Empulse R's Will Never Be Stolen

[Roland Stone]

Been reading some of the “theft” posts in "Off Topic", and so maybe my Empulse won’t be stolen for parts anytime soon, but what about my $5,000 helmet or my Emilio Pucci tail bag or the Rizoma parts collection?  Whereas my Empulse steering lock is probably as effective a deterrent as some of the heavy-duty anti-theft stainless hardware on the market, I still think a burglar alarm like the Scorpio i900 with perimeter sensing and GPS tracking and a 125 decibel audio screamer would give pause to even the most determined thief looking to snatch something off your bike in crowded environment.

BUT, an alarm system of any sophistication requires a continuous albeit low-level (milliamps) power source for whatever reason not provided on the production Empulse, requiring a lot of messy imaginative ways around the problem, and ultimately just not worth the trouble that a continuous hot connection would easily solve.

Brammo’s response to my 12V continuous hot connection is, “there isn’t one”, and you can be damned sure that while they’ve got no propriety reservations suggesting all the latest aftermarket “farkles” to improve on their design limitations, they’re not going to tell you how to make a hot 12V connection, - liability, too busy, afraid you’re going to leave the lights on, what?.   

With all that electricity surging between the legs of Empulse riders, there’s got to be a way (irrespective warranty considerations) coming up with a hot connection, and with all the intelligent discussion I’ve come across in the Owner’s Forum, I can’t believe there’s no one in the owner’s community who could actually make one.  There has got to be a way, and there’s got to be someone clever enough to come up with a solution!  I’ve read several posts where owners have considered the 12V connection dilemma in their need for an electrical vest receptacle and such, so people are dancing close to the issue, but afraid to say the dirty word, - “hot connection”.

With all the electrical, electronic talent in the forum community, isn’t there someone out there who can offer an actual, step-by-step procedure for making a continuous hot 12V connection.  My other Empulse is an EFI Triumph Bonneville, and the Triumph “Rat.net” forum community led me, - walked me through every possible “farkle”, mechanical, electrical, and other technological project imaginable.  Maybe unfortunate I come to this forum with that experience, but it would be gratifying to discover there are some Empulse owners interested and capable of projects beyond installing the latest iteration of Rizoma add-ons.  We own these bikes.  If Brammo can venture into one-off racing projects, surely we should be able considering Tinkertoy projects as mundane as a hot connection without feeling we might offend Brammo sensibilities.  Problem is, I just don’t possess the electrical know-how and I need some "Rat.net" type community help if it’s out there.  If Elon Musk can send rockets into space, why can’t Empulse owners (owner) imagine a non-switchable 12V hot connection, or is that a project better left to Elon?

[Shinysideup]

Have you considered leaving the ignition lock in the "P" position? If you take out the front bulb, this leaves only the drain of the tail light which will probably take about two months to drain your batteries. (No, I did NOT do the math!)

It also has the advantage of leaving a small red light burning on the dash which might look like an armed burglar alarm indicator light to some.

Since these 12V lights are burning, voila!, you have your 12V hot source and will have to come up with another project with which to pound on Brammo!

[Roland Stone]

Hey thanks Shinyside, - will give your suggestion a try. 

Re: pounding Brammo, - it’s just a struggle sometimes getting information either from Brammo or its dealership network.  It’s puzzling, frustrating, and my feeling is the company should be willing to pour out information to owners who have purchased their top-of-the-line EV motorbike and are interested enough in the product to further their knowledge base.  As it is I get too many YES or NO explanations and am not infrequently referred to the dealership who are themselves to often short of answers.  My big gripe is that there is insufficient technical and mechanical information in the way of product specific publications available to at least this owner, the result of which is I have to go chasing for it and in the process unfortunately probably end up antagonizing the very people who should be supplying the answers.  Ironically, I have learned significantly more from the Owner’s Forum about the Empulse and EV’s in general than anything from corporate Brammo, which although I’m grateful to the forum, isn’t as it should be. 

And of course I’m aware the “pounding Brammo” impression doesn’t sit well with the Brammo fervently faithful who take umbrage at my blasphemy. Oh well………….   

[Roland Stone]

PS, - Had already previously removed the parking bulb and the tail light bulb (don’t ride at night) because I couldn’t stand those lights illuminating my garage for absolutely no reason during charging.  Will check in the morning (daylight) to see if the switched 12V accessory is hot when the ignition is in “Park” setting.  Of course, leaving the ignition in “Park” will prevent using the steering lock, but I’d rather that than no alarm capability.

Thanks again.

[frodus]

It would void your warranty to add this because you would need to defeat the DC-DC to be always on, which is a really dangerous thing to do, because NOTHING can turn it off if the batteries get to low. You risk overdischarging the batteries and damaging them. It is a liability for them to tell you how to do it. It's a much better idea to ask them if they could do it for you at a dealer, so it stays under warranty.

[littlefreak3000]

What about with the steering wheel lock engaged with the charger plugged in. This turns on my parking lights and probably turns on the 12V too.

[Shinysideup]

Of course, leaving the ignition in “Park” will prevent using the steering lock, but I’d rather that than no alarm capability.

