Out with the old (Centech) and in with the new (PDM60)...


The Centech accessory wiring concentrator has served me well since 2007, with no trouble
other than my bad wire routing skills... after about six years one of the wires to
the accessory power takeoff rubbed through and everything hooked to the
Centech fritzed out when I turned on my Gerbings... that story is in this link:
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php?topic=61803.0This time I put all the wires in wire looms, and any wire exposed from the looms has 3M
vinyl tape wrapped on it.
When the Centech fritzed out, I had trouble working with it because of the place I put it... it
seemed cool at the time... I got tons of help from the VRCC in 2007 when I first installed it:
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/forum/tech_archive.cgi?read=1113145http://www.valkyrieforum.com/forum/tech_archive.cgi?read=1113751Anywho... the PDM60 fit great right on top of the battery cover. My bike had a OEM CB there
when I got it, so I trapped the PDM60 leads under the old CB velcro holders. I mostly exchanged
one rat's nest of wires with another though. See those two shiny screw-heads up near where the
gas-tank bolt goes? They each hold a relay up under the frame.

The
PDM60 is solid state, with circuit breakers instead of fuses. I thought I'd need no
relays, either, but relays are needed for some kinds of triggers.
The PDM60 can trigger on "ignition on" and "ground detected", and has programmable logic to
allow you to "and" and "or" those conditions for particular circuits.
I have four circuits, and after I de-installed the Centech I was left with:
Motolights
2 positive leads
2 ground wires
2 switch wires (really, both ends of one wire with a switch in the middle)
Cobra lights
2 positive leads
1 trigger wire (goes hot when I hit high beam)
Misc power take off
1 positive lead
1 ground wire
BigBF horns
2 positive leads
2 ground wires
1 trigger wire (goes hot when I hit the horn button)
I hooked the PDM60 up to my laptop with a USB cord and programmed three circuits to
go live on "ignition on", and one (for the motolights) to go live on "ignition on AND ground detect".
I had to use a relay for the horns and the Cobra lights, and the power take off is always
live whenever the bike is on. The motolight button-wire has one end hooked to ground,
so when the switch is not open, the motolights come on. The PDM60 itself comes online seven
seconds after the ignition is switched on to give you time to start the bike without any extra
power draw, the seven seconds is programmable too...
The max draw for each circuit is also programmable, I set 10 amps for both the light circuits and
15 amps for the horns and the power take off.
Everything worked when I got done and turned on the key!

I hope all my connections are
solid and that everything keeps on working...
There's been some of that tobacco spit stain at the base of a couple of my intake runners,
so I also changed out all the O-rings. There's only one bolt that holds the air filter box. If you
take that bolt out, and remove all the intake runner bolts at the same time, the whole
air-box/carburetor/intake-runner assembly is just free-floating above the motor. It is easy to
lift and move it around a little and pulling the runners (I just pull one at a time) is a breeze.
I also replaced one of the carb drain lines and the vacuum line to number six, and changed
my air filter. One of the holder downers for my smog-plugs was getting
kind of rusty, so I dropped it into a vat of oxalic acid, hope I don't forget about it...

I don't know if I had more fun than the Smokin' Joe Ride Group down in Florida, but
I sure did have some fun!
-Mike