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Diy Heated Jacket


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#1 ChrisG

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 01:47 pm

I've been toying with the idea of making my own heated jacket for a couple of winters now, and was thinking the Heat4Jackets stuff might be the best bet. However a bit of web browsing found a few people who'd gone properly DIY, eg Ken Hastie, and the cheapskate in me liked the idea.

Firstly a bit of theory
Ohms law: V = I x R (volts = current x resistance)
Joules law: P = I^2 x R (power = current squared x resistance)

In the link above Hastie had gone for 65 Watts, which seemed a little high to me, so I decided to aim for 55W which seems be what the Heat5Jackets kit puts out.

A roll of 30 AWG wire from RS came to about £17 delivered. This stuff should be about 0.3 to 0.4 ohms per meter. I could have got cheaper wire but I used the teflon coated stuff which is good to 200 degrees C and should be a lot tougher than a normal plastic coated wire.

A bit of maths gets us R=V^2/P, and my 900 puts out about 14.6V, so I want about 3.8 ohms to get my 55 watt target. I cut a 12m length, measured the resistance, then worked out that 10.5 meters should give me about the right resistance.

A lot of the people I'd found online had built the element in to thier jacket liner, but not wanting to knacker my jacket liner I found a cheap sleeveless fleece in M&S for £15. I laid out the wire using tape to hold in position to start with, then when I'd worked out where it all needed to go marked up with a felt tip and then spent a couple of evenings practising my needlework (us 900 riders have a reputation to maintain you know). I went for a similar layout to Hastie, a vertical pattern with an extra horizontal loop at the base to allow me to line it all up correctly at the end.



The wires end in the right hand pocket, where they're soldered to a thicker cable which pokes through the fabric, I've then used a standard DC power connector to join it to a longer cable with a DIN socket on the other end to plug in to the bike. The idea being if I forget to unplug it the inline connector should come apart without damaging anything, plus when I get off the bike and wander off I don't have several feet of cable trailing on the ground.



Once finished I've ended up with 3.7 Ohms, which works out at about 57 Watts, and 3.9A, so similar to an extra headlight bulb. Increased resistance with temperature means at 40 degrees this drops to about 52W, though I've not measured the temperature of it yet.

I needed to fit a power socket to the bike anyway, so I've fitted one in the right hand side panel for charging the phone etc, and one in the left hand side panel for the jacket, which goes through a switch on the dash so I can turn it off. My auxiliary electrics are all on a switched live with a 15A fuse, but I've also put a 7.5A fuse on the line to the left hand socket.

Took it for a test ride yesterday for the first time, and at a balmy 9 degrees C I had to turn it off at town speeds as I was getting too hot, fantastic at higher speeds though.

I'm now temped to add in the extra 1.5m of wire I've already got cut, and have a way of switching the power between the full 12m (which should give about 50W) and the current 10.5m (57W) to give me a high and low power setting. To do this I'd need a either a 3 way connector (both inline and the the connection to the bike, if anyone has any ideas let me know) that can cope with 4 amps, or the easier method might be to switch it in the pocket so I'd have decide if I want high or low before I set off, but can still turn it on and off when required. Alternatively I'd need to fit a pulse width modulator (as used by some heated grip controllers) but they're expensive

Total cost about £35 plus a couple of evenings of my time, but I've got enough wire to make a second one for the girlfiend so it's only really cost me about £27.

Edited by ChrisG, 14 February 2011 - 08:01 pm.

1992 Mk1, 76k miles, Hagon springs, MTC exhaust, 4½ gears Gone now :(
2009 900 abs, 42k miles, Yamaha heated grips, double bubble screen, R&G crash bungs, scottoiler, Autocom, 1500 lumen LED spotlights.

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#2 catsbum

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 02:05 pm

Nice project Chris. good.gif

#3 hammerman

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 02:50 pm

Looks like a good way to set fire to yourself laugh.gif

Seriously though, if you do it right it could work very well.

Good Luck

good.gif

#4 LDRider

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 02:59 pm

Brilliant work Chris, but I do have one suggestion for you. Mount a continuous controller on the bike such that you can easily adjust power from 0 - 100% on the fly. I use this setup on my GSA and love it. Otherwise I use a controller that clips to my belt, and it works just as well but is a PITA to adjust while I'm riding. Having used heated gear for years, I can't imagine riding w/o the ability to adjust the current. YMMV.


