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Toasty Buns!

2K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  zwartie 
#1 ·
Now that I finished with the rear shock linkage service I thought I would keep the ball rolling and tackle some electrical work that I've been meaning to get to for the past year or so. Blue Bunny II (BB2) was treated to a pair of Seth Laam seats last year and since I was going to spend all that money sending the stock seats to California for Seth to transform them I figured I may as well have him install the heating elements too. I just never got around to wiring them up until now. It was also a good time to remove a couple farkles that had been installed by previous owners. The previous owner (Mel) had installed a set of wig-wag LEDs (two on the front, two on the back) that light up the night sky in case of emergency. Other than the fact that they were white, they could easily be mistaken for the authorities when energized. Problem is one of the sets of LEDs crapped out so I removed them and the associated wiring - sorry Mel! The other farkle I removed was the headlight modulator which I believe was installed by the original owner. I'm not a big fan of headlight modulators. I'm not even a little fan of them, so I was happy to remove the modulator module and associated wiring. If anyone is looking for a headlight modulator, I just may have one for sale.

I did a little first-time fairing removal so I could get at the wiring.


Here are the heated seat switches installed on the left inner fairing panel. The switch with the blue LED is for the heated grips - I re-purposed Mel's wig-wag switch as the original heated grips switch broke last season.


Close-up of the heated seat switches. These are the switches that came with the seats.


Thermal image of the bike with the heated seats turned on. This is just after a few minutes. Will need to do a test ride to see how warm they get.


Now I just need to clean up the wiring a bit, get the fairing back together and go for a ride!

Zwartie
 
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#3 ·
I figured I may as well have him install the heating elements too. I just never got around to wiring them up until now.
Thermal image of the bike with the heated seats turned on. This is just after a few minutes. Will need to do a test ride to see how warm they get.
Zwartie
Zwartie,

I am interested in IR cameras, and the results. What gear did you use to get that IR image? How much did it cost? Any details?

Seems to me that On/Off will not be a great set-up for riding, especially when you really do not need full-on heat. You can get heater controls called Pulse Width Modulators on the Internet, which are small and inexpensive. They switch the power on and off, many times per second. Power can be set for mostly Off, mostly On, half-and-half, or anywhere in between. Most heated gear uses the the PWMs, as controllers. PWM pulses (which may be 12Vdc peak voltages, as well, depending on the circuit design):
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#4 ·
Red,

The IR camera I used is the Flir One Pro for Android.
https://www.flir.ca/products/flir-one-pro/?model=435-0007-02
It connects directly to the phone's USB-C port and works pretty seamlessly with the app. What I like about it is that it utilizes the phone's camera and lays the thermal image over the visible image. I got it a couple months ago for work and it cost just over $500 CDN taxes in. It's a pretty valuable tool for work but it's also a nice toy to have for just this sort of thing. The Flir thermal camera has it's own internal rechargeable battery so it doesn't draw power from the phone. It's good for about an hour on a full charge.

Here are a couple images of the front and back of the bike while it's idling in my garage:




Thanks for the info on the PWM controllers. I've considered them in the past for my plug-in electric vest but never found it too difficult to switch the vest on and off as needed. I'll see how hot these seats get before I decide if I need to add controllers.

Zwartie
 
#7 ·
Passx,

Ummm . . . no. You can "light up the yard" with hot metal, in Infrared. A human would report total darkness there, but to an IR camera, it would be full illumination. What an IR camera tells you about headlights would not mean much, as far as visibility goes. It may well tell you that headlight heat is not venting well enough, possibly saving the cowling from future damage by the new lamps, though.

The whole point of an IR image is to "see" what the human eye can not register, which is heat. One guy tried to sell me an inline-four bike, a while back. Once he got it running, I touched then grabbed one header tube with both hands, which was cold, when the other three tubes were searing hot. Dead cylinder, I could even hear it. The owner had no clue, because we humans can't see in the infrared range (heat). An IR camera would have nailed the problem almost immediately, at no risk to skin.

A simple light meter from the photography shop can give you a number value for visible light, but the color of the light output can change how well humans can see it. Forget the numbers, anyway. This is really a case of "if it looks right, it is."
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#8 ·
I went for a little (100 km) ride this evening to test out the heated seat. When I left the house it was a balmy 8C and as I was heading back home it got as low as 2C. It was really nice to have the seat turned on and I don't think I'll be needing a PWM controller as the seat was nice and warm without being uncomfortably hot at any time. We have an '08 Mazda CX-9 with heated seats that only have one setting which I call chestnuts roasting on an open fire and this was nothing at all like that. This was more like just pissed your pants without worrying that it's going to get cold. When I got home I took a few thermal pics of the bike while it was still running.

Top View - The previous switch for the heated grips was pretty flimsy and the toggle snapped off last year. I never got a chance to use them much. Now that they're wired up again with a decent switch I really appreciate them! Warm, but not too hot.


Front View - I didn't notice until I was posting this picture in the gallery but if you look at the top-left corner you'll see the transformer box at the end of our driveway. Pretty cool, I mean warm.


Rear View - Aside from the exhaust pipes, check out the final drive and rear tire!


I would say the heated seats are a success and I'm glad I forked over the extra dough for them last year.

Zwartie
 
#11 ·
Red, just thinking about it & you are right because even if an LED headlight puts out twice as many lumens it would show less heat because they work much cooler than a normal incandesant bulb. I put LED’s in the Lincoln town car I had and during the winter the tailights wouldn’t generate enough heat to keep the snow off, they’d just cover over. It had 3 bulbs in each tailight and replacing just 1 in each was enough to keep them cleaned off. Either way it’d still be cool to see the heat signature of a led headlight vs a high output incandesant bulb.


As far as the headers go I’ve used a ir laser thermometer for that for years and as a tuning tool as well, the trick is to find the “spot” to measure as typically for whatever reason about the 1st inch outside the head stays relatively cold. Fun stuff !
 
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#12 ·
There are kits to add heat... carbon pads, usually a mesh type you can cut to shape, have wires attached so you can drill a hole and route it down through the foam. PWM or high/low switch incorporating a resistor, or on/off. Size of carbon pad will determine how much heat.
Many cars have an electronic controller that lights them up full high for a few minutes then auto-reduce to something "not so toasty", may also have a lower setting if desired. I have some carbon pads from automotive industry, they get toasty so I'd have to find a control.
It's no big deal to remove the seat cover, incorporate the pad and restaple (pneumatic gun as most hand staplers won't quite seat the staples).
 
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#13 ·
Just a couple pictures of the side panel with the switches installed after I got the bike all back together.





The switches with the red indicator lights are for the seats and the switch with the blue indicator light is for the grips. I think they look pretty good and are easy to access where they are.

Zwartie
 
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