| Improve Visibility Without Killing Your Charging System | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Sun May 29th, 2005 12:02 am | 1st Post |
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Two 55-watt fog light bulbs use about 7 amps of current, and can overwhelm the charging system of an older Goldwing. Here’s something that can be done to improve visibility without putting a big load on your bike’s charging system. If you can solder and use hand tools, this is easy to do. Light emitting diode (LED) technology has come a long way in the last ten years and now they’re seen more in the automotive and truck industry, replacing the old tungsten light bulbs in tail and brake light assemblies. The great thing about LEDs is that they have a very long life, and can be permanently mounted without fear of them burning out before 50,000 to 100,000 hours. Many times the operating life of any car or motorcycle! They also use a small fraction of the current (amps) as compared to tungsten lamps. Super-bright LEDs are now available at a very low cost. I just received 100 13,000 MCD white LEDs that I purchased on ebay for $4 plus shipping. For my fog lights I used 24 LEDs per side, or 48 total. Each LED uses 30 milliamps of current and 48 of them uses less than 1.5 amps. A small fraction of what the 55-watt lamps used! LEDs come in all styles and colors. The white ones that I used are rated at 3.2-3.5 volts at 30 milliamps. For LEDs to function, a dropping resistor must be used. With my bike’s electrical system putting out around 13 volts, I placed 4 LEDs in series for each 47-ohm dropping resistor. Since I used 24 LEDs for each lamp, this required six separate circuits and six dropping resistors. The resistors should be placed on the positive side of the circuit. LEDs should not be wired in parallel with the same dropping resistor – they should be wired in series with a separate dropping resistor for each. Each series circuit can, however, be wired in parallel. Hope this makes sense. Regardless, there’s a bunch of information on the web about LEDs. There are even online “LED series calculators” that you can use to figure out how many LEDs can be wired in series, and what dropping resistor is needed. Attachment: YellowFog.jpg (Downloaded 1409 times) Last edited on Sun May 29th, 2005 12:31 am by axelwik ____________________ Marco, Albuquerque, NM '77 GL1000 (sold) '08 Suzuki V-Strom DL650 '99 Ducati 900ss '97 Honda XR650L |
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| Posted: Sun May 29th, 2005 12:22 am | 2nd Post |
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Here's a photo of how the LEDs are mounted in the existing fog light reflector. Attachment: BackOfReflector.jpg (Downloaded 1338 times) Last edited on Sun May 29th, 2005 12:23 am by axelwik ____________________ Marco, Albuquerque, NM '77 GL1000 (sold) '08 Suzuki V-Strom DL650 '99 Ducati 900ss '97 Honda XR650L |
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| Posted: Mon May 30th, 2005 08:29 am | 3rd Post |
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Interesting stuff Marco, nice work.
____________________ Brian Rowan |
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| Posted: Mon May 30th, 2005 03:48 pm | 4th Post |
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Last edited on Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 03:40 am by RedWinger |
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| Posted: Mon May 30th, 2005 06:04 pm | 5th Post |
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Mr.1200 wrote: Marco.Does the LED set up light up the road as well as the 55 watt bulb did?? I haven't tried the setup at night, but I don't think they'll be quite as bright as the 55W bulbs since not all the LEDs are pointed in the same direction. Using the curved reflector to mount the LEDs makes for a wider field of view, but as you said each of them has a narrow field of view. I'm sure the lights would be much brighter if I mounted them on a flat plane, but then they would be much more directional. I didn't do it to light up the night, I did it to give car drivers another chance to see my bike... my hope is that by also using the yellow lens, car drivers will give me a second glance before turning left in front of me! I probably could have made them a bit brighter by using lower-value dropping resistors, but those are the resistors I had in my junk bin. As far as tail lights are concerned. I mounted eight bright red LEDs into a very small Radio Shack project box, all pointing straight back and connected it to my brake light circuit and a brake light modulator. It really works great, and gets the attention of other drivers. I set the modulator to blink for 5 seconds then burn steady. The normal brake light is unaffected and operates normally (steady). Friends on other motorcycles have told me that from a distance, the LEDs far outshined the normal brake light. Attachment: led brake light.jpg (Downloaded 1266 times) Last edited on Mon May 30th, 2005 06:15 pm by axelwik ____________________ Marco, Albuquerque, NM '77 GL1000 (sold) '08 Suzuki V-Strom DL650 '99 Ducati 900ss '97 Honda XR650L |
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| Posted: Mon May 30th, 2005 06:18 pm | 6th Post |
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How hard is it for those (like me) who are not electrically inclined but can work their way around a solder gun? what resistors are you using and can you send a photo of the in-line wiring?thanks
____________________ 1979 1000 nekkid |
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| Posted: Mon May 30th, 2005 06:25 pm | 7th Post |
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sanfelice wrote: How hard is it for those (like me) who are not electrically inclined but can work their way around a solder gun? what resistors are you using and can you send a photo of the in-line wiring?thanks Here's a website that has all the info you should need. LEDs have one long lead and one short lead. The long lead is the positive lead. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bill_Bowden/led.htm
____________________ Marco, Albuquerque, NM '77 GL1000 (sold) '08 Suzuki V-Strom DL650 '99 Ducati 900ss '97 Honda XR650L |
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| Posted: Mon May 30th, 2005 09:08 pm | 8th Post |
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Hey Marco a very good idea. Thanks for sharing.  
