Adding power for accessories

[chriszzz]

First, let me state that I am a complete newbie when it comes to bike DIY stuff. I am not an electrical engineer, and only have basic knowledge of electric circuits learned in school many many years ago. I've only owned a bike for 1 month, and my only DIY experience is limited to fiddling with the battery and fusebox and attempting to remove a couple of fuses.

 

My bike is a Honda CB400 Revo. I want to add some accessories (camera, voltmeter, gear indicator, USB port, cigarette port, etc), and I don't want to randomly tap it from the fusebox like what some people suggested. I can imagine it will be a big mess of wires over time and that's not good.

 

I read the proper way is to use a relay and a power distribution block that can power several devices. and add a fuse to ensure it does not overdraw current.

 

I've googled but the instructions are quite confusing and assumes you already have a good amount of experience working on the bike's circuits, which I don't. Eg, many assume you know how to locate a suitable circuit to tap from, but I have no idea where these are.

 

So, can someone please kindly give me some pointers (actual info, or links to suitable info for a noob), or recommend a good bike mechanic that install this stuff and is patient enough to explain what he's doing so that I can work on it myself in future. Also, please advise on a good place to buy these components.

 

Thanks.

[duo]

First, let me state that I am a complete newbie when it comes to bike DIY stuff. I am not an electrical engineer, and only have basic knowledge of electric circuits learned in school many many years ago. I've only owned a bike for 1 month, and my only DIY experience is limited to fiddling with the battery and fusebox and attempting to remove a couple of fuses.

 

My bike is a Honda CB400 Revo. I want to add some accessories (camera, voltmeter, gear indicator, USB port, cigarette port, etc), and I don't want to randomly tap it from the fusebox like what some people suggested. I can imagine it will be a big mess of wires over time and that's not good.

 

I read the proper way is to use a relay and a power distribution block that can power several devices. and add a fuse to ensure it does not overdraw current.

 

I've googled but the instructions are quite confusing and assumes you already have a good amount of experience working on the bike's circuits, which I don't. Eg, many assume you know how to locate a suitable circuit to tap from, but I have no idea where these are.

 

So, can someone please kindly give me some pointers (actual info, or links to suitable info for a noob), or recommend a good bike mechanic that install this stuff and is patient enough to explain what he's doing so that I can work on it myself in future. Also, please advise on a good place to buy these components.

 

Thanks.

Those who regularly go touring would be able to help. Read about an item known as a fuseblock or something. Seems like a simple power distribution unit. Thought of installing it too but need to find some space for it on my tiny commuting bike. It should be quite an easy plug and play item. Search for it and you will find a few. Some are affordable and some a quite costly. From simple looking ones to quite complicated ones too. Do update when you made a choice. Interested to know about it too. Just like you I am also a newbie when it comes to bike DIY stuff. I am not an electrical engineer either.

[lowrider12]

Where to buy fuse block?

[duo]

Where to buy fuse block?

 

 

[chriszzz]

OK, just a quick update. After loads of googling, i figured out how to do this. All I needed was a relay, a bunch of wires, the fuseblock and a bunch of mini blade fuses. The relay will be triggered by a suitable circuit (can be tapped from the fusebox. The indicator or tail light makes a good choice), and the actual current will be drawn from the battery. The cost of the components would be $30-40.

 

But I found someone on Facebook that can hook these up nicely and neatly for me for $50 (the price includes all the parts/wires needed). So I figured it was worth the extra $10+ to avoid the hassle of getting the parts and mucking around for a hour or 2 (due to inexperience).

 

So if you need, you can look for him on FB. His page is White Bulb Cree Specialist. Cheers.

[FireGunz]

OK, just a quick update. After loads of googling, i figured out how to do this. All I needed was a relay, a bunch of wires, the fuseblock and a bunch of mini blade fuses. The relay will be triggered by a suitable circuit (can be tapped from the fusebox. The indicator or tail light makes a good choice), and the actual current will be drawn from the battery. The cost of the components would be $30-40.

