RC-31
Well-known member
Only tap into a circuit that you're prepared to lose when your installation leads to a popped fuse.
Headlight is near the bottom of my list.
Headlight is near the bottom of my list.
Power distribution blocks
- Thread starter NuggyBuggy
- Start date
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Auto relays engage at about 9v and release at 1.2v. So it’s not likely to let go, but it’s not going to engage if it’s tricked into less than 9v.
So… let’s solve this. If your bike has a PWM headlight dimmer or kills the low beam when the hi beam runs, find a different key on circuit for your trigger!
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Auto relays engage at about 9v and release at 1.2v. So it’s not likely to let go, but it’s not going to engage if it’s tricked into less than 9v.
So… let’s solve this. If your bike has a PWM headlight dimmer or kills the low beam when the hi beam runs, find a different key on circuit for yourtrigger!
I get limited time with my bike so I have to pick and choose my battles. I’m not an electrical guy by any means so any DIY project would become a series of repeat visits to Home Depot and a wasted weekend.
This weekend, for instance, got up to my cottage on Friday expecting to have a couple of days to ride. Lawn tractor not working so need to work on the carbs. Son’s dirt bike has a broken brake lever so needed to drive all over Central Ontario comparing aftermarket levers to the broken one. Bought the closest thing I could find in Midland and had to cut it down to fit using an angle grinder.
Also had to buy a brush cutter in Barrie. And then found out my wife booked a Young Drivers class for my son on Sunday in Toronto at 9AM (on a long weekend, seriously??) so now my weekend is over before it even started. Unless I drive back Sunday morning. And if I do that, I have a day of brush cutting, mowing and trimming in front of me.
So I am happy to buy a more turnkey solution to get more of my weekend back. I would love to have the time to tinker more.
This weekend, for instance, got up to my cottage on Friday expecting to have a couple of days to ride. Lawn tractor not working so need to work on the carbs. Son’s dirt bike has a broken brake lever so needed to drive all over Central Ontario comparing aftermarket levers to the broken one. Bought the closest thing I could find in Midland and had to cut it down to fit using an angle grinder.
Also had to buy a brush cutter in Barrie. And then found out my wife booked a Young Drivers class for my son on Sunday in Toronto at 9AM (on a long weekend, seriously??) so now my weekend is over before it even started. Unless I drive back Sunday morning. And if I do that, I have a day of brush cutting, mowing and trimming in front of me.
So I am happy to buy a more turnkey solution to get more of my weekend back. I would love to have the time to tinker more.
Received my Thunderbox this week. I bought the big one, just because I got tired of thinking about the likelihood of adding devices X, Y and Z.
This thing is TINY.
I know I could have done the equivalent for less, but this was a case of me picking something that was eezy-peezy. Whatever I would have done would have looked like a dog's breakfast.
This thing is TINY.
I know I could have done the equivalent for less, but this was a case of me picking something that was eezy-peezy. Whatever I would have done would have looked like a dog's breakfast.
Indeed. I have an inverter in my top box to provide 120v for various things while riding. Notably, my CPAP battery, and recharging the batteries for our heated vests, but anything else as well that doesn't have a 12v charging option. It's quite handy honestly.
This past summer while we were motocamping down in WV a few days in I found the USB ports also in my top box were dead - I use those through the day to recharge USB battery banks (light string, charging various stuff in the tent at night) and my tent fan if the weather is hot. Motocamping and long distance riding stuff.
Turned out the inverter had sh!t the bed, was causing a dead short as soon as it was turned on (instantly popping the fuse) and I'd wired both the inverter and my rear USB charging plugs on the same circuit which in retrospect turned out to be a bad choice.
Anyhow, we had power at our campsite so it wasn't a huge deal in the end, but had it happened on our James Bay Road trip this past summer it would have been a particularly huge issue in short order.
The inverter and the USB charger ports are now wired independently. So yeah, I agree, be thoughtful and careful about your accessory wiring.
I'm curious what CPAP battery and heated vest batteries your using that require 120v?
For my CPAP I use a laptop battery bank and was able to find a cable online that charges it from 12v. It's a cable that has SAE and the right bullet connector. I have a Fired Up X heated vest that both batteries died. I took them apart and the power was 12v. I couldn't find any power banks that were that high, so again, I found a cable online that has an SAE connector for the bike, and a bullet connector I plug directly into the vest.
