Have a battery tender on your 'Cepter? Rig up this super easy power port!

Discussion in 'General VFR Discussions' started by smoothrider, Aug 13, 2010.

  1. smoothrider

    smoothrider New Member

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    Just took my first real trip on my 06 VFR and needed a power port for charging cell, camera, etc. I had recently put a $29 battery tender / plug on my battery with the lead just barely sticking out at the seat release lock. The tenders come with a second lead with alligator clips- which is what I used for the power port...

    Cut off the alligator clips right behind them (note polarity) thereby reusing the inline fuse. I bought a female cigarette socket with about 6" leads at the parts store for under $3.00. After slipping on some shrink tubing, I soldered up the wires- NOTE: THE SOLDERED CONNECTION IS DONE IN REVERSE OF INDICATED POLARITY!!! This is because the alligator extension piece socket end is identical to the one already hard-wired to the battery, yet they fit together, but their indicated polarity is reversed when doing so! If you understood that, you will have a setup with the fuse on the negative line (I'm no electrician, but I don't see why this would not still protect the circuit in a DC system, like here: Add In-line Fuse to ACR Battery Negative Connection - Resources - Blue Sea Systems )
    Double check your set up with a meter. The center pin on the cigarette socket is positive and the outer housing negative. The fuse supplied in the Battery Tender extension is 7.5 amps and should be adequate for anything you would be plugging in.

    Any ways it worked great! The small inverter I took along will easily run a laptop and has its own USB output for charging my camera.

    With some shrink tubing, elect tape, and the 12v socket, the whole project cost about $5.50 and took about 15 minutes to complete.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I used the port after the days riding, but it could easily be adapted to use while riding. Cheers!
     
  2. smoothrider

    smoothrider New Member

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    well I inserted pics via URL to flicker, but I dont see them on here...any pointers on loading pics? I am new here...
     
  3. pjvtec

    pjvtec New Member

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    I do. I use my Battery Tender "Pigtail". I routed it thru the rear cowl and zip tied the end to the rear foot peg mount. Battery Tenders are good.
     
  4. ictghost

    ictghost New Member

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    I found your pics:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    If you find the pic you want to use on Flickr, right mouse-click the photo and select "copy image URL". Come to the forum site you want to post it in and click the photo button, then paste the URL you just copied into the box. Hope that helps.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2010
  5. smoothrider

    smoothrider New Member

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    thanks ictghost! I need all the computer help I can get- even when I'm in the land of Oz...
     
  6. rccaulfield

    rccaulfield New Member

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    Is it waterproof?
     
  7. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    I use the same setup on both my bikes. The battery tender plug also works well for monitoring charging status on a questionable charging system.
     
  8. Meatloaf

    Meatloaf New Member

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    I've done similar things with the pigtail as well. I've had to jump my bike before and the only thing the guys had was the alligator clips that attach to the battery and the tender. Luckily he had long leads on it... just have to reverse the leads as you will short things out or blow fuses if you don't. There is nothing wrong with what you have done and it is actually a great idea if you are only going to be using something like this on longer trips that you don't take too often. Rig it up, route the cable before the trip to something like inside a tank bag, and off you go. Come home and remove it if you wish.
     
  9. Jakobi

    Jakobi New Member

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    You should always fuse the positive side of a circuit. The reason for this is that a fuse can only protect what is down stream of it. If, for some unknown reason, whatever device you have plugged in shorts to ground you're going to be hosed because your fuse, which is now on a different ground circuit, can't do anything to stop the current flow. Good idea and good write up but do yourself a favor and get the fuse on the correct side of your circuit.

    The scenario described by Blue Sea Systems is correct but not for your application. Their purpose is to prevent current from flowing backwards through the ACR in case of failure. In the scenario described, the negative side has effectively become positive.

    -Jake
     
  10. smoothrider

    smoothrider New Member

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    thanks all for the comments. The set up was intended for temporary use as noted by meatloaf...and yes I will be adding a fuse on pos side.
     
  11. Denver

    Denver New Member

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  12. ictghost

    ictghost New Member

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  13. Denver

    Denver New Member

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    They probably could, but it might be custom. You could always just get an extension cable too...
    SAE Extension Cable (24") - Powerlet Products

    Handy little website, that one!
     
  14. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    He likely has both the positive and negative sides fused. The battery tender pigtail that is fastened to the battery would normally have a fuse on the positive side already. Then his home made pigtail to socket adapter has the fuse on the negative side as stated.
     
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