With everything finally complete, the weather got down cold enough for an initial trial run yesterday morning. It only got down to 45, but as cold natured as i am, that's enough. On my 45 mile morning commute, I rode far enough to get a slight chill, and feel the cold soaking thru my gloves. My daily commuter has ape hangers so this didn't take long. I wanted to get a little cool to give my gear as good a test as possible for the temp that I had to work with. After a few miles, I started turning up the heat, and it was wonderful!!! Everything warmed up very nicley, and QUICK!. After I got warmed back up, I made the rest of the ride with the jacket control just under half and the gloves around 1/4. I had no hot or cold spots, but I didn't heed the advise that I was given along the way in this thread that said "Put extra in the thumbs". My thumbs never felt the cold, but I never really felt the heat in them either. All in all I think it'll be ok though. Before this ride, I considered heated gear a luxury, I now consider it a nessessity!
I was inspired. Between you and ken phenix, I made my own gloves. Finally finished them and got them right Christmas night. A little run today and I had warm comfortable hands in 39 degree weather (according to a church sign I passed). Used the pc fan controller as suggested in your controller thread and mounted it in a Radio Shack box until I can get a waterproof pelican box. Everything is stashed in my tank bag/control center which also holds my motocomm, gps, and mp3 player. Nice and warm with temp control and expansion capacity. pic on the bike:
Congrats They look great. I made a 3 hour ride in 24 degrees the other day, and all worked well, except I think I need to redesign my gloves to something a little more like what you and Ken have. Mine don't have quite enough in the fingers.
I'll take a sz. 44 jacket please. Will your jacket interface with Gerbing controllers and the like? Oh and no joke, let me know what you are asking, as I'm sure it's a lot cheaper then Gerbings, Warm n' Safe, etc.
Awesome job 65 flathead!! I am SO copying this, especially the gloves, anything below 45 and my fingers start hurting and the heated grips just don't cut it. I haven't been cold in my jacket or pants yet but will probably just do it anyways.
oser The hell wyth that!! The jacket took me a full weekend to build. That's why I posted the DIY pics! Look more at Ken's golve design. My jacket and controller work great, but I need a little moe heat in the fingers on the gloves. It's a pain to thead the wire throuh the thinsulate, probably easier to build a liner.
I went with the Lamptron FC-2. It's a bit bulky in that damned Radio Shack box but I plan to put it in a pelican case at some point. I took the sides and the front off so it would fit in the box. I just finished the heated pants. So far everything is working well. Went for a ride Sunday in about 30 degree weather and was very comfortable. Thanks for the tips.
since you're only running gloves, then you could have went for the 4 channel, 3.5" controller (good up to 20W), maybe that would have helped with the size issue. They used to make a 100w per channel unit in 3.5", wonder why I can't find those anymore. Woulda been perfect
I looked for a 3.5 with no luck either. I added heated pants to the mix, which I was thinking about when I did the gloves. That's why I went ahead and got the fc-2 even though I knew it would be big.
Oh,yeah, thought I'd "relay" my recent experience. We've had several mornings in the 20's here. The new thirty something watt glove liners are pretty much overkill. Half volume on the Heat-Troller is HOT and they heat up quick - much quicker then my earlier gloves. I used the two loops of nichrome mainly for redundancy anyway - in case a wire breaks I'll still have 1/2 power. I did have to move some of the wires away from my knuckles where they caused a little discomfort. All fine now. Love the fan concroller idea! Keep us posted. I originally used a 12v light dimmer from an RV dealer and before it died it actually increased the heat setting on its own! I could watch the knob actually turn itself to the right. I gave up and bought a Warm N Safe unit.
At first I bought teflon wire but it was the single strand not multi strand. It was too hot and burned the gloves. Then I went to your page and bought the wire from your link. I used two 4.5 feet loops and put them in the heat shrink together. I soldered 16 gauge automotive wire around the nichrome (since it doesn't solder well) and used red heat shrink to keep everything snug before the mono audio jack. The gloves heat great and very evenly. I ended up using the teflon wire as "thread", turns out the color combo matched the gloves I got from Home Depot, because from my previous experience it got singed too and wouldn't hold. The fan controller is working great so far. I've found the best setting for me is just below half, which puts out about 6 or 8 volts (I can't remember the exact numbers now). Full on gets down right uncomfortable and could really cause an accident as you want to get the glove off as soon as possible and tend to forget what you are doing!! I also used mono audio connectors instead of the two wire sae. Makes a secure connection and is easy to remove.
Longest I had it in use was on Christmas Eve when I went to Helen, GA with some friends. That was about 3 or 5 hours on and off. Constant, I think the most has been maybe two hours.
glad its working out, I'd be curious to know if it would sustain higher loads, like maybe a heated jacket.
Yeah, I really like the idea of the fan controller too. In keeping with the 20w max rating per pot, I see possibilities to control heat in different areas of a jacket independently. Otherwise, it would probably be a good idea to spring for the warm 'n safe Heat-Troller pulse modulator to run a 75w or 100w jacket.