Guys,

Electrical cretin needs help.

I have added two strips of LED's to supplement the existing brake light. I soldered these direct to the positive and negative of the brake light bulb holder (see photo). They work. However the fuse for the sidelights has now blown when I started the bike up. No back light and no front pilot light. I changed the fuse and it did it again. What I have done?




Thanks
Dave

It could be that your now drawing to much current with the LED light strips in there as well.

You could remove the brake bulb and switch the lights off. Then replace the fuse and switch the ignition on. Touch the brake and see if it blows.

I have also seen fuse's blow when bubs have been on there way out! It took me a couple of days of head scratching to figure that out!

Thanks twincarb mate.

I have LEDs on the front of the bike linked to the parking light circuit so maybe the sum of the LEDS is too much? The fuse is a 15 amp, will I risk damaging the circuit if I increase this to say 30?

Dave

Hi great work looks very well done, does the LED strips have a resistor built in (just look at module (photo available ?), else current will need very high and you will blow the leds
Halo

No Dave,
Don't do that. The stop light will only take about 1¾ Amps and your LED's no more than ¼ Amp, so your 15 Amp fuse is more than plenty.

Try disconnecting the the two leads from the rear light and see if the problem still occurs. That will show if the problem is with your modified rear light/led cluster or somewhere in the wiring to the rear light.
It does sound strange that it only happens when the engine is started though.

Paul.

I agree with not increasing the fuse value.

Could the Bulb Monitoring Unit cause any weird problems like this?

Interesting that you are increasing the illumination of your rear end.
is it because you find the taillight is too dim?

My wife was following me on the recent weekend ride , and she commented on the lack of light factor.
is this common for other K owners?

Thanks guys. I disconnected the rear LEDs so the rear light wirting was as OEM, then switched on the fronyt LEDs using a switch I'd fitted to the dash to manually turn them on/off and pfft! another fuse gone. So, I think something I've done in the FRONT LED wiring is to blame. The front LEDs and their switch were working fine but I think this might be the problem so need to check all the wiring up front.

Appreciate the input, thanks.

Need to order some 15 amp fuses now....

Cheers
Dave

Hi although it is a thread hijack I will respond to groverK take a look at the bulb you have in there many people go to a garage and buy/fit the 21/5 watt bulb whereas it is supposed to be a 21/10 watt unit that makes it brighter by far, also bad connections play havoc with brightness.

Back to the original question now you have found it is the front follw a logic path disconnect the stuff you have just put on does the fuse still blow? I suspect it will not, then check the front LED strip is intended for 12 volt use? LED strips are polarity sensitive they must be the correct way round, Red to + and black to - if they are not coloured look to see if the instructions talk about which wire is + and which is - remember on the K wiring scheme brown is earth.
Regards,
K-BIKE

groverK wrote:Interesting that you are increasing the illumination of your rear end.
is it because you find the taillight is too dim?

My wife was following me on the recent weekend ride , and she commented on the lack of light factor.
is this common for other K owners?

Compared to modern machines the braking light does not seem very bright. Many have decided to upgarde with LED's mate.

Cheers
Dave

K-BIKE wrote:
Back to the original question now you have found it is the front follw a logic path disconnect the stuff you have just put on does the fuse still blow? I suspect it will not, then check the front LED strip is intended for 12 volt use? LED strips are polarity sensitive they must be the correct way round, Red to + and black to - if they are not coloured look to see if the instructions talk about which wire is + and which is - remember on the K wiring scheme brown is earth.
Regards,
K-BIKE

Thanks mate, yes it is in the front for sure, irritating because it was all working and is soldered and shrinkwrapped. The LED's are all 12 volt and polarity is correct - the latter has to be for them to illuminate and I tested all with a meter. Thanks for the thoughts, my money is on the switch I fitted as it is very small and the plastic body got melted a bit in my soldering efforts - it could be shorting. We shall see...


Cheers
Dave

Sorted now thanks Guys. I removed the switch from the front LEDs, soldered the tails together, shrink wrapped them and it all works perfectly. Just coincidence that the switch started to malfunction when I fitted the rear LEDs. New and more robust (I hope) switch on order.

Cheers
Dave

yay .. a win dave

on auto gear it is often well advised to get something ruged and bullit - clutz proof ...if you get my meaning





yes grover the rear lighting is not real good .....we have discussed additional lamps on the rear of the bike before ...and is a great suggestion for safety ..in my opinion ,,,bert (crazy frog had some great ideas iand implementation ...on the rear mudguard .. and i guess many others have thoughts on this as well

Yeah Charlie, it's difficult to tell what you're getting online and there's a lot of crap about. I would fit a beemer rocker switch to the pad but the slots are all taken now the grips are fitted.
Cheers
Dave

Well done Dave a great result.
Regards,
K-BIKE

I've done a plug-n-play tail light upgrade using this.

I've taken some photos and I'll do a write-up soon.

Good work Dave, I've had that experience with bulb/fuse when I did my upgrade , completely forgot in until now. Re the front led strip mine was wired off the parking lamp bulb feed so was on the ignition switch.

88

blakey wrote:I've done a plug-n-play tail light upgrade using this.

I've taken some photos and I'll do a write-up soon.

good one blakey ...that is a fine kit ...cant wait to see it ...cheers

Just coming back to the culprit in all this - the dodgy switch for the front DRLs that I have addded a switch to so I can turn them off at night. I got a new, different, waterproof switch that lights up - fancy , it even came with a wiring diagram. Can someone who knows about electrickery advise please?



I am thinking the red +ve is the red +ve that feeds the DRLs. This becomes switched. My question is do I need to find then a second live to feed the switch illuminating light from somewhere? The sidelight feeds the DRLs so aybe a +ve spur from the headlight?

Thanks for the confirmation
Cheers
Dave

When the switch is in the on position, it would be illuminated....when 2 & 4 is bridged.

OK I see Inge, so just the DRL positive and the bridge. I understand.

Hope all is well in Norway.

Cheers
Dave

Inge K. wrote:When the switch is in the on position, it would be illuminated....when 2 & 4 is bridged.

Here is a quick schematic of the internal switch.

Great picture Bert.

I don't want to labour this (but I'm going to !)

Where does the negative (1) feed come from?

If 3 is the positive feed to the DRLs is 1 a spur from the negative feed to the DRLs?

Cheers
Dave

negative (1) any earth point

3 is the permanent live from the battery probably through the ignition switch/headlight switch.


Just remember that all earths go back to the same point (brown on our wiring)

The earth from the DRL's also need to head back to an earth point no particular one as long as its potential is to earth.

MT350Explorer wrote:Where does the negative (1) feed come from?

You can pickup the negative anywhere on the frame but I personally like to have all of them in the same area. I am connecting all my extra negative (ground in NA, Earth in UK ) on the frame under the gas tank.

If I need unswitched positive, I plug it on the starter relay (on the lead going straight to the battery.) From there, I go to a fuse and then to the device that I want to power.

The reasoning of this wiring is that I don't want to have extra connections on the battery which may lead to mistakes if you ever have to remove the battery from the bike.

CF