Handwarmer wiring- SX Viper

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Motodeficient

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Putting new bars on my SX Viper, and I'm about to install the new handwarmers on the new bars. The only handwarmers had two wires, and the new ones have three.

For the handwarmer connection from the sled side of the wiring harness, there is a black wire and a red/yellow wire. My new handwarmers have red (ground), white (hi), and black (low) wires.

The stock handwarmers had two wires which were both black. The two stock warmers were connected together with one wire, then each had the other wire connecting back to one of the two sled wires.

How do I wire these up?
 
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been years but i matched the resistance to factory warmers as close as i could. I believe red has high resistance and white is low. either of those wired in parallel or series should get you close.
 
These are SPI brand but from looking at RSI's instructions I should twist the high and low on each heater together to make a two wire connection. Not sure after that. Confused about the fact that the two stock heaters were connected to each other.

Do I connect hot (yellow/red) from sled to hot on left grip, then ground from left grip to hot on right grip, then ground on right grip to black (ground) from sled?

Or does it not matter since the stock heaters were all black wires (not labeled specifically hot or ground). That's kind of what RSI's instructions imply
 
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It depends on the type of warmers you got. Best to measure the resistance. With the warmers disconnected and the meter set on ohms, test the warmer leads in pairs - white to red, red to black, white to black. Then test between each wire and the other 2 of the tied together (alternate for all combinations). Post your findings here and we can tell you how to wire it. For the warmers to work right (usable range hi to low), we need to get the resistance close.
 
With the 2 warmer leads tied together and the feed going to the remaining 2 leads you are wired in series. Thus the current goes from the sled, through one warmer, and then over and through the other warmer, and then back to ground on the sled.

2 warmers in series will be half the total heat as a single warmer and with it split between the handles it would be 1/4 the heat at that handle.

If you tie a lead from each warmer together with the power from the sled, and the other lead from each warmer together with the ground you are in parallel. This generates 4 times the heat of the warmers in series.
 
Ding said:
With the 2 warmer leads tied together and the feed going to the remaining 2 leads you are wired in series. Thus the current goes from the sled, through one warmer, and then over and through the other warmer, and then back to ground on the sled.

2 warmers in series will be half the total heat as a single warmer and with it split between the handles it would be 1/4 the heat at that handle.

If you tie a lead from each warmer together with the power from the sled, and the other lead from each warmer together with the ground you are in parallel. This generates 4 times the heat of the warmers in series.
Click to expand...

Just tried measuring the resistance, my multimeter apparently needs a new battery or is too cold, readings jumping all over the place.

So to wire in parallel, I would twist the hi/low from each heater together, then connect the hi/low from the left grip to the hi/low of the right grip, then connect that to the red/yellow wire from the sled. Then connect the ground from the left grip to the ground of the right grip, then connect that to the black wire from the sled. Sound right?

I do appreciate your help!
 
Motodeficient said:
Just tried measuring the resistance, my multimeter apparently needs a new battery or is too cold, readings jumping all over the place.

So to wire in parallel, I would twist the hi/low from each heater together, then connect the hi/low from the left grip to the hi/low of the right grip, then connect that to the red/yellow wire from the sled. Then connect the ground from the left grip to the ground of the right grip, then connect that to the black wire from the sled. Sound right?

I do appreciate your help!
Click to expand...

if the spi ones are like the rsi ones the hi and low are not 2 separate circuits. they just have one wired in halfway through the other to. twisting them together would be no different than just the low resistance circuit. wired in parallel the warmers share the same ground and positive (half the resistance of one) In series the ground of one warmer would go to the positive of other (double the resistance of one)
 
Motodeficient said:
Just tried measuring the resistance, my multimeter apparently needs a new battery or is too cold, readings jumping all over the place.

So to wire in parallel, I would twist the hi/low from each heater together, then connect the hi/low from the left grip to the hi/low of the right grip, then connect that to the red/yellow wire from the sled. Then connect the ground from the left grip to the ground of the right grip, then connect that to the black wire from the sled. Sound right?

I do appreciate your help!
Click to expand...

Yes, that would be parallel.
 
Wire the White and Black together. Treat these as one wire lead. Now measure your resistance between b/w and the red to get the ohm value of the elements.
Factory grips measure around 1.6 ohms. As they are wired in series on the sled the circuit is 3.4 ohms. The RSI's that I did in the link below ohmed out at 6.3.
I wired these in parallel to get down to 3.2 ohms. This was close to the factory circuit for me.

For series wiring: grip one red to the sled black wire. b/w from grip one to red on grip two. b/w from grip two to yellow/red on the sled.
Parallel. Both reds to the black on the sled and and both b/w to the yellow\red.
 
The resistance on these is 4.8 on each... So parallel would be 2.4 and series would be 9.6?

Red and black is 9 ohm, red and white is 4.8

Seems like 2.4 (black/white and red in parallel) is to much draw and 4.5 (black only and red in parallel)wouldn't be enough.
 
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They advertise these SPI heaters as 30watt heaters. In series they are 15 watts or 7.5w each (figuring 9.6 OHM, 12v), and in parallel they would be 60 watts or 30 watts each (2.4 ohm, 12v).

So I guess they intend them to be wired in parallel. This would be a 5amp draw. Do you think this is too much? Will it hurt anything? Maybe just keep it on a lower setting on the rheostat knob?

Or maybe the 30watt rating is for the pair (15w each)?
 
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