bike powering my pmr

[GringoRojo]

it's a Motorolla T5422. is there anyone who makes a bike powered kit for it?

ta in advance

 

[GSrich]

It can not be done due the radio being plastic, ideally the radio needs a metal back to allow for the power. The Kenwood TK3201, 3101 and Icom F22SR are the only radios we recommend for bike power via our Pro series.

Rich

 

[GringoRojo]

bugger

tis as I feared. would've saved taking the charger with us when we go away on our bikes for more than a couple of days & for those times when we forget to charge em up for the weekend jaunts. will have to make do I suppose.

ta

 

[scots_jon]

I can't see what difference it makes that the radio is plastic??? You might need to explain that one to me.

I've bike and car powered my Mot T5522 and T5532s no problem. I just bought a 99p car phone charger, cut the end off and soldered it direct to the connections with 47uF tant across them. Worked fine for me, didn't notice any drop in range or increase in noise. If you want to do it properly, then get an adjustable car power supply and set it to 4.5V.

Really should be trivial.

Jon

 

[GSrich]

Metal bodied radios can cope with the heat plastic melts, this is why our Active Plus is sold with the Motorola's mainly as they can not be bike powered. Bike powered radios are sold with our Kit 300's

 

[scots_jon]

Metal bodied radios can cope with the heat plastic melts, this is why our Active Plus is sold with the Motorola's mainly as they can not be bike powered. Bike powered radios are sold with our Kit 300's

Sorry, that just doesn't make sense to me. What heat?

Unless what you are suggesting is simply bunging a linear regulator in the battery compartment (?) then there will not be any additional heat by bike powering a radio.

Or am I missing something?

 

[GSrich]

If you have felt the heat on a Kenwood TK after around day or so's riding the radios can get a bit warm from the usage and power. On a plastic bodied radio this will cause problems.

To cut a long story short if it was possible to bike power the Motorola's we would make our systems or parts capable to do the job. Motorola do ont sell a radio that can be bike powered or we would offer a unit along side the Kenwoods.

Rich

 

[Blackal]

I have Cobra PMRs that have a small socket in the side for charging with the batteries in place. If the Motorola has the same, then I don't see a huge problem

Get a multi-output DC/DC convertor and set it to 5+ Volts - it should operate the radio, but not charge the battery appreciably.

You could fit it all in a plastic box in a tankbag and run the 12v from a socket into the unit.

If the Motorola creates so much heat - then that is where the battery power is going, and I can't see it lasting too long like that.

I'd give it a go

Al

 

[scots_jon]

If you have felt the heat on a Kenwood TK after around day or so's riding the radios can get a bit warm from the usage and power. On a plastic bodied radio this will cause problems.

Rich

So I think you mean that if the radios are used to transmit for long times then the thermal coupling of the RF PA is insufficient and this results in large internal temperature rises. This is completely unrelated to whether the radio is powered by the bike or by internal bateries, it is only related to the typical usage of the radio in transmit mode.

It is a trivial matter to power any CB or PMR446 type radio from the bike. there is no reason to suggest otherwise.

Jon.

 

[Henski]

I actually just did what your are talking about 2 weeks ago, I removed the batteries and bought a variable DC regulator from maplins and just cimped on spade connectors to the + and - and drilled a hole in the back of the Motorola T5422 for the cable, I set the supply to 4.5 V and it powered the radio no problem,I stopped using this though as the channel I use along with all the other people I go out with is 1 sub 10 and when the power goes off the radio with no batteries in it defaults back to 1 sub 1 all the time when the power is restored, which meant having to keep lifting the the seat after the engine was started just to change channels which ended up being more hassle than changing the batteries.I didn't have a big enought soldering iron to try to have the bateries in and the power lead connected as it started melting the plastic when I tried the smaller soldering iron and I didn't want to end up wrecking the radio. I ended up buying a wintec A80 radio which is nice and small about the smae size as the T5422 and you can get a battery elimninator for (bought this from intaride) and I use it with my Autocom pro 7 sport.I am getting transmission interference though which I'm about to post a query about.

 

[Blackal]

My tendency would be to leave the batteries in the radio, but to trim the output voltage to around 5-6v so that the battery "floats". My main concern about heat build-up is centered on "actively charging" the battery via a supply which may not be current-limited to the degree that batteries-in-radio requires (this means charging the battery fully prior to fitting too)

Al

 

[rdover]

Alan
Starcom made my motorola bike power supply. about £30 IIRC available from their website.

BTW I've got my replacement PTT, fancy testing it out on Saturday?

R