Dear all I need to use a relay to connect a camera to the Multi, the reason being that if I connect it directly to the power outlets, it cuts out due the voltage dip during cranking. So I need to get a trigger wire from somewhere to the trigger port of the relay, to get the relay (and consequently the camera) going AFTER the engine has started. What is a good place to "steal" a signal. Is the low beam relay a good place or will this introduce problems with the lights (considering that there's gonna be a leak in a circuit that draws significant current)? What would be the ideal place to connect a wire to? Thanks in advance
After deciding it was too much agro trying to wire up all of my accessories (rear passenger USB for the wife, front fog lights separately switched, front USB for my iPhone which doubles as my satnav and a USB up front for my camera), I decided to buy a touratech tps-15. Made life so much easier as it includes a relay. Hook it up to the battery, then it has a thin, yellow trigger wire which I hooked into the Ducati satnav feed on the left behind that panel. It's a switched feed so all is good. If you don't want to go that route, the Ducati satnav feed is 12v and chances are your stepping it down to 5v to charge whatever you're using for satnav. Why not wire in another 5v before that step-down.
Thanks for that, however, my problem is the voltage dip during cranking. The camera turns on automatically after it detects it's been plugged to a power source (or that the power source comes alive). If I use the satnav outlet as a trigger, the relay will feed the camera with power before the engine starts. And when I do start the engine, the small dip in voltage will kill the camera. It's a problem with the camera to be honest, not the bike (it's over sensitive to voltage drop methinks). So even with a TPS-15 I would have to look for a trigger that comes alive after the engine starts. I need exactly the same behavior as the lights (turning on after the engine starts), that's why I am wondering if the their line should be the one to connect the trigger to.
You could trigger a TPS-15 off the lights then. As it's only a trigger, no draw and change to the lights. The cheaper option would be to buy a single relay and use it in the same way as the TPS-15. I like the TPS as I have a lot of accessories though. Luckily my camera has a battery and I just have it on a permanent charge from the bike's live so it doesn't drain whilst riding.
The PDM60 power distribution module has both a delayed start and delayed shutdown option. It's not cheap, £129.00 from Nippy Normans in the UK however it's a very flexible providing six circuits up to 60 amps total, each with a separate current limit. I've no experience with the PDM60 however it looks like a top end solution to wiring up multiple accessories on a bike.
It's the bigger, badder TPS-15 but am I right in thinking the multi alternator doesn't have enough head space for 60amps making the PDM needlessly more expensive than the TPS-15. If it's just the one item, get a relay and wire it to the headlights.
Oh my ... 130 GBP for a power block. May be convenient but I cannot justify the cost for what it does. I can get a timer and a relay for 10 and do the same (for my purposes, as I already have done). Besides 60 Amps does look overkill for the Multi. OK, if you know what you're doing you just don't hook up that many power hungry gadgets but if you don't you overload it. I was just wondering about the lights as a trigger. Maybe the wire that gives the signal to the low beam relay is a better option. Thanks for you feedback.
Take it off the output of the low beam relay i.e the low been feed (white wire). That won't affect the CAN bus whereas a connection to the relay feed might.
The electronics on this bike are giving me nightmares. I am at a point where I don't know if it's my incompetence or the intervention of somebody else before me (it was bought second hand) or just bad design. I tried to do the wiring the other day and I really don't get it. From what I have seen from reading the wiring diagrams, the signal to the relay of the low beam, comes from the dashboard and the starter switch on the right side of the handlebar. Is that correct? so I assume that when I fire up the engine the voltage coming to that wire (pin number 86 on the relay) is 12 volts. Or did I get that wrong too? Measuring the voltage with a multimeter (negative lead to the negative side of the battery, positive lead to pin 86) I get 0 volts while the engine is running. To make matters worse, the previous owner seems to have done a job in the wiring and their colors do not resemble the originals, if the documentation is to be trusted (and why shoudln't it?). The cable going to pin 86 is black, while the cables going to pin 87 (ground) are white (and yes, there are two of them). There is no yellow/white cable anywhere to be seen. To make a bad situation dire, there is some wiring that turns from red to white, somewhere in between the relay and the wire going deeper into the bike (the original braid). I'm at a loss. I know I cannot trust any coloring of the wires now, only the pin assignment of the relay. But it doesn't seem to be behaving like it should (or I expect to be more precise). And whoever has worked in that tight space knows that it's one of the worst things you can try. If you have any idea as to how it should behave, I would greatly appreciate it.
Only reason I can think of the previous owner mucking around, would be to do the dual headlight mod. Have you gotten yourself a relay to use like a trigger or are you tapping in direct? At least with the relay you can literally touch the wire for the relay trigger on another wire and see if it activates.
I've tested it both directly and with a relay. Getting a wire from the pin 86 of the low beam relay to the pin 86 of my relay doesn't activate it (but the relay is ok, as I have tested it on a spare battery). Which is exactly what should happen as the multimeter doesn't show any voltage between the pin and the negative pole of the battery (of the low beam relay that is). The original owner had done the conversion but not in the "approved" way (Andy's harness). And in doing so, had left some loose contacts that kept giving me low beam errors as soon as I touched the high beam switch. I have removed the previous owner's "fix" and installed the proper harness, following Andy's instructions, tightened all the relevant contacts and everything worked fine since then. All I wanted to do is get some voltage that would trigger my relay, avoiding the voltage that goes directly to the lamps (ballasts), since I feared that any leak there might upset the canbus. But I'm left really clueless. I can only imagine that I have a very wrong impression of how the whole system works, assuming wrong things as to where should I get a trigger voltage.
I don't have the pin numbers I'm afraid but the wire colours should be; Black - permanent ground to one side of the relay coil (pin 85 or 86) Yellow/White - to the other side of the relay coil (pin 85 or 86) Orange - 12v ignition switched to relay points (pin 30 or 87), also feeds main beam relay. Fed from fuse in fusebox under fairing panel White - To the dip beam lamps (pin 30 or 87) It does sound like your's has been mucked about a bit but assuming it works it shouldn't be hard to work out which wire you need. There are 2 circuits to the relay. Pins 85 and 85 are at each end of the coil. Pins 30 and 87 are across the switch contacts. Ignore pins 85 and 86 and look at 30 and 87. One of them, usually but not always 30, will be live as soon as the ignition is switched on. The other will become live when the engine is started and the low beam comes on. This is the wire you need for your power supply. I know how tight it is to work in there having fitted a diode to mine to keep the low beam on when the high beam is switched on. I've fitted HID low beams.
And the output of the relays goes directly to the lamps and is suppled from the front fuse box which in turn gets it's power from the main fuse at the starter solenoid next to the battery. So nowhere near the Canbus. So take your relay feed from the lamp feed.
Thanks a lot, to both of you, for the info. I'm reading the whole thread again and it seems Derek that you have given me the answer in your first response but I totally misread it. I guess it's gonna be a second attempt to decipher the thing (yes, the change of wires did make a difficult thing to work on next to impossible). I'll try it and let you know. Thanks again
