Towzatronics 12V (Cigarette) Power Socket

Originally Posted by Quiff Wichard

me confused now.
i think it will be ok the way I am thinking of doin .. then will have a nice neat charger with waterprrof cover on the front top fairing like Lozzo.. and no seat removal to charge phone when camp etc or if nice day can do it in tank bag.. just means i have to carry the phone charger as before it was plugged in under seat but I had to fiddle to find the end.,

I for sure want to put my heated grips to a switch live.. flattenned the battery once with them.. may do the horn one like lozzo suggests.


so is it just neutral to the battery .. and live soldered to the switch live? no inline fuse? and no earth on the frame like the autocom needed? that is in the switch live on the lights (which are auto on with ignition)

No need to wire the neutral back to the battery, you can earth to the frame with no problems - same effect. I've run both my cables back to the battery because I wanted a proper hard wired connection for my accessory socket and trying to find a battery live in the wiring loom that I could access to solder to was proving to be a nightmare.

You should fit an inline fuse to the grips because they are probably rated lower than the horn and the horn fuse will be too high. Put the fuse between where you solder the live into the horn circuit and the grips' switch. Most horn feeds are permanently live and the circuit is made in the neutral, for some strange reason.

ta .. what size fuse? 10?

Originally Posted by Quiff Wichard

ta .. what size fuse? 10?

Fuse the grips at whatever the grip makers say in their instructions. It won't be as high as 10A

ok i chucked the instructions away .. oops I will find out

thanks

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Have you thought about putting an optimate flylead on the battery and then adding a corresponding plug or socket to the ends of the socket cables so you can plug/unplug the accessory socket anytime you'd like to use the Optimate? Obviously you'd be limited to the overall wattage of the things you'd be using in the accessory spocket as the plugs and sockets for Optimates aren't rated to carry much current, but they should handle 5 Amps ok, which means any phone charger or satnav charger will be fine.

This is what I have. It charges the satnav no problems which is all I wanted.

Fit mine today, straight to battery, took about 5 mins. Tested, works great!

Least I can keep my phone charged over the AR

thanks all for your help..
all done now..

one neatly on my top fairing and another on the side panel right side on an extension all enat and lovely .

and I have done the heated grips to a switch live now. so ta

Originally Posted by specialone

The problem you get when not using a relay (accepted if wired directly you dont have the same issues) is the contacts wont be substantial enough to support switching the 12v socket as well.
Its a no brainer imo, relays are dead cheap to quickly change over if it goes pete tong, igntion circuits / components wont be.

I accept if you're only pulling 120 watts then it shouldnt cause a problem, but my tom tom power cable pulls a lot more than that, so it just not worth the risk.
I could easily run 5-8 amps through mine with no issues.

BTW mine does look neat so wouldnt de value the bike.

I just re-read this and some things came to mind.

Firstly - what contacts are you on about in the first paragraph? I will assume you mean ignition switch contacts.

When the socket isn't being used there is no current draw so there is no load, therefore no additional strain on switchgear or contacts. If anythng, adding a relay switched by the ignition just adds more load into the system even when the socket isn't being used, making a switch contact failure more likely, where a no-relay situation is perfectly safe and reliable.

Secondly - "only pulling 120 watts"? 120 Watts has a current draw of 10 Amps on a 12 Volt circuit. I would very much doubt that a Tom Tom of any decription pulls anywhere near that amount of current. Your socket is rated at 120W as well, so it should be well up to handling current of 5-8 Amps at 12 Volts easily.

I think lozzo when i first wrote that i hadnt absorbed or read and took in the 120 watts thing properly, later on, i did, so a mistake on my part there

BTW i did mean the ignition circuits, if you have something plugged in pulling a lot of juice you are increasing the switching load for that circuit, im not saying it will fail, but if its being asked to switch an additonal 10 amps than 'normal' then its possible.
You dont operate the horn while starting the bike do you?

You have yours wired directly to battery anyway so we really shouldnt be still talking about this should we?


Also, there is no additional load in the circuit using my relay, relay doesnt use hardly anything to switch, you could do it with alkaline batteries easy peasy.

You will never convince me that my way is not required, ultimately, its my bike, i want a relay on it, so we'll leave it there.
If it was directly fed to the battery then fair enough, no issues.

Each to their own.

Also, my tom tom flattened my transit connect diesel battery when left on charge all day, so it pulls more than you may think.

Phil

I have had two of the Towzatronices ones and for the price3 and ease of fitment you cant beat them. Mine is tucked away under my seat and chargers my mobile or satnav quite happily, I am very pleased with mine