mrbiker
Feb 20th, 2008, 11:49 pm
Hi all,
Someone pm'ed me on how I did my electronics, so here's what I wrote back:
Mike,
I took your advise and received my bmr mount today. How and where did you run your wires from the bmr for power etc. Thank you again for your help. This is truly a great website.
regards,
Gary (79 and sunny in south Florida)
Hi Gary,
I spent a lot of time on this when I got the bike (in anticipation of a weeks drive around the Grand Canyon - 2 up) and took lots of pictures. The whole job took about a day - running to Radio Shack, getting cables the exact right length (this was tough) and installing and mounting everything.
First of all, I already had the Autocom Pro-AVI as it came on the bike, but the bonehead dealer who put it on really did a crappy job. Have a look:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0045.jpg
Here's what it looks like now:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0112.jpg
First thing I did was get (qty) 4 eight foot stereo miniplug extension cables from Radio Shack - catalog # 42-2492 for $8.99 each. These allow you to extend your iPod headphones or any other miniplug device. Radio Shack only has them in gray (as seen above), so that's how you know it's the right one. Now I see they have 6 foot, high quality versions which they didn't have last year - catalog # 42-2482 for $14.99. Although more expensive, they are better quality and 6 feet is the right length. I had to coil the extra two feet under the cowl.
I zip-tied these to the frame piece that everything is attached to under the removable cover behind the windshield. The motor and electrics for the windshield is all mounted on this frame piece. It's the round bar that goes left to right all the way across the bike in the first picture.
Then I ran the 4 wires along with all power wires down the right side of the bike. I had to take off all the tupperware and the rear bolts on the gas tank, then raise the gas tank about a foot and prop it up to work on this.
I got two pieces of clear PVC from a hardware store (they all have it, I guess it's for refrigerator drains) - I believe it is 5/8" then I ran all sound cables down one piece, and all power cables down the other. This allows a tiny bit of sound insulation, as you should never allow sound and power wires to intertwine.
I snaked these next to the right side of the tank and brought them into battery area. The whole idea is to be able to snake another wire or two down the hoses without having to remove everything should I add something in the future. Based on how tough it was to get some of the wires into the hose and then the hose onto the bike, I don't think this idea will ultimately work.
So I kept going down the right side and connected the power wires to a switched (via a relay) fuse block (the red and brown wire on the battery goes to the fuse block - the relay wire goes to the headlight wire through the pvc) - as you can see here:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0120.jpg
I kept running the gray stereo extension wires along the frame (zip-tying every 3-6 inches) until it got near the hole in the box - which was already there from the old CD changer.
Finally, I plugged the radar detector, Zumo (2 wires - one audio and one voice wire [for my bluetooth telephone]), and bike stereo into the gray wires under the cowl up front. Then I plugged the Autocom noise suppressors into the gray wires in back in the right saddlebag and the pigtails from those into the Autocom brain.
THERE IS NO EXTRANEOUS NOISE FROM ANYTHING!!!
All the wires I needed on the BMR shelf come out two holes - one on each side of the map light (as you can see in the picture of the front cowl). One is at the top left corner and the other is at the bottom right corner of the map light (as seen in the picture below). This was done by the dealer and it looks like it's the one thing he did right. They used about a 3/8" drill to drill an off-center hole NEXT TO the corner of the map light- it's off center so the bit took off the corner that's under the map light. In other words, it's a round hole with one side that is open. That way, you can remove the map light and slide the wires sideways into the 3/8" hole - you don't have to pass them through a closed hole. This makes it much easier to get the wires in and out. It's the elongated hole that is top left and bottom right (under the screw tab) in this photo:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0109.jpg
The guy who sold me the bike only put the BMR shelf on when he was going long distance, so he would take the shelf off, take the windshield and cowl off, then pop out the map light and pull the wires back behind the cowl and the bike would look stock with no wires hanging out.
So now I hear everything at the proper sound level, and when the radar detector goes off, it's 50% louder than any other device so it gets my attention at any speed without being painfully loud.
It was easy to adjust levels to get a perfect mix - voice prompts from the Zumo are louder than the stereo/iPod, and like I said, the radar detector is louder than anything else.
Here's how it looks when driving:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0272.jpg
If you have any other questions, let me know.
BTW - I'm a lefty, also!
