auxilliary LED stop tail light electrical problem???

[cartejo5]

Evening folks, well I managed to source a nice led stop tail light however its got me flummoxed

Light arrived yesterday looks just the job unfortunately there were no instructiions with it. Its an LED stop tail light with 3 wires coming out of it Red, Brown and White.

So tonight - I tried to wire it in, how hard can it be?

The bikes an 1100 GS having identified the wiring on the bike as being:-
Brown = negative.
Green & Yellow = Brake light.
Green & Black = Tail light

So heres whats happening I've allready soldered the brown from the bike to the brown on the auxilliary lamp.

When the red goes to the black & grey & the White goes to the grey & yellow, what happens is the auxilliary light comes on when you switch the side lights on however it goes out completely when you apply the brake.the bikes normal tailight works fine.

When you swap the wires around to Red to grey and yellow and white to grey & black what happens is when the lights are switched off the brake light works fine on auxilliary and bikes light however when you switch the side lights on the auxillairy doesnt light whe the brakes are applied.

Sorry that this is so wordy, just trying to fully explain whats happening.

Any ideas??

 

[jmh]

Hi, not sure but seems as if brown on the light unit may not be the earth! Have you tried powering it from a 12volt battery off the bike? good luck anyway

 

[topcat2006]

I would hazard a guess that White is 0v. The reason I say this is that Normal convention away from vehicle wiring is that red and brown are normally positive voltage and it could be that whoever has wired it up has worked to these standards.

It is my understanding (and I stand to be corrected) that if you pass current the wrong way through an led it doesn't work in the same way as a diode would not. However that may not apply to other items on the pcb.

Hope this helps.

Tom

 

[steve case]

Schematic or diagram

Hi Do you have a schematic or diagram that gives the layout of the LEDs and the connections to these wires you describe?

 

[cartejo5]

Thanks for your input guys!!

Turns out the white was indeed the earth. On further digging it turns out the light hails from down under where they're apparently fond of using white as the negative.

I have to say its an excellent unit 8" long by 2" wide sits just under the topbox plate and put the NN LED tailight to shame - RESULT!

Many thanks for the tips\suggestions.

 

[gabriel_gs]

Got any pics or details?

My warning light keeps coming on telling me the brake light's out, but then a few days later it will be off and the brake/tail light working fine (yes, I've checked it's lighting both filaments - one for brake, one for tail light)

So basically there's a dodgy connection to the bulb - thinking or removing it all together and fitting an LED unit.

 

[cartejo5]

Pics on and off.

Just took a couple of pics outside and in the garage. The taillights a NN led unit the other ones a slimline "LED autolamp"
Off

Taillight.

Brake light

In garage off.

Tailight.

Brake light.

 

[gabriel_gs]