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HOW TO: GPS Connector and other electrical options

104K views 44 replies 35 participants last post by  cygoonda 
#1 ·
To connect your Zumo or any other electrical device requiring a switched power supply, you can tap into the CAN-Bus connector on the 'tank'.

To get under the fake tank, you need to remove the seat and six torx bolts. Four on the top tank panel, and two either side of the headstock, mounted in the black plastic that forms part of the ignition/socket assembly:



The tank panel now lifts straight off but be careful of the power socket wiring underneath:



A closer look at the power socket wiring connector:



The wires are attacked with a spring clip. You have to press down with your thumb to release it, then pull straight off the socket:



Ooh look, what is this mysterious black box thing attached directly on top of the battery? Notice as well the space between the battery and the airbox. This vertical gap will accomodate the newer Autocom units. Or a secret supply of currency.



Pull it out of the mounting clips, and remove the black cap. There is another spring clip holding the black cap on. And inside? This:



Which is our very obviously placed GPS connector. To connect your GPS unit to this can-bus controlled switched supply that stays on for a few minutes when you turn the engine off, you will need part number 80 00 0 611 656 (UK) or 83 30 0 413 585 (US - can someone verify please?) from your friendly local BMW Dealer:



To make the cable,

See better instructions halfway down this page, but in brief:
  1. Get your Zumo cable and cut the fuse off (CAN-Bus doesn't need fuses). Leave as much cable length as you think you'll need. Strip back and tin the red and black cables and slide heat-shrink on.
  2. On the CAN-Bus connector, you can trim Wire 2 right back, its not needed. (or leave it longer and heat-shrink it into place with the other cables.
  3. On the CAN-Bus connector, strip back wires 1 & 2 and tin them.
  4. Solder the black Zumo cable negative/earth to wire 1 on the connector
  5. Solder the red Zumo cable (positive/live) to wire 3 on the connector
  6. Heat shrink/PVC tape around the joints.
  7. Job Done.

You could buy the cable ready-made from Touratech if you don't want to butcher your original cable.

CAN-Bus Ready Made Cable from Touratech


Alternative Options:

You could wire your Zumo directly back to the battery with an in-line fuse. You can buy the ready made cable from touratech:


Or you could wire your cable to a DIN plug and plug it into the DIN accessory socket next to the ignition. The plug cost around £3, but you can buy a ready-made cable from touratech:


Other Electrical Connections:

NOTE: Powerlet and BMW/DIN sockets are the same size, and the plugs are interchangeable. They are the same thing. Cigar sockets & plugs are bigger, like the one in your car.

You can add an additional accessory socket to the right of the ignition key and power it from the CAN-Bus connector. There is a cut-out on the underside of the 'tank' panel to show where to place the additional socket You do not need an in-line fuse for CAN-Bus connections.



You can buy a socket kit ready-made to plug into the CAN-Bus from Powerlet:


CAN-Bus can support up to 5amps, so electrical devices with a greater power draw (such as a heated jacket perhaps) will need an accessory socket. You could wire an additional accessory socket (BMW/DIN/Powerlet or cigar lighter size) to the right of the ignigition key (see picture above) and wire it back to the battery directly - this supply would not switch off with the ignition. You will need an in-line fuse between the socket and the battery.

You can buy a socket kit for the fake-tank cut-out, ready-made with inline fuse to wire directly back to the battery from Powerlet:


You can also buy handle-bar mounted sockets to wire back to the battery.
Touratech do a full dashboard for the 800GS/650GS(Twin) that includes an additional accessory socket.

Powerlet do a full range of Powerlet sockets and plugs, as well as Cigar sockets & plugs and SAE 2-pin connectors.
They also do adapters beween the different plug types.

Also a full range of power cables to power your iPod, radar detector, USB, heated clothing etc. from a Powerlet socket.

Finally, if you have several devices to wire back to the battery you might consider a fuse panel, like the one AP-1 Centech Fuse Panel from Nippy Norman in the UK

This little box means only one connector to the battery, then you can quickly add wires to the box and each line is fused, meaning no need for in-line fuse.

Hope this helps someone.
 
