from the taillight. Connect/wire your relay directly to the battery and to your aux power source. Be sure to put a fuse in there somewhere.


http://www.princessauto.com/surplus/electrical/trailer-wiring/8080376-5-wire-30-amp-relay/socket

Here's one for $6 and is good for 30 amps. Overkill, no worrying about electrical fires or melting your bike wiring with this arangement.

 

[turbodish]

Buy yourself a 12 V relay that will have the coil energize from the taillight. Connect/wire your relay directly to the battery and to your aux power source. Be sure to put a fuse in there somewhere.

A relay is overkill if all that he plans on powering is a GPS or cell phone charger. The OP need not fear "melting bike wiring" at all as the fuse already protecting the running light circuit would blow before anything like that happens. Given that the GPS unit he has draws a maximum of under 1 amp in current, there should be no fear of even the fuse blowing.

Why bother using a relay to switch an under-1-amp load? When in operation, the relay itself will consume almost that much.

 

[ItIsWhatItIs]

A relay is overkill if all that he plans on powering is a GPS or cell phone charger. The OP need not fear "melting bike wiring" at all as the fuse already protecting the running light circuit would blow before anything like that happens. Given that the GPS unit he has draws a maximum of under 1 amp in current, there should be no fear of even the fuse blowing.

Why bother using a relay to switch an under-1-amp load? When in operation, the relay itself will consume almost that much.

It's an AC plug. There's is nothing stopping anyone from plugging in a toaster. For that reason you want the wiring independent of the bike wiring. Adding A relay is insurance/idiot proofing the wiring. The job is simple, take a knife and strip insulation away from the tailight power wire, no need to cut. Solder the coil wire to this exposed tail light power wire. Apply liquid electric tape, let dry. Run the other coil wire to the bike frame ground. Connect the incoming relay wires directly to the battery. Put a fuse on the power wire, (20% greater than your inverter rating). I have a 75w inverter I bought for 10 bucks from Canadian Tire. 7 and 1/2 amps is your limit. Based on that use a 5 amp fuse. Connect the outgoing relay wires to the inverter. Bare in mind, the battery has an AH rating and the bikes ability to charge and supply power has to examined.

This makes this mod independent of your bikes wiring. Honda designed the wiring for internal bike operations. Adding mods to this wiring is risking a fire and compromising the bikes operations. For Safety reasons this is the route to take.

 

[TheDirty]

It's an AC plug.

Am I missing something here? Where's the inverter? The link in his post looks like a female cigarette lighter plug.

I think one of the female USB plugs is probably better as a charging source, if that what you mean it for. There are other threads like this with information on installing a USB connector.

 

[turbodish]

It's an AC plug. There's is nothing stopping anyone from plugging in a toaster.

It's a DC outlet running through an already fused circuit. Plug an inverter into that DC outlet and then try your toaster if you want, but the fuse will blow long before the wires melt.

The only person who will be plugging into that circuit is the OP. If all the OP plans on running is the GPS, then there is no need to wire the thing up so it can run a toaster.

This makes this mod independent of your bikes wiring. Honda designed the wiring for internal bike operations. Adding mods to this wiring is risking a fire and compromising the bikes operations. For Safety reasons this is the route to take.

Yes, Honda designed the bike's wiring, but wiring is never sized to be "exactly" what is needed for stock power loads and no more. There is always a margin of extra capacity in every component of a bike's design.

The fuses are designed to be the replaceable weak link in any circuit, and they will take the hit and protect the wiring no matter how big a load you put on a given circuit. The fuses are sized to meet the stock load requirements on a given circuit and then some. Current capacity of the wiring downstream of the fuse is always considerably in excess of the current capacity of the fuse. The GPS consumes less than 1 amp when in use, and that includes the power used for both the display and recharging the battery. If the battery is already charged, the power requirements cut in half again.

This is well within the extra margin built into the circuit capacity. There is no safety issue in not running a relay. Even if you plug in a grossly excessive load (and the GPS is nothing near that), the fuse will blow long before the wires even begin to heat. That addresses any possible safety issue.

 

[ItIsWhatItIs]

It's a DC outlet running through an already fused circuit. Plug an inverter into that DC outlet and then try your toaster if you want, but the fuse will blow long before the wires melt.

The only person who will be plugging into that circuit is the OP. If all the OP plans on running is the GPS, then there is no need to wire the thing up so it can run a toaster.


Yes, Honda designed the bike's wiring, but wiring is never sized to be "exactly" what is needed for stock power loads and no more. There is always a margin of extra capacity in every component of a bike's design.

The fuses are designed to be the replaceable weak link in any circuit, and they will take the hit and protect the wiring no matter how big a load you put on a given circuit. The fuses are sized to meet the stock load requirements on a given circuit and then some. Current capacity of the wiring downstream of the fuse is always considerably in excess of the current capacity of the fuse. The GPS consumes less than 1 amp when in use, and that includes the power used for both the display and recharging the battery. If the battery is already charged, the power requirements cut in half again.

This is well within the extra margin built into the circuit capacity. There is no safety issue in not running relay. Even if you plug in a grossly excessive load (and the GPS is nothing near that), the fuse will blow long before the wires even begin to heat. That addresses any possible safety issue.

1 amp is pretty significant when it comes to the cbr125 wiring. The op is to free decide the route to take. This way requires no cutting of stock wiring. All that is required is stripping the insulation off of the tail light power wire and soldering the relay coil wire to that exposed wire. A little liquid electrical tape and that's that. A clean and professional mod.

 

[just_luc]

i agree with turbo, no need for a relay from what the OP said he's using it for..

i did use a relay in my setup, but that was for the heated grips, which consume much more power.. and my cig lighter i put straight to the batter (fused, but unswitched) because i use it to plug in the battery tender over winter.

