Switch to kill headlight/taillights

[Motophyllic]

I’m looking to install a switch to turn on/off headlight, taillights, brake light, plate lamp. Does anyone know if I could tap into the key area somewhere, or do I have to tap each wire and use multiple switches?

 

[snydes]

These circuits do funny things with loads. There have been a few threads about it. What you have in mind might not be possible, I’m not sure.

 

[datadog]

The lighting circuit is powered directly from the ACM. The large connector on the RH side of the ACM, as it sits in the bike, powers all of the lights. I have never tried to put a switch on the circuit, but if you do a little testing, you should be able to determine which wires are 12v +/-. Whether adding a switch changes the inrush current and activates a circuit break is another can of worms.

 

[bluefxstc]

If you switch them off you may not be able to switch them back on without resting the bike. I had an issue with my EX tail light not working. It would work if I started the bike with the headlight on high beam but not if I started on low beam. If I switched from high beam to low beam the tail light would go off and would not come back unless I turned the key off and then back on with the headlight on high beam. Turned out it was the tail light bulb. The tail light bulb worked fine, but when I replaced it with another bulb the problem went away. Apparently, there are some load sensing circuits/programming and the original bulb went outside the parameters the bike was looking for so the bike shut it down. Bike does some interesting things on the 12 v side so expect the unexpected.

 

[Motophyllic]

Datadog, I was hoping you chimed in. You seem to understand this stuff pretty well. If I put a switch on the circuit and there is a problem with the inrush current or load sensing issue, will I be able to simply re-connect the wires and be back in business or am I going to have to flash the bike?

If that happens, I guess I could measure the load on the circuit and re-direct through a resistor some how to mimic the downstream components?

 

[strider]

Datadog, I was hoping you chimed in. You seem to understand this stuff pretty well. If I put a switch on the circuit and there is a problem with the inrush current or load sensing issue, will I be able to simply re-connect the wires and be back in business or am I going to have to flash the bike?

If that happens, I guess I could measure the load on the circuit and re-direct through a resistor some how to mimic the downstream components?

I'm not an expert but I've been following the folks w/ the NRC fender eliminators. In those threads no damage it done. You power down the bike and hook everything back up and it'll come back. You could simulate it (mostly) prior to splicing but just unplugging the lights w/ the bike on and then plugging them back in.

 

[datadog]

Datadog, I was hoping you chimed in. You seem to understand this stuff pretty well. If I put a switch on the circuit and there is a problem with the inrush current or load sensing issue, will I be able to simply re-connect the wires and be back in business or am I going to have to flash the bike?

If that happens, I guess I could measure the load on the circuit and re-direct through a resistor some how to mimic the downstream components?

A splice done correctly should not change the inrush current significantly, so that shouldn't be an issue. As for altering the circuit if the switch triggers a circuit break, there are inrush current limiters (ICL) available commercially or you can make the circuit yourself. Do a bit of searching and you will see. A resistor alone would probably only lower voltage.

As for a flash, the circuit break would reset on a key cycle, so no need for that.

 

[Motophyllic]

Thanks guys. I’ll give it a try!!

 

[Trialsman]

With my new EXR #157 I intended to change the bulbs to LED to lower the usage. Will this be a problem? If there is a problem, can I just re-replace them with the OEM and it would go back to normal with the next key cycle?

 

[datadog]

With my new EXR #157 I intended to change the bulbs to LED to lower the usage. Will this be a problem? If there is a problem, can I just re-replace them with the OEM and it would go back to normal with the next key cycle?

It might be a problem, but it will reset with a key cycle.