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#5 ChrisG

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 03:14 pm

What controller do you use? I quite fancy having a rotary pulse width modulator jobbie like my heated grips use, but only ones I've seen that would do the job are fairly expensive. That's why I'm thinking of just having a high and low power mode as a cheap option. If I could find a controller that I could fit to the bike I could modulate the power to the socket, or stash the controller somewhere set to say 80% and then switch between a direct connection and a connection through the modulator.

1992 Mk1, 76k miles, Hagon springs, MTC exhaust, 4½ gears Gone now :(
2009 900 abs, 42k miles, Yamaha heated grips, double bubble screen, R&G crash bungs, scottoiler, Autocom, 1500 lumen LED spotlights.

post-1-1152402501.jpgpost-1-1150550726.gifpost-1-1150559830.gif


#6 Studley Ramrod

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 03:26 pm


Nice wan smile.gif I were looking at home made heated stuff on the webikeworld site last year.

I think I'd do one wi sleeves and run a couple o wires down the front of the sleeves. Do ya know if the wire gets too hot to touch yer skin ?

I've godda spare quilted jacket liner so I might have a go wi' that. How many stitches per cm ?

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#7 ChrisG

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 03:57 pm

Definitely something to be said for running a wire down the front of the arm, but I guess that might stress the wires a bit as it's an area that gets a lot of movement. I've probably done about 5 or 6 stitches per inch, locking it off every 6 inches or so. Not sure I'd want the wires next to my skin though, my wires are spaced a couple of inches apart so with a jumper in between it seems to spread the heat pretty well, without it'd probable be pretty hot on the skin and cold between the wires. One other reason I didn't fancy fitting in to the liner of my bike jacket is I don't know what temperature goretex melts at biggrin.gif

1992 Mk1, 76k miles, Hagon springs, MTC exhaust, 4½ gears Gone now :(
2009 900 abs, 42k miles, Yamaha heated grips, double bubble screen, R&G crash bungs, scottoiler, Autocom, 1500 lumen LED spotlights.

post-1-1152402501.jpgpost-1-1150550726.gifpost-1-1150559830.gif


#8 LDRider

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 05:22 pm

QUOTE(ChrisG @ Sun 13th Feb 2011, 04:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
What controller do you use? I quite fancy having a rotary pulse width modulator jobbie like my heated grips use, but only ones I've seen that would do the job are fairly expensive. That's why I'm thinking of just having a high and low power mode as a cheap option. If I could find a controller that I could fit to the bike I could modulate the power to the socket, or stash the controller somewhere set to say 80% and then switch between a direct connection and a connection through the modulator.


Gerbings: on my GSA I use the "dual permanent" model, and on the other two bikes I use the "dual portable" one (also serves pillion on GSA). The permanent mount is WAY better due to convenience factor - I will have something similar on any future touring bike. I think EXO2 make a good controller too, but I haven't seen a dual model from them. With some web browsing I suspect you could find the instructions for building one cheap. I'm lazy so I just bought the prefab ones. Good luck!

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#9 ChrisG

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Posted 13 February 2011 - 05:42 pm

I reckon it should be pretty easy to build a controller, I just need to find someone with more electronics knowledge than me to point me in the right direction, you can get off the shelf timer chips that can produce the signal easily enough but it then needs some amplification to get it up to 5A

1992 Mk1, 76k miles, Hagon springs, MTC exhaust, 4½ gears Gone now :(
2009 900 abs, 42k miles, Yamaha heated grips, double bubble screen, R&G crash bungs, scottoiler, Autocom, 1500 lumen LED spotlights.

post-1-1152402501.jpgpost-1-1150550726.gifpost-1-1150559830.gif


#10 Hammy

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Posted 14 February 2011 - 08:52 am

I've been looking into this for the past two winters and have read most guides and even seen a couple of youtube videos, but your guide is the clearest.

Great job.

#11 ChrisG

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Posted 14 February 2011 - 08:00 pm

Definitely too warm. It was about 4 or 5 degrees C this morning and there was quite a bit of spray which helped to cool my goretex jacket a bit, but it still felt like I was leaning against a radiator. On the way home tonight in the dry I had to keep turning it off. Going to thread an extra 1.5 meters in and see how that does, it should drop it from about 57 watts to around 50.

1992 Mk1, 76k miles, Hagon springs, MTC exhaust, 4½ gears Gone now :(
2009 900 abs, 42k miles, Yamaha heated grips, double bubble screen, R&G crash bungs, scottoiler, Autocom, 1500 lumen LED spotlights.

post-1-1152402501.jpgpost-1-1150550726.gifpost-1-1150559830.gif


#12 Studley Ramrod

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Posted 14 February 2011 - 09:16 pm

laugh.gif I bet you were leavin' vapour trails..........Steamin' !

