RoadHawk Bullet R+ Camera - Wiring to Bike

trebor

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I've just purchased a RoadHawk R+ Camera (having taken advantage of the Black Friday deal posted in these forums, thanks :cool: ).

This model comes with the hardwiring kit, so I intend to connect it to the PDM60 that is already fitted to the bike.

Looking at the power cable that comes with the kit it has a red, a black, and a blue wire. RoadHawk don't, or won't, give any advice on wiring it to the bike, they suggest taking it to an auto electrician. However after poking around on their site I found this information:

Black - Earth
RED: - Fused permanent live
Blue: - Switched live
ON NO ACCOUNT JOIN THE RED AND BLUE TOGETHER

I'm assuming that I just connect the black to the earth on the battery, and the red to one of the outputs of the PDM60.
But what to do with the blue wire? I'm assuming I just tape this up.
How is the blue wire used if you do want to use a switched live?

Has anybody fitted one of these cameras to a water cooled GSA?
If so, where do you think is the best place to put it?
Any hints/tips?

Cheers

Bob
 
Can't speak for the product but anything with a separate switched wire will usually not work until the switched wire has voltage. Not knowing the product I have no idea why it has a permanent and a switched wire other than maybe it has settings that need to be retained hence the warning not to put the two together.
 
Thanks Marki, that was my thought initially, just how a car radio is wired in. The camera has a date/time function, but it's own internal battery should be sufficient to keep that updated for weeks, I wouldn't have thought it'd need to keep the battery on trickle charge, which, as far as I can see is the only reason for having a permanent live.

Using this wiring kit does disable the on/off switch on the camera, so whether a permanent live is required to the small box of tricks in the wiring kit to allow the camera to switch on/off depending on the status of the switched live?

Bob
 
Thanks Wobble, I'd already seen your post, very good is is too.

However, after a bit of research I think they may have modified the hardwire kit. From pictures I've seen of the hardwire kit they sold earlier last year, I think it only had two wires, black and red for negative earth and permanent live respectively. The red being the main power feed for the camera, to which users were instructed to connect to a switched live. As you'll see from my post above, mine has three wires, earth, permanent live, and switched live.

This is what confused me initially, before realising the older kits were different, as in all the reports on installation I'd read everybody was just connecting up to a switched live, and I was wondering what they were doing with the third wire. I think, with the older 2 wire system, some people were probably taking the main power for the camera from a circuit such as the rear brake light (i.e. a switched live), and the camera may have been overloading the circuit. Whereas what they should have done is use a switched live to operate a relay to feed a live straight from the battery (via a fuse) to feed the camera. In your case you've used the GPS power feed which is capable of providing power to both (on my last bike I used this to power the GPS and an Autocomm unit).

I think they've modified the hardwire kit to, presumably, make the installation easier and safer. They've probably installed an electronic switch, or relay, in it. The switched live, when live, will activate the switch thereby switching through the permanent live to the camera. I suspect hardly any current is drawn from the switched live so it's not likely to overload whatever circuit has been tapped into to obtain it. If this is what they have done it's a shame, because I have PDM60 that has a multitude of switched lives, up to 60 Amp if I want, so they've made my installation a bit more fiddly. Normally I'd just connect the switched live and the permanent live together and feed it from the PDM60, but they specifically say not to do that and, unfortunately, they won't respond to questions referring to wiring the kit up, they say to take it to your local dealer. Trouble is, I know how to wire the thing up, I just want to know what is in the 'black box' of the kit, and why I shouldn't connect the two lives together.

I've not managed to get round to looking at the installation of the camera yet, but I think the PDM60 will provide both a permanent live and a switched live, so I'll just hook it up using these. It just seems a shame that I'll be using two of the six outputs from the PDM60 when I think I only need to use one.

Bob
 
I fitted mine on Friday. I've mounted the camera on the metal subframe above the RH indicator and put the power control unit under the rider seat at the back-if you're careful there's enough cable to do this and leave some slack at the camera end. I've also fitted an inline fuse to the red wire which is connected to the battery as is the black. For the switched live I've run a wire from the battery compartment where I picked the blue wire up and used a hella plug to provide this via the aux socket in the cockpit to save cutting into the wiring loom. I did as Roadhawk and they said they'd used the 3 wire method because they had had problems with canbus systems when just using a swjtched live and earth. HTH.








 
Thanks littleade, it looks good.

Bob
 
Thanks littleade, it looks good.

Bob

You're welcome. I only attached the camera mount temporarily to make sure it was in about the right place and just need to put some double sided foam tape on so it sticks to the sub frame and some more cable ties just to make sure it won't drop off and then job's a good 'un:beerjug:
 
Help please

I have followed these various posts/threads, but not quite sure if I understand everything.

I’ve just bought a Roadhawk and thought that I would just power it from a USB socket that is plugged into an auxiliary socket on my ‘07 GS, but that doesn’t seem to charge the camera. The little red light that indicates charging doesn’t come on.

If I plug the camera into a mains powered USB, it charges fine, and the little red light comes on to indicate charging.

Do I have to use the hardwire kit to achieve this?

Does the blue light on the hardwire connector come on?

Where would I pick up a ‘switched live’ near the front of my bike?
 
I have wired up 2 Roadhawk Bullet R+'s on my 2015 F800 Adventure. The extra CanBus plug that sits on top of the battery does not have all the connections you need for the camera but does give you the switched ignition for the blue cable. So if you buy the adapter from Nippy Normans you need to just connect the blue lead on the camera cable to the yellow lead labelled D3 on the Nippy Normans adapter. The red live and black earth cables need to be connected direct to the battery or another permanent live & earth point.

Note this is not the same as the description on the Nippy Normans website.

Hope this helps.
 


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