A little bit of a background. I spend alot of time in the great outdoors far away from most forms of electronic communications, but, I do carry my GPS with me. When I am in one of my Jeeps or have my solar-powered camping-trailer along, I have a way to keep my GPS charged up and running. When I am out there with just a tent and my Kawasaki KLR650, I need a reliable way to keep my GPS (and similar electronics) functional.
In my attempt to keep my GPS running, I hardwired-in a "weather proof 12-volt to USB converter" from PrincessAuto ( http://www.princessauto.com/pal/pro...ous-Automotive/Weather-Proof-USB-Power-Outlet ) (kind of Canadian version of TractorSupply or HarborFreight). The problem that I have run into is the fact that when I am riding my motorbike, the GPS tries to shut-down and then start-up and then shut-down again - and the cycle repeats often. I have tried two different GPS's and four different connector cords to try to fix the problem and I have not had any difference between the different manufacturers (Garmin and Magellan).
I have checked all the connections with a volt-meter and wiggled everything all around and I haven't had any success in finding a bad connection anywhere. For those who might have a KLR, I have my USB converter wired into the "City Lights" circuit.
What I am looking to do is have a 12-volt based UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply), but, because I am on a motorbike, I need something that would be weather-proof, shock proof (shock as in vibration or falling over) and I need it to be simple to work on deep in the back-country if something were to fail.
What I am thinking of doing is using a fairly small "Radio Shack" project box that I can seal-up and running the positive and negative leads into the box to a basic project circuit board. At the start of the circuit board, I would like to put a red LED to show that power is flowing from the bike to the project box - that LED might flash if there are power-drops - but - it would be used primarily as a basic diode for flow-control of the power. From that LED, I would like to put a small bank of capacitators (I was thinking of ten 1000 micro-farad capacitators because I can buy them fairly locally for about $5) and then put a second LED on the "exit-side" of the project box (lets call this one green) to show that power is flowing properly through the project box to the USB connector. If things go well, the green LED will never flash like I would expect the red one to do.
Does anyone see any problems with doing something like this - any issues with vibration from a large single-cylinder motorcycle that travels gravel-roads / trails for fun?
In my attempt to keep my GPS running, I hardwired-in a "weather proof 12-volt to USB converter" from PrincessAuto ( http://www.princessauto.com/pal/pro...ous-Automotive/Weather-Proof-USB-Power-Outlet ) (kind of Canadian version of TractorSupply or HarborFreight). The problem that I have run into is the fact that when I am riding my motorbike, the GPS tries to shut-down and then start-up and then shut-down again - and the cycle repeats often. I have tried two different GPS's and four different connector cords to try to fix the problem and I have not had any difference between the different manufacturers (Garmin and Magellan).
I have checked all the connections with a volt-meter and wiggled everything all around and I haven't had any success in finding a bad connection anywhere. For those who might have a KLR, I have my USB converter wired into the "City Lights" circuit.
What I am looking to do is have a 12-volt based UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply), but, because I am on a motorbike, I need something that would be weather-proof, shock proof (shock as in vibration or falling over) and I need it to be simple to work on deep in the back-country if something were to fail.
What I am thinking of doing is using a fairly small "Radio Shack" project box that I can seal-up and running the positive and negative leads into the box to a basic project circuit board. At the start of the circuit board, I would like to put a red LED to show that power is flowing from the bike to the project box - that LED might flash if there are power-drops - but - it would be used primarily as a basic diode for flow-control of the power. From that LED, I would like to put a small bank of capacitators (I was thinking of ten 1000 micro-farad capacitators because I can buy them fairly locally for about $5) and then put a second LED on the "exit-side" of the project box (lets call this one green) to show that power is flowing properly through the project box to the USB connector. If things go well, the green LED will never flash like I would expect the red one to do.
Does anyone see any problems with doing something like this - any issues with vibration from a large single-cylinder motorcycle that travels gravel-roads / trails for fun?