Lithium batteries work the best, but only for a day on a set. Is there any way to safely hook up to 12 volt DC on my zr without frying the GPS?

Tap into the double plug with the yellow and brown wires up by the gauges, or in the key switch console
the factory leaves these for accesories.

This is regulated voltage, it will drop off to around 10 volts DC at a idle, but will never go over 12 volts DC.

Use Polaris part #2872214 it is a rectifier/capacitor
hooked up my garmin on my 02 ZR 600 then moved it to
my C-7 works great

Thanks for the quick replies! I have my heated shield running to the brown/yellow plug already. It's 12 volts AC not DC. I haven't checked the key switch.

I have my gps wired to my 02 zr 600, i did post all about it last year so you can search my post or send me a pm and I can send you some pics..... still works great after 1000 miles (although alot of people on here told me it would not)

Looks like that pol part is $50. None on eBay either. It's just a 12v cig. lighter plug in right?

FlightSchool - Better send some pics, GPS is only a 3 letter word and I can't search it. Or give me some bigger keywords to search.

Thanks

No, that's not correct. That part has a rectifier built in...you will need this because of the AC power. The Polaris plug is the simplest method in my book, if you want to use the sled's power. Many guys have built their on rectifiers, it's not a hard job and I think you can pick all the parts up at Radio Shack for less than $20. On the other hand, I installed a small 12v battery under the hood of my ZR so I can have my gps turned on even when the sled's not running....like when stopping along the trail for a break. It's worked great for 3 years now. Below is a link on what I did. The link takes you to the third page or so of the thread, you can page back and forth to see the whole thing.

GPS hookup

DO NOT Wire your GPS into this plug direct. You will blow your GPS sky high. Ask me how I know ? It's a lot of fun getting battery acid all over your snowmobile.
Actually, I bought the Polaris conversion kit and used that plug to wire that into. The problem was that the rectifier came unplugged in some rough trails and cost me a GPS. If your running a Polaris converter it will work sweet but solder the connections or one day you will be sorry. I would also suggest a fused power cord.

What type of GPS is it. Mine is a e trex and I just used the 12 plug from garmin and made a bracket under the hood, then spliced the wires so I could put in an RCA plug (like my helmet)... I used the power off the tach lights (that everyone said would blow up my gps).... It worked great all year and I used the GPS in the boat all summer. I thought I had some pics from last year but I guess I deleted them.. I will snap some more on Wed and post them here for you.

I am pretty sure if you have power valves the power valve servo motor is dc. You could tap into that power for dc.

Duane

The stator and flywheel spinning over it make an AC current, The AC current runs to a voltage
regulator/ rectifier that converts it to DC voltage.
All the light bulbs in the sled are DC also. If you wire it in direct to 12 volts you will explode the batteries in the GPS.
What you need to do is wire into the plugs I talked about and hook up to the DC power cord that you would plug into your cig. lighter adapter on your car. then you would be good

sorry snow800, i just checked the brown/yellow plug behind the guages again and the center headlight, and they are both AC on my buddies ZR. (mines in pieces waiting for parts)

my plans are to make a solder connection to a 12V DC source somewhere under the hood to run to the small plug that goes directly into the GPS. I dont really need a cig plug, but if it was a cheap install i probably would.

Not sure if I want to splice into powervalve wires since they are controlled from the EFI box ( I think)

It's a Garmin. Don't know the model #. Have to check tomorrow, it takes 4 AA batt's. An inline fuse is a must!

I'm don't really want a batter under the hood. I ride some pretty rough trails in N WI. and I don't think a batt would hold up.

I have been doing some research on this.
I have 2 sleds in my garage that I checked.

A 1998 EXT 2up With a battery and a 2003 ZR 900
without a battery.

What I came up with is:

I checked the Acc. plug on the 2 up with the battery at the gauges with the engine running and it has 12 volts DC voltage at this plug, Then I checked the ZR 900 at the same plug at the gauges with the sled running and it only registers AC voltage, The ZR won't register DC voltage on the test meter.
Then I took the battery cable off the two up and tried it again, The meter would only pick up AC voltage, not DC.

I have a Kitty cat tail lamp that has a #194 DC bulb in it that has the acc. plug on it and I plugged it into the acc. plug at the gauges on the ZR and started the sled up and the DC bulb glowed just like it is should.

Your flywheel has a series of magnets in it that rotates around the stator to make the pulsating voltage to run the sled, since the sled doesn't have a consistent power source, like a battery .
A test meter will only pick up the pulsations in the electrical current reading it in AC voltage, when it is actually pulsating DC voltage since the sled doesn't have a battery to make it consistent.

boy im a little bit confused after reading this post. i have a garmin gps5 and i didnt even think twice about hooking it up to my sled a (02zr800efi). i bought a $5.00 cigarette lighter from the auto parts store hooked the red wire to hot and the balck wire to a ground and it has worked perfectly for threee years now. when the sled is off it automaticly switches to the batteries. what am i missing???? its thats simple. lump

That's what I am trying to tell these guys...

