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Zumo power mod

1K views 1 reply 1 participant last post by  berserker 
#1 ·
I got the idea from the link below. One complaint of the Zumo, is the power supply. You can't plug it into a cig lighter on the bike, and have to hard wire it. The wire harness has bunch of extra wires, that are long enough to reach your radio, or extended to helmet. I tywrapped them to the engine guard.

Other thing that sucks with Zumo, is you have to leave the cradle on the bike, and have to then buy a cradle for every bike or 4 wheeler. When I am done, I will just have the ball and u-bolt holding it to the handlebar, which is pretty cheap. Garmin cradles are $50. Only work on Zumos. When Zumo dies, you would have to buy all new cradles.

I ordered off Ebay 20 pairs of RC battery connectors, male and female, less the $10. I wanted a bunch of the same connectors, so I could put them on multiple vehicles. Put one a cig charger, could do a USB chager too. Plus future GPSs or electronics.

I did something different then the guy in the link. If you open up the cradle the Zumo sits in, that the power cable comes out of, there is two plugs. I unplugged the one for audio. The power one only has a red and black. I left the unplugged connector inside the cradle. I was worried about backfeeding power onto the cut wires. He heat shrinked each wire to prevent this, I am just going heat shrink the whole bundle.

The connectors I bought have 3" wire on them, so you don't have to screw around with getting them in the backside of the plug.

Cooled off in garage today, maybe I'll finish it up and take pic.



http://www.motorcycleinfo.co.uk/index.cfm?fa=contentGeneric.kpxvskahyouozlms&pageId=2338005
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Note the red connector on the cable. You can push it into the fairing. Though not sure good place for it when not plugged in. Little bit of a pain to fish it through the fairing every time, but not awful either. Left a loose tywrap on the bars, to keep it in place.

Another option may be to leave the end as long as possible on GPS side, cause then you could easily push it through the opening and have the power on tywrapped by the neck. You need to think about this before cutting the cable though.

Use RC battery connectors, 18 ga. I put heat shrink over each buttsplice and then a 3/8 over the whole thing. I do like to solder and that would have been neater, but I want to get a new solder iron and some kind of small vices to hold the wires up. Something to clamp to bench or just with a heavy base.

The small heat shrink did not seal completely around the wires coming out of the buttsplices. They can only shrink so far. Not worried about water bigger one is over the whole thing, more worried about vibration. Could maybe play with different sizes, and layering. Small chunk before the buttsplice on each side, the one over the splice the big one over both spices.


2amp fuse will blow when you cut the wires. I tywrapped and shoved the cut ends of the audio wires under the tank.

If I ever decide I want to use this, I'll have to pay $50 for a nice cradle. But now I can take the zumo and cradle from bike, to atv, to side by side, to snowmobile,ect. Going to make up an end for cig charger some time too.
 

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