Phone Charger Install Project

hootmon · November 23, 2009, 03:14:13 PM

I recently got a Palm PRE which has SprintNAV on it. I thought it would be a useful tool for the bike, IF I should ever get lost... Like that would ever happen

I Bought a RAM phone holder for my handlebars at a Bike Fest for $35
The only issue is the SprintNav eats at the battery pretty fast.. So a Charger was in order..
Here is what I came up with:

I purchased a Retractable Auto Charger.. This has a thin wire leading to the phone instead of the usual curly cue cord..

I broke the charger apart, unwound the spool, detached the wires from the spool and threw away the spool.
I then cut the circuit board that supported the spool to make the unit smaller.
I then re-soldered the charger cable to the circuit board.
I then used liquid electrical tap and covered the entire circuit board (except the LED) to isolate all the components as this is going in the headlight bucket

I then soldered on an inline fuse holder (the original unit had a fuse internally) and added a Spade lug for the positive and extended the negative wire.. (I already have a triple switch on my brake reservoir and only use one switch for my aux. Head light, so another one of the switches will turn on and off the power to the charger.. I also rapped the whole thing in some foam to insure no damage comes to the unit inside the headlight.. I left the LED sticking through the foam so I can do a quick power check IF it stops charging..

Next I wired it up inside the headlight and tucked it in as compact as possible (The Magna has a small headlight bucket!)

Then I checked to see if it powered up OK..

I then finished running the charging cable up t the RAM Mount.. I also cut the RAM Mount down because it was WAY too long for my phone..

I was going to take a shot with the phone plugged in an in the mount.. BUT since I was using the phone to take the photos, I couldn't figure out how to take a picture with the phone, of the phone..

tmds3 · November 23, 2009, 04:20:16 PM

Now that is cool

dgc67 · November 23, 2009, 04:52:17 PM

Quotetake a picture with the phone, of the phone..

Mount it and hold a mirror up in front of it while you snap the pic.

roboto65 · November 23, 2009, 05:21:50 PM

Have been wanting to do that for my Curve LOL Awesome !!!!

TLRam1 · November 23, 2009, 06:35:34 PM

Fantastic Hoot, ingenuity I tell ya!

swampbilly · November 25, 2009, 10:21:32 PM

A good idea, for sure, and well executed, except for one detail. I think inside the headlight bucket is really the wrong location for the fuse holder. It should be as close to the battery lug as possible (assuming you're hooking the positive lead feeding the switch, directly to the battery), so that you dont have an always (electrically) hot wire traveling un-fused under your gas tank, amongst your other wires.

hootmon · November 25, 2009, 11:04:37 PM

Quote from: swampbilly on November 25, 2009, 10:21:32 PM
A good idea, for sure, and well executed, except for one detail. I think inside the headlight bucket is really the wrong location for the fuse holder. It should be as close to the battery lug as possible (assuming you're hooking the positive lead feeding the switch, directly to the battery), so that you dont have an always (electrically) hot wire traveling un-fused under your gas tank, amongst your other wires.

I have a 20Amp fuse at the battery that feeds the 3 switch unit on top of my master cylinder.. Since this charger only has a 2 amp fuse, I put it in the headlight bucket where the other end of the wire from the switch is run.. Make since.. Hey if it blows, it is not something vital (like a spare headlight), it can wait until I get to it after the ride.. I also have a hidden switch between the 20 amp fuse and the 3 switch unit so I can turn off power to the 3 switch unit..

BA · November 25, 2009, 11:21:03 PM

I bought a tank bag that has a GPS pouch with a clear window in it and made a power outlet that plugs into my battery tender lead. I plug the car charger into the power outlet and hide them under my side cover and route the wire under the bag to the GPS. I just unplug the cord from the GPS when I stop cause it supplies power all the time. Plus, the same cord also fits my phone so I can charge either while riding.

swampbilly · November 27, 2009, 10:43:58 PM

Quote from: hootmon on November 25, 2009, 11:04:37 PM
I have a 20Amp fuse at the battery that feeds the 3 switch unit on top of my master cylinder.. Since this charger only has a 2 amp fuse, I put it in the headlight bucket where the other end of the wire from the switch is run.. Make since.. Hey if it blows, it is not something vital (like a spare headlight), it can wait until I get to it after the ride.. I also have a hidden switch between the 20 amp fuse and the 3 switch unit so I can turn off power to the 3 switch unit..

