Wiring Quest to Power on R1200RT?

[Exploreinman]

After much research, I decided on the Garmin Quest 2 GPS unit and a TechMount control mount for the right handlebar controls. Any advice on wiring the power? The only other electrical accessories I use are Gerbings during the winter, so I was thinking of wiring straight to the battery. Any advice on running the power wire under the tank to the battery? Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

Stephen

[Ken H.]

As long as you remember to turn it off, directly to the battery will work. The accessory socket wires is another good choice. As is the small "parking lamp" in the headlight ass'y.

[keithb]

Stephen

You may want to invest in a Centech fuse panel. It will accommodate 5 accessory items and all are fused. I just wired my 05 RT w/2 sets of aux. lights, radar detector, and accessory socket. I think Cycle Gadgets sells it. The cost of the fuse panel is $50. Ken is right on when he says you have to turn your GPS unit off. I forgot to turn my aux. lights off and it killed my battery in short order. Remove all of your fairing and the gas tank. I ran the main line down the left side of the bike in black hollow tubing made to run wires through and then zip tied it. I think it looks great. Good luck.

[EDO]

After consulting with my local BMW shop mechanic, I wired my quest directly to the accesory plug on the left side of the fairing. I used the Motorad bracket from the UK and ran my wire through the left slot of the windsheild bracket - tie wrapped to ensure it does not get cut or bound u. A few screws removes the fairing, and I spliced (and soldered) directly to the accesory plug wire (actually behind the plug inside the fairing). It's clean and has no effect on the CANBUS due to the extremely low voltage draw from the Quest. E-mail me if you want more details.

Ed

[DrDakar]

Stephen, I am planning to buy a Quest, too. Can you share us the pictures when you mount it on your bike? I asked the same question a month ago, and got some very good answers. I forgot to thank to them though.

[KiwiAdventure]

You should fit at least this connector pack from Touratech. http://www.touratech.de/shop/enter.html?lang=en-us

TPS 15 for BMW R 1200 GS

15A relais switch Euro 25,00

 

With this practical little helper you can also connect various electrical devices, such as a tent light, compressor or battery charging unit (maximum 5 up to 15 A), to the complex R1200GS CAN bus systm and operate these easily without the on-board electronic system being switched off automatically.

 

 

SSR-01 voltage control module BMW R 1200 GS Euro 55,00

 

The SSR-01 voltage control modules combines the features of the TPS 15 (044-0450) with a delayed voltage drop function (1 minute). All power consuming devices are interrupted using a load rejection reay when starting the 1200GS. The on-board electrical system socket is also switched off when doing this. The reason for this is to deliver maximum battery power to the starter. However, GPS units, for .example, that consume little are also switched off and must be rebooted after each short "motor break". The SSR module's delayed voltage drop function avoids this. Batteries continue to be charged and the GPS unit remains on when starting the motor.

 

01-044-0690-0

 

 

[Exploreinman]

Keithb,

 

Where did you mount the fuse panel, under the seat or in the storage box in the tank? The fuse panel makes sense and it's what my dealer recommended. He stated that this would be an easy way to add electrical accessories and protect the CANBUS system at the same time.

[Pickaxe]

Why not use the small, Sat Nav specific plug, which is on the wiring harness, below the instruments. You don't need the BMW male part of the plug, just poke in the soldered bare wires and tape it up.

This allows a neat connection, which is switched from the ignition.

[St0nkingByte]

That's an excellent idea. I'm looking to do the same thing with my SPIII. I took a look last night and I actually couldn't locate the free plug for the BMW satnav, any more specific tips on where to look or do I need to dismantle part of the bike to get at it? Another idea I had was tapping into the radio plug I have free because my bike has the prep kit but not the radio itself but the run to that one might be a little long for the cable that I have on hand to be use unmodified.

[marcopolo]

Just a little FYI. I recently had my independent tech (BMW Master technician, who's fully up to speed as he spends winters in Australia at a BMW dealership) hard wire my Garmin 276C on my '06 RT. He had a hard time finding that plug under the instrument cluster. He ended up taking most of the bike apart to find it. Then after he had soldered the wires and all that, he discovered the GPS was still running off its internal battery. Turns out there was no power to that plug. He never did find out why, even after a few phone calls. He ended up tapping into the wire(s) that power the accessory sockets. In all, it took him 3 1/2 hours, but he charged me one hour's labour, as that's how long he said it should have taken.

[Pickaxe]

St0nkingByte

No need to dismantle anything. You should find it taped on the harness, in the vicinity of the tubular front instrument/ fairing support brackets, beneath the instruments.

You will just need to take the blanking cap off the top, which is just there to keep out moisture.

There are three terminals, however I think it's just the red/white and brown you need.

Pickaxe

[St0nkingByte]

Sweet, I'll give it a try. Failing that the accessory socket wire is the way I'll go.

[St0nkingByte]

Had some time to play with it yesterday. First off I cut loose the plug and took the cover off, cleaned up the wires on my Garmin power cord and just shoved them into the plug. There are three plugs on the socket, a red/white, brown and a blue/green. I guessed correctly and put the red with the red and the black into the brown and the GPS powered right up with 'External Power' showing on the display. The socket seems to behave just like the accesory socket, powers up with the bike and stays on (for 20 minutes?) after you power the bike off.

 

Today I'm going to finish it up. I found some solid core wire that I had lying around that fits pefectly into the plug. I drilled a hole in the end of the cover and I'm going to use that to cover up and secure my improvised plug. I thought about just clipping the plug off and wiring right into wires but its pretty easy to jack into the plug so unless it gives me trouble it will stay for now. When I get it done I'll try to get some pictures.

[St0nkingByte]

Finished it up, it works great! Before I plugged my wires into the socket I put a little kink in each which locked them in there. Then I slid the original socket cover (with mods) up over my improvised plug. The socket cover locks in place like a real plug. I then wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape. Next I turned the bike and GPS on, gave it a bunch of hard tugs and shakes to see if the screen on the GPS would flicker at all, it didn't so I zip tied it back to the same place where the plug was originally zip tied to, then used a tiny zip tie to hold the cable in place alongside the ignition module looking thing.

 

The socket does behave differently than accesory socket. It sends power to the GPS for exactly 60 seconds after you turn off the ignition. All in all I'm quite happy with how it worked out and I've managed to put off learning how to remove the tupperware till another day.