How many accessories can I connect directly to the battery posts?

[shiggsy 529]

2 hours ago, commuter said:

Seeing 12.5 to 13 volts means that your system is coping.

 

Afraid I'm going to disagree with that, I do run a volt metre on mine and if I saw that range when the bike is running I would be switching stuff of pronto, or making sure I plugged a charger in each time I got home. In-fact if I saw 12.50v at the battery when the bike is not switched on I'd start to be concerned.  Ideally you need about 14.2v to push enough charge into the battery to recover starting losses and keep the battery topped up.  With my heated grips on and heated jacket I typically get 13.8v - to 14v on the motorway.  

 

Without the heated gear I it normally around 14.25 but typically in the range 14.2 to 14.3.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2017 by shiggsy

[Rick 236]

That's a very kind offer Slowboy, it's just that I like to do my own stuff and at the moment I'd like to just add the Honda accessory loom and a pair of spotlights, then leave the other connections accesable for future use. The trouble is at the moment I'm not sure about the above, there is no point in doubling up on relays if not required and I have removed the panels but cannot see the connector for the loom ? I have found a connector ( plugged into bottom of trunk)  that matches but it has two wires, not three as in the accessary loom ?

[fred_jb 10,269]

18 minutes ago, Rick said:

That's a very kind offer Slowboy, it's just that I like to do my own stuff and at the moment I'd like to just add the Honda accessory loom and a pair of spotlights, then leave the other connections accesable for future use. The trouble is at the moment I'm not sure about the above, there is no point in doubling up on relays if not required and I have removed the panels but cannot see the connector for the loom ? I have found a connector ( plugged into bottom of trunk)  that matches but it has two wires, not three as in the accessary loom ?

The bike connector is recessed into a plastic moulding in the rear bottom of the frunk - used to be left side for the X and right side for the S for 2015 models, but maybe is different  in later years.  They have varied in terms of what connections appear on there.  Mine had earth, switched power, unswitched power, left indicator, and right indicator, and I think the earlier 700 models also had the brake light circuit, so using all 6 available pins.  I think more recent ones dropped the indicator connections, but I'm not aware that the unswitched power has also gone - but maybe that is the case.

 

There is also a number of accessory loom variants with different numbers of connectors, ranging from 1 to 4.   The four way one used 3 x 3 pin connectors which had only two pins used and were wired for just earth and switched power, plus a four way connector which had three pins used and added the unswitched power.

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2017 by fred_jb

[Rick 236]

Ah, thanks Fred, I will have to move the pins to match up, I don't think I need the unswitched  power anyway

[Rick 236]

Quote

 

Thanks for all the advice, I've now realised why I had no live to my accessory loom. Although it's sort of been mentioned in passing, until I looked inside the fuse box, it didn't dawn on me that a relay and fuse had to be inserted, I have now ordered this from North West Motorcycles.  Hopefully once this is done I will see the light. !