DIY - LED flexible tape - additional brake lights

[Gregular]

NOTE - If you follow this I take no responsibility for any damage caused to yourself or bike. You need to know the basics of electricity - only cut one wire at a time, when cutting/stripping/crimping etc always have the power off etc.

Ok, this is my first DIY so there's gonna be alot of mistakes and edits
It's not going to be as complete as I'd like - I won't be covering panel removal & replacement as I'm trying to do a number of mods all in one go.

So what's it all about..... using that nice flat area above the rear wheel for some extra lightage - in my case I want extra brake lights. I want people to know when I'm slowing down and I'm gonna use some flexible LED tape - for a number of reasons;
1) I don't want to drill too many intrusive holes - the less holes, the less chance of a leak, however unlikely the possibility.
2) I don't trust myself to be able to drill a number of holes (for individual LEDs) in a perfectly straight line - you don't have to be out by much for it to look wonky.
3) LEDs = low power consumption, very bright, should never need to replace them.
4) the tape format ensures waterproofing and a nice low profile that's easy to work with.

NOTE - you should prepare the surface your sticking to, so use a degreaser/alcohol cleaner then wash with warm water and allow to dry

So here's the tape, I got mine from www.litewave.co.uk but there should be plenty of places these are available - radioshack, maplins etc



It has a tape on the reverse that you remove to reveal the sticky adhesive.



I wasn't too impressed with the stickiness on my tape however so I dabbed small amounts of black silicone along it to help it stick to the surface.



Next is placement / design.... I opted to go for 2 longer strips on the outside and a slightly shorter strip in the middle.
The moulding on the bike has a bit either side that sticks out so I ran a bit of masking tape along the bottom of these to give me a level starting point and then ran the 2 outside strips vertically along the mouldings



Still using the same pic, I then placed some masking tape on top of those 2 strips to help give a start point for the shorter middle strip.
But at the end of the day, the layout is personal preference Here's out it looks now.



You way well want to check the operation of the LEDs - you don't want to get to the end to find out they don't work or are flawed. So you'll need a power supply



and then connect all the reds together and then connect all the blacks together. Connect the red to the positive output and the black to the negative output. Set the power supply to 12V and turn on



So now we need a way to get the wires through the plastic.
For a number of reasons - limited space with the tyre in place, on the reverse side there are all the looms and fuseboxes, and availability of tools.... I chose to use a number of drill bits starting from 1mm to 1.5mm and up to 3mm



and then using the smallest drill bit first and working my way up through the sizes spun the drill bits between my fingers while exerting a little bit of pressure. It take about 5 minutes per hole but I wanted to be sure that I didn't poke the drill bit too far through and damage any looms on the other side



Here's the first strip completed. A 3mm hole is just big enough to squeeze the 2 wires through. So not much room for any water to get through, a bit of silicone later on and that will be water tight. Just repeat for the other 2 strips.



Next, we're on to the wiring stage and we need to provide some termination/connections for the wires.

But before I get to that I want to explain the reasons I'm doing it this way.
I wanted it to be easy to connect and disconnect the LED tape. I didn't want a single point of failure (think christmas tree lights) so I wanted the LED to still work if the brake light blew.
For these reasons I'm using these 4mm 'bullet' crimp connectors and a parallel circuit layout. (image isn't great sorry)



The wires that come with the tape aren't very long which will make the next bit a little bit more difficult, but it's still relatively easy to do with the length of cable available and I wanted to have as small a hole as possible to poke the wires through. You could put crimps on first and then poke the wires through the hole, but then would need to make bigger holes.

So to crimp you'll need one of these, ratchet crimpers are the best and notice that the jaws are colour coded - red spot for red crimps , and the inside of the jaw is shaped so put the crimp in the right way





But before we crimp we may need to trim / cut /strip wires so you'll need a set of wire cutters



If you've never stripped the insulation from the wire you'll probably want an adjustable cable stripper too - mine doesn't get used much



So onto crimping (again sorry about picture quality), I've always been taught to twist the bare stranded wire



then fold in half



and then terminate the wire in the crimp so that's how I did it
Note - that I'm crimping the the LED tape wires. This is not the power supply side, when these are disconnected there's no potential for these to be live so I'm using the male/exposed/bullet crimps.





Repeat 5 more times so there are 6 male crimps ready to go

[Gregular]

Ok so need to get power to the LED tape now but there's some other design criteria I want to meet.

