Keep plugging away, you'll win in the end

[ribbert]

This will only be of interest to some, mostly those running accessories on their bikes.

On a recent trip on the FJ I kept blowing fuses. It was night, it was freezing and it was raining. It had done this a couple of times before and then stopped, my short term fix was to buy a box of that size fuse.

What I discovered was this, the original power lead for my heated vest was on another bike and I had recently made up some more to leave permanently on two other bikes, so I wouldn't have to change it over from bike to bike. I bought the hardware from an electrical component specialty store, JayCar, and made up the leads.

I use a 2.5mm jack because that's what the jacket comes with and the breakaway function is good if I forget to disconnect when dismounting, just the right amount of tension.

It turns out the female socket had two problems (pic #1), the centre pin is the same height as the sides so when pushing them together by feel it was easy to bridge the two if not well lined up and short it out. Secondly, it relies on single piece of spring wire to put tension on the male pin when together, this came adrift and they wouldn't stay together and would short as they came apart.
The better quality item (pic #2) had curved ss slotted sides, like a reverse banana plug and the centre pin was lower down inside the socket so the plugs are aligned before it becomes live.

Only a minor issue I know but to the few FJer's who run accessories using these connectors, being somewhere inhospitable at night and in foul weather, it may well save them a lot of grief.



It's probably difficult to see at this resolution but the arc marks can be seen where it has shorted.




Funnily enough, they didn't even have the better plug when I went back and asked, nor had they ever noticed the difference.

Noel

[Charlie-brm]

In North America that type would typically be called a Barrel Connector. I suppose it would be good for a quick release requirement.
https://www.jameco.com/shop/StoreCatalogDrillDownView?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&freeText=barrel%20connector&search_type=jamecoall

The second example looks like in addition to springs in the sleeve it also has the center pin split, so if needed you could separate that to give more pressure for the inner contact. The replacement looks like a panel mounted connector from the pick but I get the idea: Buy something with some thought put into it.

What I love about barrel connectors is that about half of my gear using a small "wall wart" DC supply came with the center pin being ground and the outer sleeve being positive. It goes against every instinct I developed in 52 years of dicking around with hobby electronics.

That lives up to the truism: I love engineering standards, because there are so many to choose from.