The New Hotness

Finally got around to hacking PowerPoles into the coily cable from those Li-Ion packs, suitable for powering the amateur radio HT on my Tour Easy. The cable has surprisingly fat conductors, on the order of 22 AWG, that (when doubled over) half-filled the 30 A PowerPole terminals. I remembered to use the blue-and-black color code for 9 volt power on the second and third cables…

The right-angle connector activates a switch that turns on the pack’s voltage regulator, which means that leaving the cable plugged in slowly discharges the battery. They self-discharge by about half in two weeks, which means that it’s not absolutely urgent to unplug the battery at every stop, but … I’d rather have an actual power switch.

I also want to bypass that regulator, so as to get more voltage out of the pack. That may not be feasible, as I suspect they’re using the pass transistor as part of the over-current shutdown circuit, but it’ll be interesting to find out. So this is in the nature of a test to find out how well the lashup works before cracking the case.

This view of the installed pack is looking down on the butt end of the bike, which is leaning against the Shelf O’ Crap in the garage.

A four-inch length of adhesive-backed Genuine Velcro mates the battery to the rack, although I stuck both Velcro strips to some carpet tape in the hopes that’ll stick better than the OEM goo. Hooks on the bike and loops on the battery, which means the battery won’t affix itself to everything else in the universe while off the bike.