It's that simple, 5 bucks is all you need to spend to buy a adapter, but if they want to spend $50, it's good for the economy.

Looking for some clarifacation here as well...

I've got a Garmin Etrex VistaC that I'd like to hook up to my sled as well. From what I'm gathering here, is as long as the wire you're getting power from is 12V DC, it should be fine???

That's why it's confusing... snow800 says that the plugs and light bulbs are 12 Volt DC and will work. But when we test them they are 12 volt AC and reading 0 volts DC on my voltmeter. I think i'll try to hook something up that's a little cheaper than my GPS first to make sure everythings kosher.

The accessory plugs are a pulsing 12V DC. Thats why it may read as and alternating current on a multimeter.

So how about the purpose of the polaris rectifier, would it give me consistent, non pulsing 12V DC? or does it have the same purpose...

The thing with DC voltage is,
it is normally based on batteries and the consistant voltage that is always there.

When you hook up a volt meter to a snowmobile without a battery there is not a consistant power source.


The reason is the voltage pulsates is because there is either 4 or 6 magnets in the flywheel that spin over the stator to create AC voltage for the sled to operate. since there is space gaps between the magnets, it will cause pulsating voltage.

This is also the pulsations that your tach picks up to register rpm.

Then the AC voltage is run through the regulator/ rectifier that converts it to pulsating DC voltage and keeps it at a maximum
of 12 volts.

The DC voltage pulsates so fast that it isn't a factor, with a 6 magnet flywheel idleing at 1000 rpm will have 6000 pulses per minute, at 2000 rpm with have 12000 pulses per minute, etc .....

So a DC volt meter will not pick it up, since it is not a direct currant, It picks it up as AC currant because it is pulsating like AC currant does.
When actually you are getting inconsistant pulsating DC voltage on the other side of the voltage
regulator/rectifer.

If you take and buy a cigarette adapter and wire it into the yellow and brown plug at the gauges or in the key console.
Then take and plug your DC adapter that you would plug in your car, you won't have any problems, unless the
regulator/rectifier fails..... which I have seen, then look out.

well i am new to this board and i have got to say you people are all nuts!!!!! :drunk: AC current is for houses and DC current is for cars,snowmobiles,motocycles,boats and all other toys that are not powered by Detroit Edison. if you hook a $5.00 cigarette lighter up to your snowmobile you can power anything that goes into a cigarette lighter. even a portable DVD player. even call arctic cat if you dont believe me.everything on the sled runs off of dc. all the headlights and tail lights and handwarmers and everything. not one thing runs off of ac current. :banghead: i will admit i dont know about polaris(but i know its dc as well) never owned one but who cares, this is the a cat forum.im not an electrition or anything but wow i mean really. i have had my gps hooked up to my sled for three years now along with several of my buddies. are we all just lucky or somthing???

Yes, normally, all the things you listed have a battery in there somewhere...
90% of snowmobiles don't.
The snowmobile electronics make AC (alternating currant) and run through a rectifier that converts it to DC.

I have been a snowmobile mechanic for 20 years, I KNOW WHAT MAKES THEM TICK.......

ok thats good to know. but how come nobody believes us that all you have to do is hook up a cig lighter..

:frech32: :sleep3: :burp:

I would have to say because the rest of us have not experimented with this to the degree that snow800 has. We've just gone off the "logic" that it's AC current, and that's not typically a good thing for DC items. But now you guys have shed the light for the rest of us. :beerchug: There is one person in this thread though that said his did blow up. I have blown a voltage regulator before and it wasn't fun, would hate for that to happen with a gps running off that system too. :frech32: My personal preference is to go with the 12v power supply for more reasons than one.

I don't own a GPS or do I know how they work, But I would bet lunch that they work on 4 or 6 1.5 volt batteries.

If it runs off 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 volts DC and you hook it up direct to 12 volts DC, it will blow up.

just give up SNO800 if they dont want to believe us then they can keep scratcing thier heads all winter. it took me 10 minutes to hook up my GPS to my sled and and i have been on here reading about how it cant be done for three days now!!!!! the sled has a voltage regulator that allows it to work just like a car. and if you are afraid that your v regulator is going to blow up or fail than you may as well leave the sled on the trailer. thats dumb!!!!!

Hey lump, why the attitude??? Who's afraid of blowing a volt regulator?? Is your last name Einstein?

The EFI sleds all have 12 V DC at the fuel pump. I had 8000 miles on my ZR powering my Garmin from this source with no issue. Other I ride with did the same.

THanks for all of the info guys....

