After my ride with the FJRs last spring, I have been thinking about aux lights. Not the big bug eyes the FJR guys use, but something to make me more noticeable and hopefully throw a little bit of light down the road.
I understood the limits placed on any extra lighting from when I made my heated gloves so I was looking for something with high output but low power. After I bought the HIDs, I found plasmaled.com and their 008 high power LED aluminum module. It's water proof and comes in 1w and 3w with different colors. I chose the 3w which put out 5500k color lights, about the same as my HIDs.
My sister was the wiring guru in the family :unworthy: so I struggled a little on my own. I understood what I needed to do, but doing it confused me.
What added to the confusion was the lights themselves. I got them to work on the temp setup using an old pc power supply but when I tried to wire them to the bike, all I got was blown fuses. I could get them to work one at a time, but not in tandem. :doh2: In an inspired moment that could only have been my big sister whispering in my ear from the other side :shine:, I switched the positive and negative on one of the lights and got it to work! :yes:
I just needed to figure out the relay. :cry:
With some gentle prodding and direction from Cruzmanarty0011:, I figured out how to wire everything and emailed it to him to be sure I had it right. I did--on the first email.
To wire the lights to the relay, I needed to tap into the right power source on the bike. My alarm is on my running lights (which explained the first blown fuses), so I needed an alternative source. I chose the rear brake lights, on Cruzman's advice. I'd been staring at the wiring diagram for two weeks and it wasn't until Labor Day Night I saw I needed to use the rear brake light switch that is under the left side panel. The yellow wire from that switch, according to my Clymer manual.
It was a tight fit, but I tapped into the wire:
Once that was done, I spent some time putting connectors on wires. The newly tapped power source from the bike gets attached to the 86 plug on the relay. The 85 plug goes to my ground spot. The 87 goes to the battery, with an inline fuse. Since I was blowing fuses yesterday, I chose a 30a fuse. Probably overkill, but I figured the lights were converting the power at the lights so I wanted to be safe. The final connection, the 30 plug goes to the switch. From the switch there's a y-cable that goes to both lights.
The relay, with all the wires plugged and some already routed:
Since I had already ran the wires for the aux lights back to the side panel area, I had to figure out where I wanted to put the switch. I thought for a second and fought the urge to take the easy way out and put the switch on the side panel, underneath were my leg would be when I'm on the bike.
Fortunately, Cruzman talked me down! I lifted the tank, un-ran the wires and re-routed them to the right side of the bike. Don't forget, K.I.S.S. I already had to solder the switch and didn't want to expend too much energy getting it into the panel before I was sure it worked. My temp solution?
That's right, I just stuck it inside the panel! Then I wired the lights to the #1 plug on the switch. It's an illuminated switch, but I didn't bother with those plugs. Here's what it looked like before I grounded, tucked, and zip-tied the wires out of the way:
You can see where the aux lights wires are connected below the panel. The two blue connectors are for the ground. I used the same spot I used for the HIDs. Next I reconnected the negative to the battery to see if it worked. It didn't. Well, it did when you pressed the rear brake pedal!
Yep. I used the wrong wire. : oops: Stupid Clymer manual! The diagram showed yellow.
Let's try that again:
This time, I used the other side of the plug. There was a little more room and it was a lot easier to tap. I still did the wrong wire the first time, but I got it the second--er--third try. Quick test and:
Lights on a switch
As you can see from the vid, I'm one light down. I got the wrong harness with my HID kit and developed a short after a couple of days. Josh at kryptonbulbs.com was excellent at helping me diagnose the problem and offered solutions to keep the lights working until he could send me a replacement. In the end, I went back to the old bulbs so I could make a ride. The replacement harness (motorcycle specific) shipped out today so I should have full lights by the end of the week. If you order from them, make sure to specify motorcycle since the website doesn't give you that choice.
Here's a final look at the switch for now. I used shrink tubing to cover the bare leads then tucked it between the panel and the fairing:
I took a short test ride around the hood. Those lights throw a little bit of light down the road a few feet directly in front of the bike, when their aimed right. I re-aimed them then put Baby to bed.
