Wolfie's Aprilia Futura Pages: Accessory socket, relay, and Datel voltmeter install

Accessory Socket, Relay, and Datel Voltmeter Install

Mike Wolf

One of the first items that I just had to have after buying my Futura was an accessory socket. Not the regular kind you find at Autozone, but the kind you might find listed on John Swiatek's most excellent website - http://www.jastek7.com. As the owner of Powerlet, he knows just about all there is to know about putting electronic goodies on motorcycles. I'm referencing John's site as the source of my sockets, but you can find similar 'BMW' style sockets at just about any BMW dealer. Aerostitch also carries them.

First, you'll need the following socket (or equivalent):

STANDARD POWERLET SOCKET - PSO-001
Our most popular socket. The lid has a spring loaded hinge. Two ¼" spade connectors make wiring easy. Comes with a 18mm jam nut for mounting. Compare price, quality and current rating to the plastic types sold in tractor stores. Rated at 16 Amps. $14.95

Next, you'll need a hole saw to cut a hole in the right dash. It'll be tough to find one the exact size of the socket's shaft, so going just a bit oversize will work nicely. You'll be cutting just inside the outlined circle in the picture below. You'll also need some male and female spade connectors, as well as good 16 gauge wire.

Now, you'll need to find that elusive pigtail that is zip-tied to the right side of the cluster/fairing support bracket. It looks like this:

Make two lengths of wire (one black for negative and one red for positive), maybe 6 to 8" long, depending upon how far you can pull the pigtail towards the mounting location. Then, connect a female and a male spade connector to each wire. Make sure you use shielded spade connectors. Now, all you have to do is cut your hole, connect your spade connectors (male wire to female pigtail; female wire to male socket posts). Please use a voltmeter before you connect the wires to the pigtail to determine which of the pigtail's wires are positive/negative. The center post on the socket is always positive. The red wire will go to the positive connections, and the black wire will go to the negative connections. Since you've already put the nut on the wires and then threaded the wires up through the hole before you connected the wires to the socket, all you have to do is align the socket in the hole and screw the nut tight. a couple well-placed dots of light strength loc-tight on the threads will help prevent the nut from vibrating loose over time. Voila! The finished product looks like this:

An important note: The pigtail you're connecting to is always live, regardless of whether or not the key is in the on or off position. I left it live as I want to use my battery tender via that socket. However, I did want a switched connection for my radar detector, voltmeter, and heated grips. So, I went down to Autozone and purchased a standard relay kit. This one comes with a connector which the relay slides into which gives you wires, rather than just blades to connect to. On this relay, black and purple are ground, white will be live with the key in the off position (I cut and taped this one off), blue will be the switched power to the voltmeter, heated grips, and radar detector, yellow goes straight to the battery (with an inline fuse), and red goes to the a power source that comes on when the key is turned on. For the last item, I tapped into a wire that helps power the fuel pump. There is very little draw on this circuit, as the only activity this wire accomplishes is flipping the switch in the relay to power the blue wire. Here is where I placed my relay:

Always solder EVERY connection:

Finished battery connections - note yellow wire which snakes from the battery to the relay:

Now that I had my relay set up, I needed to find a location for the Datel voltmeter. By the way, the unit I used is marine quality (waterproof), and works quite well for motorcycle applications. I used the exact same model on my Ducati ST2 with excellent results. I purchased this one as part of a group buy: Voltmeter, p/n DMS-20PC-0-DCM: $35.00/ea
Bezel: p/n: DMS-BZL4: $4.50/ea. Now, I set about measuring the space I needed to cut out for the install. You'll need to cut a rectangle to fit the body of the voltmeter, and four screw holes that will secure the bezel to the top of the body panel. This location worked for me, however, I'm sure you might be able to find other locations that are suitable. Here is a pic of my Dremel and drilling work:

Newly mounted voltmeter:

Finished, tidied up relay:

Here's a bonus pic: The Widder electic vest connection that my wife uses (next to passenger peg bracket):

Completely finished install:

Questions? Comments? Feel free to let Mike know at thewolfs@wolfcentral.net. Enjoy!