Where to get some USB power for my XJ6 Diversion?

[Cylindric]

Good morning, folks.

I need to get a source of USB power onto my new XJ6, and as I need to charge hungrier devices like smart-phones and tablets, I need to be sure I have a decent 2A charger.

A lot of the bike ones I've seen look a bit cheap so I can only imagine they're crappy little 0.5A 'traditional' mobile chargers.

Can anyone recommend a decent device that will present a weatherproof USB socket that I can either install or tie to the fairing? Alternatively I'll have to take something like a cigarette-lighter style charger that I know is powerful enough, and take it apart myself.

Also, where should I be taking power from on the bike? I'd rather take it from a part of the wiring that's only live when the ignition is on, to prevent any drain while parked. Is there anywhere 'official' I should be taking this from, or just join onto something like the rear-light wiring - they're always on when the ignition is on.

thanks,

Mark

[busyeddie]

Charging a phone for 12 hours shouldnt drain your battery too much.

Ive got a 2A cigarette lighter jobby, soldered a cable to the tip and shield, put some heatshrink over the whole shebang. It now looks factory, with no dismantling.

Plus point is I still get a healthy 5v from it when using on a 6v system on my DT. Its rated at 12v in 5 out.

[Cylindric]

I was thinking of pulling apart an old car one I have, but then saw these on Amazon.

Only thing I'm not sure about is the connection, it has one normal round terminal like you put on the battery, then one bare wire which they say "connects to electrode wire of power switch" that I'm not sure where it would go.

[slice]

I have the 12V cigarette lighter one on mine and it works really well but did not know you could get a USB one, that looks really neat, I have mine connected directly to the battery and it has a 3 amp fuse so no worries about the thing burning out, if you want to actually switch it off while not using it why not just put a switch in the line, maybe up by the connector itself that way you can see that it is on and even turn it on only when you need to while riding, just my thought on it.

[Cylindric]

The switch is a good idea. Toying with where to put it now. Could either make a hole in the top of plastic part of the fairing, or just have it tied to the fairing struts out of sight, and out of weather.

[Preload]

That Bike USB connector is the business I'll have to get one of those.

[Speedshop]

We have USB kits at the Speed Shop - handle bar mounted and come with all the wiring and a water proof cover. £25 plus a bit of postage

01580 880 768

[NEV]

I used a marine 12v cigarette lighter/ charger type, handlebar mountable too, all rubber covered with a rubber flap/cap, about £10, as for the USB, iphone do an adapter for USB you can pick up cheap off Ebay.

[Cylindric]

The only problem with the cheap eBay options is that they rarely declare the output current. Most USB chargers and converters I've seen are 1A at most - many are 750mA. Most modern smartphones and nearly all the tablets can charge faster with a >1A supply.

[Cylindric]

Okay, so I have the adapter now (looks exactly like the one SpeedShop posted - sorry I'd already ordered elsewhere by the time I saw your post) and am looking for somewhere to fit it.

I have seen that there's a bracket holding the front fairing to the bike, almost directly below the throttle but under the small plastic filler fairing (not the main whole-front fairing) and that looks like a good place to put the socket, as it'll be out of sight, out of the way of any moving parts and also protected from pretty much all weather.

Now I'm in a bit of a sticky wicket regarding routing the cables. The bike's cabling all seems to head to the back of the bike directly under the middle of the tank, and I really don't think I want to remove the tank to run this cable, so I was thinking of running it along the back of the thick chassis bars, should be pretty discreet if I use black cable-ties. (Possibly the line in the image below.)

The main thing that's stopping me right now is getting access to everything. Most of the fairing panels are held on by simple allen-bolts, but some of them are these odd little black pop-studs. Now the only experience of this sort of thing I've had is my old car door-panels, and they invariably snapped when trying to remove them - how do I remove these pins without breaking them? (Example of what I mean is circled in the image below.)