I understood the limits placed on any extra lighting from when I made my heated gloves so I was looking for something with high output but low power. After I bought the HIDs, I found plasmaled.com and their 008 high power LED aluminum module. It's water proof and comes in 1w and 3w with different colors. I chose the 3w which put out 5500k color lights, about the same as my HIDs.
My sister was the wiring guru in the family :unworthy: so I struggled a little on my own. I understood what I needed to do, but doing it confused me.
What added to the confusion was the lights themselves. I got them to work on the temp setup using an old pc power supply but when I tried to wire them to the bike, all I got was blown fuses. I could get them to work one at a time, but not in tandem. :doh2: In an inspired moment that could only have been my big sister whispering in my ear from the other side :shine:, I switched the positive and negative on one of the lights and got it to work! :yes:
I just needed to figure out the relay. :cry:
With some gentle prodding and direction from Cruzman
arty0011:, I figured out how to wire everything and emailed it to him to be sure I had it right. I did--on the first email.To wire the lights to the relay, I needed to tap into the right power source on the bike. My alarm is on my running lights (which explained the first blown fuses), so I needed an alternative source. I chose the rear brake lights, on Cruzman's advice. I'd been staring at the wiring diagram for two weeks and it wasn't until Labor Day Night I saw I needed to use the rear brake light switch that is under the left side panel. The yellow wire from that switch, according to my Clymer manual.
It was a tight fit, but I tapped into the wire:
Once that was done, I spent some time putting connectors on wires. The newly tapped power source from the bike gets attached to the 86 plug on the relay. The 85 plug goes to my ground spot. The 87 goes to the battery, with an inline fuse. Since I was blowing fuses yesterday, I chose a 30a fuse. Probably overkill, but I figured the lights were converting the power at the lights so I wanted to be safe. The final connection, the 30 plug goes to the switch. From the switch there's a y-cable that goes to both lights.
The relay, with all the wires plugged and some already routed:
Since I had already ran the wires for the aux lights back to the side panel area, I had to figure out where I wanted to put the switch.
I thought for a second and fought the urge to take the easy way out and put the switch on the side panel, underneath were my leg would be when I'm on the bike. Fortunately, Cruzman talked me down!
I lifted the tank, un-ran the wires and re-routed them to the right side of the bike. Don't forget, K.I.S.S. I already had to solder the switch and didn't want to expend too much energy getting it into the panel before I was sure it worked. My temp solution?
That's right, I just stuck it inside the panel!
Then I wired the lights to the #1 plug on the switch. It's an illuminated switch, but I didn't bother with those plugs. Here's what it looked like before I grounded, tucked, and zip-tied the wires out of the way:
You can see where the aux lights wires are connected below the panel. The two blue connectors are for the ground. I used the same spot I used for the HIDs. Next I reconnected the negative to the battery to see if it worked. It didn't. Well, it did when you pressed the rear brake pedal!
Yep. I used the wrong wire. : oops: Stupid Clymer manual! The diagram showed yellow.
Let's try that again:
This time, I used the other side of the plug. There was a little more room and it was a lot easier to tap. I still did the wrong wire the first time, but I got it the second--er--third try. Quick test and:
Lights on a switch
As you can see from the vid, I'm one light down. I got the wrong harness with my HID kit and developed a short after a couple of days. Josh at kryptonbulbs.com was excellent at helping me diagnose the problem and offered solutions to keep the lights working until he could send me a replacement. In the end, I went back to the old bulbs so I could make a ride. The replacement harness (motorcycle specific) shipped out today so I should have full lights by the end of the week. If you order from them, make sure to specify motorcycle since the website doesn't give you that choice.
Here's a final look at the switch for now. I used shrink tubing to cover the bare leads then tucked it between the panel and the fairing:
I took a short test ride around the hood. Those lights throw a little bit of light down the road a few feet directly in front of the bike, when their aimed right. I re-aimed them then put Baby to bed.