This is exactly the problem with trying to use the dc power from a sled's rectifier. one rectifier only gives you a 1/2 sine wave and this will not run an electronic 12 dc device. However if you install a capacitor you will get the wave as 79rallysport's third drawing (fully recified). I have posted an installation drawing on HCS before. I use this set-up to run a relay from my battery so I have all 4 headlights on when I hit my highbeams. Works great, but will drain the battery if used for too long (meaning 3 or 4 hours).

Here is a link to the post with the diagram. just use the part of the diagram that runs from the "blue wire from highbeam lights" to the numbers "85 and 86". you can subsitute any 12 ac line on your sled for the "blue wire from highbeam lights" and use "86" as negative and "85" as positive.

PM me if you need more help.

OK guys, hopefully this will clear up some confusion. I had my buddy come over this weekend and he is a master electrician. (woohoo i know) Well i told him about the thread on here and let him read it and he said the guy that say just hook it up is right. So i said wait i tested it on my fluke 73 meter and it says its AC voltage. His first response is the fluke is a really sensitive piece of equipment. Let me grab the ol trusty analog meter. So we tested the Yellow and Brown wire up buy the head light as a demo. We fired up the sled and the meter said its AC voltage. He said hit the gas, Boom it turn to DC voltage as the engine is ramped up. Its because as one stated in here about the magnets, At idle there is a larger gap in between the magnets and there for shows up as a AC voltage but actually is a broken DC voltage half wave reading. as the rpms gos higher the gap is smaller and the meter turns to DC voltage showing a full wave.Click to view attachment

Here is a pic of the meter and look at it closely.Click to view attachment

then check out the video and watch it change. Click to view attachment

Let me know if this helps.
kevin

Thanks for all the replies. I'm just a few days away from getting 'er running again. I'm going to run the wires after that. :div20:

I hooked my gps power supply directly to my yel/brn wire and ground and promptly blew the fuse in the 12v cig. plug adapter. I then went and bought Polaris's kit. Installed it in 30 min or less and have used it for four years now without a single problem. The regulator and rectifier system Polaris provides is a high quality easy to install kit.

Check this out....

http://www.snobunje.com/store.php?crn=72&a...ion=show_detail

A word of caution for you fellas with the Garmin Etrex series GPS' attempting any of this:

The Etrex utilizes 3.5volts DC. An amount over this results in vertical smoke. Regardless of what you do with the aforementioned ideas, be certain you use the Garmin Etrex cigarette lighter plugged cable, which has the correct voltage limiting device built into the plug end. Anything else will give you 12 plus volts.

I tried to tell them this way back on page 1, learned the hard way. If you dont buy the Polaris rectifier do yourself a favor and carry a backup GPS in you storage compartment, and some double AA batteries, you'll need them. :banghead:

For what it's worth... I e-mailed my buddy that was part of designing the EFI system at Arctic Cat. I asked him about this whole issue.... Here's what he had to say...

"Your electrical system is all 12 VAC. The yellow/brown wires come directly off of the stator coils. The stator only produces AC power.

The electric start regulator will have 3 wires. Yellow, brown and red.
The red is DC power. However, this is a half wave rectifier. If your GPS requires 12vdc minimum, you may not get enough out of the regulator to run the GPS.

What I would do is mount a very small gel cell battery on your sled. I have one that is only 1"x2"x3" Buy the e-start regulator, and connect your GPS to the battery.

The fuel pump is 12 vdc on your sled, on the new sleds it is 16 vdc.
However, if you rob current from the fuel pump, you risk loosing fuel flow (volume). This caues lean conditions. And I am not sure how much leaner.
But it is risky. I wouldn't recommend connecting anything to the fuel pump circuit. The fuel pump only draws 2 amps. It is an extremely low amp pump because the stator and ECU aren't capable of suppling that much current in the small package size that they are."

So take it or leave it....just thought you might like to know....

The battery he used is this: It is a Panasonic battery. Model # LC-R121R3P. Valve regulated lead acid
battery. 12v Size is approx 1.75"x1.75"x3.75"

Ted

The Snobunje kit: http://www.snobunje.com/store.php?crn=72&a...ion=show_detail consists of a small gel cell battery, battery mounting hardware, fuse + holder, lighter recepticle, and wiring. Instructions say to just wire the battery to the sleds' positive and negative wires, with the recepticle mounted in series. I was definately concerned that this would cause problems with current draw from heaters, lights, etc. even with the key off. Also, battery charging/overcharging issues from the 12V AC/DC??? from the factory regulator was a worry. I was considering trying the 3 wire regulator but you've convinced me this is the way to go. Any chance someone has Cats' part # for it?

Looks like AC Part# 0630-105 Desc REGULATOR, VOLTAGE-ES 3 WIRE

Thanks! I noticed Cat also has a 4 wire regulator(#0630-155) on the '03 ZL800 EFI esr. What the hell is the 4th wire for???