Lighter Socket (Power Outlet) and GPS (Sat Nav) Mount

[SANGER_A2]

A very useful mod on any bike is a cigarette lighter socket so you can plug in phone/GPS chargers. This is especially useful if you go touring/camping. I bought one of these on ebay very cheaply to use because of the waterproof cover and because it would be easy to mount.

I fabbed up an L-shaped bit of steel from some scrap I had lying around to mount it on. I had to use a hole-saw to drill a hole for the main body to go through and two bolt holts for the mounting bolts to go. Then I bent it to shape and drilled another hole for the screw to go through. I used my dremel to round off the edged and then I wrapped the whole thing in loads of electrical tape to make it last longer, look better and stop the metal rubbing on stuff and wearing it away.

You can see the first version below:-


It looks pretty good when mounted up and the cap is covering the socket:-


After soldering and heat-shrinking the connections to the bottom, I wrapped it all in electrical tape for more protection:-


You can see it's just attached to a normal length of high current wire with the ends just tinned. I was planning to just put it into the terminal block attached to the relay I made earlier:-


I was originally planning to mount the socket on the headlight mount screw directly on the opposite side to that of the relay I used before. However, when the inner fairing was on, you couldn't get to it easily enough. I had to get another bit of metal and make a kind of Z-shaped extension to let it hang down further.

I also decided that I didn't want the socket to only have power when the engine is on (as the relay is for). When touring, I would want to be able to charge my phone or use my GPS in the tent at night without the bike engine running! I connected the wire to some connectors and a fuse to connect them directly to the battery.

You can see the new mount and connectors below:-


Here you can see the whole assembly mounted to the bike:-


Here you can see where I ran the cable to the battery through the hole in the frame for the wiring loom at the front:-


Another picture showing where it is mounted:-


And you can see it's nicely hidden and protected when the inner fairing is on - but it's still pretty easy to get to:-

 

[SANGER_A2]

GPS (Sat Nav) Mount

I bought this brilliant sat nav from ebuyer for just £45 and quickly hacked it to install the latest version of TomTom, IGo, loads of games and some video/ebook apps. I had the larger, older version of this and the newer one is even better and tiny in comparison. They provide a windscreen mount with a suction cup on it, but I needed to mod this to make it fit on my bike.

I bought this mirror mount on ebay to attach the existing mount to. I probably could have found one cheaper - but I was already buying some other bits from the guy. I bough a 10mm bolt that screws into the mirror mount to attach the windscreen mount to. I removed some of the windscreen mount and used a file to make the hole on the end bigger so the bolt can fit through it. YOu can see what I mean below:-


Here you can see it all fitted together:-


And here it is mounted on the bike in between my ugly risers:-


From the front of the bike:-


I couldn't have my headphones stretching all the way to the GPS, so I ran a 1.5m extension cable under the tank and glued it to my tank pad. This means no permanent changed to the bike:-


It looks pretty good, but I need to find a cap or something to stop water getting inside it when not in use:-


Here is where the plug comes up by the handlebars:-


And here you can see the sat nav mounted with the stereo extension cable and the charge cable (going into my new cigaretter lighter socket) plugged in:-

 

[Deleted member 2349]

Re: GPS (Sat Nav) Mount

Sounds like you are one HANDY person and did a great job...I love cheap mods...or at least ways to make modding cheaper.