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Here's my Bluetooth dongle harness

3 Wheel Addict

New member
Thanks Finless Bob for the info on how to do it!! :thumbup::thumbup:

I got the plug and the pins from Evinrude and with an old USB cord and a 3.5mm audio cable made my own. Wrapped the whole cable in nylabraid sleeve, turned out really nice! The Evinrude connector plug is slightly different as it has a locking tab on both sides but it wont matter because the radio only has one lock pin. The plug fits right into the radio and works perfect! The Evinrude parts are not as cheap as the Mouser parts but might be easier to obtain for some people by just going to your local boat dealer. A tip for sealing the unused holes in the connector without buying those little plug pins, plastic tooth picks, they work great.

Evinrude part numbers:

Connector plug 3011169 (1 required)
Connector terminal 3011171 (5 required)
 

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Bluetooth Dongle Harness

Can you explain to me what this will allow you to do now, that you could not do before. Thanks
 
Thanks Finless Bob for the info on how to do it!! :thumbup::thumbup:

I got the plug and the pins from Evinrude and with an old USB cord and a 3.5mm audio cable made my own. Wrapped the whole cable in nylabraid sleeve, turned out really nice! The Evinrude connector plug is slightly different as it has a locking tab on both sides but it wont matter because the radio only has one lock pin. The plug fits right into the radio and works perfect! The Evinrude parts are not as cheap as the Mouser parts but might be easier to obtain for some people by just going to your local boat dealer. A tip for sealing the unused holes in the connector without buying those little plug pins, plastic tooth picks, they work great.

Evinrude part numbers:

Connector plug 3011169 (1 required)
Connector terminal 3011171 (5 required)

Looks good.
I will have to sit down and make mine tonight. IT will have to be a little different, because I have an ST it will have to be longer. I want mine powered up all the time so I will have a separate power cord.
 
Please Explain the Benefits

Thanks Finless Bob for the info on how to do it!! :thumbup::thumbup:

I got the plug and the pins from Evinrude and with an old USB cord and a 3.5mm audio cable made my own. Wrapped the whole cable in nylabraid sleeve, turned out really nice! The Evinrude connector plug is slightly different as it has a locking tab on both sides but it wont matter because the radio only has one lock pin. The plug fits right into the radio and works perfect! The Evinrude parts are not as cheap as the Mouser parts but might be easier to obtain for some people by just going to your local boat dealer. A tip for sealing the unused holes in the connector without buying those little plug pins, plastic tooth picks, they work great.

Evinrude part numbers:

Connector plug 3011169 (1 required)
Connector terminal 3011171 (5 required)

This allows what exactly?
 
Can you explain to me what this will allow you to do now, that you could not do before. Thanks

There is a kit available from BRP that connects the onboard radio to a Sena bluetooth dongle. That will transmit the radio sound to the bluetooth helmet communicator speakers instead of the onboard speakers. To save money folks are building their own cable and buying the Sena unit to do the same thing.
 
Dongle

This is from the 2014 Accessories Catalog for those wanting to understand what we are try to accomplish.

dongle.JPG
 
Looks good.
I will have to sit down and make mine tonight. IT will have to be a little different, because I have an ST it will have to be longer. I want mine powered up all the time so I will have a separate power cord.

Mine has the separate power cord built in, look close it has a 3.5mm audio and the micro USB for power. I'm going into the rear trunk with mine and its not that far to go.
 
Mine has the separate power cord built in, look close it has a 3.5mm audio and the micro USB for power. I'm going into the rear trunk with mine and its not that far to go.

I guess I did not explain that well. Your cord gets the power from the radio and is switched, on and off with the radio. I want mine unswitched so I can leave it on all the time. So I have ordered a USB power cord that converts the 12V to 5V that the SM10 needs and will hardwire that into an always on circuit somewhere.
 
I guess I did not explain that well. Your cord gets the power from the radio and is switched, on and off with the radio. I want mine unswitched so I can leave it on all the time. So I have ordered a USB power cord that converts the 12V to 5V that the SM10 needs and will hardwire that into an always on circuit somewhere.

