Overview

   Having good music, a radar detector, and an intercom have made my riding a lot more relaxing, especially on long trips.  Of course, my bike didn't come outfitted this way and I learned a lot in the process of assembling my electronics. Hopefully if you want to go this route you won't need to reinvent the wheel regarding some of the basics that I'll discuss here.  A lot of this will be brand-specific; that's unavoidable since the installation techniques vary depending on the equipment.  Still, the principles are common to all electronic work.

   Before you do anything, establish the following.

• What do you want the system to do? If your goal is to fins a way to integrate the latest odd-on, you'll end up making a lot of changes and repeating your work.  Decide what you want before you start to integrate.
• What components will you use?  For example, rather than just adding a CB, make sure you add the right CB. Different radios (or CD players, or intercoms) have different requirements and it'll be a waste of time to wire on of them in and then think you can swap for another one later on.
• Where will these components be? Rewiring is time-consuming.

Workmanship & other notes

   My initial efforts were severely compromised by poor materials. The result was poor reliability and at least one important fuse blown while riding.

• Do not underestimate the abuse that this type of system will experience.  I started this project using 1/8" mono plugs from Radio Shack for power and signal disconnects.  Never again!  Although there are some RS components present, many of their plugs and jacks are simply not appropriate for this duty.  For main power I use Anderson Powerpole connectors; miniature versions of the genderless connectors used on forklift batteries. For signal connections I use the metal-cased plugs from RS when necessary, but connectors are eliminated where possible.  Factory jacks and well-made plugs (molded-on if possible) are pretty reliable, especially if protected.
• Use heat-shrink tubing liberally.  Strain-relief on the connectors is very important since the cables will see a lot of flexing. Cheap wires can be shorted out easily by crimping a strain relief on too hard, though, so use some heat-shring underneath the crimp.
• The Autocom uses both 45° DIN plugs (headset) and 60° plugs (transceiver plug).  Make sure you get the 60° plug.  RS sells one, but it has a center pin which must be broken off.  Decent electronic parts stores will sell a better quality one without the center pin.
• Make sure you have all of your grounds right.  Reversing the power or signal leads to a component could be either expensive or just very confusing.  I connected all power first, then checked that the ground lead on each signal was the same as true ground.  My initial efforts to connect the V1 to the Autocom may have been foiled by a ground loop.

RF Noise

   The K-bikes are very bad in this regard. My bike had a very load whine from the fuel pump and lesser noise from the ignition, computer, and injectors. It is VERY important to have good grounds for the whole system and to shield the cables whenever possible. Keeping the electronics in the back of the bike helps keep their cables from picking up RF noise from the computer.  Run a separate (and heavy) power cable from the battery to power only the sensitive electronics.

• The fuel pump noise is truly RF; no amount of power filtering will fix it because it's coming in through the CB antenna. Fix the fuel pump noise by putting a 0.1mF capacitor across the leads to the fuel pump.  This can be easily done at the tank connection plug, but the closer to the pump you are, the more of the noise you will elilinate.
• The ignition noise can be reduced by using a noise supressor on the power leads to the electronic gear.
• The injector noise can be reduced by putting small capacitors across the injector leads at the injectors.

Components

   My basic rig consists of an Autocom (intercom) with a Valentine One (radar detector) and a Cobra CB.  There's a "Black Box" for connections and supporting circuitry.

• The Autocom is the heart of the system.  It takes 9V power, and in addition to the headset leads it has a 3.5mm stereo input jack and a 5-pin 60° transceiver plug for various other input types.
• The Valentine takes 12V and I have the optional audio adapter, which accepts the power from the bike, sends it to the V1, and receives the signals from the V1.  There is a 3.5mm (1/8")" stereo headphone jack and a 2.5mm (3/32") mono speaker jack.  Standard phone cable (RJ11) connects the components. The headphone jack is connected to the stereo input on the Autocom.
• The CB has two mono jacks: one 2.5mm for the microphone and a 3.5mm speaker jack. This gets interfaced to the transceiver plug on the Autocom.

The "Black Box"

   I started with a box from a Braun electric shaver (it was a good size) and an old cigarette lighter power adapter from Radio Shack.  I needed to get 9V for the Autocom, so I took the circuit board out of the adapter and unsoldered the various wires from it.  Trimmed a piece of perforated circuit board to fit and mounted the components on it.  Holes in the box with rubber grommets passed wires through.  Also in the box is the V1 audio adapter.
   The input points on the circuit board are used for junctions wherever possible.  Essentially the power goes from the bike into the box, through an inline fuse, and to the 12V input terminal of the power supply.  Also soldered to that point is the positive power lead of the RJ11 cord to the V1 audio adapter.  The negative lead goes to the ground on the circuit board and the ground RJ11 lead connects here, too.  Power from the circuit board output goes to the Autocom and is delivered through a 9V pigtail (same as comes out of the Autocom) and these pigtails are available at Radio Shack, too. Remember that the polarity may appear wrong on the pigtail!  I removed the flimsy wires on the 9V pigtail and soldered on heavier ones.
   The result of this black box is that I have power to the Autocom and the V1, and the audio adapter is protected inside the box.

The Valentine 1

     The V1 is a very rugged radar detector. All of the accessories for it (remote display, remote audio, power supply, etc.) are interconnected with standard phone cable, so you don't need to go to a proprietary source for replacement cables.
     The power to the unit is fed from the two center wires out of the four in a typical RJ11 ribbon; I used a Rdio Shack RJ11 pigtail (with lugs on the ends of the wires) and the red was negative and the green was positive.  Don't ry to cut the end off a regular cord, since it is likely to have foil conductors which are impossible to reliably connect to anything. The RS pigtail has real wire conductors.  That part goes from the input power to the audio adapter, and a separate RJ11 cable goes from that to the V1. Due to corrosion, the cable to the V1 needs to be replaced periodially.
     A disadvantage of this setup is that I cannot adjust the volume on the road (since the audio adapter is inside the black box) but in practice no adjustment is needed. The V1 usually rides in the map pocket of the tankbag.
     The signal from the headphone output jack is stereo, but the two channels are bridged with resistors. You should use a stereo plug so that it is properly held in the jack. If this is connected to the stereo jack on the Autocom, you can use a prefabricated cable with a stereo plug on both ends.  If you are connecting to the transceiver plug, you'll need to join the two channels together.  In this case a mono plug might work at the V1 end.
     Don't try to use the speaker jack on the audio adapter for this purpose! It is a mono output with a floating signal and gets extremely unhappy when either side is taken to ground.  Since all components in this system have a common ground, the speaker jack cannot be used.

The Autocom

     The Autocom PRO3000 takes 9V power, has a stereo input jack and cables with male  5-pin 45° DIN plugs for the rider and passenger headsets.  There is also a female 5-pin 60° DIN plug (the transceiver plug) for interfacing to a 2-way radio, cell phone, or any on ther input/output source. Using this plug can be straightforward or difficult; see the separate Autocom page for more details..

Mounting

     I have located it in various places, like in the tail trunk and in the tool tray.  Usually I just put it in the tankbag now.

CB Radio

     I have used several different CBs with this setup. See Autocom and radio integration for more details.