Denali or Hex?

iive decided i want to fit some front fogs / spots to the GS

I've got a 3rd party can controller which looks like it's a precursor to the the Hex or Denali units

I dont know whether to go with that or fit one of the other 2 available

Anyone got any pointers / pro's / cons with either of the units ?

Santa-2512 said:

iive decided i want to fit some front fogs / spots to the GS

I've got a 3rd party can controller which looks like it's a precursor to the the Hex or Denali units

I dont know whether to go with that or fit one of the other 2 available

Anyone got any pointers / pro's / cons with either of the units ?

Click to expand...

I have never had a Denali light on my own, so i will present information I've picked up through my friends.

The first controller in this family was the Hex unit, designed by the same people that came up with the GS911. It controlled (and still do) the dimming of the lights by chopping up the current to the light, and feeding the LED with rapid pulses, where light intensity is controlled by the width of each pulse.

Denali was (and may be still does?) offering dimmable LED lights that could be used on any type of bikes, and they offered their own separate light-dimmer that was to be installed some where on the bike. This controller was merely a pot-meter that fed a variable voltage to the lights via a third cable, and they built a simple controller inside the light that would vary the light intensity with the variable voltage provided by the external potmeter mounted on the bike.

When Hexcan controller was launched to the marked, lots of BMW riders found this little contraption to be a desirable addition to their bike, with it's phone interface and simple and intuitive set up. They also wanted the Denali lights for their quality and performance.
But the HEXcan was based on the puls modulation controlling the dimming, while the Denalis relied on the three wire connection, with the third cable providing the analogue voltage that would dim their lights. After a while, HexCan (probably in cooperation with Denali and sold by Denali) made a modified HexCan that would dim the Denali light by provide the dimming output by a steady variable voltage rather than chopping the current to the lights.

So... If OP has a controller of un-known type, the easiest way to find out if it works on the chosen lights is simply to test it. If it works, no problem.
If it does not dim the lights properly, (if memory serves me correct), the Denali controller provided the analogue output 3-wire to two of the ports only. Thus, if the controller on hand fail to work on the dedicated outputs, check if the dimming will work by selecting some of the other outputs.
Only the Denali controller was supplied with a 3 wire setup, and the 3 wire output could be used as in a 3 wire mode, where the 3 wires provided +12V, gnd and the third wire was the variable voltage for dimming the Denalis. But if set up the same port for a 2 wire setup, the controller would ignore the variable voltage output for wire #3 and in stead it would pulse the +12V wire.

Hope this might shed some light.

my 2c

I purchased Hex EzCan few months ago for the bike that at that point still hasn't been delivered to me. Now it's installed and it works just as announced. Prior to ordering, I've investigated Hex unit and Denali unit and came to conclusion that they are exactly the same. They both have the same features. I'm not sure but I think it's the same unit just different brand.
As fot the lights, Denali is the best for me. I don't have Denali lights as I use cheap chinese ones that cost 1/10 of the price for Denalis.
Just as example, this is how I have my Hex unit wired using all 4 channels:
1 - Aux Lights, programmed to be on all the time, 100% during a day and 60% during a night
2 - High beam Lights. This pair of light comes on only with high beam + garage remote is connected there so when I hit High Beam switch, my garage opens
3 - DIN socket on dash. 2021 GS brings DIN socket beside the seat and USB socket in the dash. My GPS uses DIN socket so installed Wunderlich one at the dash
4 - Brake Light on my topbox, also programmed to 50% intensity as running light when not braking.

The Gen 2 Cansmart and Hex are the same thing. The Cansmart comes with plugs fitted so if using Denali it is plug and play. But you can also buy various plugs to plug into the controller any kit that isn't Denali, or you can just just splice in as normal if you don't want to bother with plugs. Both units use the same software from Hex. I went with Denali because I have Denali D2 spots. But I have an extra Skene P3 brake light, which I bought the plug kit for, so it just plugs into the brake circuit on the controller. With both units you can now assign any circuit with any amperage to run various things. You can also wire up the aux lights to switch off when you indicate so the lights don't wash out the indicators. Which is good as my spots are under my indicators on my RT. There are plenty of UK Cansmart suppliers as well. You can also connect two controllers in parallel if you want to double the circuits you can use to 8

Steve Abel has stated that they are the same bit of kit but one has Denali branding. I recently fitted a B6 brake light and two D4’s and the software package you use just states ezcan.