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#3 ·
Larne has posted on another thread that this is all applicaple to the S/ST except for the location of the CAN-Bus connector.

He says: Mine was tied (using the black wrapping tape) to the positive power lead into the battery. It wasn't easy to spot initially as it is down inside the faring but I was able to cut it loose with a sharp blade without taking the faring off.
 
#6 ·
Dieselboy said:
Twisticles, where did you stuff the AP1? Or if did you not use one, where do you recommend it go?

I need to find space for the AP1 and the Starcom1 Advance.

Thanks,
Nick
I don't need the AP1, the CAN-bus connector on the battery, the DIN socket supplied and an additional hard-wired fused socket is enough for my needs.

But I would guess the starcom could go in the tail end? At least easy to remove the seat and fiddle with it there. THen the AP1 could go in the space between the battery and the airbox, which would prevent having to run all your power cables to the tail unit. There isn't much space under the hood on these bikes!
 
#8 ·
QOUTE:
"On the CAN-Bus connector, strip back wires 1 & 2 and tin them.
Solder the black Zumo cable negative/earth to wire 1 on the connector
Solder the red Zumo cable (positive/live) to wire 3 on the connector"

Are the wires on the can-bus plug marked? (BMW part)
Will it be clear which wire to connect pos to and neg to?
 
#9 ·
DolphinJohn said:
QOUTE:
"On the CAN-Bus connector, strip back wires 1 & 2 and tin them.
Solder the black Zumo cable negative/earth to wire 1 on the connector
Solder the red Zumo cable (positive/live) to wire 3 on the connector"

Are the wires on the can-bus plug marked? (BMW part)
Will it be clear which wire to connect pos to and neg to?
The CAN-bus plug has three yellow cables coming off it and each are numbered.
1 = negative
2 = spare
3 - positive

(the above line "strip back wires 1&2" should read "strip back wires 1&3").
 
#14 ·
To connect your GPS unit to this can-bus controlled switched supply that stays on for a few minutes when you turn the engine off, you will need part number 80 00 0 611 656 (UK) or 83 30 0 413 585 (US - can someone verify please?) from your friendly local BMW Dealer:
Bought in Canada today. P/N was 83300413585. $24.99 CDN $.



 
#28 ·
Bought in UK ...

Bought in Canada today. P/N was 83300413585. $24.99 CDN $.

Bought one in South London UK this afternoon for £11.27 inc VAT. The packaging is identical to the one bought in Canada and pictured above. The dealer was very helpful in confirmng that I should be able to make up the lead and they will connect it when my bike has its service in a couple of days.

My thanks to 'twisticles' and others for an excellent article and additional information.

Bob
 
#15 ·
I am thinking of wiring this and thanks for the great photos. I have a f800 st 09 model and have been told the spare can bus socket is strapped to the battery positive cable. its mentioned above that you wire the coloured zumo cable to the 3 wires of the bmw part. However this may sound thick which cable is number one on the bmw part and which ones are 2/3. Thanks very much.
 
#18 ·
I am new to the F650GS and new to this forum so maybe this is a repeat. I have added power points on my KLR's and have used the Centech AP-2 fuse boxes. I always use a relay to bring power from the battery to the fuse box and power the relay with a lead off the ignition switch. With BMW Canbus this is sometimes an issue. I came across a great fix for this problem. Use the diagnostic plug under the seat. Pin 10 (you need to verify) is a switched power pin used to send power to the diagnostic computer. Purchase a spare cap for this connector. Put a pin in slot 10 and you now have a switched powered connection to energize the relay for the fuse box. I prefer the PC-8 for Eastern Beaver
http://easternbeaver.com/Main/Products/Fuseboxes/PC-8/pc-8.html because the bottom where the printed circuit is located is enclosed unlike the Centech.
I don't yet know how to attached pictures but I can e-mail to anyone interested. My local BMW dealer the Motorcycle Shop in Anchorage, Alaska sells these adaptors (907) 561-1163
 
