Installation:

You now have a decision to make as to what you are going to use as your trigger wire.  For those of you that don't know what a relay does here is a simple little lesson.  A relay allows your “device” (in our case – JoeTunes) to follow the same set of protocols of another “device “and that happens through the trigger wire.  I know that is broad, so let us use a specific example.  When we put the key in our bike and put it to “ON” several things happen, some of which are:

The Headlight turns on

The Tail Light turns on

The License Plate Light turns on

The Amber Running lights up front turn on

If we were to “tap” one of those wires running to those lights with our blue trigger wire it will (when the key is put to ON) “activate” our relay and allow power to flow through our relay to the Shark Audio unit. This is a good thing, because it will never allow you to leave JoeTunes on when you turn off the key....basically when the key is off there will be no possible way to turn on the radio, thus no battery drain.  There is a drawback with the Shark Audio systems, however; you will lose your presets.  I truly feel that that is of little importance verses leaving JoeTunes on once and it draining your battery.  If you’re like me and will use the AUX jack wired to an IPod then this is of little consequence.

Now which wire would I choose to trigger JoeTunes....well for this application I would do one of two things:

I would either connect our blue trigger wire to the tail light wire or to one of the headlight wires. 

Let's first start with the tail light wire:

The tail light wire is a brown wire that is bundled in a mess of wires under the right side cover.  It's easy to get to and handles our most basic need of turning on power to the radio when the key is turned to “on”, and turning off power to the radio when the key is turned to “off”.  Just run the blue trigger wire to the brown tail light wire (it’s found in a bundle of wires under the right side cover) and use our Quick Splice connector to connect our blue trigger wire to the brown tail light wire.

Above is a portion of our bikes wiring diagram showing the color of the taillight wire. The whole wiring diagram could be found in the final pages of the service manual for the VTX 1300's.

Mount the JoeTunes bag to the front of the handlebars with the speakers facing towards you, and run the power wire to the right side of the neck and the antenna wire along the handlebars.  As time goes on you will find the best place for the antenna wire.  For me, I got good reception wrapping the antenna wire around my mirror post on the left side.  Connect the Powerlet wires, put the key in the ON position (or just start the bike) then push and hold the MODE button on the Shark Audio system for more than 2 seconds and the radio will turn on.  Tune to a station or hook up your external device to the AUX jack and “ROCK OUT!!!”

Remember a few things....while the speakers are fully waterproof the amp unit and the remote control unit are not.  While the amp really can't get wet in the bag you could always seal the seams with a little silicone (It couldn't hurt).  What I do with the remote is to tuck it back into the bag when the weather is threatening or when I'm away from the bike.  When you are riding you could always “plastic bag” it.  I suggest getting some Velcro strips (the kind you use to bind wires together) they sell it at Lowes right where they sell the Velcro, and use that to hold the remote to the bars. 

JoeTunes