04 Plate 1200GS Canbus Problems

[Lofty]

Having read many threads when I bought it I arranged my 1200GS to have my Zumo 550 powered through the Canbus socket at the headstock. I have the Autocom wired directly from the battery and the aux lights go through the Centech fuse panel which is wired across the accessory socket by the riders seat.

My problem is the worst sort. I have an intermittent failure of the Canbus sockets which shuts down the GPS and the fuse panel thereby losing my aux lights. The failure can last for 30 seconds or 30 minutes and cannot be attributed to compression of the seat, temperature, speed, vibration or loose connections.

Bahnstormer have looked at it and said that the bike has no indicated faults and they can offer no advice at this stage. Although I'm an engineer I'm now at my wits end.

Does anyone have any suggestions of fault finding routes I should follow.

Thanks in advance.

 

[patzx12]

As far as i know the output of the socket is limited if its too much draw it will shut down. Can you get a plug and try running the GPS from the acc socket as a test.

 

[Bem]

Not too sure if this helps but.......
My 2005 reg was a problem when it came to running accessories, in particular when I changed my Quest for a Zumo, and powered it off the front socket t/o. It was for ever powering on/off requiring rest/restart. That decided me on running the added power outlets from my Centech to the beak and plugging the Zumo in there. I wondered if was just a little bit of play in the mounting causing a little signal to go back to the Canbus controller causing the poweron/off cycle?
Never needed to get to the bottom of its electrical problems, always suspected this or some wiring snag in the front socket t/o.

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

So you basically have your lights running of the socket? If so that's your problem. Connect your fuse panel to the battery. the aux socket is limited to 5 amps and all the sockets are connected together including the one at the headlock. it has nothing to do with canbus. autocom to the aux and centec to battery I can understand but the other way round doesn't make sense.

 

[gipsymagpie]

Yep...try using headlights as a trigger

You definitely don't want to be drawing all your power from there. Use the dipped beam as your trigger for the main Centech via a relay. Feed a wire into the little drain from the headlight unit and tap into the yellow wire on the back of the headlight. Wire in a suitable manner to the relay and voila. Power only when you need it. CANBUS completely deleted from the equation.

I had a R12GS 04 with similar setup until I sent it away for accident repair...not heard a squeak for 2 weeks

 

[Lofty]

Apologies ... I've been a bit dim with my description. The Centech fuse panel is powered by a relay directly from the battery but the relay itself is triggered from the aux socket by the seat. I'll certainly considering looking at powering the Zumo from the Centech in the near future rather than the headstock socket - I guess the best option is to get a new Zumo power lead rather than getting a socket and lead which will increase the number of connections.

It's never easy !

 

[Poley]

I've had exactly the same symptoms on my wife's '05 GS (but not mine, also '05). Incredibly frustrating. I even ended up replacing the Centech with a Fuzeblock (cos that was on my bike and working fine) but that didn't fix it.

It's possible that you need an ECU update (see here). Our local dealer applied the update to the bike, but we haven't run it for long enough yet to be sure that it's cured (as you describe, it's very intermittent and can sometimes work fine for several hundred miles). Early signs are promising, though - keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[mrsroynie]

Same sort of problems on my '05 bike. Vines' solution was to take the accessory sockets off the canbus and wire them directly to the battery with a separate fuse.

 

[Lofty]

Sounds like I might just go along that route .. remove the accessory sockets and wire them directly to the battery via a fuse. Bahnstormer assure me that the ECU is up to date but I'd be keen to check myself.

Plenty of good ideas coming from the thread ... thanks you for all the advice. Glad to see my bike has the same issues as few of the other early ones. That said it's still a great machine.

 

[gipsymagpie]

no need to mess with aux socket

Honestly the aux socket is not a good place to trigger the relay. It is much too "managed" by the canbus. The dipped headlight is only on after start and is really easy to tap into. Sure its a long wire from the front to the seat but its been cast iron reliable on my machine.

 

[duds]

Same as pokey said

Think you might need the ecu update. Had the same problem on my 05 until Bristol Motorrad carried out the update. When they plugged the bike in the update did not seem to be required so they had to "push it" to load the software, which I assume is dealer terminology for force the update.