I want to connect my GPS to my sled so I don't have to worry about the batteries going dead. The problem is I need a DC voltage supply and the sled is AC. There's a yellow wire with a red stripe coming off my CDI box that puts out DC voltage. Does anyone know if it is ok to connect any type of accesory to it?

At the risk of frying a $300 cdi, I wouldn't do it. Two more options are; Get a voltage regulator/rectifier for an electric start sled $40, or go to radio shack and get a full wave bridge rectifier $4.

Ahhh, didn't think of the electric start voltage regulator. I assume that has both an AC side and a DC side to charge the battery?

And what is a full wave bridge rectifier?

Thanks for the ideas!

Okay I did some quick research and I see that a rectifier converts ac to dc which is exactly what I need. But it looks like radio shack has about 20 different kinds of rectifiers. Any ideas on what one would work best?

You may need a more clean, stable source of DC than a rectifier provides for your GPS. Try HPE. They sell a DC power supply kit for around $50 that includes a cigarette lighter receptacle and a small rechargeable battery.
PN 114-311 www.hiperf.com
I plan to use one for a G-tech accelerometer on my sleds.

That looks like a good idea. However I called HPE to ask a couple questions and they told me the input had to be DC, not AC. he then went on to tell me that using a hot wire from the headlight would work because the voltage regulator converts the AC output of the engine to DC for the lights. I didn't feel like arguing with him so I just said thanks.

Sounds like HPE has their wires crossed. I use the radio shack rectifier (50 volt 25 amp) and a small SLA 12v 5ah battery. About $24 total and some wiring.

So, you didn't get the $25 optional cigarette lighter socket? LOL!

Yeah you think? He even started talking down to me like I was dumb.

XSKIER, is this the one you use?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=search

Exactly! I riveted it through the middle to the steering hoop. You can probably rivet yours to the foot rest. The bare metal back to it is for a heat sink. I don't think you'll need it at the amperage you are going to use, probably milliamps for a gps or phone battery. I ask mine to run 8 amps at 13 volts, and it never gets warm. I used the battery as a capacitor to smooth out the dc voltage, and for the convenience of having power with the sled off. There is a formula to figure out what kind of capacitor to use if you want to eliminate the battery, but neither I or the radioshack guy could figure it out. I think that your charging unit won't care too much about the "cleanliness" of the incoming current, your application will probably work ok with out the capacitor or battery. In the worst case scenario, you blow the fuse in the GPS charger.

I didn't realize those batteries were so tiny! For $30 I'll throw one in there. Even if I don't need that smooth of voltage having power with the sled off could come in handy!

Thanks for the idea!

I read Thur this post, because I needed to put a battery in my 2005--440 to convert ac to dc power. This post is pure bull shit, I PM some on this one and they never got back to me. I would like to laugh about it now but I'm still mad.

The only way to covert your sled form AC to DC is to float the ground on the stator. Yes you can add a regulator/rectifier that coverts AC to DC but there is no way for it to charge a regular battery found in most atvs or sleds.

I only added this post becuase I was looking to add a battery to my machine, and I wasted my time and some money trying to get it to work right.

You apparently did something wrong. All sleds use this method for electric start. I use it for an electric fuel system in a turbo application.

Used the same system to power a 12 volt washerpump slide luber ?

I agree with Phil,
put electric start on g/f's 03 XC800 last year, just added a rectifier to the regulator. And using a homemade rectifier/regulator to charge a sealed-cell battery on my 02 xc800.

It will work like most folks said, anything to cut the sign wave in half will give you DC then run it through the regulator. But on most Polaris sleds the yellow wire W/ red tracer means it is DC source I know for a fact it is. On 05 fusions on up a yellow only line is AC power and both are after the regulator so it is good to go!! I do like the batt Idea to clean up the feed plus it helps with the headlamp load too. Jx

Chilly, who did you PM? Not me. I can show you the way to get DC out of your sled if you're not too close minded...

I bought the ac/dc voltage regulator for an edge classic to replace the oem one in my edge 600 50th sled to run a gps unit and electric sheild....been working great. You can't run the gps off a standard ac voltage regulator....only an electric sheild....theres a third red wire available on the ac/dc voltage regulators for a battery return.

1st I would like to say thanks to each and everyone of you. But at the same time I look back at myself and think I'm really going on dumb and dumber.

My machine is a 2005 440 going into a 1999 scrambler 2X4 ATV. I'm new at all of this so please bear with me if you can, I only hope this post will help someone out. It was my thought that all ATV and snow machines, trucks,cars etc were based off--of 12 DC only.

Battery right had to be 12v-dc only, sorry my bad. I had no idea that a 12v light bulb would run off ac or dc, so in my line of thinking the machine had to be DC.

Then I read and found out the this machine made AC volts, kind of blew my mind I guess. And that any 12v lights--don't care if its ac or dc, my bad.

So when I read this post I thought O-YEA, And tried to PM a few ideas on it. I was new to this forum and I don't think my PM'S went thur. So I beat on with the info I got from here and made a lot of mistakes.

I am very sorry is I made anyone mad, because without you I would not be here.

Thanks all.

Chilly no prob here, we all learn allot on these sites there are allot of smart people on here, so take in all you can thats what it is all about. In most cases if we knew everything these sites would be very quiet. ask away thats my take !!!! Jx