#19 ·
Hi. I'm trying to take switched power from the GPS connector (on top of the battery) on my 800GS, to connect my auxiliary HID lights. I can't remember where I read, but they say that connector is rated 5 Amps. I also hear that it takes lots of Amps to start the ballasts. The DDM tunning say their ballasts are "Fully digital, draws less than 6 amps at start up and 3.4 amps at normal operating temperature" (http://www.ddmtuning.com/index.php?p=product&id=101&parent=85 ). Still, I am not sure if the canbus system would allow me. Do I risk anything?
Also, I'm putting HID in the stock light (low beam), and was thinking to go 50W like the original, but I am afraid not to melt the lenses and the housing. Would a 55W HID would create problems? Would a 35W HID give me computer errors?
Anyone knows a good place to mount the fuseblock?
Please help guys. My bike is all disassembled, I have all the parts, but I won't start until I know for sure.

Thanks much.
 
#20 ·
Hi. I'm trying to take switched power from the GPS connector (on top of the battery) on my 800GS, to connect my auxiliary HID lights. I can't remember where I read, but they say that connector is rated 5 Amps. I also hear that it takes lots of Amps to start the ballasts. The DDM tunning say their ballasts are "Fully digital, draws less than 6 amps at start up and 3.4 amps at normal operating temperature" (http://www.ddmtuning.com/index.php?p=product&id=101&parent=85 ). Still, I am not sure if the canbus system would allow me. Do I risk anything?
Also, I'm putting HID in the stock light (low beam), and was thinking to go 50W like the original, but I am afraid not to melt the lenses and the housing. Would a 55W HID would create problems? Would a 35W HID give me computer errors?
Anyone knows a good place to mount the fuseblock?
Please help guys. My bike is all disassembled, I have all the parts, but I won't start until I know for sure.

Thanks much.
 
#22 ·
Just bought the part (canBus pigtail) today. Going to put it together and on the bike now. I just had to refer back to see which was the pos and the neg. i just got the Zumo a couple days ago and have been using the gps battery. short trips.
I love it so far! very cool. Thanks so much for posting the how to info!!
 
#23 ·
Garmin Nuvi 250

OK, I have the canbus connector and want to hardwire my basic Nuvi 250 but when I took apart the normal power plug on the end of the garmin cable there is a fuse and a small trasformer that must bring the 12v down to 5v. What is the voltage that comes from the canbus connector? can I hardwire the gps without this inline fuse and transformer?
 
#24 ·
OK, I have the canbus connector and want to hardwire my basic Nuvi 250 but when I took apart the normal power plug on the end of the garmin cable there is a fuse and a small trasformer that must bring the 12v down to 5v. What is the voltage that comes from the canbus connector? can I hardwire the gps without this inline fuse and transformer?
If the cable you are using to plug in to your 250 has an end like a USB/mini USB, then any wires you attach to that 250 port, must be 5V. (ie: you must make sure there is the inline transformer to drop 12V down to 5V.)

The CanBus oem port is 12V +/- (I have read somewhere that it can measure a little less than the ideal 12V, but regardless, it is *not* as low as 5V)

On your 250, is there both a USB port and a "regular" larger Garmin cable port, or just the USB one?

On my Nuvi 765T, there are both, USB and "regular" Garmin proprietary plug selections.

I am using the bike's CanBus socket, the BMW oem plug adaptor bought through F800Depot, and using a "regular" Garmin ended hardwire style plug I bought off the internet, to get power to my 765T.

HTH, good luck[:)]
 
#25 ·
12v Plug install

Thanks for the info. I decided to go the simple route and just install a standard 12v power socket. This leaves me some flexibility in swapping out GPS's, I also have the BMW plug rigged with a lead that has a standard 12v socket on it for charging things like my phone in my tankbag. The install for an extra plug is pretty simple with the part from the above mentioned posts, just plug it in and connect to what ever you fancy, I've tried mine a few times and it's been shutting down fine after about a minute. The tricky part is cutting the hole in the ignition plate, I used a dremmel tool and it turned out pretty neat, just have to be accurate to ensure the socket has proper clearance below.
 

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#27 ·
Just installed as per the instructions above - simples!! Getting to the socket is straightforward- just attached with a piece of tape on the pos battery cable tucked to the side of the battery.

Thanks all - it works a treat.[:D]
 
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