Any thoughts on using this power distribution module on my SF2?

C

CDHE

Full member
Location
Boulder, Co
Just getting around to wiring my bike, and ran across this unit:

PDM60 | Rowe Electronics

www.rowe-electronics.com www.rowe-electronics.com

Seems like a clean way to get relay and circuit breakers to horn, ignition, lights, etc. Not cheap at $228, but 160 bucks cheaper than an M-Unit.

Has anyone here tried one?
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 5.30.14 PM.png
    Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 5.30.14 PM.png
    454.3 KB · Views: 14
I do like the idea on a single input to handle everything, then the ability to distribute as required. I made my own in a way by using a 6-fuse box (very cheap) with a single power input and placed my relays close to where they were needed: one for ignition on-off (to bypass keyed switch and all the back and forth), one each for hi/lo beams. Personally I'd prefer to have access to fuses and relays, which is all integrated in the PDM.
 
Add a few accessories to my Atlas, and it ends up with more battery connections and inline fuses than I like to see. Thats a power takeoff to charge my GPS phone on its dash, Heated grips and remote battery charging connections, as getting at the battery is bloody complicated. Maybe wiring in that gadget might help. I heard those M Units are $700. Crazy money.
 
The M-Unit does a lot more than this box though and you can program it via a bluetooth connected smartphone. Together with some other devices from them, you can significantly reduce your wiring harnes. However, especially the starter needs a high amper relay still and some other relays might still be needed. I understand that this box above is more for easily adding more circuits without the need of relays or fuses. The M-Unit is focused on replacing almost everything you have on the bike and make everything diagnosable. Big difference in my eyes.
 
I also see Eastern Beaver and Fuzebox have what seem to be similar products. Laverdalothar, are you able to comment on comparability and otherwise their use for simplifying the basic wiring harness rather than for ancillary applications? I'm keen to rewire my SF and am interested in simplified wiring options.
 
Laverdalothar said:
I understand that this box above is more for easily adding more circuits without the need of relays or fuses. The M-Unit is focused on replacing almost everything you have on the bike
Click to expand...
Replacing the fuses and relays would for me the only incentive to fit any one of these type of units, thereby making things tidier. As for replacing almost everything on my bike with something I can access with my smartphone, nah.
 
Tippie said:
Replacing the fuses and relays would for me the only incentive to fit any one of these type of units, thereby making things tidier. As for replacing almost everything on my bike with something I can access with my smartphone, nah.
Click to expand...
Tend to agree. Not quite sure what I need to observe via my smartphone ... if the indicators stop flashing??!! if the tail light stops working??!! Every home appliance now comes with 'smart connectivity' ... do I really need to monitor the stovetop rangehood using a phone/!

You can't just do away with wires because you fit a Motogadget. You still need wires and power going to handlebar switches and lights and indicators and instruments ,,, to save fitting three relays and fuses I'm not quite sure I'd get my moula's worth out of a pricey smart box.
 
piranha-bro2 said:
Tend to agree. Not quite sure what I need to observe via my smartphone ... if the indicators stop flashing??!! if the tail light stops working??!! Every home appliance now comes with 'smart connectivity' ... do I really need to monitor the stovetop rangehood using a phone/!

You can't just do away with wires because you fit a Motogadget. You still need wires and power going to handlebar switches and lights and indicators and instruments ,,, to save fitting three relays and fuses I'm not quite sure I'd get my moula's worth out of a pricey smart box.
Click to expand...
Well - you can solder in a little unit that converts all wires from the handle-bar into bus-signals so you have only 1 wire going to the M-Unit (plus ground and plus...). From there you can have just one wire going to the turn signals, two for the head-lamp and tail-light, one for ignition-feeding and one for the coils, one for the horns etc. (ground always directly localy to the frame) - that reduces the number of wires dramatically I'd say...

scroll a bit down and you see some examples of wiring diagrams. Tell me they are not less complicate than the harnes we have on our bikes...:

bikebrewers.com

MotoGadget M-Einheit Verkabelung - BikeBrewers.com €XNUMX

In diesem Artikel gebe ich Ihnen einige Handouts für die MotoGadget M-Unit-Verkabelung. Die M-Unit ist eine komplette digitale Steuereinheit für Ihr Motorrad.
bikebrewers.com bikebrewers.com
 
Thanks for the feedback. Not at all interested in connecting bike to phone, but I do have a non-conforming layout....DMC ignition, Motogadget tach, turn signal delete and CEV switches, so a new harness is an inevitability.

Noodling around with making the new one as simple and serviceable as possible,
 

Attachments

  • sf2 cockpit.jpg
    sf2 cockpit.jpg
    125.1 KB · Views: 24
Laverdalothar said:
Well - you can solder in a little unit that converts all wires from the handle-bar into bus-signals so you have only 1 wire going to the M-Unit (plus ground and plus...). From there you can have just one wire going to the turn signals, two for the head-lamp and tail-light, one for ignition-feeding and one for the coils, one for the horns etc. (ground always directly localy to the frame) - that reduces the number of wires dramatically I'd say...

scroll a bit down and you see some examples of wiring diagrams. Tell me they are not less complicate than the harnes we have on our bikes...:

bikebrewers.com

MotoGadget M-Einheit Verkabelung - BikeBrewers.com €XNUMX

In diesem Artikel gebe ich Ihnen einige Handouts für die MotoGadget M-Unit-Verkabelung. Die M-Unit ist eine komplette digitale Steuereinheit für Ihr Motorrad.
bikebrewers.com bikebrewers.com
Click to expand...
Good points Lothar and I can see it makes sense in terms of reduction. I guess I'm happy with the relatively tidy wiring on my bike. It's not obtrusive and once fitted and cable tied in place I don't really notice it. I certainly couldn't cope with a headlight full of linguini!
 
