NOTE: I have postd the Heated Glove build on page 4 of this thread. (Original) Ok, so I had my finger on the button last weekend, the Confirm Order button. I had decided on a Gerbings heated jacket liner and T5 gloves. I had to look at the competitors one more time, then read a few more reviews, and, well you know the story. 5 hundred bucks aint no chump change to me! Well, I studied it so much that I realized, hell, I can build all of that! So here goes I found this wire on an ADV Rider post. Its .30 AWG with a high temp silicon coating. They call it hook-up wire (Hook a brother UP). I found it here http://www.mouser.com/Wire-Cable/Wire-Single-Conductor/_/N-5ggs?Keyword=83000&FS=True Its made by Belden, PN 83000-???. ??? represents color. I ordered a 100 foot roll for 25 bucks, plus 6 something for shipping. Living here in Bum Stuck Central Louisiana, theres not a lot of outlets for this type of thing. I went to Wally world and bought a nylon workout jacket. Really thin, and with a mesh liner, Perfect! The wire came in yesterday so with torrential downpours not making my scheduled ride out west look too appealing, I went to work. I started everything in the right corner. I meant to start in the left corner, but I got dyslexic when I turned everything inside out. I found a couple of conflicting wire resistance charts, giving 30 AWG between .103 - .105 ohms / ft. Wanting to be more precise, I thought Hey, I have a hundred feet of the stuff, Ill check it myself. I came up with .109, stupidly forgetting the impedance factor of 100 of wire being wound up in a 2 coil. Well, anyway Ill spare you all the gory details and fancy pants mathematics of it all (unless you really want it, and Ill post) but to give me the 80 watts of heat I wanted (3 more than Gerbins) I decided on 2 forty foot sections hooked in parallel. This made routing easier because pulling anymore and I would have given up. For anyone out there with ADD, don't even start this project, just run around thinking about it all day! Heres the first section installed. I ran the strands about two inches apart in the body, and six strands down each arm. On the far side (from the power cable) I ran one strand though the collar, and down by the zipper back to the power connection. Helpful hint* If you have one of those friends that majored in underwater basket weaving, employ their skills at all costs. This is some tedious crap. After the first side was complete, I was done. As a reward, I went and bought a bottle of rum and made myself Fru Fru drinks the rest of the night. This morning I got up early planning on riding to Monroe and Shreveport to hunt a new modular helmet, but the Fru Fru drinks still hadnt completely left my system so I went back to work on the liner. Here she is all wired up (Almost) On this section, I ran 2 strands though the collar (making 3 total). The collar doesnt fit too snug, but Im thinking of putting some Velcro on it. I put it on and plugged it in to my bike. 5 amps, perfect! He bile was only idling, and running around 13.8 volts. The jacket heated up nicely, and the collar felt like a heating pad on my neck. This is going to be SWEET!!! I soldered everything together and sewed / hot glued the main power cord to the hem of the liner. All there is left is run the wires for the gloves (next thread) and build the controller. And here she is!!!
It hasn't been cold enough here to give it an actual test run, but when I turn it on, even at 70 dgee ambint temp, i can feel immediate heat. I've never seen a Gerbing in person, but they advertise 77 wats, mine's 80.
Use coax connectors on your gear. More efficent than SAE connectors Depending on how they rate their gear, Gerbings are only 70 watt liners
That's exactly what I had planned. I was leaning towards Gerbins liner ONLY because of the lifetime warranty, but I was going to buy your heat troller, because I figured if it is good enough for the others to copy it, then I'd go with the original. I have been thinking abou heated gear for years now and had thouht of using a PWM setup eeven before I knew that they were in use for this. But, since I'm oing cheap, I'll build that too. There are some preassymbled for 20 bucks, but they're 555 timer based, and it has always been my expriance that the 555 gets squirely when ambiant temp changes. I'm thinking more of a duel op amp type setup. By the way, in case I decide to go with your gear in the future, I want to be compatible. What size are the coax connectors?
The troller I've been using for the past 10 years is 555 based and other than popping the driver mosfet has given no trouble. The mosfets heatsink planes underneath the 555 and helps stabilize things. Probably $20 in parts and can be built on perf board and a RS project enclosure. I can post some pics tomorrow if that'll help.
I hadn't thought of it like that. The 20 buck version would certainly be less time consumiing. Pics, yes please!
I built one 3 years ago and just redid it last week into a jacket similar to the one shown. I turn mine inside out to keep the outer wires from contacting me. I have ridden for hours at 30 degrees F comfortably and for 1 hour at 14 degrees F and stayed warm. I see the wires in the pic cross the shoulder blades. Your shoulder blades have very little fat (insulation) on them and it can get uncomfortable in a hurry with the wattage 30' of 30AWG wire provides. Ralph Sims
About how many feet of wire did you use? I see BuddingGeezer uses 30'. Would just wiring it into a Powerlet get too danged hot?
30 ft gives about 52 watts, and I am SUPER cold natured so I was afraid that I couldn't get the coverage with one strand @30 ft. For max coverage and to get my resistance right, I used 2 runs of 40 feet and then wired them in paralell. The wire has a resistance of 0.105 onms / ft. 40 feet gives me 4.2 ohms an 39 watts at 12.8 volts. When you put two of these 40 ft strands in parallel, you get a totla resistance of 2.1 ohms, and 80 watts. So all together there is 80 ft of wire in the jacket. Yes
I had a Gerbings controller go T/U recently. The controller is about 8 years old so no warranty. I was thinking about making one, if you have some info and pics you could share that would be very helpfull.
Actually, I think this is an optical illusion because of the jacket being inside out in the photo. While reaserching for the build, I had read an article warning against this, so I didn't run any wire over the boney parts of the shoulder.
I put the link to where I got it at the start of this thread. I tried finding a data sheet on it, but Beldin's link is no good. It seems to be copper with a plating of somesort. The insulation is a high temp silicon based and so far I've found nthing that'll stick to it. I got the wire specs here http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113134 and figured there was no sence reinventing th wheel. If it worked for them, it'll wok for me. The wire is very flexable, thin, and seems pretty tough. I'm wiring a set of gloves now, and I have to wrap the end around a homemade croche hook to pull it through. It can stand quite a few wrapping and unwrappings before I starting to break, so hopefully it'll last for several years. I am carefull not to put any sharp bends anywhere, and left a little slack all round to minimize physical stress on the wire.
10K pot linear 555 rfp50n06 1n4004 330K 2.2k 1.2k 100ohm .047 x16g700 self reseting fuse 2x 105 ceramics I'll draw it out later and post a schematic
This is nice, for some reason I always thought heated jackets have way more complicated technology. How much does it weigh? Have you thought about building it straight into the jacket?