Fuze Blocks .com??

[Guest]

http://fuzeblocks.com/index.php?pid=5

Found this Is this applicable to our GS es Its a bit cheaper than the One i saw on gs forums . I am slowly redoing my New (To Me) GS. Lots of issues with them, Mike

[Steve]

Even cheaper is the PC-8 from Eastern Beaver.

Each has its advantages, but after comparing the two, I have installed the Eastern Beaver unit in all four of our GSes.

I documented one of the installs just over three years ago.

.

[posplayr]

As Steve suggests there are different aspects, pros and cons of the variety of designs available. Ironically, the "value/benefits" of any particular device is as much a function of the buyer willingness to spend money, which is to a large extent a direct function of the buyers awareness of what they are buying. If you look at the basic features that you are getting (and want), and only then compare the price of those devices that provide those things, can you get a true "value" appraisal.

The cheapest thing is a can of electrical contact cleaner such as DeOxit make sure all the contacts and fuses in your fuse box are clean and corrosion free. This single tip will at least maintain 70-80% of all the "ORIGINAL" electrical performance of your old UJM.

OK this is pretty good , but let's say you already let your maintenance slide and you are already looking at a melted fuse box or you want to upgrade to a ATC type of "blade" type fuse box. You are now just looking for a simple fuse block without a relay. There are several that are probably $25-$50 . The Eastern Beaver is one of these but probably more at the top end of the scale.

The next thing to decide is, "Do you want a kit for the harnessing or are you going to build it yourself?" No matter how you slice it it is going to cost someone time and money to construct the primary power distribution harnessing. So figure this into the cost of even the cheapest items. But before you decide on which way to go you need to decide if you want to use one or more relays. Generally a relay is used to overcome basic design shortcomings of the typical motorcycle harness. The most common approach is to install a mechanical relay that is switched by the ignition switch, as opposed to having the ignition switch control the total current load of the bike. The relay typically improves the power distribution of your harness significantly as the power out of the fuse box is broken down into smaller circuits which generates lower voltage drops individually as well as having a very low voltage drop on the primary as it is coming from this single large relay. Now if you decide to get a fuse box replacement with a single mechanical relay and then your primary decision is whether the relay is built into and whether the relay is replaceable? These answers to these questions, are the more important questions to ask when choosing a fuse box replacement.

The fuzeblocks uses a commercial, but not what would be called standard automotive relay(one you buy at any auto parts store); it is also soldered into the PCB. If it fails, you rewire the bike to hobble home. The PC-8 doesn't have a relay, but you can buy an install kit or build it yourself and then it will be external and replaceable on the road. Of course when you have external relays you need more room and then you get back to the issue of size and space. Do you have severe space constraints? It will cost more to have something highly integrated than something that looks more like a lash-up of discrete components.

My technical appraisal of the use of a mechanical relay is this:
A.) The highest priority is: you need to make sure that the relay is mounted someplace where it is not exposed to high vibration or to high heat for that matter; this is most important!!!
B.) you probably want some type of fallback position in case the relay goes out and shuts down your whole bike. This is much easier with a replaceable relay. With the fuseblocks you can't replace the relay on the road without a soldering iron, you rewire the fuse blocks. Either is workable and the tradeoff should be made in consideration of your ability to do road repairs and the likelihood of such failures occurring.

Of all of the fuse box replacements/ power distribution systems on the market, only about 3 or 4 use solid state electronics to avoid mechanical relays (because they are failure prone). Other than these few devices, you should consider the discussion above in comparing the options available.

Once you start looking at solid state devices, a whole new set of options become available that were really not feasible with mechanical relay system. There is more sophisticated control of power available such as the use of security system, headlamp cutouts, other types of behavior, but there is also the issue of reliability that has not left the room just because we are not using mechanical relays. So in this brave new world of Solid State Electronics, you have to consider "just how reliable is this system?" and "what can go wrong?".

Here is a true story; it happened to me. I was returning home from about a 2500 mile rally from southern California, up to Reno, Mt Shasta, Southern Oregon. I was on the return trip having had a wonderful ride down Highway 1 North of the Bay Area. I was also fully loaded with camping gear and various other trip stuff. I was approaching the Golden Gate bridge in afternoon traffic. It was pretty heavy but moving well. About 10 miles from the bridge, my bike just cuts out. The lights are still on but the engine just dies. Fortunately I was able to get to the right hand side of the 4 lane highway and pulled off on to a dirt road. I immediately figured it was my ignition relay mod. After pulling off all my gear (everything is under the seat and covers dont come off until the seat is off and the seat doesn't come off until all of the baggage and saddle bags come off.) and jumping the relay plug, still no go. It turned out that my ignition fuse (blade type in the OEM fuse box) has blown; Why? No idea other than mechanical failure. I did not have any electrical issues. I swapped out the fuse and after repacking the bike was on my way (took about an hour to unload, diagnose and repack). Lesson, mechanical stuff can fail as electronic stuff can fail. Vibration on a motorcycle is generally high and fuses and relays are not immune. Even though I was able fairly easily diagnose and fix the problem on the road, it still gives me the willies thinking about what would have happened if I had not been able to get to the right in rush hour traffic and I was stranded on the side of the road in the center divider on a fully packed motorcycle? Talk about being a sitting duck!!

I'll not go any deeper into the issues involved in designing a solid state device, but will say that from an engineering perspective where absolute reliability is the highest priority, the design of such an electronically switched power distribution device is NON-trivial; It is not just a matter of hooking up some MOSFETS from radio shack. The benefits of this type of device over the older fuse block/relay methods are many, the downsides are potential reliability issue of the design and or susceptibilities to typical knucklehead handling procedures.

And with that I will conclude by saying that all of these and more factors were taken into consideration in the design and development of the Solid State Power Box. The SSPB has very high inherent reliability and many benefits that most people will not even realize. I don’t mind that where those features are required to maintain high field reliability. However the design is somewhat overcooked in that there are several features that provide enhanced capability that fewer than 1 in 10 people are even using. The added cost to provide these capabilities as well as the reduction in reliability associated with the extra features are the major factors in me deciding to redesign for the SSPB II.