PDM 60 alternatives

Hi
My PDM60 appears to have given up the ghost after 10 years. Much as I would like to replace it like for like, I cant really justify £200 for a new one.
So I need to find an alternate means of powering , GPS, Autocom, INNOV camera & B2B radio.
Any thoughts on the options below.

Options:
Healtech Thunderbox https://healtech.co.uk/shop/thunderbox-tb-power-distribution-module/#

Innov Powerhub 3 https://innovv.co.uk/shop/accessories/powerhub/powerhub-3/

Thanks for looking.

Baz

The Healtech looks like the better option IMO. You'll probably need the bigger one.

Thanks, that is where my thoughts were as well. I would have though 16A would cover my use though.

If you go thundebox I’d be interested in how you wire it. I’ve just got one for USB, Denalis and Cameras (Innov copy).

2 of them have a 12v live feed tap cable which I don’t know how to wire that line in or wire them in with that cable.

tjmouse said:

If you go thundebox I’d be interested in how you wire it. I’ve just got one for USB, Denalis and Cameras (Innov copy).

2 of them have a 12v live feed tap cable which I don’t know how to wire that line in or wire them in with that cable.

Click to expand...

Recived it this morning and had it all installed in about 12 minutes. Quite impressed with it, very compact and easy to fit.
Just wired it to pos battery feed and an earth on the frame. I havent wired the trigger as it seemed to work OK when I fired the bike up. I may put the trigger on at some point if I need it to worked with just the ignition on. All Pos & neg feeds for auxillarries just clip into the Thunderbox connectors.
My Innov camera is wired direct to the battery, however it also has a trigger wire which I clipped into one of the Thunderbox positive connectors. All seems to work fine now.

Thank you for the tip for the Thunderbox.

I have a Fuseblock, whose relay is triggered by a splitter from the otherwise useless OEM socket beneath the seat * (down by the rear suspension) on my 1600. It’s OK but I have never been entirely happy about where the Fuseblock sits, as it is a very tight squeeze to get it into place…. And even more of a squeeze to get it out again, not that I need to very often.

I have a feeling that the Thunderbox might well be a better design size wise and fit better. We shall see.


* Something so useless that BMW didn’t even bother to mention it in the owner’s handbook. I only discovered it originally by dropping a glove on the floor, seeing the socket as I bent down to pick the glove up.

are you able to adjust the rating or does it come with different pre-sets as its does with pdm 60?

Baz said:

Recived it this morning and had it all installed in about 12 minutes. Quite impressed with it, very compact and easy to fit.
Just wired it to pos battery feed and an earth on the frame. I havent wired the trigger as it seemed to work OK when I fired the bike up. I may put the trigger on at some point if I need it to worked with just the ignition on. All Pos & neg feeds for auxillarries just clip into the Thunderbox connectors.
My Innov camera is wired direct to the battery, however it also has a trigger wire which I clipped into one of the Thunderbox positive connectors. All seems to work fine now.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. So your Innov is just using 2 positive feeds from the Thunderbox in that case?

I’m still cleaning up my Denalis but I can’t work out how to bypass their relay so they may get a direct connection and the everything else can go through the Thunderbox

Wapping said:

Thank you for the tip for the Thunderbox.

I have a Fuseblock, whose relay is triggered by a splitter from the otherwise useless OEM socket beneath the seat * (down by the rear suspension) on my 1600. It’s OK but I have never been entirely happy about where the Fuseblock sits, as it is a very tight squeeze to get it into place…. And even more of a squeeze to get it out again, not that I need to very often.

I have a feeling that the Thunderbox might well be a better design size wise and fit better. We shall see.


* Something so useless that BMW didn’t even bother to mention it in the owner’s handbook. I only discovered it originally by dropping a glove on the floor, seeing the socket as I bent down to pick the glove up.

Click to expand...

The Thunderbox has arrived on my doormat.

I’ll give it a go on my 1600 (it’s a much better size than the Fuseblock) or on my Himalayan, where (with luck) I might be able to slide it down to behind the battery.

tjmouse said:

Thanks for that. So your Innov is just using 2 positive feeds from the Thunderbox in that case?

I’m still cleaning up my Denalis but I can’t work out how to bypass their relay so they may get a direct connection and the everything else can go through the Thunderbox

Click to expand...

No, one positive feed direct to the battery, the other ( ignition-trigger) to the Thunderbox .

ilkleymoron said:

are you able to adjust the rating or does it come with different pre-sets as its does with pdm 60?

Click to expand...

There are no adjustments. Seems the unit can detect overcurrent on the circuit.

Following the recommendation on here, I fitted the Thunderbox to my Himalayan.

It seems to work really well, even relying on the battery voltage alone to trigger the device ie. without using the white trigger wire.

I have the Thunderbox supplying power to:

A. My Garmin XT, fitted to a modified mount (thank you Andy) sitting above the bike’s clocks. The standard tubular bar that came with the mount was too big a diameter for the rather neat mount I had for the XT, so Andy very kindly fashioned me a new one. This modified set-up brings the XT up and nicely into my eyeline.

B. A Quad Lock charger / phone mount. This I powered via Thunderbox’s dedicated USB lead.

C. A flying lead, exiting near the front brake reservoir. This will serve two purposes:

1. To power the remote heat controller for my Rapid Fire electric jacket liner

2. Bring some power into the tank bag I converted to accept power

D. A simple flying lead, exiting under the seat on the near side, to power my electric jacket liner

Everything seems to power up when the voltage rises to 14 volts, just as it says on the tin that it should do, powering off when the ignition is turned off.

I may yet wire in the white trigger wire but so far it doesn’t seem to need it. The only thing I did do (it was unnecessary) was to leave the inline fuses in. I could of course have removed these. I left them in, simply as - if I ever come to sell the leads - the fuses are in place. All I will need to do is neatly reattach the round battery terminal connectors.

Now that I know it works, I will use a Thunderbox replace the Fuseblock I used on my 1600. That does have a trigger feed already, fed from the under-seat socket, so I might as well use the white wire.

My thanks again to Andy for the modified bar and Baz for the heads-up recommendation of the Thunderbox.

Marks out of 10 so far? 10.


PS The UK distributor of the Thunderbox bits, dispatches the orders by return; so little to no waiting around.

My Thunderbox (TB) has gone into fault today. All working fine on a trip to Nomandy, got off the ferry and no GPS, Autocom, camera.
Red LEd flashing indicating a short on one of the units being powered up. Disconnected everything and reset the TB. Still the same fault. Have dropped Healtch a line to see what they think is the problem.

After a few emails trying to diagnose the fault , Healtech dispatched a replacement on the 26th., which arrived this morning. Excellent customer service as far as I am concerned.