• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

TR650 USB CHARGER

Hey, Run-It . . . I'm really digg'in that, neat and out of the way! I'm in the process of doin the same, what type of usb plug did you use and where did you tie it in power wise?
 
I use it with the nexus7 tablet - Ram makes a mount specifically for it which is plenty sturdy. I DO have an issue that I need to resolve though, the tablet will draw more current than the adapter puts out :( but it may be an easy fix if or when I get around to it.:)

 
run-it said:
I use it with the nexus7 tablet - Ram makes a mount specifically for it which is plenty sturdy. I DO have an issue that I need to resolve though, the tablet will draw more current than the adapter puts out :( but it may be an easy fix if or when I get around to it.:)

Click to expand...

That looks really great! I think it will only take longer to charge, because it get less power. I also will try with my ipad mini.
 
As far as the plug goes, is it a 12v. to usb plug? I'm tryin to keep from going to a normal 12v female acc. to a male 12v usb as this gets a lot larger depending on where you put it.
 
I don't think it will get too hot mounted on handlebars, mine doesn't. This setup isn't perfect but it can work well...

PROS
There is switched power for you to use already in the headlight box
7" display
Android tablet so you can use it for other things besides navigation & motorcycling. You could buy one as a Valentine's gift for example- clever huh?;)
Not a lot of money
Ram specific mount available
Bluetooth turn by turn navigation if you want to use it

CONS
Display isn't real bright on sunny days even with an anti glare screen
Touch screen isn't responsive (enough) with gloves on - you can use a stylus as a work around
 
That's going to be a problem with MOST newer devices.

The USB standard is for 500mA. Which is what would be a "slow-charge" as plugged in to the port on a computer. Most cell phone/tablet chargers today are 1.5-2A. Running the GPS, with the screen as bright as it will go will be consuming more than the 500mA could maintain. A 1 amp, might be able to handle it, but I wouldn't count on it for a tablet. The killer is the screens, they're just not efficient. And if you're on back roads, and you might be switching from 4g to 3g to roaming, and back, all that searching also consumes a lot of power.

So, if you're shopping for a charger to gut for this, then check what kind of current it supplies to the device. I used a $10 one that was next to a $15 one which was only 500mA compared to 1A of the cheaper one. It's not in a mini-altoids can in my tank bag, with a wire that comes out to a powerlet plug that goes into my left shroud -- which is then wired to a relay that is triggered by my tail light. I also run my grips from there. Works well for me, but the phone will get hot from the sun if I put it in the window of my tank bag. Giant Loop didn't exactly make those things so they breath.
 
msmith is spot-on concerning the charging current. This is why I went with the standard 12v accessory outlet direct connected to the battery. I have a 1.5a dual USB charger that fits fairly flush into my 12v outlet. This allows me to charge my accessories with the bike off when camping. It also gives me enough amperage to charge my Android. Most standard USB chargers are going to be 500mA, hence why I opted for the two-for-one 12v outlet with the beefier USB adapter.
 
run-it said:
I don't think it will get too hot mounted on handlebars, mine doesn't. This setup isn't perfect but it can work well...

PROS
There is switched power for you to use already in the headlight box
7" display
Android tablet so you can use it for other things besides navigation & motorcycling. You could buy one as a Valentine's gift for example- clever huh?;)
Not a lot of money
Ram specific mount available
Bluetooth turn by turn navigation if you want to use it

CONS
Display isn't real bright on sunny days even with an anti glare screen
Touch screen isn't responsive (enough) with gloves on - you can use a stylus as a work around
Click to expand...


Question Run-it. What switched power are you talking about in the headlight box? Pictures any thing?
 
There are quite a few switched leads in the headlight housing. I'm guessing he just tapped into one for his positive wire. Posi-taps are your friend in this application...unless you like soldering wires.

posi-tap_n2_a2-b.jpg
 
msmith345 said:
That's going to be a problem with MOST newer devices.

The USB standard is for 500mA. Which is what would be a "slow-charge" as plugged in to the port on a computer. Most cell phone/tablet chargers today are 1.5-2A. Running the GPS, with the screen as bright as it will go will be consuming more than the 500mA could maintain. A 1 amp, might be able to handle it, but I wouldn't count on it for a tablet. The killer is the screens, they're just not efficient. And if you're on back roads, and you might be switching from 4g to 3g to roaming, and back, all that searching also consumes a lot of power.

So, if you're shopping for a charger to gut for this, then check what kind of current it supplies to the device. I used a $10 one that was next to a $15 one which was only 500mA compared to 1A of the cheaper one. It's not in a mini-altoids can in my tank bag, with a wire that comes out to a powerlet plug that goes into my left shroud -- which is then wired to a relay that is triggered by my tail light. I also run my grips from there. Works well for me, but the phone will get hot from the sun if I put it in the window of my tank bag. Giant Loop didn't exactly make those things so they breath.
Click to expand...

The mfr CLAIMS a rating of 2.1A on this USB charger & hopefully I can convert to a "dedicated charging port" by jumping the data pins. Others have been successful with this unit doing that but we'll see how it works with the N7! :)
 
run-it said:
The mfr CLAIMS a rating of 2.1A on this USB charger & hopefully I can convert to a "dedicated charging port" by jumping the data pins. Others have been successful with this unit doing that but we'll see how it works with the N7! :)
Click to expand...


Is it 1 or 2 port? If it's 2, they usually split that rating between the two ports (i.e. 1.1A x 2 ports), so unless you bridge the +5v connectors in there, you will only be able to use 1.1A. If it's a single plug that won't be a problem.
 
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