DIY Heated Jacket

It's getting colder here and I plan to try to ride my bike through the winter. I do a short 10-15 minute commute to my uni and I will need something to keep me a bit warmer. My motorcycle jacket isn't insulated very well, but I like the safety aspect of it. Rather than buying a whole new heated jacket (I'm sure these exist off the shelf) I decided to upgrade my existing jacket.


I bought four of these heated pads from sparkfun (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11289)
They appear to be just 2 strand twisted pair nichrome wire woven through some mesh fabric to keep the spacing right, and sealed between two layers of kapton tape.

And inserted them into my jacket.

As you can see there's two pasted against the back protector and two in some conveniently located pouches against the chest. I ran the cabling in between the mesh layers of the jacket and they're held in place by small zip ties so the cable runs don't get tangled as I move around or take the jacket off. The heater pads are rated for 5v but I have them in sets of two, in series. I'm powering it with a 3 cell Lipo pack for now, so each individual heater pad is seeing 6-7 volts. They get quite toasty at that voltage, but not uncomfortably so. All in all I'm quite pleased with the result and the only improvements I'd do if I redid this was to use thinner gauge wire so that I can't accidentally strangle myself on the wire runs during a bad fall (prefer the wire to rip) and add a fuse on the power input in case of short circuits. And of course power everything through a 12v DC-DC from my bike battery.

Next project will be to do the gloves. I plan to weave appropriate lengths (1.5 meters by my calculation) through a thin, cheap cotton glove (dollar should have this), and then wear that as a heated insert inside my motorcycle gloves. The gloves, like the jacket, appear to be designed for ventilation during summer rather than keeping warm during winter. Makes sense-- who rides a bike in winter anyways?

I like it!

For 15min,, hot water bottle could do, but then it's all heavy.

There are items you heat in the microwave, that are not wet. Re usable hot cold pack stuff.

Oh man that takes me back... It must have been 1999 that I build heated pants for use on my GSXR1100 (I had an original first year GSXR1100, way
cool but very dated now). I used standard insulated electronics wire. I measured the resistance and calculated I needed about 23 meters for it to dissipate
100W from 12V . I took some old pyjama trousers and with the sowing machine zig-zag stitched the wiring to the trousers. I installed a PWM modulator on
the bike for power control.

It worked extremely well. I could ride around in 0 degC whether doing 120kmh while staying warm (wearing my normal motorcycle gear), at the lights I had to
turn it down a notch as it got too warm.

Later I made two inserts for my boots to keep my feet warm. For these I used the ribbon cable from an old computer (from the hard drive connection), made
the current go back and forth to get to the required resistance / dissipation.

That is awesome. I'm considering something similar using carbon fiber ribbon. You might want to check it out for the gloves, since it will be more flexible than the wire.
http://carbonheater.us/

Looks good. I've ridden 20 years with a heated vest. The torso is really where added heat does the most good since warmed blood flow will also carry heat to your extremities.

I enjoy the electric vest because I can wear pretty much the same clothing I wear in Spring/Fall so it's not bulky.

I crimped carbon fiber tow in normal copper crimp lugs to terminate it, and used RTV silicone to mount it running all over on my motorcycle jacket and pants, as well as under the seat cover on my DSR. Works awesome! First iteration burned me pretty badly, I designed for ~200W. You actually want about 50W for your whole body (at least in mild California).

50W is all I ever need here in NYC. I've ridden in temps down around 10F. At those temps the face becomes problematic.

Lol.. I did something similar to Lebowski years ago... I used high temp thin wire... tons of it.. and put it on the outside of the zip in liner of my jacket (you dont want the element on your skin directly)
I focused it on my core, with emphasis on the front where the wind was the harshest, and ended up with a electric liner for the jacket.

it worked really well. at first I had to unplug it when I entered city traffic, but eventually I put a PWM circuit on it so I could turn it down when I was in slow traffic, and turn it up on the interstate. Today I would do something similar, but use an arduino and a temp sensor so that I wouldnt have to mess with it too much.

The easy solution is an off the shelf tradie hoodie with inbuilt heating core. They typically run off a small 5S battery pack.

These are helpful suggestions. I plan on heating my ebike setup come this winter. I will be commuting 19 miles. During my test ride tonight i got way too cold after just 3 miles. I found that my hands, ears, and toes were the coldest by far. So i will focus on heated gloves/grips, heated shoes first

I much perfered heated grips over heated gloves.
I used to use these super cheap grip heaters.
If anything, they would get too warm when I had them on high.

https://www.amazon.com/Iztoss%C2%AE-Universal-Motorcycle-Handlebar-Position/dp/B018K7NXWG/ref=pd_lpo_263_lp_t_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SQX7M4Z81RAJ2HZ7NRRX

Nice job OP!
Since I don't wear my 'ride jacket' except in the spring and fall, I find winter biking is most comfortable with snowboard/snowmobile gear, and proper layers starting with cotton or merino.
For best health/comfort (and 'green') I think part of the equation is acclimation to the seasonal temps - not overly relying on AC or Heat. Last winter I tried the thermostat @ 55f. Would love to get acclimated to 40-45f with outside temps @ 0-32f, but since the ground maintains 55f yearround that feels pretty natural imo.

