Heated jacket for $zero

[BiK3RChiK]

Well, we just took the liner out of the daughters Mohsin Jacket and I have spent an hour sewing in about 20 meters of insulated wire on my Bernina with a cording foot and the widest zig-zag stitch possible. : Test drive coming up!

[Subike]

Along these lines I have been looking at a pets electric blanket,
about the size of a kitchen tea towel.
Comes with a 230/12 volt transformer, so me thinks that this stiched into you seat befor covering it may work. Wired via a reostate to the ignition side of fuse box so it cant be left on.......
Warm Butt = many comfy miles

[CookMySock]

Well, we just took the liner out of the daughters Mohsin Jacket and I have spent an hour sewing in about 20 meters of insulated wire on my Bernina with a cording foot and the widest zig-zag stitch possible. : Test drive coming up!

Thanks for ya help with that BiK3RChiK. The wire is about 1mm diameter stranded PVC-insulated hookup wire. Any thin insulated wire will do - the trick is to figure out how much wire draws about 5 amps. I use a $400 fancy schmancy DC clamp meter to test it, but any meter than will measure up to 10amps DC will do, or else enroll the help of your friendly auto-electrician. Just put the wire across the terminals of the 12V battery in your car. WARNING!!! IF the wire is too short it will INSTANTLY go up in flames and burn your hands badly. Thin wire MUST be longer than 10 meters AT LEAST. Eyes wide open and no distractions doing this please.

Along these lines I have been looking at a pets electric blanket, about the size of a kitchen tea towel. [...] me thinks that this stiched into you seat befor covering it may work.

That would work good. I would be tempted to just shove it down my jacket.

DB

[BiK3RChiK]

I feel the cold tremendously, so watching and scheming with great interest.............

Qkchk, like you I feel the cold... check out the heated vest I just made as above. I can plug it into the cigarette lighter in the car too.. On my bike at the mo I'm using one of these..

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...-164601225.htm

I highly recommend them...

M

[blossomsowner]

Well, we just took the liner out of the daughters Mohsin Jacket and I have spent an hour sewing in about 20 meters of insulated wire on my Bernina with a cording foot and the widest zig-zag stitch possible. : Test drive coming up!

that looks great........can't wait to hear the result sof your test

[offrd]

On the latest news:

Motorcyclists randomly going up in balls of flames.

Investigation shows some dangerous bastard tinkering and telling others for fun…

Hope you guys are using fuses!


But bloody good idea!

Hmmmmmmmmm

Wire.....

[BiK3RChiK]

that looks great........can't wait to hear the result sof your test

It needs a bit of tidying up with regards to the end of the wires but we quickly attached a cigarette plug to it, put the liner back into the jacket and plugged it into the car and it works real well! A longer test is needed... tomorrow. But so far, I'm stoked and so is the daughter!

[BiK3RChiK]

On the latest news:

Motorcyclists randomly going up in balls of flames.

Investigation shows some dangerous bastard tinkering and telling others for fun…

Hope you guys are using fuses!


But bloody good idea!

Hmmmmmmmmm

Wire.....

LOL Living dangerously since ages ago

Seriously, yeah, USE FUSES! We sure are..

[portokiwi]

Qkchk, like you I feel the cold... check out the heated vest I just made as above. I can plug it into the cigarette lighter in the car too.. On my bike at the mo I'm using one of these..

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...-164601225.htm

I highly recommend them...

M

I use to use hand warmers in my gloves and in my inside pockets. They are disposable cost only a few dollers and you can buy them at any camping store or army desposal store.
I use to put one by the small of my back. Great to use watching the sports on a cold sat morning

[CookMySock]

Seriously, yeah, USE FUSES! We sure are..

uh, no we're not. Ok ok already, we'll use fuses. Grumble 80's technology sheesh

DB

[pete376403]

Well, we just took the liner out of the daughters Mohsin Jacket and I have spent an hour sewing in about 20 meters of insulated wire on my Bernina with a cording foot and the widest zig-zag stitch possible. : Test drive coming up!

Thats the same way I made my ones although I just used the standard presser foot with next to no pressure.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...45#post1107945

[BiK3RChiK]

Thats the same way I made my ones although I just used the standard presser foot with next to no pressure.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...45#post1107945

wow! I hadn't seen your post... I should look, eh! Using the cording foot meant that the machine 'feeds' the wire through without having the needle breakage and without sewing the wiring. Good stuff!

[BiK3RChiK]

uh, no we're not. Ok ok already, we'll use fuses. Grumble 80's technology sheesh

DB

Ya smart bastard! You told me it was fused before I put it on and plugged it in!!!

[CookMySock]

Ya smart bastard! You told me it was fused before I put it on and plugged it in!!!

oh that. Well it sorta was and sorta wasn't..

DB

[CookMySock]

Update! The tiny 0.25mm dia wire in my first jacket has kinked and broken. again. This solid wire isn't going to work, and was a lot more effort to install than the stranded wire that BiK3RChiK sewed in for me. Its a pity coz it heated up sooo fast. Oh well.

Also BiK3RChiK sewed more wire into the sleeves of the mohsin jacket. This brought the current down to the design point at 4 amps. In hindsight, 4 amps (50 watts) might be a little low, but we still havent tested this on a real open-road trip. My GT650R has a 350watt alternator so theres plenty of power as the HIDs only draw 35watts.

Next to make an auxiliary switch panel for the bike so I can turn stuff on and off. I found some rubber boots to fit over tiny toggle switches at jaycar.co.nz so now I need to make the panel, mount the switches, and put a decorative finish on it. Other things need to plug into it such as the detector and the grips.

DB