I was concerned about that and PM'ed Finless Bob about this very thing, if my power wires tie into the radio with that harness I made is it supplying 12v or 5v to the SENA? I know that the cigarette lighter adaptors have voltage reducers built into them to supply 5v but what about that radio output, is it 5 volts or am I going to fry the dongle by dumping in 12 volts??
 
I was concerned about that and PM'ed Finless Bob about this very thing, if my power wires tie into the radio with that harness I made is it supplying 12v or 5v to the SENA? I know that the cigarette lighter adaptors have voltage reducers built into them to supply 5v but what about that radio output, is it 5 volts or am I going to fry the dongle by dumping in 12 volts??

Good question I just assumed the radio was outputting 5V.
 
Good question I just assumed the radio was outputting 5V.

Could be if the factory harness supplies power the exact same way. We'll see what Bob has to say. I went back and watched the original video he posted and there is no mention of anything reducing the voltage. But he does mention 12 volts in the video at 4:10 into it.
 
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I will look it up but pretty sure it's 12V input.
The Sena SM10 comes with a cig lighter adapter so it may have a 12 to 5 regulator in it. So until I look it up use that to power it if you don't hook it to your radio. That is what the RT guys are doing I made cables for.

But still willing to bet it is 12v input.

Be back after I read the manual.

Bob
 
OK so it's not 5V but it's also not just straight 12V. Also I looked at my notes when I was probing the radio RD02 port and the power wires coming out of the radio are 12V.

The Sena documentation does not state anything about voltage. But it doesn't give any warning about using ONLY their 12V cig cord either... etc.

So I looked on the Sena support forums and found this interesting post.

http://support.senabluetooth.com/entries/23828498-12v-Power-adapter-capabilities-

Still no answer but he says his other charges work fine on the Sena but the Sena 12 cord wont charge his phones.
So this made me think there was something inside the 12V adapter. So I took it apart.

There are 4 diodes inside. They look like doubled up voltage blocking diodes. What I think they are for is to limit high voltage conditions and noise to the Sena. e.g. a motorcycle magneto the charge voltage to the battery can get pretty high like close to 15V and also can produce a lot of noise (whine in the audio). So I think they are for that.

I hooked a volt meter to the output and it is 1 volt less than the input. This is why it probably wont charge phones.

Now is it a must to use their cord only? Probably not unless your having noise in the audio but I leave that up to you.

If your wiring this to power on a ST and dont have a cig lighter? you could take this board out of the adapter (super easy 1 screw and a cap) and hook it's inputs to your 12V on the spyder and thus you have the board in place. That is if your worried about it. I would think if Sena wanted to have you use their cord specifically they would have said so!

Attached is a picture of the little board in the cig adapter.

Bob

IMG_0885[1].jpg
 
Ok now that makes me wonder what the factory dongle harness has in it? Does it have a power supply cord, is it power reduced?
The power output from the radio for the GPS harness is 12 volts. The BRP Garmin power input is 12 volts. I believe it would be safe to assume the power output for the BT dongle is also 12 volts. That is probably one big difference between the factory Sena dongle and the after market SM10. The factory one is probably made for 12 volt input, the after market is 5 volt.

I'd be willing to bet if you connect the after market Sena dongle to the radio output directly, you will fry it for sure. Use a USB adapter like the one I used for the GPS. I link to it in my non-BRP GPS topic.

USB adapter power outputs vary from less than 300 ma to over 2000 ma output. Many devices, like my Samsung tablet, will not charge on an adapter that outputs less than 1 amp. And I discovered a 1 amp USB adapter would not power my tablet plus an iPod. So make sure you get an adapter with adequate power capacity be it an accessory plug type or direct wire type.
 
Incorrect. The BRP SM10 is the same as the stock Sena SM10. If you have not seen my DIY cable check it out. The BRP dongle cable is nothing more than a connector with 5 wires. +12, gnd, audio left, audio right, and audio ground (common). No magic. And as I said the radio outputs 12v to the SM10.
BRP would not release this info forcing people that want BT to buy their kit. With the help of others I figured out how it hooks to the radio then made my own cable and saved over $100 by buying the SM10 off the shelf. So no worry about frying it as it works for me and 5 others I have made cables for.