This is not true on my bike. "Park" still engages the steering lock. And why do you need to see if the 12V accessory plug is still hot? It may or may not be and that knowledge would be useful for all of us to know, but if what you want to do is power an alarm system, and you've unplugged the parking bulb, could you not just tap into its wiring (Positaps are great!) to power your alarm? I always throw a fuse in the circuit.

BTW, I think it's a dangerous idea to remove the taillight bulb. Even though you say you never ride at night, you might encounter unforeseen circumstances (a meeting that ran on too long, e.g.) that forces a ride after dusk. Having a truck rearrange the back of your bike doesn't seem like worth the nuisance factor of having the light on in your garage during charging.

Also, for the record, I don't consider "pounding on Brammo" blasphemy; We've all done it at one time or another. I just haven't seen an overly negative tone to be particularly effective in getting what we want. I'm not saying you were overly negative, just expressing your desires. We all want it to be the way we want it to be. And then there's the way it IS. What I have found that works is discussing issues with my dealership, coupled with emails to Adam at Brammo, and between the two of them focusing on the issues, they nearly always get resolved.

I recognize that with a new machine, with new technology, from a new company, we are all in learning mode. I've seen many instances where Brammo folks read these forums and respond in a constructive way.

And I have noticed that I'm almost always happier when I'm not coming from anger. (From the School of Duh!)

[Roland Stone]

Gee, and I thought the “PARK-mode” 12V hot accessory connection idea was such a clever work-around than actually having to engineer one, were it even possible as it turns out.  Any event, just goes to show when an idea takes hold, its hard to let it go and who knows, - maybe I won’t.  It is ironic that the possibility for a park-mode 12V hot connection was right there when the bike was rolled out of assembly, just waiting for someone to stumble on it, thank you very much.  And warranty, -  how could Brammo use that to void the warranty when Brammo provided the configuration?!  Then again there’s not a warranty out there that can’t be voided by the small print, so doesn’t matter.  If you want to play you gotta pay.  The ONLY thing I will have done should I decide to proceed with the alarm project is having pulled the 5 amp "running lights" fuse so the lights aren't illuminated when the ignition is in "Park-mode" and they are otherwise illuminated.  I don't ride at night or in marginal daylight visibility conditions.

Whatever.........

I acknowledge my error about not being able to engage the steering lock when in park-mode which I thought was on the clockwise side of the steering lock ignition index.  Actually, never got around to using the parking light feature and so never paid much attention to it before now.  But the fact I was wrong turns out to be a bonus in the circumstance as I didn’t want to forfeit the steering lock for the parking-mode 12V hot accessory possibility.

As for a truck rear-ending me in marginal visibility conditions, besides the fact I’m a fair weather flyer, I’m a thousand times more likely to get pulverized by some texting  idiot who never saw me before I was a spot on its windscreen, much less noticing I didn’t have a tail light.  But thanks for your concern. 

……………. “pounding Brammo”, - point taken.

& BTW, - I can confirm the 12V accessory connection does in fact provide voltage when the ignition index is in “Park”, and no instrument lights are illuminated on my tach and nothing on the LED module, - blank/blank.  Also remembered this morning when I was checking out whether there was juice going to the accessory plug, that I didn’t remove any bulbs, but had rather pulled the 5 amp “running lights” fuse as suggested by, yes, - Brammo when I complained about all the lights on during charging.  No names mentioned.

The only lights illuminated on my 2014 Empulse in Park-mode now are the flashing green LED’s on the battery stack left side as when the ignition is on or the charger plugged in.  Would like to know what those lights are about if anyone describe the function/purpose.  Also there’s a black plastic (Bakelite type) box aft and slightly lower than the charging port that gets just warm to the touch, and you can hear clicking inside as though switching is going on when the ignition powers up.  The box is normally covered by the cowling surrounding the top charging port cowl.  Would like to know what’s going on with the box as well.  As a point of identification, there’s a wiring harness with quite a few small wires that plugs into the box rearend just above where the front of the seat would be on the forward slope up to the charging port.

I plan to watch the battery SoC for power consumption next few days with nothing plugged into the 12V accessory to see what the draw looks like.  A step at a time.[/size]

[Roland Stone]

Just went out to the garage to check on the bike and noticed the low voltage fuse box relays or whatever those little black boxes are were quite warm which worried me a bit seeing as besides the flashing green LED battery lights, nothing else was illuminated.   So, not understanding what voltage flow would cause the low voltage fuse box to hot up, I’m abandoning the 12V hot project and until and if I know better what was happening with the ignition in “Park”, I wouldn’t be inclined using that mode even for the purpose intended.  Bottom line, - would not be comfortable leaving the bike in “Park-mode” indefinitely even with no draw on the 12V accessory connection.

Sitting here eating a crow sandwich and frustrated as hell having to admit    to myself I’m out of my depth with this electrical BS.  It’s like the cars anymore, you can’t get in there and do anything without an electrical engineering degree.  My problem is I like tinkering as much as I enjoy riding.  I’ll just have to be happy with the few mechanical bits that require attention.

The book’s closed on this project.  Adios.

[littlefreak3000]

To convert from high voltage to low voltage it has to use some kind of PWM or transformer. These both would lose some energy as heat. Very standard. Still the best suggestion made on all your 12V post is a small 12V Lithum battery with a charging unit that will charge off 12V. So when the bike is on it charges and when it's off it relies on the battery.