Electrical Gadgets A-Go-Go

[robtarry]

Hi there, I'm new to the place so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. And sorry about the monster post!

Here's my epic tale: I've purchased 2009 r1200GS off E-vil Bay (hopefully it all works out) and it's being shipped to Arizona. In a couple months my wife and I plan to ride it back from there to Vancouver Canada where we live... trip of a lifetime and all that.

To that end, I've ordered a bunch of accessories in an attempt to make the experience as fun as possible for her (happy wife = happy life)

• Two Gerbing electric jacket liners
• Electric gloves for her (pluggable into her jacket liner)
• Gerbing Dual Controller (just the one)
• Garmin Zumo GPS - wired to battery
• Satellite radio - has a cigarette lighter male plug

The thing is, since the bike's not in front of me, and I've only briefly test-driven a GS before, I'd love any advance advice about how to wire this all up.

I've ordered a splitter from powerlet that splits my one BMW socket into a BMW socket and a cigarette lighter. I'm hoping that way I can power our heated clothing from the one Dual Controller in the BMW socket (her jacket/glove combo to one line, my jacket the other) and the SIRIUS off the cigarette socket.

Then the GPS direct off the battery.

That and a whole boatload of zipties.

Am I nuts? Is this going to make the bike explode? Will it make us explode?

Thanks for any and all thoughts.

rob

[marc]

Welcome to the forum.

Alas, you are going to have to re-think your wiring a little bit. The accessory socket is only good for about 5 amps. Your heated gear will draw more than that. Nor harm will come to the bike... but you will be cold when the ZFE (central chassis controller) turns off the power to the socket.

You need to either re-wire the accessory socket directly to the battery or add a separate pigtail connected to the battery. I did it this way:

http://www.snafu.org/pics/r1200gs/2009/0204-fuzebox/

In the diagram the "Heatroller" is for the heated gear. The particular box I used (the Fuzeblock) is small. Due to that it is limited to 30 amps total, 10 amps per circuit. You may want to use a Centech or Blue Seas box as they can handle more power.

My GPS is wired to the socket.

[robtarry]

Thanks for the welcome and the great info. Looks like I'll have to bring a lot more wires and fuseblocks in my luggage for the flight down. I'm sure that will look totally fine to the TSA

[pdxrmccgs]

Welcome to the forum. The 09 is a great bike.

There is a lot of good stuff/info in the archives on your Q's.

Here is a couple:

Archives - accessories

186 Accessory socket delay
182 GPS hookup
177 Aux power distributor

[robtarry]

Thanks for all the links and the help.

I've ordered the Centech kit, and I have the first of what I'm sure will be many electrical questions:

Can I just cut the cigarette plug off the Satellite radio power cord and wire directly into the Centech board?

In other words, is the big bulky male cig plug doing anything special, electrical-wise, other than physically fitting into a cig socket?

thanks,
rob

[peter06gsa]

Robtarry; I also imported a gsa from the U.S. and there were no problems,except making sure that you notify the U.S. side of the border at least 72hrs before crossing into Canada,and check in with them usually during 9 to 5 time frame,then pay $500.00 for the extortion letter from your local Canadian BMW dealer for any possible recalls.good luck, its just to make sure that all your paper work is in order so that that last bit of your trip is not loaded with stress.
peter.

[robtarry]

Thanks for the import tips Peter!

can anyone steer me in the right direction re: splicing the satellite radio power cord?

thanks all

-rob

[marc]

The cigarette plug may contain some electronics to adjust the voltage. Pull it apart and see. For my GPS I put the guts from the cigarette plug in a different (smaller form factor) housing with a pigtail coming out of the housing to connect to the bike.