I agree, adding a M-unit to an existing, working harnes makes no real sense. If you build up a bike completely from scratch or have a totaly shot harnes and need to redo everything anyway and are not focused on originality, want some extra features (like tracing faults and voltage drains, adding alarm and antitheft features, a headlight that turns on automatically but turns off if you start the bike, emergency warning function for the turn-signals so that all 4 are blinking when needed etc. etc. etc.), it is something you can consider. defenitely not a "must have" but a nice to have if you are reworking the wiring completely anyway.
 
I'm definitely not a fan of smart electronic gadgetry on a bike that does all sorts of clever stuff. You can make a bike too smart. My Ducati Multistrada has everything is controlled by a central computer. It's got all the whizz-bang stuff like traction control, anti-wheelie control, ABS, etc. But it bothers me that if it goes wrong, it's not something I can fix. It also does things by itself that I don't know about.

It outsmarted me the other day when I went to fill it up with fuel. The bloody fuel cap wouldn't open. I didn't know that it had an auto-locking facility that locks it when the ignition is on, then unlocks it when you switch it off. The bit that fooled me is that if you don't open the cap within 60 seconds after switching the ignition off, it'll re-lock. I was a bit slow getting my helmet and gloves off at the service station and the bloody thing locked itself. I thought the latch mechanism was jammed and tried to lever it open with a screwdriver. When that didn't work, I ended up unscrewing the whole cap and its surrounding base (6 socket head screws) from the fuel tank to fill it up with fuel then screw it back on afterwards. I only figured out the auto-locking sequence the following day after doing some on-line research. I actually had a clue there might be some electrickery going on when I found wiring going to the cap when I took it apart at the service station.

Who needs a bike that makes decisions for itself without the rider knowing about it? I've had enough of this bike intruding into my riding experience. For example, when in "Urban" mode, the ABS cuts in during only moderate braking and actually reduces the braking effect. I can stop quicker without it. It's quite a capable bike, but I've decided to sell it. I'm a bit too old school for all this electronic wizardry.
 
We had a young bloke come on a club ride a while ago, we were descending a mountain road that was very damp and he had a small tipover on a 35kph bend. There was zero room to get off the road right there, so after lifting the bike upright, it refused to start. I was thinking flooded from being on its side. I have never owned a fuel-injected bike and had never heard about their automatic fuel cutoff when tipped over. It took maybe a minute for that auto system to click off and the bike to start. That was a long minute blocking traffic on the blind bend with cars sneaking past. I guess it's better that the fuel spilling and it catching fire. Cam, your story reminded me of one time at 200ks into another club ride, someone discovered they had left their fuel cap key at home. It took a while to break into that locked cap. Taught me to add spare keys to my bike's tool kit on future rides. Been delayed by lost keys a few times on group rides.
 
There is no avoiding all the intrusive shit and thinking for you on any modern machinery. OK to tidy up the wiring, it is probably simple enough to bypass if it shits itself if you are ok with electrical stuff, as long as it hasn't taken over too much.
 
Dellortoman said:
I'm definitely not a fan of smart electronic gadgetry on a bike that does all sorts of clever stuff. You can make a bike too smart. My Ducati Multistrada has everything is controlled by a central computer. It's got all the whizz-bang stuff like traction control, anti-wheelie control, ABS, etc. But it bothers me that if it goes wrong, it's not something I can fix. It also does things by itself that I don't know about.

It outsmarted me the other day when I went to fill it up with fuel. The bloody fuel cap wouldn't open. I didn't know that it had an auto-locking facility that locks it when the ignition is on, then unlocks it when you switch it off. The bit that fooled me is that if you don't open the cap within 60 seconds after switching the ignition off, it'll re-lock. I was a bit slow getting my helmet and gloves off at the service station and the bloody thing locked itself. I thought the latch mechanism was jammed and tried to lever it open with a screwdriver. When that didn't work, I ended up unscrewing the whole cap and its surrounding base (6 socket head screws) from the fuel tank to fill it up with fuel then screw it back on afterwards. I only figured out the auto-locking sequence the following day after doing some on-line research. I actually had a clue there might be some electrickery going on when I found wiring going to the cap when I took it apart at the service station.

Who needs a bike that makes decisions for itself without the rider knowing about it? I've had enough of this bike intruding into my riding experience. For example, when in "Urban" mode, the ABS cuts in during only moderate braking and actually reduces the braking effect. I can stop quicker without it. It's quite a capable bike, but I've decided to sell it. I'm a bit too old school for all this electronic wizardry.
Click to expand...

I know exactly the same situation from a Volkswagen battery electric vehicle... Friend of mine tried to unplug the charging cable and got stuck with it. He called me for help. 10 seconds search on the net revealed that you had to close the doors, lock them, unlock them and then you can safely unplug the charging cable. He was sitting in the car while charging, which caused the thing to auto-lock and not releasing the charging cable unless you followed the procedure above.

All I can say is that obviously the vehicles get smarter than the owners sometimes. Wait for AI to kick in and the bike will ride without you... :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top