Power distribution module and Canbus

[newr100]

OK, I'm ignorant. I am installing a PDM60 to power driving lights and a First gear heated jacket liner. Perfect mounting place, top of the rear fender. Ground wire no problem. My issue being mostly electronically dumb is I cannot determine a good trigger wire. I assumed one of the tail light wires would work but not understanding how the Canbus system triggers circuits I can'T determine which wire. I will get a voltage surge and then back to 1 volt on two of the wires. I do not know if either of these would work. I have a 2014 R1200RT
Basically, HELP!!!

 

[rocketmanli]

I installed a FuzeBlock on my '09RT and grabbed a switched hot by tapping into the rear 12 volt accessory plug. If you have one, that would work.

 

[dbrick]

I don't have a '14 RT, but my '07 R also uses CanBus technology, so the approach will be similar.

On the R, trigger current is typically taken either from the very small running light bulb that's within the headlight shell, or from the power wire within the cylindrical under-seat diagnostic connector. The running light bulb goes on and off with the ignition switch; the diagnostic connector power goes on with the ignition switch, but has a 30-second delay before it turns off after the ignition switch is turned off. Either will work for your application.

From what I've read, the headlight in the RT is complicated; you may find it tough to access whatever small running light is in there. There may be a diagnostic plug under the seat somewhere on your bike. Taking power from an always-on taillight circuit may work on your bike; taking power from the brake light circuit won't.

 

[omega man]

If you check through the bike specific parts at Twistedthrottle.com ,you may find the rather slick plug an play device that they sell that bridges the headlight parking light is just the item you need.
OM

 

[mneblett]

OK, I'm ignorant. I am installing a PDM60 to power driving lights and a First gear heated jacket liner. Perfect mounting place, top of the rear fender. Ground wire no problem. My issue being mostly electronically dumb is I cannot determine a good trigger wire. I assumed one of the tail light wires would work but not understanding how the Canbus system triggers circuits I can'T determine which wire. I will get a voltage surge and then back to 1 volt on two of the wires. I do not know if either of these would work. I have a 2014 R1200RT
Basically, HELP!!!

If you are at the rear fender, as am I:

there are a couple options:

The first is to tap the switched power wire to the power socket at the left rear of the bike, under/behind the passenger grab rail. The downside of this location is that power to this socket is controlled by one of the bike's computers, which keeps the socket hot for 30 seconds or so after the ignition is switched off. On my bike, the only external sign of this is the trunk brake light (which I have wired as a 1/2 power running light) stays on for that delay period -- not a big deal to me.

Another option -- which I have not tried, but others have -- is to tap the tail light wire.

You should know that unlike previous bikes, *all* of the RTW's lighting except the headlights is LEDs**, and it is controlled by PWM (pulse width modulation). Thus, if you measure the line voltage with a conventional voltmeter you will not see the actual voltage, but something of an "average" as the voltage is pulsed 0V/12V/0V/12V/etc. For example, on my previous K16 if you monitored the high beam wire, you would see ~7 volts, where on a scope it would show pulse widths on the order of 80% (on 80% of the time, off 20% of the time). That is a long way of saying your tail light wiring voltage measuring is returning useless data. The other thing you should know is that the lighting system is monitored by computer, and the computer will shut down power to a light and throw a light warning on the instrument cluster if it detects current flow outside its monitoring parameters (e.g., no current or too much current). What I cannot tell you is: (i) whether the "average" voltage on the tail light wire is high enough that the PDM60 would see the voltage as a "turn/stay on" signal, or (ii) whether the monitoring computer will barf at the presence of the PDM60's current drain on its signal wire. I **believe** others have tried and found the tail light usable for the PDM60, but I can neither confirm nor deny it as I have no personal experience.

HTH!


** the RTW does not have a convenient small headlight bulb like most BMWs have had for at least the last 45 years, so you can't do the "typical" tapping of that bulb wire for a switched 12V signal.

 

[strataj]

I agree with Mark about the tail light, I think it works fine, I wasn't ok with the gauge wire to tap into so I didn't use it. The wire you would want is Grey/Red: Tail light . The trigger wire I used is under the seat, there are 2 fuse see page 14 in the user manual either one is good. The problem with them is the same as Mark mention the canbus is still hot for some time after shutting down. I'm not running any lights so I'm not concerned

Jay

 

[bdfbeemer]

Try this: You don’t need to remove the luggage rack or the taillight if you follow bdfbeemer’s hint to get to the wires under the passenger seat. To paraphrase bdfbeemer: follow the wires back from the taillight to a workable area under the passenger seat. If you trace the wire back from the taillight you can access it by finding where the wire loom splits and a branch goes to the rear power socket and a branch heads to the taillight (thanks bdfbeemer). Carefully remove a section of the tape wrap, forward of this branch, to expose the wires you will need. The color scheme is:

Gray/yellow is the brake light
Gray/red/yellow is switched 12 volt for the taillight (instant on and off)
Brown is ground
Blue/gray is the right turn signal
Blue/red/gray is the left turn signal
installed the PDM60 first and wired its power and ground straight to the battery. I used the gray wire with the red stripe and yellow marks as the switched trigger for the PDM60 (it’s the taillight power so it’s 12 volt instant on and instant off). If you are not using a PDM60 or fuse block, this switched power source will be your 12 volt source for the Hyper-Lite. In my case, I used circuit 1 on the PDM60 for my Hyper-Lite power (it is pre-programmed to be switched power with a 7 second delay and instant off so it’s fine for the Hyper-Lite).

 

[skibumwi]

Very helpful..

How do you route wires from the PDM up to the front of the bike? Basically have to remove most of the body panels, gas tank, etc.? Is right side easier than left?

I'd rather not start taking off panels if I don't have to but want to make sure it looks good. There's a good tutorial on youtube for removing body panels for the '13RT but I can't find anything for the '14+

Thanks,
Ski

 

[skibumwi]

Very helpful..

How do you route wires from the PDM up to the front of the bike? Basically have to remove most of the body panels, gas tank, etc.? Is right side easier than left?

I'd rather not start taking off panels if I don't have to but want to make sure it looks good. There's a good tutorial on youtube for removing body panels for the '13RT but I can't find anything for the '14+

Thanks,
Ski

 

[rocketmanli]

I used a straightened out coat hanger with a loop and tape on the end to fish the wires the length of the bike. Just make sure to try and keep the wires as high up behind the plastic as possible, so it doesn't touch any hot engine parts. Its pretty crowded in there, so someone with a flashlight on one end can help you find the clearest path.

 

[skibumwi]

Is there a good grounding location under the seat anywhere?

 

[lirider]

Is there a good grounding location under the seat anywhere?

You can make one easily enough. I took a standard ground bus bar from Home Depot and tie-wrapped it to the front of the frame member that runs just under the lip of the back seat. I then ran a single, 10 gauge wire to the negative terminal on the battery. Now I have a convenient place to tie my grounds in.

 

[bernie]

saw this on twisted throttle site

http://www.twistedthrottle.com/rowe...tribution-module-with-user-programmable-cable