Someone pm'ed me on how I did my electronics, so here's what I wrote back:
Mike,
I took your advise and received my bmr mount today. How and where did you run your wires from the bmr for power etc. Thank you again for your help. This is truly a great website.
regards,
Gary (79 and sunny in south Florida)
Hi Gary,
I spent a lot of time on this when I got the bike (in anticipation of a weeks drive around the Grand Canyon - 2 up) and took lots of pictures. The whole job took about a day - running to Radio Shack, getting cables the exact right length (this was tough) and installing and mounting everything.
First of all, I already had the Autocom Pro-AVI as it came on the bike, but the bonehead dealer who put it on really did a crappy job. Have a look:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0045.jpg
Here's what it looks like now:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0112.jpg
First thing I did was get (qty) 4 eight foot stereo miniplug extension cables from Radio Shack - catalog # 42-2492 for $8.99 each. These allow you to extend your iPod headphones or any other miniplug device. Radio Shack only has them in gray (as seen above), so that's how you know it's the right one. Now I see they have 6 foot, high quality versions which they didn't have last year - catalog # 42-2482 for $14.99. Although more expensive, they are better quality and 6 feet is the right length. I had to coil the extra two feet under the cowl.
I zip-tied these to the frame piece that everything is attached to under the removable cover behind the windshield. The motor and electrics for the windshield is all mounted on this frame piece. It's the round bar that goes left to right all the way across the bike in the first picture.
Then I ran the 4 wires along with all power wires down the right side of the bike. I had to take off all the tupperware and the rear bolts on the gas tank, then raise the gas tank about a foot and prop it up to work on this.
I got two pieces of clear PVC from a hardware store (they all have it, I guess it's for refrigerator drains) - I believe it is 5/8" then I ran all sound cables down one piece, and all power cables down the other. This allows a tiny bit of sound insulation, as you should never allow sound and power wires to intertwine.
I snaked these next to the right side of the tank and brought them into battery area. The whole idea is to be able to snake another wire or two down the hoses without having to remove everything should I add something in the future. Based on how tough it was to get some of the wires into the hose and then the hose onto the bike, I don't think this idea will ultimately work.
So I kept going down the right side and connected the power wires to a switched (via a relay) fuse block (the red and brown wire on the battery goes to the fuse block - the relay wire goes to the headlight wire through the pvc) - as you can see here:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0120.jpg
I kept running the gray stereo extension wires along the frame (zip-tying every 3-6 inches) until it got near the hole in the box - which was already there from the old CD changer.
Finally, I plugged the radar detector, Zumo (2 wires - one audio and one voice wire [for my bluetooth telephone]), and bike stereo into the gray wires under the cowl up front. Then I plugged the Autocom noise suppressors into the gray wires in back in the right saddlebag and the pigtails from those into the Autocom brain.
THERE IS NO EXTRANEOUS NOISE FROM ANYTHING!!!
All the wires I needed on the BMR shelf come out two holes - one on each side of the map light (as you can see in the picture of the front cowl). One is at the top left corner and the other is at the bottom right corner of the map light (as seen in the picture below). This was done by the dealer and it looks like it's the one thing he did right. They used about a 3/8" drill to drill an off-center hole NEXT TO the corner of the map light- it's off center so the bit took off the corner that's under the map light. In other words, it's a round hole with one side that is open. That way, you can remove the map light and slide the wires sideways into the 3/8" hole - you don't have to pass them through a closed hole. This makes it much easier to get the wires in and out. It's the elongated hole that is top left and bottom right (under the screw tab) in this photo:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0109.jpg
The guy who sold me the bike only put the BMR shelf on when he was going long distance, so he would take the shelf off, take the windshield and cowl off, then pop out the map light and pull the wires back behind the cowl and the bike would look stock with no wires hanging out.
So now I hear everything at the proper sound level, and when the radar detector goes off, it's 50% louder than any other device so it gets my attention at any speed without being painfully loud.
It was easy to adjust levels to get a perfect mix - voice prompts from the Zumo are louder than the stereo/iPod, and like I said, the radar detector is louder than anything else.
Here's how it looks when driving:
http://www.bmwlt.com/gallery/files/1/5/8/6/7/IMG_0272.jpg
If you have any other questions, let me know.
BTW - I'm a lefty, also!