Plus one on vests/ core temp for extremity warmth and heated/shielded grips for riding comfort . Also, 'muck' boots and 'darn tough' socks are good for the feet imo.

Re the torso. For those of you not yet enjoying a heated vest, there is a very old and very true mountaineering saying.

If your hands or feet are cold, put another layer on your torso. Keeping the core warm prevents the body from cutting off the circulation to the extremities.

Also for the head,, get a warmer helmet ASAP, because like the torso, it hogs all the blood.

Of course, nothing works for keeping the torso warm like a hot vest, so get one if you ride in the cold a lot! I always wished I could have one windsurfing. Drysuit of course, but they still leak quite a bit. Head to toe 5 mm rubber still not enough. You'd go at it till hypothermia kicked in, then let the wind blow you to the other side of the lake, where you'd emerge barely able to move. The hike back from the other side would warm you back up.

Getting cold here. Been using wool for all my base layers during winter but my limit is 32f/0c. Maybe will try the heated vest and see if I can go in colder weather.

Yeah, I heard about the carbon fiber ribbon right after I ordered these heating pads and the nichrome wire. My friend is going to try something similar using the carbon fiber ribbon. We'll see how it turns out. It does seem simpler and easier that way.

I was trying to find that carbon fabric that someone was selling, but I cant get the right search terms.
But I found this,
https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/HEATING+TEXTILE.PDF


Found it,
http://www.carbonheater.us/

Winter is coming, so I will try both. Plus give it as a gift to someone, maybe my brother who is an outdoorsman kind of guy.

Heated torso sure beats unheated if its cold. Even if u r broke, a few dollars for pads is a bargain.

Tho to cheapskate me, the elephant in the room here is powering it from the bikes existing battery

one poster here says 50w is good.? seems a lot.

if spare capacity on an ebike exists (op has a motorbike, 12v), it seems preferable to yet another goddam battery to; buy, charge and fret about.

Raged said:

The easy solution is an off the shelf tradie hoodie with inbuilt heating core. They typically run off a small 5S battery pack.

Click to expand...

maate , not sure thats english to many here

a tradie is a tradesman and a hoodie is a jacket with a hood

cycleops612 said:

(op has a motorbike, 12v), it seems preferable to yet another goddam battery to; buy, charge and fret about.

Click to expand...

Actually, here is a photo of my bike. I guess my original post is misleading. It's a 100v Crystalyte 5403 I cruise at about 90 kph though so it gets fairly cold.

Oh man those X54/53's will be my next purchase. Heavy but shed heat really well and damn quiet, from the magnet/slot shape.
I got a feeling though, them motors are expensive.

The price difference between the two heated elements is quite large, so it would be good to know how the applications differ, like voltage needed etc.

You can also go old school : get a metal handlebar basket and make a wood fire

+1

Cook your food at same time. What more could you ask for.

at 65 yo, i recall metal containers of hot water in country passenger rail cars in rural oz as a kid.


I also saw reference to taking hot water bottles on cold motoring trips in the uk 1930/40s.

I recall my dad retro fitting a 3rd party heater onto a new car in 1964 (a local version of a medium chevy - Holden). It was an option - an expensive one it seems.

No electric fan, it was a little radiator just under an air scoop outlet. U lifted the hood to turn a cock to activate hot water flow.

that stuff like that be standard was a quaint notion introduced by the japanese, around the same time here in oz.

fyi

"In 1930 GM developed what we call a heater core and the modern automobile cabin heater was born so to speak.
Now to 1933, Ford introduced a radiant heater with a boiler that burned gasoline. Again not safe, and probably stinky. Curiously this type of heater was used on DC-3 (C-47) Aircraft and it was one of those that supposedly resulted in the crash that killed Ricky Nelson.
But even with GM's 1930 development the heater was still pretty darn crude and it was Nash in 1937 that pretty much perfected the cabin heating system with temperature controls and air filters that we know today."

seems a bit odd that it took so long to put a little extension of the existing cooling system into the cabin to warm it in freezing nth america.

usa had a huge fleet of autos by 1930, yet no doable heater til then?

as most know, US & UK ww2 aircrew had electrically warmed flight suits.

This thread motivated me to do my own heated jacket.
Since I live in Az. and needed a winter jacket anyhow, I picked one that would make this mod super simple without much regard to max warmth. So I searched for a jacket that was reversible and had big pockets on the inside. I came up w/ this;
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0110HHTC8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(Awesome jacket, BTW)
I wired it the same as the OP, the two elements are taped together and are in series. The battery is a 3S/3000 mAh and stows in a deep hand warmer pocket just out sight.

I only ordered enough stuff for one side of the Jacket to test. If I used the 100 mm X 50 mm elements, they wouldn't extend out of the pocket. The battery seems about right as these elements dis-charge very slowly.
I added a low Voltage alarm

Being from oz, i doubt i will be taken seriously re cold weather, but i survive sydney winter (like LA only east coast) w/ no heating at all, EXCEPT, when stationary, i wear an electric blanket sorta.

The point of my experience, is that i find the closeness to the skin important. It seems to have a much greater warming effect.