Auxiliary Lights

[af1-windy]

Please see attached photos. These lights work but they are wired direct from the battery and have a switch on the handle bar. I'm going to remove them and 're fit using the hex ezcan.

Whoever fitted them seems to have taken a live feed from the harness, right hand side sat on bike. I thought this was a no no because of the canbus system? Can you see a problem when I disconnect  it?




  windy

[jskene]

Taking a direct feed from the battery bypasses the bike's current monitoring on switched circuits and allows accessories, like aux lights, to draw more current than monitored circuits will allow. As long as there is an appropriate fuse in the circuit, there is no problem with this type of connection, as long as you turn the lights off when you switch the engine off. Otherwise the battery will discharge fairly quickly. If you forget this, you will have a dead bike. For that reason, this connection method is not recommended. It certainly will not upset the CANBUS, as it has no connection to it.

It's better instead to use a relay triggered by a switched power source to power the lights. Then when the bike goes off, the lights go off. If you need to control the brightness of the lights, there are several aux light dimmers available that can do this and that also provide the relay function.

[af1-windy]

Thanks for the reply.. the lights are powered from the live/negative on the battery, the red wire out of the loom is to power the relay.. . Think I'll just pull the lot and start again.. 

  windy..

[af1-windy]

Got them off... looks like a lot of wires for 2 lights.. 

[SimonUK]

Actually, that doesn't look too bad!!! there are extra wires there because there is a switch wired in as well, which I personally would not bother with(I would just rely on the switched source to de-energise the relay and therefore cut power to the lights.

Obviously the EZ-Can is much neater, and pretty much plug and play, but you did have an OK solution wired in there.

[bobdave]

Windy, that looks like my spot lights did when I dug them out of the back of the garage to fit to my XR via the HEX ezCANII. Simple enough to cut out the switch and the resistor and just solder in enough cable to reach the the ezCAN under the seat and then solder on the ezCAN connection just making sure I got the positive and negative correct, plug it in, program the ezCAN and bingo all working without the hassle of the extra switch. This is so much easier than juggling between dip switch and spotlight switch to cut the light output from the spots as you dip the headlight thus avoiding dazzling other road users.

[af1-windy]

Originally Posted by bobdave

Windy, that looks like my spot lights did when I dug them out of the back of the garage to fit to my XR via the HEX ezCANII. Simple enough to cut out the switch and the resistor and just solder in enough cable to reach the the ezCAN under the seat and then solder on the ezCAN connection just making sure I got the positive and negative correct, plug it in, program the ezCAN and bingo all working without the hassle of the extra switch. This is so much easier than juggling between dip switch and spotlight switch to cut the light output from the spots as you dip the headlight thus avoiding dazzling other road users.

bobdave; can I ask, did you go 2 into 1 or 2 into 2 on your lights? I could do 2 into 2 because the only other thing I'll be fitting is the denali soundbomb, which will leave one free in case I want to do something with an extra rear/brake light.. 

windy 

[af1-windy]

Originally Posted by SimonUK

Actually, that doesn't look too bad!!! there are extra wires there because there is a switch wired in as well, which I personally would not bother with(I would just rely on the switched source to de-energise the relay and therefore cut power to the lights.

Obviously the EZ-Can is much neater, and pretty much plug and play, but you did have an OK solution wired in there.

Doesn't look too bad   

In fairness, you didn't see the wiring on the bike, all over the place, dangling out near the tank.. drooping under the faring   

  windy

[bobdave]

Originally Posted by af1-windy

bobdave; can I ask, did you go 2 into 1 or 2 into 2 on your lights? I could do 2 into 2 because the only other thing I'll be fitting is the denali soundbomb, which will leave one free in case I want to do something with an extra rear/brake light.. 

windy 

Windy, I did the 2 into 1 and still have 2 circuits free if I want to add anything else like a GoPro (or other make) at a later stage.

[af1-windy]

Originally Posted by bobdave

Windy, I did the 2 into 1 and still have 2 circuits free if I want to add anything else like a GoPro (or other make) at a later stage.

Am I correct in thinking the only benefit to a 2 into 2 is having one light turn off when the indicator is activated? 

Also, without a switch, I assume the lights come on with the headlights and stay on? I need to get my head around how it all works before I get stuck in to the job, which I plan to do over the Christmas hols.. 

  windy