Wiring a phone/pda charger to the bike?

grantwils · Post by **grantwils** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:14 pm

I'm thinking about getting my PDA set up with Sat Nav to use on the bike and in the car but I'm unsure if it is possible to wire it up to the bikes battery for charging on longer journeys.

Obviously with a phone charger you don't just have your device connected directly to the battery but there's something in between. I don't know if it's a voltage regulater or some sort of transformer but it's something.

My idea is to have the device in the clear tankbag pocket where I can see it. I could wire a standard cig lighter type socket to the battery and have it plugged in inside the tank bag or is there a better/easier/neater/safer way of doing it. There's got to be a sparky type on here that can help me with this one.

Post about sat nav is here http://www.aberdeenbikers.co.uk/abforum ... php?t=8793

**EDIT**

Having thought about it for a bit longer the main question is how to modify a phone/pda car charger to connect directly to the battery using the hoop type connectors instead of a cig lighter. That's gotta be easier.

Fletch · Post by **Fletch** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:48 pm

If you can .. open up the Cig lighter end, and cut/unscrew/desolder the wires in there, add a small inline fuse holder recrimp ends, and reconnect directly to the battery

If you can't open up the cig lighter end .. cut and the 2 wires should be colour coded inside!!

As for mounting

http://www.ram-mount-uk.com/ipaq-mounts.htm
http://www.ram-mount-uk.com/1-inch-ball-acc.htm

The Diamond plate 1inch ball (Ram-B-238) fits across the 2 bolts at the front of the tank on a CBR

grantwils · Post by **grantwils** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:58 pm

Fletch wrote:If you can .. open up the Cig lighter end, and cut/unscrew/desolder the wires in there, add a small inline fuse holder recrimp ends, and reconnect directly to the battery

If you can't open up the cig lighter end .. cut and the 2 wires should be colour coded inside!

The problem is that on most car cig lighter chargers all the guts are built into the cig lighter connection. I think I'm just going to go and buy a charger and disect it until I can find the bits that connect to the 12v pos and neg then wire them up to the battery. It can't be that difficult...

airwave · Post by **airwave** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:16 am

Maplin in Aberfreeze, they sell car lighter sockets with wires hanging out for a couple of quid.

grantwils · Post by **grantwils** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:56 pm

I'm thinking about wiring one of these up inside my tank bag. It even has a battery condition LED indicator!

I could plug the PDA charger and GPS Receiver in to it. This would be great for longer journeys but I'm going to wait and see what the battery life is like. Not planning on doing any super long tours. I reckon about 2-3 days battery life would be fine and would allow me to use it on weekend jaunts without having to worry about charging.

I don't know how many times I've been lost after taking random twisty looking roads to anywhere!

blagger · Post by **blagger** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:39 am

if your running bluetooth on your pda you will prob only get a few hours out of a standard battery that comes with them... i have an ipaq with the standard battery that came with it and i only get a few hours with the wifi or bluetooth on... you can buy a larger battery for them what will allow u to run for longer but i think if your going to a route longer than 2-3 hours then you would need to recharge your pda.. i have been thinking about doing the same as you with my ipaq and getting a bluetooth gps reciever. but like i say the gps would prob last 8-10hrs and ipaq/pda 2-3hrs...

let me know how you get on with you modifications to you bike battery with connecting a unit for charging your pda

blagger · Post by **blagger** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:14 am

i found this site on the net about someone who has done it to both there bikes dunno if any help to you

http://www.whybike.com/blog/index.php?p=104

seems a pretty simple setup...