Hey guys, after finishing the 'D.I.Y. LED Peg signals' I got another idea. I had some extra red leds, so I thought I'd add them on my bike to come on for an extra brake light (mines notvery bright at night~undertail).I mounted them to the licenseplate under the undertail. So I wired them all up just the same as the turn signal leds, except to the brake light wire, but the leds stay on continuously. When I press the brake they do get brighter(not much), but thats not what Im wanting. I am wanting them to stay off until the brake is pressed. I tried wiring the leds in parallel and series, and that didnt help either. So why would the stock brake light wire be continously hot even when the brake is not engaged? Is there anthing I can do/try to get this to work? Is anyone else running a second brake light? Thanks in advance

-asc

 

they stay on because the brake lights are also running lights, so the led is acting the same way your undertail brake is...i dont know how you would wire them to be on just when you press the brake lever

 

There should be three wires going to the bulbs for the brake/taillights. Use a test light. One is ground, one is taillight, and one is brake light. Be sure you are tapping into the one for the brake light. Sounds like you aren't. Though there is one bulb, there are two filaments.

 

well i have tested all of the wires and it still does it. I think Leveltwo is right. For sure there has to be a way to do this though?

 

yea, i know when i was wiring up my undertail, i didnt have instructions so i was just mixing around wires and blowing fuses, to get theright wires to work, but once i remember i had it where only the brake light was working, and no running...i forget what wires were what...(ex. color) so i think it may be possible, but im not sure...good luck

 

my brake lights are wired that way. I added them to my peg's.

when you look at the wires from the taillight, there should be 3 of them. the middle one is ground, thats what the neg should be touching. and you have the other wire connected to either the right or left of the ground, what you need to do is take the other wire off and connect it to the opposite side of which you have it connected to now. it will then turn on only when the brake is applied. hope that makes sense

also now that i think about it, you most likely have your LED's connected to BOTH the taillight and the brake light. because if it stays on, then gets brighter when you apply the brakes, then that means your wire is touching BOTH since your getting action from both. you need to find out which wire you need to take off so that your LED's do one function instead of two.

 

Okay...I just wanted to tie things up here, so this can be useful for people using the search.The problem that I was having had nothing to do with the bike's wiring, it was the leds in my undertail that was messing it up. The parking light wire and the brake wire on that particular leds were looped, so when one was hot, the other was also. I guess it was pretty basic after all, thanks for everyones help.

-asc

 

My undertail is the same way...
How did you fix it?