Mk2a 2000 in Silver. Top end Refurb @ 41100 miles, Scottoiler, Renthal Road High Bars, Up & Back Bar Risers, Bellypan, DL650 Handguards, Capt. Picard Bar Ends, House of Henty SS Wheel spacers, New Seat Cover Fitted. 58 MPG !!  Now owned by chrisbee !   Studley's mk2a Bloggerydoodaah !  Photos of my first MK1  Photos of my MK2a  TPLQHCSRSFC No. 1 Fan


#13 endo

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Posted 14 February 2011 - 10:47 pm

QUOTE(ChrisG @ Sun 13th Feb 2011, 03:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
What controller do you use? I quite fancy having a rotary pulse width modulator jobbie like my heated grips use, but only ones I've seen that would do the job are fairly expensive. That's why I'm thinking of just having a high and low power mode as a cheap option. If I could find a controller that I could fit to the bike I could modulate the power to the socket, or stash the controller somewhere set to say 80% and then switch between a direct connection and a connection through the modulator.


Chilli Heated clothing used to list the controller separately on their web site, but it doesn't seem to be listed any longer. Maybe send them an EMail (sure it was about £30).
You could always use a speed controller (PWM) that is used for model cars etc or if you are a little more hands on you could use something like this http://www.quasarele...dulator-kit.htm

Endo

#14 Chris B

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Posted 15 February 2011 - 11:23 am

Looks like a fine way of setting yourself on fire laugh.gif

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#15 ChrisG

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Posted 15 February 2011 - 09:17 pm

QUOTE(endo @ Mon 14th Feb 2011, 10:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
you could use something like this http://www.quasarele...dulator-kit.htm


That would do the trick, mount it in a side faring with a rotary potentiometer on the dash somewhere, or even a switch to flick between 2 fixed resistors for high and low settings. How tricky are these kind of kits to make? I've not done much soldering in a long time.

1992 Mk1, 76k miles, Hagon springs, MTC exhaust, 4½ gears Gone now :(
2009 900 abs, 42k miles, Yamaha heated grips, double bubble screen, R&G crash bungs, scottoiler, Autocom, 1500 lumen LED spotlights.

post-1-1152402501.jpgpost-1-1150550726.gifpost-1-1150559830.gif


#16 endo

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Posted 15 February 2011 - 10:56 pm

With it being a kit, its not that bad.
The thing about soldering is making sure your soldering tip (small for this kind of job) and parts are clean. Keep the tip clean, by using lots of solder, the flux in the solder will keep it clean, and also use a wet sponge to dab the tip on this effectively steam cleans the tip. Practice tinning ends of wire first just to get the feel for it. There is also loads of 'how to' on the web.

I do a bit of soldering in my job now, but have done a couple things like this in the past and they turned out OK.

In saying all that if it was up to me I would try and get a hold of the Chilli controller as this is fully sealed etc. One has been strapped to my handle bars in all weathers for 4 years and 40+k miles and never let me down (now I've done it, it will go tits up tomorrow)

Good luck

Endo

#17 LDRider

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Posted 16 February 2011 - 12:15 am

This one is half the cost of the Gerbings one I mentioned above. Similar concept; not quite as cool and single vs dual. I run heated gloves too when the weather gets nasty so need the dual.

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2006 BMW K1200S set up for touring
1992 TDM850 set up for touring


#18 endo

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Posted 16 February 2011 - 12:21 pm

How about one of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item45f7bfbba3

Endo

#19 LDRider

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Posted 16 February 2011 - 04:38 pm

QUOTE(endo @ Wed 16th Feb 2011, 01:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
How about one of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item45f7bfbba3

Endo


That one looks like the best deal yet. I'd probably resolder the connections and use heat shrink to strengthen and waterproof them. Could maybe use liquid tape to waterproof the device - never tried that but seems like it'd work.

2010 BMW R1200GSA 30th Anniv
2006 BMW K1200S set up for touring
1992 TDM850 set up for touring


#20 sidestand

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Posted 16 February 2011 - 09:49 pm

QUOTE(ChrisG @ Tue 15th Feb 2011, 09:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
That would do the trick, mount it in a side faring with a rotary potentiometer on the dash somewhere, or even a switch to flick between 2 fixed resistors for high and low settings. How tricky are these kind of kits to make? I've not done much soldering in a long time.


Keis temperature controller for only a tenner moore than that !


http://www.bykebitz....s___Spares.html


post-1-1150550726.gifpost-1-1150559830.gifpost-1-1152402501.jpgThe older I get, the better I was

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