Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Farkle Review: Innovv Power Hub 1

Back in December of last year, the folks at innovv.com sent me an email asking if I'd like to do a review of their motorcycle power hub.

It took some time for me to respond as I had other mechanical/electrical matters on my motorcycle work queue.

After I responded and some exchanged emails later I was approved to do the review below.

Some Notes:  These folks are in China so it took a while to ship the review unit to me, in fact, I'd forgotten about the whole thing.  Still, I got it this Tuesday while I was out Glamping so I got around to installing it today on Fiona, my '99 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig with the Beemer engine.

The unit comes in a really nice box, reminds me of the box that iPhones come packaged in:


 What's inside....plenty of wire provided by the way,
I didn't even need to use the extra wire loops provided

 Yep, it appears all the power leads are "switched" power.
Meaning that whatever is being powered is only
getting electricity when the ignition is on.

 My original cabling mess
 Look how many positive cable connectors
crammed onto the positive terminal of the battery!
(I actually had to use a longer screw before!)

After installation, much cleaner.
All the above wiring is hidden when I
install the side panel cover onto the frame.
Note the yellow (switched power) wire which
I tapped onto the riding light's circuit so the
power hub is only supplying power when the
ignition is on.

Now the only things on the battery's positive 
terminal are the main power cable from the wiring
harness, the cable to the jump start node (easier to clamp onto)
and of course the main power lead for the Innovv power hub.

Very well built and put together hub I must say.  The instructions, printed on the side of the box are sparse but enough.  For instance, I had to re-read them to figure out the second black wire coming out of the unit (first one of course goes to the negative terminal on the battery) is to provide a ground for all your accessories using the power hub, very nice.

All the power leads are fused with 5A mini fuses.  My stuff uses 15A fuses so I replaced them as I used each lead.

The main fuse for the power hub is 40A, I left that as is.

Took the opportunity to do some wiring cleanup, and now have my aux lights, USB/Cigarette Power unit wired easily onto the power hub.  Both of course are switched power so no worries about someone turning them on by accident or mischief and draining the battery.

This still leaves me three more power leads for more farkle!

Easy installation, I look forward to testing this unit under upcoming Fall/Winter riding conditions and see how it holds up.


9 comments:

RichardM said...

I wired my USB outlets to the spotlight switch. I can charge my phone while the rig is off.

Much cheaper than the PDM60 I installed but less flexible. E.g. The PDM60 doesn't need fuses.

redlegsrides said...

RichardM, on my 2014, I wired a USB power outlet to the power hub that comes with the tub. Personally I like all power consuming devices to be "switched power" to avoid accidental draining of the battery.

Trobairitz said...

So, which farkles will you add? Looks like the wiring cleaned up nicely.

redlegsrides said...

No new ones, re-mounted the USB-cigarette power outlet.

Oz said...

I wish I had more confidence in hooking up electrical stuff. Good job.

redlegsrides said...

Thomas Osborn, I am not electrically minded at all...electrical gremlins can be the most vexing.

redlegsrides said...

Osburn that is....damn autocorrect

CCjon said...

Very nice. Cleaning up the wiring mess makes for easier work later when tracking down a short.

Any idea what the Innovv Hub will retail for?

redlegsrides said...

The innovv.com website says $69 Jan Daub....not sure how competitive that is with other similar products.