On my Grom, I wired in a powered relay (cheap amazon thing) to a distribution block (Princess Auto).
I have one of these things too on my bike. I have very little space under my seat and this is super tiny and clean.
Works great and I run my gps, heated gear and voltmeter/usb charging dock through this. I like the 5 sec delay!
I have a small 24v pack from Amazon that is airline friendly which was a requirement for me as we travel a lot. Most CPAP’s are 24v now so a 12v pack was no good, and most tend to be large. Yes a 12v pack is an option with a step up transformer, but my experience with step ups is that they’re low efficiency so you need a bigger 12v battery to make up the amp hours, and they can be unreliable. The pack I have is native 24v so it feeds directly to the CPAP without any transformer needed, but the downside is that it needs 24v to charge as well, which in my case is a wall-wart charger plugged into the inverter.
As for the vest batteries, be careful feeding 12v straight into them for charging. I have the same vests and I’m 75% sure the voltage cut off circuitry is in the wall-wart chargers they come with - you’ll notice the LED on the charger indicates when it’s full. Plugging straight to 12v may be overcharging the batteries, and lithium batteries don’t like being overcharged of course.
Interesting about the CPAP. The battery I use is able to change from 5 to 24v, but it charges with 12v (according to the print on the plug transformer). I've also had an inverter fail on me while I was camping, so I know how much that sucks. That's why I figured out how to use the laptop power bank battery.
I'm not using the vest batteries because they both stopped holding a charge, and there's no way I am paying what they want for replacements. So I just did some research and figured out a cable I could plug directly from the bike into the vest.
Three out of four of our firedup vest batteries are still working fine at 4-5 years of age, so indeed perhaps it was the fact that you were overcharging them by not using the stock charger that caused them to fail.
Send me a link to the CPAP battery you use if you don’t mind, out of curiosity.
This is the one I use. At $80 (and $15 or something for the adapter cables to plug into my AirMini travel CPAP) it was a fraction of the cost of some other options I found.
Send me a link to the CPAP battery you use if you don’t mind, out of curiosity.
This is the one I use. At $80 (and $15 or something for the adapter cables to plug into my AirMini travel CPAP) it was a fraction of the cost of some other options I found.
I bought this battery in 2018, so there's no link for it. But the title of it was (aceyoon 50000mAh USB Type-C Power Bank Laptop PD Charger and USB QC 3.0 Battery Voltage Adjustable 9V - 24V Type C PowerBank Compatible for iPhone, HP, Dell, Asus, MacBook, Samsung, Google Devices).
As for the vest batteries. I always used the supplied charger. After a year or so, one of them stopped lasting as long as the other, and then eventually stopped charging (I assume since there's no lights or anything to indicate anything). Then I stopped using the vest for probably four years or more, and the good battery quickly went downhill as well. Just to be clear, I'm not putting down Fired Up products or anything. I always had great interactions and such with Jimmy.
Edited to add that I'm running a Dreamstation with it. I remove the humidifier though. It will last at least 3 nights on a full charge. I've done a few holiday backpacking trips, but since I stay at hostels, I just use the plug and don't bring the battery with me.
Last edited:
That link won't work for me for some reason. I like the adjustable voltage thing. I'm surprised you're able to get 3 nights out of that, your CPAP pressure must be very low - at 14cmH2o I have only managed to squeeze about 13 hours out of mine.
Keep in mind that sized battery in the one you linked to isn't allowed on aircraft however. If you've got it on one in the past, you've been lucky, but 100 watt hours (a little over 25,000 mah IIRC) is supposedly the maximum size you're allowed to bring on a plane, which is why I opted for as it's something like 82wh. After a few lithium battery fires on aircraft they've been really cracking down on things.
Keep in mind that sized battery in the one you linked to isn't allowed on aircraft however. If you've got it on one in the past, you've been lucky, but 100 watt hours (a little over 25,000 mah IIRC) is supposedly the maximum size you're allowed to bring on a plane, which is why I opted for as it's something like 82wh. After a few lithium battery fires on aircraft they've been really cracking down on things.