1) I only want power when I press the brakes
2) I want to minimise the amount I modify the the original wiring
3) In case there are any problems in the future, I want to be able to easily disconnect/remove this mod without affecting the stock wiring

So gonna need to be working at this end with the connector for the brake light



and gonna need a digital voltmeter



So there's 3 terminations in this plug so it would be safe to assume that as this plug provides power to brake and rear light that 1 wire is 0v, 1 wire is power for the rear light and 1 wire is the brake.
We're looking for potential difference. With the bike ignition on there should always be a 12 volt potential difference between the rear light power and 0v
There should only be a difference of 12 volts dc when the brake is pressed, release the brake and you should see 0 volts potential difference.
In the case of my bike, the yellow/black wire is 0v and the blue/silver is the brake.

Now we've established this, turn off the ignition and cut those 2 wires 1 at a time and crimp as before remembering that the shrouded/female crimp should go on the supply/live side
BUT when I crimp I'm going to add an extra wire to run down to the LED tape









and these two wires need to be long enough to reach the crimps made earlier, so plan the route of the wires and you'll know how long they need to be.
Terminate these two leads, with shrouded connectors (supply) and we're almost done - make a note to remember which colour is the 0v and which colour is the positive 12 volt signal for the brake



Need to make up some connector leads that connect all 3 male crimps from the red wires of the LED tape to the positive (red/blue in my case)
and another connector lead that will connect all 3 male crimps from the black wires of the LED tape to the 0v (white/black in my case)

So will need 6 lengths of cable all terminated in shrouds at 1 end



Connect those 6 to the 6 male connectors



Cut the 3 0v (white black in my case) to length, strip and twist together and crimp





Repeat for the 3 remaining red/black wires (the positive 12 volt signal for the brakes) and you'll end up with this



Connect same colours together now and that's the wiring done



Now its time to plug those holes with silicon and you'll notice that all that work with the cables loosened the tape's adhesion to the plastic so use a bit of silicon to help stick it back



And then the final test (I'm holding down the rear brake just outta shot)



That's pretty much it. There's still a bit to do - Need to tidy up the silicon, silicon the other 2 strips and tidy the wiring but that shouldn't need a DIY I hope.
I'm just waiting for the first strip I applied silicon to dry so did this DIY and boy does it take time. Was quicker to do the mod than write this up lol. Really makes me appreciate the effort kkim has gone to.
Sorry about some fuzzy pics, until posting I could not tell what they were like and then it was too late

[darkknight49]

good job for a first DIY, tho it seems a little too involved for me. I don't have any the tool in the first place.

The only advise I can give: Learn how to use the macro feature on your camera if it has one. It'll allow you to take some close-up shots in full focus, but turn off the flash.

[OldGuy]

Good DIY Greg - that should get there attention. Now if you could just get the LED's to strobe like an ILS approach system

[jpnfrk]

What was your estimated installation time?

[Gregular]

Thanks for the advice guys, will try to make the next DIY better

Originally Posted by jpnfrk

What was your estimated installation time?

All in it took 2 hrs, but I don't know how long it would take from a fresh start - there's factors that could add and subtract from that 2 hr timeslot

I had the panels off already, but was working at quite a leisurely pace (was taking my time and savouring my bike lol) and my mum dropped by for a cup of tea and a chat, plus I was taking photos all the way through.
I reckon from a fresh start - all panels on, with adequate space and less distractions can be done in an hour and a half easy - leaving aside time for glue/silicon to dry.

Meanwhile here's a rear view teaser shot for the R&G Racing crash protectors (the left LED strip hasn't had the final application of silicon so is kinda hanging a bit loose and askew)



Put them on today, and that's how they will look in their final position but I cant finish the install properly (the end bits have to come off to allow the fairings to go back on) so the DIY is gonna have to wait till then

Still allot to do!

[00v_Lucky]

im pretty excited to see the final product at night! gj on the diy. learned a bit more about my purrrdy 250r, Coralys

this forum just keeps on getting better and better.

[Gregular]

It's so hard to truly show how bright things are with a camera, well at least with my camera lol

I'm standing by the riders seat and looking towards the rear of the bike.
I've taken two shots in pitch black in my garage.
There is a glass sliding door about 6ft away so you can see the reflection of the rear light.

Rather than take a picture looking directly at the lights, I thought I'd try to show how much it illuminates the area and see if that helped to show how bright they are. It still doesn't really show how bright it is but I think this is the best I'm gonna get.

So the first shot is just the rear light on



2nd shot is with the brakes pressed and most of this illumination is down to the strips

[Buffalony]

Their pretty cool. I like the way they reflect off of the hugger. Safety with style.

[jpnfrk]

That looks really nice!! I esp like the second pic