DIY Heated Gloves (and potentially other gear)

[Hogan]

Here in Australia, anything less than 18 degrees Celsius and you can feel your balls receding into your throat.

 

So I've decided to make some heated gear based of existing motorcycle stuff, and starting with gloves.

 

Here's the left one on the inside. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what the right one looks like.

 

 

This glove is not actually a motorcycle glove, but rather just a generic marine type glove I'm using for testing (neoprene/rubber with a cotton liner.)

But the design can obviously be adapted to most any simple thin leather or cotton glove.

 

For a large size glove, it uses approximately 1.3 meters of the heating element.

The element is a silicon insulated carbon fiber element. I bought it from eBay straight from China. It's usually sold as an under-floor heating element for mains voltages. But at 33 ohms/metre it can work at 12 volts too.

 

This kind of element is super flexible and can easily be routed where it needs to go. It adds no bulk or stiffness to the glove. The element runs on the top of the hand, so it will work well in conjunction with heated grips which work best when you are wearing a thin glove anyway.

 

 

One hand consists of two 650mm lengths (approximately) in parallel giving an equivalent resistance of about 11 ohms.

By putting the second glove in series, that gives you 22 ohms. 22 ohms @ 14.8 volts = 673mA, or about 10 watts (5 watts per hand)

This works pretty well for a simple setup that plugs straight into the bikes DC power system. Ride all day, no batteries to charge, and cost is only a few dollars on top of a regular motorcycle glove.

 

If I need more power, then each glove can still be powered individually for 20 watts per glove. That's a bit extreme though, so it will have to be switched to control the temperature... on for 1 second, off for 3. (which is how most heated clothing operates)

That's a bit more work but the option is there.