Oh, ok, that was my main concern, that there be fuse protection at the battery.

When I got my bike, It had a snake-nest of wires, all crimped to one lug on the positive post, leading to eight separate LEDs under the tank (to light up the chrome on the engine), all crimped together again at a spade connector on a switch mounted in the left-side cover, and then leading from the switch to a lug on the negative post; all without any fuse at all.
Finding that gave me a pretty good case of the willies that I obviously haven't gotten over yet.

hootmon · November 28, 2009, 01:43:28 AM

Quote from: swampbilly on November 27, 2009, 10:43:58 PM
When I got my bike, It had a snake-nest of wires, all crimped to one lug on the positive post, leading to eight separate LEDs under the tank (to light up the chrome on the engine), all crimped together again at a spade connector on a switch mounted in the left-side cover, and then leading from the switch to a lug on the negative post; all without any fuse at all.
Finding that gave me a pretty good case of the willies that I obviously haven't gotten over yet.

Thanx for looking out for me..
Yeah, those LED installer guys go for the quick and dirty, not necessarily the proper install (which takes time)..

BudMan · November 28, 2009, 09:44:52 AM

My company recently replaced my HTC Touch PRO with a Palm PRE. So far I am completely unimpressed with the GPS functionality compared to the old HTC. The HTC running Google maps was within a few FEET of my location when 4 to 6 satellites were acquired. Even though Google maps is "built in" to the PRE, it will do no better than to display a general area of my location within a circle of several miles in most cases, and at best about a thousand yards.

Is this just my unit, or is that normal for the PRE? I have no experience with the Palm OS, but it is also proving a problem as I cannot edit and resend MS Word documents. I can read them, but I can't generate one or modify one and send comments to the originator.
I really like your installation, but I am not convinced I will be staying with the PRE. On the Valk I just put it in the tank bag. I have a 12V "cigarette plug" under the tank and I plug in the charger there. The line runs from the bottom of the tank bag, in front of the seat and to the plug in. (Crude, but effective.)

I hope to get a look at your set up this year at MOOTMAG! (I started planning the 2010 trip sometime around July of 2009.)

Greg Cothern · November 28, 2009, 03:57:45 PM

So I gotta ask a question.......

Why not build a simple stand alone switched, fused to battery harness for all this???? Why dig into the bikes harnes??

hootmon · November 28, 2009, 04:12:26 PM

Quote from: Greg Cothern on November 28, 2009, 03:57:45 PM
So I gotta ask a question.......

Why not build a simple stand alone switched, fused to battery harness for all this???? Why dig into the bikes harnes??

I'm a little confused by your question..
I already have a Triple Brake Reservoir switch installed with a single fused line back to the battery.. The unit sends out 3 hot wires which are run to the head light bucket. It didn't have to run there, but seemed logical since that is where all the other wires are.. Nothing in this system relates to the stock harness at all...

guywheatley · December 01, 2009, 03:19:59 PM

OK Hoot. You seem pretty knowledgeable, so I'll post this question more as a warning to others reading this thread.
Is the unit you purchased equipped with internal safety circuits to prevent overcharging. As I discovered in June of 2008, overcharging a battery is a BAD thing. (Especially if your sitting on top of it.)
Seriously. I made the mistake several year ago of buying cheap chargers at Wally world for my phones. I then learned there was a reason the good ones cost more. The cheap ones would just fry my batteries, reducing their life drastically.

lragan · December 01, 2009, 03:43:01 PM

Check out the instruction manuals. Most electronic equipment with rechargeable batteries installed that were manufactured in the last few years have a battery management chip on board. My cell phone and my GPS are both so equipped. The chargers are just dumb power converters, with the smarts to keep from overcharging the batteries in the cell phone or the GPS unit. If the unit charges through a USB connector, this on board management is a necessity, since the USB interface specs just call for an (almost) constant voltage from the host. Very convenient, as I can charge these units from the computer or my lap top. Cuts down the number of devices I have to travel with.

The only negative I have seen with use of the USB connector standard is they don't seem as rugged as the proprietary plugs/jacks of the past.

Phone Charger Install Project

tmds3

dgc67