BMW Communications System

[The Nightingale]

So the battery in my lid has died.....

They used three standard Ni-Mh cells to power the comms board, but low and behold, because it is BMW instead of just powering the board with a three cell pack with a positive and negative connection they have added a third wire which also merges to ground, but has a small addition to it.

So because this wire is of unknown quantity - not sure at this time whether it is a capacitor or a resistor, or what is on the board that connects though it - it means that I can't just fit an industry standard replacement.

I have paid far too much for a replacement set of cells (over £30 - urrgh!) but it is still far less than buying in a replacement system and stripping the old BMW system from the lid.

What it does mean is that I have a spare wire which I can use to make a new battery pack with at my leisure, soldering the cells together so they will slip happily back into place on the lid.

Does anyone else have experience with these? What solution did you use (other than going to the Stealership with plenty of lube so it hurts less?)

[pigmy]

I have no experience with BMW systems, but I have been using Autocom systems for many years, I started with an "Easy 7" that my wife and I just talked to each other with and gradually added to it where I had a bluetooth unit and a bike to bike PMR, this worked very well until the bluetooth unit packed up. (was about 12 years old by this time)
So last year after buying my F800ST I decided to invest again in a new bluetooth unit and maybe upgrade my PMR radio. This started the research and of course the "FleaBay".

I priced up a new bluetooth unit and decided to that probably better to start from scratch again, as mic's and ear pieces needed refurbishing. Then Ebay....

So added a search for the Autocom, and came upon the SPA Autocom system, did not take long for one to come up with a bluetooth unit included "as new".
Seems most people are going for full bluetooth phone bike to bike etc??? After watching it to the end I put the bid in £150 that is the starting bid and won it at this price . (I like the wired system as less to go wrong)

It was delivered and it was as new so a "win" on my part, set about installing it and all good, the bluetooth powers off the unit, so wiring easier from that point, just 2 wires for the main unit, the headset was installed in my helmet, I did replace the mic and ear piece covers with refurbishment kits from "Sporstbike shop". There was no need to replace the wives headset as that was the same, the SPA system has a "noise cancelling setup" for the riders headset.

I have a Garmin Satnav hard wired in that is bluetoothed to my phone, (This was on the old system, but was hit and miss if using phone with the Bluetooth ) so paired that to the new Autocom bluetooth and the Satnav worked with the mp3 and directions through headset, the phone then also worked with blue tooth, also using the mp3 player on that, google maps if you wanted too, and of course you could make and take calls, the calls all controlled through the Garmin. So a "BIG" win on that over the old one.

I then came to put my PMR radio onto bike....realised that that new SPA system is all 12volt not 9volt for the bike power on the PMR radio, as on my old system, so purchased a 9volt to 12volt from a guy that repairs sells Autocom spares etc for £10 delivered, that worked really well, but a later digital Kenwood radio came up (got the upgrading bug...lol) as new. So decided to add that instead as had 12volt Autocom bike powered interface, (and also batteries etc as supplied from Kenwood, this had come from ChainSpeed a local Autocom dealer, the SPA also came from them ) so now no extra transformers floating about under seat , much neater set up.

So by now myself and lads went off to Scotland touring, no flat batteries like some who only had battery powerd systems or blue tooth units, unlike those of us who had the bike powered Autocom and 12 hours on the road, (4 off us out of us out of the 8 ) still talking, using PMR and had mp3, radio through phone app, mp3 through phone and all other phone gismos etc....Fantastic.

Any way the one bad thing was the VOX with PMR so decided to get the push to talk working on return, had one supplied with my digital Kenwood, but hated the push to talk switch from Autocom, (It is a cumbersome unit that is always in the way....so never fitted ) so as I work in Automotive development spoke to a colleague who said we can change button to a small waterproof one, so he then cut the monster switch off and fitted the new one, I made a bracket and fitted it to the bike and plugged it in to Autocom, all the other Autocom 5 pin waterproof din plugs all remained, set the Kenwood to accept push to talk commands and it all worked, so now push to talk on PMR and VOX for all other uses, talking to wife; taking calls etc. The push to talk on the original
Autocom has a swith built in that gives open to VOX operation, push to talk or transmit only (bike training school use?) my switch is only push to talk now so i can hear others on same channel but conversation on phone, with pillion are private.

If you are wondering how I have 12volt power?
The Answer: I have a "FZ1 Fuze box sitting on the top of the airbox all wires run to that giving fused switched "clean" 12 volt power.

So a £250 exercise but seems to be well worth the effort as no batteries when out and about, as all parts are powered off bike
and come on and off when ignition switch and with the exception of Satnav all stay under seat/tank so no "FAF" when you pull up, go off,
just plug your headset into the bike click the Satnav into the housing, switch on and off you go

The latest thing I have is a Garmin action camera, that is this years project, again; (still got the upgrade gadget bug...) this operates from the Garmin satnav, I do have the waterproof USB charge cable from Garmin so again can be bike powered or run off the internal battery or if necessary it can be charged if camera has been on helmet.

I can put some pictures up if you want to see how it all works and where I have placed the various parts of the setup??