Autoswitch problem

[Pukmeister]

Hi Folks,
I have just fitted a set of Micro De's to my R12GS and used one of Nippy Normans Autoswitch 5P units to turn them on and off. I wired the sensing wire (autoswitch yellow one) into the bikes high beam circuit (bike white feed wire) and followed the instructions to the letter including the relay etc for the lights. I took the 12v power supply for the autoswitch itself from the accessory socket wiring as it powers off when the key is removed.

When powering up the bike the lamp failure warning comes on in the instrument panel. I have checked the lamp with a multimeter and it is fine however there are no volts on the low beam feed wire (bike yellow wire) so it is clearly not turning the light on during startup anymore.

The autoswitch unit itself works fine and turns the fogs on and off using the high beam in conjunction with the LED flashing. I am worried that fitting the autoswitch has somehow caused the bikes CANBUS controller to either falsely believe the front lamp has blown thus not powering it up. I hope I have not caused any lasting damage to the controller as my bike is out of warranty. Surely these things are fault tolerant for short and open circuit? Before I go ripping all the wiring out again, has anyone else had this problem?

Also, does the front lamp come on before the engine starts or only when it is running? I can't remember and the fuel tank is off at the moment so I can't start the engine to find out.

Thanks in advance, I am feeling a little worried now.

 

[ianm00]

Hi,

The light only comes on with the engine running. Try removing the extra wire from the R1200GS wires and see if the lights work correctly again, if so then the extra wire is causing the canbus to think there is a fault.

There shouldn't be any damage as the canbus is designed to turn off if it thinks there is a fault.

Ian

 

[Pukmeister]

Thanks Ian, I just unwired/unsoldered the autoswitch and the bikes system still thinks a lamp has blown and brings up the warning even though there is nothing to interfere with the original electrical circuits. I know the system SHOULD be fault tolerant however I have a scared feeling that one of the electronic modules may be fried at great expense. I have swapped over the lamps in the headlight and both of them are fine so it is definitely not a blown lamp. I shall disconnect the battery and attempt to trace continuity through the wiring loom if I can tell which wire is which, just in case I have strained a cable and caused a break somewhere. All those tight cable ties around the loom are not very good engineering IMHO, I feel that BWM could have done a better designed solution.

 

[Pukmeister]

Well, luckily for me the bike doesn't look like its damaged after all (big sigh of relief).

I disconnected the autoswitch and fogs and the bike was still warning about blown lamps when ignition on. I reconnected the fuel tank and started the bike and it cleared the fault warning and turned on the low beam. I disconnected the battery, refitted the autoswitch and fogs and the same thing, a blown lamp warning initially which cleared on starting. Now the bike no longer warns about blown lamps during self-test (ignition on), and the dipped beam comes on when the engine starts so it is all well and good.

I am pretty impressed with the autoswitch as a simple long flash of high beam turns the fogs on and off. If they are on with dipped beam and you need to use main as well, it doesn't turn them off when you leave main beam on. Very clever.

I hope this helps anyone else who is having a problem or worries with an autoswitch install on an R1200GS.

 

[ianm00]

Glad its all sorted and working well. Im also considering the autoswitch for extra lights.

Ian

 

[Pukmeister]

No problems Ian, if you need any fitting advice PM me and I'll do my best to answer. The easiest place I found to wire in was to carefully slit open the lighting supply loom by the LH side of the headstock and solder the yellow autoswitch sensing wire onto the bikes white main beam wire. There are about 10 wires in there.

I also grouped all the earths onto two ring terminal crimps and fitted these to the torx screw on the LHS headstock where the beak mounting frame is screwed on. The Autoswitch itself is glued with a big blob of hot glue onto the plastic cover of the ECUs beneath the fuel tank, and the entire wiring is taped up with cloth covered loom tape. The relay for the lights is cable tied between the ECU and ABS unit and covered in self-amalgamating tape to protect from water, then cloth loom taped over that. The fuse for the fogs is beneath the seat. You'd be hard pushed to tell what is original and what I have added, it all looks very stock and works a treat.

 

[BiG DoM]

I loved my autoswitch on my 1150 but now have the new 1200ADV with the horrible toggle box on/off ... looks really tacky IMHO. I am thinking of the AS but want to know if it can be triggered off anything else other than the high beam switch?

 

[Pukmeister]

Autoswitch are developing a 'digitally triggered' version for the CANBUS operated BMW bikes (the state of things to come) expected end of June 2006 according to their website. Typical really, just as I wire in the high beam version.

Incidentally, my high beam lamp (swapped with low beam during fault finding and showing a 'hot-spot' on the filament anyway) blew today and the lamp failure warning came on (correctly). When I got home and changed the lamp, the alarm did not reset on self-test until the engine had been started, so clearly in answer to my earlier posts/worries the system has to have the engine started to clear blown lamp warnings.

 

[The Machine Cat]

Search function is your best friend...

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51363