 

But I found someone on Facebook that can hook these up nicely and neatly for me for $50 (the price includes all the parts/wires needed). So I figured it was worth the extra $10+ to avoid the hassle of getting the parts and mucking around for a hour or 2 (due to inexperience).

 

So if you need, you can look for him on FB. His page is White Bulb Cree Specialist. Cheers.

Thank bro. For sharing the info.

 

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[chriszzz]

Thank bro. For sharing the info.

 

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

No problem. Glad to share.

 

If you are doing this yourself, do NOT tap anything from the vital circuits, such as the headlights. If the fuse blows on a dark lonely road, you will be in big trouble. Always use a less important circuit, like the indicator lights or tail light. If it blows, you can still ride to a brightly lit safe place to replace the fuse.

 

And I would suggest not cutting any wires to splice as I prefer not to touch existing wires. Just tap directly from the bike's fusebox (to trigger the relay) and from the battery(to power the fuse block). You can ground your wires at the battery's -ve terminal or on the metal parts of the frame. Do not exceed the relay's rated current. 30A should be adequate.

[duo]

No problem. Glad to share.

 

If you are doing this yourself, do NOT tap anything from the vital circuits, such as the headlights. If the fuse blows on a dark lonely road, you will be in big trouble. Always use a less important circuit, like the indicator lights or tail light. If it blows, you can still ride to a brightly lit safe place to replace the fuse.

 

And I would suggest not cutting any wires to splice as I prefer not to touch existing wires. Just tap directly from the bike's fusebox (to trigger the relay) and from the battery(to power the fuse block). You can ground your wires at the battery's -ve terminal or on the metal parts of the frame. Do not exceed the relay's rated current. 30A should be adequate.

Can take a pic of it rigged to your bike?

[chriszzz]

Sure. Here it is:

 

 

 

Can take a pic of it rigged to your bike?

[FireGunz]

Sure. Here it is:

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]329963[/ATTACH]

Wow... awesome...

 

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[duo]

Sure. Here it is:

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]329963[/ATTACH]

http://www.petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/03/thumbsandammo-8.jpg

[chriszzz]

Bro Duo, your inbox is full so I can't reply to your msg, so I'll put it here:

 

86 is ground, so it connects to the grounding screw on my bike (there is a big screw on the left side of the Super4 near the fusebox that is used as ground by other circuits). However, you can also use any part of the metal frame or the -ve pole of the battery as ground too.

[duo]

Bro Duo, your inbox is full so I can't reply to your msg, so I'll put it here:

 

86 is ground, so it connects to the grounding screw on my bike (there is a big screw on the left side of the Super4 near the fusebox that is used as ground by other circuits). However, you can also use any part of the metal frame or the -ve pole of the battery as ground too.

Got it. Thank you for the info. Edited November 23, 2015 by duo

[ciscube]

Its neat. BTW, how is the brown wire connected to the rest of the red cables because there is only one brown cable to the fuse box, but many red cables connected.

 

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[chriszzz]

The fuseblock is a 8-way block. So there are 8 inputs and 8 outputs.

 

The red cables are the input current. It is from the relay, which in turn gets the power from the battery.

 

The brown cable with the blue connector is the output (ie, the devices you want to power). When I took the photo, I had only 1 output powering 2 devices (USB charger and ERP IU both joined to the same output).

 

When the fuse block is first hooked up, it's easier to simply wire up all the inputs even if you don't need them yet. Then, as you add more devices, you simply add a fuse to the fuseblock and tap the power from the free output. I just added another one for my bike's dual camera.

 

I will hook up other accessories (like a cigarette socket and voltmeter) which will use up yet more outputs.

 

 

 

Its neat. BTW, how is the brown wire connected to the rest of the red cables because there is only one brown cable to the fuse box, but many red cables connected.

 

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[michaeltan]

......................

Edited January 23, 2016 by michaeltan

[michaelcogburn.c]

 

 

Thanks bro the link. It's awesome.

[bikerpotato]

good to know!