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The obvious thing to get first is the accessory power outlet
you want to use. I bought this one at Radio Shack for about $8.
It has an On/Off switch and a built-in fuse.
Unfortunately, these cool features are incorporated into the half
that you don't use....
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Before you buy your quick connect terminals, you may
want to decide how long you want the adaptor cord to be and cut
it. Then you can take the adaptor to the hardware store and
compare it with wires of known gauges. You need to know the right
size so you can buy... |
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...matching quick connect terminals. I spent a
little extra and got the kind that fully enclose the connection.
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While you're buying, pick up an inline fuse. You're going to
hook the adaptor directly to the battery, so you want to protect
the equipment that you plug into it and also protect against
shorting. Install on the positive wire. I found this one
in my toolbox. I must have bought it at an auto parts store
somewhere along the line. They are also available at Radio
Shack.
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One last part to buy. I wanted to use wire with red
insulation for the positive battery terminal connection, and one
with black insulation for the ground connection. I bought the
red wire by the foot from a spool at the hardware store. I
think I got 18 gauge wire. I also made sure to get
quick connect terminals to fit this wire size.
You pretty much need to look at the larger image to see the
wire I'm talking about. Sorry I didn't take a separate
picture before installing it....
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Here is how I connected the red wire to the battery. I
threaded it through the "hood" that protects the positive terminal
from accidental short circuits. Then I secured it with the
same bolt that holds the battery cable in place.
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The black wire needs to be connected to the negative terminal
of the battery. Since the bike has a "negative ground", just
about every piece of metal on the bike is connected to the negative
terminal via the frame. So I decided to use the strip of metal
that the seat lock release is mounted on.
After scraping a tiny spot of paint away I tested for 12 volts
with a voltmeter. The test was successful, so I got out my tap and
die set and made a threaded hole to match a small bolt that I had
laying around.
If you don't have a tap and die set you can just drill a
regular hole and use a nut on the underside. I went this route
because I wanted to make sure I had a good electrical connection to
the metal.
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OK. Before you hook everything up you need to put some
thought into how you're going to keep the connections
straight. In my case all of the quick connect terminals
were the same color, but I needed to make sure I could always hook
up positive to positive and negative to negative.
For this “first attempt” I cut the ends of the adaptor wires
at different lengths. I could also have used some red nail
polish or something to indicate the positive wire.
I thought about using a male connector on one end and a female
connector on the other, but I decided against it. The wires
that go to the battery would have needed the same mix of connectors,
and I didn't want someone to accidentally fit them together and blow
the fuse.
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Speaking of positive and negative connectors, you need to
know which is which! This is a direct current (DC) contraption
you're assembling here, and the + and - stuff matters! If you
hook it up wrong, you may have to kiss your charger/phone/other
device goodbye....
I took my voltmeter out to the car and tested its cigarette
lighter to see whether the “can” or the “contact point” at the
bottom was positive. Then I used the meter to find out which
wire was connected to the matching part on the adaptor.
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Once I knew which wire was which, I used a zip tie to bind
the red and black wires tightly together. In my case, the
positive wire on the adaptor was shorter than the negative wire, so
I made the positive wire to the battery stick out more than the
ground wire. ( Here you can finally see how I mounted the black
wire....)
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Time to connect it all up. Tweak the wire lengths if
you need to, so there's no undue strain on the connections.
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One more deep breath... OK, maybe one more...
Now plug in your precious electronic device and hope for the
best.
IT'S ALIVE...!
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This is kinda how I envision using the adaptor “on the
road”. Of course everything should be tucked away in the
saddlebags--out of the wind--but what kind of a photo would
that make?
This is another one that needs to be viewed in the larger
format. Sorry folks--I'll try to do this in the daylight next
time....
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One final touch. I attached a leftover quick
connect terminal under the seat to cap the positive wire when
it's not in use. Anything to avoid an accidental short
circuit! You could install two of them if you wanted to keep
water and dirt away from both wires....
Do you like the “safety wire”? I pulled it out of a discarded
telephone cable.
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