____________________ Riding Motorcycles For over 55 Years Thank you Lord for all my blessings. "Life is simpler when you plow around the stump" 84 Interstate with Ventu Craft Trailer |
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| Posted: Wed Jun 1st, 2005 05:55 pm | 9th Post |
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That's great to know. I might go down this road with my GL1100.
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| Posted: Sat Aug 1st, 2009 05:45 am | 10th Post |
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That link is dead, Compuserve my world was shut down earlier this month
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| Posted: Fri Aug 14th, 2009 11:23 pm | 11th Post |
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led's are nice but lights like that dont beam the light straight out i have led work lights and trouble lights in DARK places it lights up areas to an extent but it does not project the light far away the light dissapates too much over a wide area behind a dash board and stuff they work fine in tail lights or brake lights they work great because the light travels further faster and brighter easier to see i dont know if this idea will work very well a freind of mine has an led foglight set up on his ultra classic and they do not work very well they glow more than anything
____________________ i am the current president of the non punctuators and bad spelling motorcycle group |
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| Posted: Mon Nov 23rd, 2009 08:03 pm | 12th Post |
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Here's another link to a lot of LED stuff: http://www.customdynamics.com/ You can buy ready made stuff, or buy stuff to make your own creations.
____________________ Don't spook the road sheep. |
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| Posted: Tue Nov 24th, 2009 01:19 am | 13th Post |
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Interesting Marco. I'm looking for more light than the OEM 55w bulbs produce and don't think I can get there with the LEDs. Using less power would be nice but my '08 has a 1400W load capacity. The long life would be _very_ nice if an equivalent wattage could be produced.
____________________ Your number may not be called in turn, some pizzas take longer to burn. 08 Black GL1800ABS 06 Black ST1300ABS - Gone but not forgotten IBA 30395 [SS1000/All in Florida, BBG1500, BBG1500AIF] SCRC 101 Road Captain ARRL Life Member - NS1A |
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18th, 2010 08:22 pm | 14th Post |
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Nice Idea
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| Posted: Sat Feb 20th, 2010 11:44 pm | 15th Post |
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One Idea and my apologies if this is off topic but High Intensity Discharge bulbs (the ones that run on a ballast) are really bright and use about 1/2 the power of a normal halogen bulb..Just my 2 cents..
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15th, 2010 04:45 am | 16th Post |
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you might want to check this place out led's have come a long way i use a 1watt 4v led flashlight that can be seen in daylight with np. http://www.ledlight.com/fog-running-light-leds.aspx Good luck and be safe
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| Posted: Fri Apr 2nd, 2010 04:56 pm | 17th Post |
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If you want to build like Marco suggested, this is a big help... An array wizard... http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
____________________ http://www.pow-miafamilies.org/League/Status_of_the_Issue.html Proud Member of the Patriot Guard Riders-Id: 79170 http://www.spiritone.com/~sirius/pow-mia/Echanis.htm http://www.taskforceomegainc.org/e002.html http://smartlight.rudysproducts.com/ Ya, my only hope was Betty Lou,she was the one,a combination AK 57 oozie radar laser triple-barrel double-scoped heat-seekin shotgun. |
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| Posted: Thu Apr 8th, 2010 04:54 am | 18th Post |
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Those anybody know if you can use LED's on a collector plated bike in Canada.
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