If your wiring something straight into your battery with out its own regulation then you really need some kind of regulation there too. A few capacitors in the circuit should do the trick.

since wiring caps in the circuit will act as a filter (remove AC ripple), I'm not at all certain what you're suggesting here.

what "regulation" are you referring to?

a DC load is only going to draw amperage according to resistance (Ohm's law).

I suspect there's a cultural/language/terminology misunderstanding going on here, so a little discussion might help clarification.

Im no sparky so i may be talking crap, im just repeating what i was told by a auto electrician that i asked when i was looking into this myslef.

He said that capacitors can/should be used to smooth the flow. The draw of a GPS is minute compared to what a battery 'can' push. Ill dig up the thread when i have a bit more time.. to be continued !

Not a lecky either, but...

I understood that the main issue for 'some form of regulation' is to filter out spikes generated by the alternator/generator or when other equipment (starter motor) kicks in. Regulator is mostly to protect your auxilliary equipment. However, if you use the socket for charging the battery you will still have to have voltage regulation (as in your charging cirquit) to protect your battery. ...I think

Jens

yes
that's what I meant when I said caps will remove ripple (AC) from a dc circuit.
a cap will not pass DC voltage.
if you hook a cap to a dc circuit and to ground it will pass ac, thus "grounding" the ac component of the voltage ... removing it from the DC and "smoothing" it or remove the ripple.

it does not matter a whit if you have a battery capable of "pushing" 1000 amps, if the load only draws 1/2 amp at X voltage, that's all that will be present in the circuit.

Ohm's Law

E=IR

where E = voltage, I = current in amps & R= resistance in ohms

E/R=I

it's the voltage potential or the resistance (load) that will change the current.

with a 12 volt battery and a GPS drawing 0.5A the resistance of the GPS is the only thing that will cause the current to increase other than the voltage increasing.

try it with a potentiometer, an ammeter and a battery

stick the ammeter in series with a pot of say 50 ohms value and 1 watt power rating across a small 12 v battery, say a lantern battery or something of the sort.

with the pot set at 50 ohms the ammeter should show about 0.24 Amps or 240 mA.

now unhook it from the small battery and hook it across your 12 volt auto battery, which is capable of delivering over 1000A for a short period of time.

the current will not change, unless you tweak the pot or have a higher voltage battery.

that's why a fuse is there to protect the wire, not the component.
if the component draws too much current it's already buggered.

say your GPS pops a 1/2 Amp fuse when it's been working fine on it.

you verify that there's nothing else in the circuit to cause the increase in current, corroded connection adding resistance, wire frayed (reducing diameter and thus the current capacity, adding resistance), wire shorting to ground.

you can stick a 10 A fuse in there and the GPS will probably release all of its magic white smoke, because it has gone bad. the fuse did not protect it from failing, it had already failed.

I am a sparky ... i.e. Electrical Controls Engineer/Designer who started as an Instrumentation and Controls Technician decades ago.

feel free to ask questions, I respond often on ADVRider.com to electrical issues, if I have a clue (which is not always :biggrin3: )

c'ya

PS like how do I use my custom avatar on here???

Better Sockets
 

Iain,
Not sure if this is a bit late now, but if you search the web for a local chandlers (marine supliers), you'll probably find that they supply better quality waterproof sockets, which are made of brass, so they will not corrode if your bike lives outdoors like mine.

Andy