See these posts for more info:

http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/...dding-BRP-Bluetooth-Dongle-Questions-Answered

http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/...-wiring-to-the-BRP-radio-Make-your-own-Dongle!

My bet is the 12v out from the radio is filtered from noise like the diodes Sena puts in their CIG lighter adapter. That's about it. No rocket science.

Bob
 
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Incorrect. The BRP SM10 is the same as the stock Sena SM10. If you have not seen my DIY cable check it out. The BRP dongle cable is nothing more than a connector with 5 wires. +12, gnd, audio left, audio right, and audio ground (common). No magic. And as I said the radio outputs 12v to the SM10.
BRP would not release this info forcing people that want BT to buy their kit. With the help of others I figured out how it hooks to the radio then made my own cable and saved over $100 by buying the SM10 off the shelf. So no worry about frying it as it works for me and 5 others I have made cables for.

See these posts for more info:

http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/...dding-BRP-Bluetooth-Dongle-Questions-Answered

http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/...-wiring-to-the-BRP-radio-Make-your-own-Dongle!

My bet is the 12v out from the radio is filtered from noise like the diodes Sena puts in their CIG lighter adapter. That's about it. No rocket science.

Bob
Thanks for setting me straight. I'm not familiar with the SM10 and took it from the discussion it can be charged with a USB cord, but I guess not. The guy who tried to charge his phone with the Sena cord is lucky then that he didn't fry his phone, right? So I'm wondering why USB got tangled up in the Sena SM10 discussion anyway, or am I doing a bad job of reading and interpreting? But that's right, in your video you do show and discuss wiring the Sena power cable directly to the radio power supply. I didn't think about that.

I guess some folks don't pay close enough attention to what the specified power requirement is for an electronic device. Just because a cord may fit doesn't mean it'll charge properly. I accidentally plugged a 9 volt adapter into my 12 volt handheld CB unit. No surprise, it wouldn't work.
 
I got a good deal on the BRP dongle with harness but found like you said their lighter adaptor wouldn't charge my phone gave a message about volts being incorrect. The USB dialogue is because the dongle powers from micro or is it mini USB?
Since their harness plugs in the main harness by the radio didn't need the lighter adaptor. But I get considerable noise even before starting it up, mines mounted in the Frunk like the instructions suggest, so I think noise is from elects around the engine, but not certain. Anyone figured out how to reduce the noise on a BRP dongle?


Living the dream while I still can!
 
I am being to think that the SM10 will run on 5V or 12V. Modern devices are able to cope with different input voltages. For example the power cord I ordered converts 8V - 22V to 5V 3 amp. That way it should be good to charge anything if needed.

I have first hand experience with the Sena charger cord not charging a phone with my headset charger. The charger does not meet the standard for dumb charging devices that requires the data lines to be shorted out. Now I am thinking this is on purpose because of the voltage. If the phone does not see an intelligent device on the other end of the data lines or the data lines are not shorted out the phone will refuse to charge.
 
iPhones require an intelligent charger. I do not think Android phones do but I could be wrong. My Android tablets can use straight 12V non-smart charger.

But that is the point. They are using a micro USB connector yet 12V is coming out of it so you have to be careful trying to use it on something else. USB spec is 5V!

Yes many recent devices can handle both. My helmet cam for instance will run (record and work) off 12V but not charge. It requires 5V to charge which seems reversed to me but that's what the manual also says.

The diodes in the 12V Sena plug are for noise but in the process they drop the voltage 1V to 11V instead of 12V (Actually 11.7 from 12.7). I am not getting any noise in my SM10 but it is hooked to the radio and in the trunk not the frunk. However I have tried it power by the trunk cig lighter using the Sena supplied cord and got no noise.
Many have complained of disconnect issues and noise issues when mounted in the frunk. I would move it to the trunk myself.

Bob
 
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