[slice]

It's easy, just pull out the centre plug and the 4 clips on the inside will move out of the way so you can withdraw the outer casing, just reverse to put it back in. My tank is only held on by a bolt at the back 2 fuel lines and 2 rubber bung things on the frame takes about 5 minutes to remove or replace, plus you can attach your new wiring to the original loom with ties so keeping it tidy. Makes more sense than routing it outside on the frame to my way of thinking but it's your bike so what's best for you really.

[Cylindric]

Didn't realise it was quite that easy to get under the tank - so that's what I did. Did have a bit of a worried "is that petrol I can smell" moment when tipping the tank up on the pivot caused a bit of fuel to dribble out of the overflow hoses.

I could get one of the two electrical connectors off the tank though, so had to perform a bit of juggling to hold the tank vertical while messing about underneath it, but wasn't too bad.

I've had to leave the cable disconnected in the battery compartment for now, because it was starting to get dark - really need some power and a light in my garage!

No idea yet where I'm going to get power from - the battery terminals are very tight, and ideally I need to find a "switched" live from somewhere.

[ExiledBacchus]

I went for a handle bar mounted cigarette lighter style.

Thought I could chuck in a USB adapter if needed.

Have to say it's an ugly piece of kit and Im looking for somewhere other than the bars to bury it.

Ill be interested to see where you get your feed from (?)

[slice]

How about you find the fuse box take off the main fuse connectors (INPUT & OUTPUT with a fuse between them) solder on your new USB thingy to each side of the connectors and then simply replace them, that way your charger will only work when you turn the ignition on! Mind you it will come on every time you turn the IGN on so it might also be an idea to switch it the way I suggested earlier. Just my thoughts on it but it might be fiddly to do, but essentially you will have a switchable power supply that is protected via a fuse giving a full 12/14V.

PS forgot about the fuel sensor wire when I wrote the earlier post, my bad!

[Cylindric]

Oh my - have you seen the size of the battery compartment and the fuses themselves? They're TINY little things.

That box has all of them in it, and it's about 5cm by 2cm. The wiring is so neat and compact too, it's hard to find a bit loose enough to hack into.

[slice]

NO!!! You don't have to go right up against the box just follow the wires until you find some where that you can trim the outer off, DON'T cut the wire just remove enough to get your cable connected to then drop a dollop of solder on to it and then tape over (with good quality) tape and "Robert's your father's brother". Will not let water in usually cos it's covered by the seat and tape should be enough to make it water tight anyway. It's a matter of being cautious, you could look at the end where it goes through the headlight cowling (if it does) and use the connectors in there, sometimes there is a connector block inside the cowl that transfers the loom to the handle bar controls, so you can take them off (handle bar controls) without stripping the whole loom off, the same applies to the ignition system off the loom you WILL find a block that connects to the ign switch so go in there for your connection, just think outside the box as it were.

PS It really is much easier than I am making it sound, just use a multi meter to test you have the right cable (on each end) and that's all you need to do. Sorry if you think I am being patronising but I don't know what your skill level is so thought I would join the dot's as it were.

[Cylindric]

Heh, no worries, sometimes the obvious stuff is the easiest to forget about. I'm pretty good with electrical stuff, I just don't want to hack about more than necessary. Unfortunately I'm busy until after this weekend, so won't be doing anything as fun as this

[cupcake1973]

I got a cheap charger socket off ebay for my sat nav. Installed it myself, dead easy to wire up to the sat nav mount on the bars and it works a treat

[kenDAWG]

I just bought a standard bike cigarette lighter socket and a adapter that fits in for USB power!!

I thought being able to use 2 different kind of plugs in 1 socket would be better.

There handy along with my iPhone and water proof satnav/phone holder incase I loose power in the middle of no where!

Ken

[slice]

Same as Ken I have just ordered an adapter from good old ebay at £1.44 for my cig lighter which I think has saved me about £17 on the price of a dedicated USB only adapter if you factor in the cost of the original adapter plus the new bit. Thanks Ken would never have thought of that without your input