Article [13] ST1300 - Switched Power Tap

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Wow, that is a good memory. This is probably the one you are thinking of. Standard relay and 3 standard sized fuses (larger than the ones in the ST1300 fuse box). I used two of these - they will slide together side by side, but fastened them and to end with cable ties, and they slot into the recess in front of the ECU in the rear cowl. Of course, you have to do the wiring yourself, but the kit comes with all of the necessary terminals. I buy plenty of spare terminals at the same time.

Relay Module 01.jpgRelay Module 07.jpgRelay Module 17.jpg

Polevolt and Autoelectricalsupplies are two companies in the UK that I have used. But I notice that these holders and other similar devices are sold by many more companies now. It would be nice to have one that takes the smaller blade fuses and the smaller compact relays that the ST1300 uses. I couldn't find any others at the time. I spotted one on USA ebay, ready wired for over £100 ! I know wire costs a lot, but that is a bit excessive, I thought. A different thought was that I need to start a production line.



Ok - three answers:

I have a quartet harness, but I am thinking i might remove it and make my own - I have a couple of 'Y' branches off each connector which I use to trigger the relays. It has become a bit untidy. I think I'd prefer to run a single cable which plugs direct to the 9 pin connector to feed the relay triggers.

I think that only @Mellow can promote a post to an article. When he spots something worth keeping in the articles section, he will move it there. The original post will appear as a new - until it is moved. You have to be quick to see it though - Joe is extremely efficient in maintaining this superb site. Any subsequent comments are also flagged, but I think you may need to allow them in your preferences. Click your name at the top right, select preferences and check the stuff for which you wish to be notified.

There are two relays, each with three fuses. I trigger one relay to come on with ignition and accessories (ie the key is in the normal running position), the other relay is also triggered when the key is just in accessories position. 'Just accessories' are intercom, cameras, satnav, USB charger - Front devices from one fuse, rear devices from another, the USB charger from the third. This means I can sit at the side of the road with the key turned to accessories and fiddle with volumes and satnav without fear of the battery running flat. The other relay has a fatter 20A wire feeding it and it supplies heated seat, and sockets for two heated jackets. 7.5A for heated seat, 5A each for heated jackets.

Here's the link to the article - it is there in the article section after all. I thought it might have been lost in my recent severe pruning of my posts.

Thanks John. I appreciate the time you spent replying in detail and look forward to reading your Article.

Paul
 
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That's correct. But also if someone notifies me that a particular thread/post has enough info and pictures to be an article.
Mellow I seem to have all my Alerts set on in Preferences, so don't understand how a member would become aware of comments to Articles unless they looked in that section. Can you please help me? Also is it possible to search in Articles alone?

Paul
 
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Mellow

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Mellow I seem to have all my Alerts set on in Preferences, so don't understand how a member would become aware of comments to Articles unless they looked in that section. Can you please help me? Also is it possible to search in Articles alone?

Paul
There's a quick search at the top. Otherwise, you'd just have to browse through them... they have tags for specific categories as well.
 

ST Gui

240Robert
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This is probably the one you are thinking of. Standard relay and 3 standard sized fuses (larger than the ones in the ST1300 fuse box)
That is indeed it. When you first post about that kit I scoured the Innertubes looking for something similar over here and nada. Zip. Now seeing your recent mention I just looked at ebay and found a few options similar if not identical to your pics. Thanks for posting. MUCH appreciated.
 

jfheath

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Thanks John. I appreciate the time you spent replying in detail and look forward to reading your Article.
I've just added a footnote to post#1 of that linked article - regarding the way I wired in the hitachi connectors. I wish now that I had done it differently
 
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I've just added a footnote to post#1 of that linked article - regarding the way I wired in the hitachi connectors. I wish now that I had done it differently
I was very impressed with your article, John, and your usual attention to detail. Don't believe I read how long the whole project took you - hours, days, weeks?

For the benefit of others I would mention the topic of margins when selecting wires/cables.

We cannot just rely on the current draw from a particular accessory, but also need to allow for voltage drop, whether encased in conduit and the environment where the cable is situated e.g. in engine bay.

Voltage drop VD - suppose the power used was 50W, then current draw would be 50W/12V= 4.2A. So one might be fooled into thinking a 0.5 sq mm cable (11 A) might be sufficient. Wire length can have significant effect on VD. If a voltage drop of < 2% is required, this cable is not sufficient as VD = 4.2 x Length x Resistance per metre. If length from positive terminal and back to negative terminal is 5m,
VD = 4.2 x 5 x 0.037 = 0.77V or 6.4% of 12V, taking the Resistance/m as 0.037 ohms/m.
So cable would be OK for current draw but not for the length of the cable as >2%.

Temperature Environment - although cable length should definitely be allowed for, also be aware of where the cable is to be situated. Also, in the UK, the cables tend to be categorised according to cross-sectional area, the specification will stipulate the temperature environment for its suitability - usually 20 degrees C. So if the temperature environment is 95C, that is significantly different.

Hope that's useful

Paul
 

jfheath

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Sorry Paul - somehow I missed this post in October.

Now that stuff about voltage drop I only vaguely knew about. I have never bothered to research it (except when I was using NiChrome wire to make myself some heated gear) - nor had I bothered to find out the formulae for the calculations. I just knew that there was an issue, and if I had some accessories that together drew something like 9A, then I'd use 16A thinwall cable rather than the slightly thinner 11A cable. And I tend not to use the Hitachi style connectors for heated stuff (which draws about 4.5A). I don't know what the capacity is of the replica ones that are generally available.

So thanks for your contribution - very helpful.

How long did it take ? Goodness knows. I do all of the thinking a long time in advance. Draw the circuit, ponder it before buying anything. Then when it arrives, I set to. I rarely do stuff like this in one day - I do it when I know I won't be riding the bike for a while. In fact I am redoing this wiring at the moment. I don't expect to have the bike out until the end of January, when I will have to take it for its MOT. So I do an hour or two at a time.

The wiring in the rear cowl was getting a bit messy, and the wire to female connectors were getting twisted. One lead broke off as I was investigating. I decided to have the male half of the connector fixed to the harness. It has the blade terminals and is longer. Half of it can be taped to the harness so that it is held firmly in place and provides a secure fixing for the part attached to the accessories. It goes against the grain to have the power supplied by the male half - but if it helps keep the wiring in place, so much the better. Honda have done this in one or two places as well, I notice.

John
 
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