 

[Lightcycle]

If i use the battery directly, won't this thing just continue draining power if the bike is turned off?

Unless you're going to leave the GPS (or whatever electrical device) permanently attached to the bike, I wouldn't worry about having switched power, just have a separate circuit for the cigarette lighter adapter wired directly to the battery's terminals.

I've wired all my bikes for unswitched power via battery-tender pigtails, powerlet adapters, etc. There is nothing I leave attached to the bike when I switch it off for fear of someone stealing a GPS, cell phone, iPod, etc. So no chance of battery drainange.

 

[ItIsWhatItIs]

Am I missing something here? Where's the inverter? The link in his post looks like a female cigarette lighter plug.

I think one of the female USB plugs is probably better as a charging source, if that what you mean it for. There are other threads like this with information on installing a USB connector.

http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...&category=DC+AdaptorsandPlugs&product=2701535

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brow...1470 Certified+12V+Power+Outlet.jsp?locale=en


The adapter linked by the op is $15 bucks. The one linked here from the source is $7 + $6 dollars for the relay from princess auto. A fuse holder maybe $2. Bob's your uncle for $15 dollars.

 

[turbodish]

Unless you're going to leave the GPS (or whatever electrical device) permanently attached to the bike, I wouldn't worry about having switched power, just have a separate circuit for the cigarette lighter adapter wired directly to the battery's terminals.

I've wired all my bikes for unswitched power via battery-tender pigtails, powerlet adapters, etc. There is nothing I leave attached to the bike when I switch it off for fear of someone stealing a GPS, cell phone, iPod, etc. So no chance of battery drainange.

I originally used unswitched power for my GPS, taken directly from the battery. I park in my garage at night so I don't worry about removing the GPS unless I'm leaving the thing parked out on a street for any length of time. However after a few dead battery mornings, I finally said to hell with it and hooked to a switched power source. For short stops I also just leave the GPS on the bike. I just hang my helmet over my GPS, so out of sight and and out thieves' minds.

My power outlet is mounted very close to my front left running light, so I just pulled power from that running light for convenience's sake. As with my bike, the OP's rear running light is on a 10 amp circuit that is used only for running lights, 4 instrument panel blubs, and the horn. In other words, peanuts. That 10 amp circuit is capable of supplying 126 watts of power or more when the bike is running, of which the GPS would be pulling well under 10 watts worth. I've never blown a fuse and my wiring certainly hasn't melted.

 

[Lightcycle]

For short stops I also just leave the GPS on the bike. I just hang my helmet over my GPS, so out of sight and and out thieves' minds.

Short stops aren't going to drain the battery, and there are many times I've used the unswitched outlets to power an air compressor to top up my tires, all without having to remember to bring the keys or turn on the bike. Also can't attach a battery tender to a switched outlet.

Different strokes for different use cases.

 

[ItIsWhatItIs]

Short stops aren't going to drain the battery, and there are many times I've used the unswitched outlets to power an air compressor to top up my tires, all without having to remember to bring the keys or turn on the bike.

Different strokes for different use cases.

Parts List:To power a GPS

IN-LINE 1 1/4" X 1/4" GLASS FUSE HOLDER $4.00

http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...Online&category=Fuses_Holders&product=2701281

5 Wire 30 Amp Relay/Socket $6.00

http://www.princessauto.com/surplus/electrical/trailer-wiring/8080376-5-wire-30-amp-relay/socket

AUTO Y PLUG ADAPTER $7.00
http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...&category=DC+AdaptorsandPlugs&product=2701535

140W Power Inverter with 5V USB Port $35.00 (connect your IPOD, GPS, and CELL PHONE! )
http://www.princessauto.com/all-sea.../8370926-140w-power-inverter-with-5v-usb-port

12V Solar Power Sports Charger $25.00
http://www.princessauto.com/all-sea...energy/8355117-12v-solar-power-sports-charger


Total $77 + tax
Should I recommend a GPS, Laptop, and WIFI hotspot finder?

 

[Lightcycle]

Parts List:To power a GPS

IN-LINE 1 1/4" X 1/4" GLASS FUSE HOLDER $4.00

http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...Online&category=Fuses_Holders&product=2701281

5 Wire 30 Amp Relay/Socket $6.00

http://www.princessauto.com/surplus/electrical/trailer-wiring/8080376-5-wire-30-amp-relay/socket

AUTO Y PLUG ADAPTER $7.00
http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...&category=DC+AdaptorsandPlugs&product=2701535

140W Power Inverter with 5V USB Port $35.00 (connect your IPOD, GPS, and CELL PHONE! )
http://www.princessauto.com/all-sea.../8370926-140w-power-inverter-with-5v-usb-port

12V Solar Power Sports Charger $25.00
http://www.princessauto.com/all-sea...energy/8355117-12v-solar-power-sports-charger


Total $77 + tax

Holy Chit. All you are missing is a Flux Capacitor...

 

[mike.from.canmore]

Total $77 + tax
Should I recommend a GPS, Laptop, and WIFI hotspot finder?

Why are you recommending any of this crap? Did someone ask?

 

[mike.from.canmore]

http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...&category=DC+AdaptorsandPlugs&product=2701535

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brow...1470 Certified+12V+Power+Outlet.jsp?locale=en


The adapter linked by the op is $15 bucks. The one linked here from the source is $7 + $6 dollars for the relay from princess auto. A fuse holder maybe $2. Bob's your uncle for $15 dollars.

You do realize that you are comparing 2 completely different products there right?

1 is a mountable 12v accessory outlet.
the one you are suggesting is a single to dual accessory outlet y-splitter(this would assume there is already an existing outlet somewhere to split into two).


You are off on some kind of tangent - talking about AC and inverters and toasters and such.