New to electrics, need some help wiring LED strip light to brake light please..

Thread Starter

Skibbles

Joined Sep 15, 2017
16
The LED strip lights below will be connected to a motorcycle and used as tail lights. The stock wiring is present and the LED strips run of
12v.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321810192393?clk_rvr_id=1313208706955&rmvSB=true

Motorcycle battery = 12v, 8.6amp

The wiring for brake lights on the motorcycle consist of 3 wires - Green, Black, Green and yellow
Wires for LED strip lights - red wire, black wire

pretty sure these LED are plug and play, was also mentioned in the product description. Plan was to connect the LED red and blacks together then simply connect those to the wiring.

Just need your help on which wires go where please, Don't want to play around taking risks with electricity..We've met before on a number of occasions :)
 

Thread Starter

Skibbles

Joined Sep 15, 2017
16
Only just realized that requesting advice regarding automotive modifications is not allowed.
The lights in question are simply an addition to my current brake lights and not a replacement so if okay to go ahead please let me know otherwise completely understandable.

Thanks
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,720
Only just realized that requesting advice regarding automotive modifications is not allowed.
The lights in question are simply an addition to my current brake lights and not a replacement so if okay to go ahead please let me know otherwise completely understandable.

Thanks
The restriction on automotive modifications has been removed. Your request is allowed but has been moved from The Project Forum.
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,285
Plan was to connect the LED red and blacks together
That shorts the LED wiring and will give you no current through them.

You need to determine which motocycle wire is the brake light and which is ground (likely the black one) and connect the red LED wire to the brake wire and the black LED wire to the ground wire.
 

Thread Starter

Skibbles

Joined Sep 15, 2017
16
wonderful. Quick update:

Sorry should've been more clear. Regarding the LED lights, is it okay to connect all the Reds together and all the black together basically turning the lights into one unit with one set of red and black wires...

LEDs arrived and contain two wires - 1 x red, 1 x black
motorcycle brake light wiring 3 wires - 1 x black(running light), 1 x black(brake light), 1x green and yellow(ground)

Was advised by a friend on a motorcycle forum that these LED lights are single circuit and i will want to include diode to prevent circuits feeding back into each other.

I'm not sure what he means exactly and need to look into it however just like to point out i'm really after a simple, reliable way to set up just brake lights for now as i need to get the motorcycle on road due to starting new job after being out of work for over 6 months.
As long as the brake lights work i'll worry about running lights later.

Your help will be much appreciated.. thanks
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,285
Sorry should've been more clear. Regarding the LED lights, is it okay to connect all the Reds together and all the black together basically turning the lights into one unit with one set of red and black wires...
Yes, that will work.
LEDs arrived and contain two wires - 1 x red, 1 x black
motorcycle brake light wiring 3 wires - 1 x black(running light), 1 x black(brake light), 1x green and yellow(ground)
Isn't one of those black wires, green?
Was advised by a friend on a motorcycle forum that these LED lights are single circuit and i will want to include diode to prevent circuits feeding back into each other.
Can see no reason for that.
Don't see how they can "feed back into each other". :confused:
 

Thread Starter

Skibbles

Joined Sep 15, 2017
16
Good hearing from you, hope all is good

So will leave out diodes for now

One of the motorcycle wires is indeed black & green my apologies - 1 x black(running tail light) , 1 x black (brake light), 1 x green and black

So back to what you said above, i can simply connect the LED strips together and wire them directly to the bike right. basically 5 min job or am i missing something.

When it comes to using the same strip as running lights as well when brakes are not in use then it gets more technical right and we need to ad a resistor..

So after researching for a cheap resistor to the circuit, as i believ this will control the dimming when brake lights are not used..
came across a few resistors for cars at 25w / 10ohm
The seller for the LED strips hasn't stated the power however cannot be much from the looks so a small resistor should do..
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,285
You will probably need to experiment with the resistor value to get the running brightness you want.
If you can measure the operating current with no resistor, that would help in estimating the value you need.

Here is where will need the diode to prevent the running LED current from being drained by the regular brake light, as shown below:
The diode can be just about any diode that can handle the LED current.
upload_2017-9-19_11-46-18.png
 

Thread Starter

Skibbles

Joined Sep 15, 2017
16
Would like to amend the above statement on my Brake light wiring:

Wiring is 1 x black wire 1 x green wire 1 x green and yellow wire (ground)
 

Thread Starter

Skibbles

Joined Sep 15, 2017
16
Thanks for providing the drawing, really appreciate the help and effort put in to help. Unfortunately i'm not too familiar with drawing and will need too look up the icons. Some H/W :)

quick thought: Since the LED Strips are all individual strips and will be a total of 6 strips wouldn't it be easier to just
wire 3 strips directly to the running light and 3 to the brake. no resistors or anything because that way they are all separate..

6 LED strips = 6 Black and 6 Red wires.

3 LED strips = Running light
3 LED strips = Brake light

Will wire: LED MOTORCYCLE

6 x Black wires > Green motorcycle wire
3 x Red wires > Black wire
3 x Red wires > Green and Yellow wire

Hopefully will be okay using the above...
 
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