12v supply from bike with no battery (DR350)

[Peeteey]

Hi guys, I have a 99 DR350 (dirt model) which has no battery i.e. kick start only.

I'm wanting to power my cellphone/GPS/camera off the bike's electrical system so I don't need to worry about batteries on long trips.

I know it's possible, I just have no idea where to connect the wires from my 12v socket and if I'd need some kind of power regulator or somesuch device, resistors, heat sink etc

Anyone done this?

Thanks for any help!

[neels]

Do you have a wiring diagram for the thing, would make life a bit easier.

Will depend how the various bits of the bike work, may just get a way with basic 12V reg, or if the bike is all AC then a rectifier as well.

I assume you're only looking for charging volts and not power supplies to run the things from, otherwise a small battery would be good to keep the volts up when the revs are low.

[Peeteey]

Do you have a wiring diagram for the thing, would make life a bit easier.

Will depend how the various bits of the bike work, may just get a way with basic 12V reg, or if the bike is all AC then a rectifier as well.

I assume you're only looking for charging volts and not power supplies to run the things from, otherwise a small battery would be good to keep the volts up when the revs are low.

Hey Neels, no diagram unfortunately. Even if I had one I don't think it'd do me much good, those things confuse the hell out of me.
Surely a bike in this day and age wouldn't be AC, wouldn't that mean all the lights and so on would have to be special ones? Even if it generates in AC it'd surely still have to convert somewhere for the lights.

Ultimately I would like to be able to run maybe 1 or 2 things off the bike when in use but also just charge things if the mood takes me. The most likely thing I see happening is running phone (GPS) and powering camera at the same time or running camera while charging spare batteries.
All the devices I wanna use are 5v and with a total max of 4 amps, that's for running a 2 amp camera and using two 1 amp chargers (USB which are normally only 500ma anyhoo)
Not really taxing stuff but I do seem to remember these bikes don't create much juice. When idling, put the indicator on and the head light dims in time to the flashing.
So you're saying if I add a small 12v battery, I could charge that off the bike but use that to power my devices? Good idea, any idea how to wire that up? I do have a suitable battery, about 7 amps, but there's a chance I might have over charged it a while back and popped it.

[Peeteey]

Just found these:
www.thumpertalk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-658774.html
dics.voicecontrol.ro/process_mails/arata_discutia/103558/GPS_power_supply_for_Dirt_bike.html

Looks like AC might be the go, hmm.

[JMemonic]

Easily be AC especially on the lighting circuit as lights dont care about the wave form of the supply just voltage and current.

Many manufactures were good at using a small rectifier on the ignition circuit, (Kettering, vane hall makes no difference), with electrics that dont need DC supply being feed directly from the alternator. From memory earlier DR's fitted this bill.

Small rectifier/ regulator off a scooter and a scooter battery would be ideal if you can get it all cheap.

[Peeteey]

Easily be AC especially on the lighting circuit as lights dont care about the wave form of the supply just voltage and current.

Many manufactures were good at using a small rectifier on the ignition circuit, (Kettering, vane hall makes no difference), with electrics that dont need DC supply being feed directly from the alternator. From memory earlier DR's fitted this bill.

Small rectifier/ regulator off a scooter and a scooter battery would be ideal if you can get it all cheap.

Thanks man, learn something every day! Cool, thanks for the tip, will keep an eye on TM for scooters wrecking in chch.
One thought, would a bike with battery and elec start most likely be DC or would that not matter either? I ask as this bike had 2 models that are very similar, my dirt model and the S dual sort model with battery etc.
To keep costs down, won't they use as many parts in common as possible i.e. the electrical system?
I've had no luck so far tracking down a wiring diagram, everything I find is for the S model. I would just go get the manual from technical books in Riccarton but am broke!
Sigh, story of my life. Anyone got any jobs going? :)

[JMemonic]

Thanks man, learn something every day! Cool, thanks for the tip, will keep an eye on TM for scooters wrecking in chch.
One thought, would a bike with battery and elec start most likely be DC or would that not matter either? I ask as this bike had 2 models that are very similar, my dirt model and the S dual sort model with battery etc.
To keep costs down, won't they use as many parts in common as possible i.e. the electrical system?
I've had no luck so far tracking down a wiring diagram, everything I find is for the S model. I would just go get the manual from technical books in Riccarton but am broke!
Sigh, story of my life. Anyone got any jobs going? :)

Got a class 2 licence? if so I can point you in the direction of a job but that's another story.

I think its highly likely that there is little difference in the electrics between the two models. economy of scale and all that, possibly they have nearly identical wiring looms with your model missing the heavy high current wires for the starter, but I could be wrong, if you can get a look at the parts listings for the two models you might be able to sort it out, what you need to see is if the rectifiers are the same part number.

The alternator, which is what 'modern' bikes generally have is star wound and will have three wires out, on your I think you will find it on the left side of the engine case, normally three wire the same colour and one different that will run to a fairly chunky lump of alloy with fins on it, that would be the rectifier, now here is where it gets tricky or not.

If you have a multimeter start the bike up and take out the headlight bulb, test the voltage on both AC and DC ranges, you might only get one and we are hopeful that its DC if you get both you should hopefully see the DC higher than the AC.

If you are seeing only DC or DC and AC mix you have a rectifier in the system and life is now a lot easier, if the voltage goes up and down say from 10 volts to 18 you have no regulator, if it runs 13 to 14 volts you even have one of those, not all you need is a battery oh and a place to put it. If it has wild swings there could be two options one is no regulator (which is normally built into the rectifier) or a fault somewhere.

I am sure on of the knowledgeable locals in electrickery could give you a hand simply as I am only an enthusiastic amateur, but this is not a huge thing to overcome, if you only have AC a simple rectifier/regulator will be easy to wire in.

I am away soon for the next month and a bit if you have not got it sorted by the time I get back I will be happy to help. Sorry if I am not making to much sense but my thought patter is a little messed up at the moment.

[Peeteey]

Got a class 2 licence? if so I can point you in the direction of a job but that's another story.

I am away soon for the next month and a bit if you have not got it sorted by the time I get back I will be happy to help. Sorry if I am not making to much sense but my thought patter is a little messed up at the moment.

You're an absolute star! :D

Thanks for the info, once I get the back wheel back on tomorrow (after fixing the leaky tube I managed to pinch whilst changing tyres :clap:) I'll start it up and see what happens. Will let you know.
Have a fun trip!