Hard wiring Tom Tom rider

Hi all

Treated myself to a Tom Tom rider over Xmas.
It came with the active charging mount and my plan is to splice into the wires in the headlamp so I have a switched power source for the charging lead.
My bikes naked so plenty of room in the headlight for the charging cable with a 1.5A in line fuse on the + side as an additional backup to the riders inner fuse.
My question is how do I identify which wires are positive and negative??
I'm currently looking at the wiring diagram for my bike but I'm unsure of which is positive and negative?
Are dotted wires positive and solid wires negative?

Happy new year to all


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.434940,-1.463530

I wouldn't to be honest, though I don't think you'd cause any problems with the current draw at the headlight if you're set on doing it that way.

Secondly you could wire a 30amp switched relay powering suitable distribution block off your battery. That way you can wire into that and any future accessories straight into the same distribution block.

Also if you have the Rider v3 it has an 8-9 hour battery life. If you don't use the battery (ie: charge, discharge, charge, discharge) then the battery will deteriorate very quickly. What happens with charging mounts that are permanently live with the ignition is that the battery is on charge every time it is used, and very soon you'll find your battery can't hold a charge. I didn't get an active mount with mine and so far I've never needed it, I've never been more than 8 hours away from a 240 volt socket. I'm going to France camping for 4 days in April, so I am going to get an active mount, but I'm going to wire an inline switch under the pillion seat, so I can choose when the active mount is live, use the TomTom off the battery one day, then charge the next day, battery the next day, etc, etc.

And in colour, use the zoom feature on your browser and you can just make it out. It's the highest resolution copy I have I'm afraid.

You don't need a wiring diagram to identify lives etc, just a meter, it's the safest way.

Personally I wouldn't tap into the headlight circuit, the circuits on a bike are designed with cable thickness and suitably rated fuse etc for that purpose, they don't expect people to power other things off them.

Use a relay, it's the safest and professional way to do it IMO the headlight could be the relay signal but it won't pull hardly any current.

Cheers for the reply Ralph, I see what your saying about the Tom toms battery.
My plan is to charge it at home and then if the battery runs out while im out on the bike I can then plug the power cable into the mount.
Constantly powering it through the active mount won't do the battery any good?

Think I am going to go with the relay option as I want to put some hot grips on and a charging point for my phone.

What gauge wire would you suggest to wire the relay up?




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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.434931,-1.463566

Originally Posted by specialone

You don't need a wiring diagram to identify lives etc, just a meter, it's the safest way.

Personally I wouldn't tap into the headlight circuit, the circuits on a bike are designed with cable thickness and suitably rated fuse etc for that purpose, they don't expect people to power other things off them.

Use a relay, it's the safest and professional way to do it IMO the headlight could be the relay signal but it won't pull hardly any current.

Cheers fella, how do you use a meter to identify live and negative?


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.434929,-1.463517

Originally Posted by bigchris

Cheers for the reply Ralph, I see what your saying about the Tom toms battery.
My plan is to charge it at home and then if the battery runs out while im out on the bike I can then plug the power cable into the mount.
Constantly powering it through the active mount won't do the battery any good?

Think I am going to go with the relay option as I want to put some hot grips on and a charging point for my phone.

What gauge wire would you suggest to wire the relay up?

OK, not having had my hands on an Active mount myself, I may be over complicating things. I have only used the Garmin one before where the cables are permanently connected to the mount and unplugging it is not an option.

Does the cable unplug from the mount then? If so I won't bother with the switch, I'll wire it off a relay and like you only plug in the cable when it's needed.

No, constantly powering it through the mount won't do your battery any favours, you only want to charge it when it needs to be charged. Also the first 5 times or so that you charge it, do it in the house off the 240v charger, and leave it a good 8 hours at a time from fully discharged (leave switched on and on the windowsill to discharge it fully after your ride if you need to).

Originally Posted by bigchris

Cheers fella, how do you use a meter to identify live and negative?

Do you have a multimeter or any experience with electrics at all? If you are wiring a relay under the seat, the nearest live feed to use is probably the feed to the rear brake switch.

Note that this chart is in feet, not inches, so 18 gauge will be plenty for a 30A relay, which will be ample for a couple of charging devices and a set of hot grips, but there's no harm in using something thicker if that's what you have in your garage. I used the cable from the inside of a piece of flex which I had cut of an old domestic appliance, that's more like 12 gauge.

Originally Posted by bigchris

Cheers fella, how do you use a meter to identify live and negative?


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.434929,-1.463517

Basically, a simple meter will do, ac voltage (~), dc voltage (-) and continuity.

It needs to be set to Dc voltage and some have a range, so for example the range might be 4-40v and as your bike is 12v then that's what you would use.
Then the red and black prongs are red for live, black for negative ( or neutral if ac)
Stick the black on an earth, or a clean screw or bolt that's on the frame, and the red in the wire or connector you wanna check.

Obviously, the wire you think is the one you want, keep the prongs on and turn the ignition on and off and you should see the meter display drop.

Hth