Need a new controller for Aux lights

[Cav47]

The device that Timmy made me was great, but I have been having a weird issue with the lighting. It was causing some feedback into the system and making the ABS light come on. I started messing with it and basically broke Tim's rheostat dimmer that he made me when I was rearranging things.

What device would you all recommend? Maybe a skene controller of some type. Since we are not having Tech days, it needs to be really easy since I am no electrical wizard for sure. The thing I liked about Timmy's design was that I could turn it to any level with the dimer. From just barely lit to full photon blasters.

I am willing to rewire the whole system from scratch during this lockdown. Also the Horn was not wired right. I need to start with that. This is exactly why we need to have a tech day, I should not be allowed to do this by myself.

Thanks for the advice ahead of time.

[escapefjrtist]

I’ve got Skene controllers mounted on both bikes Cav. So far, rock solid performance from both and it’s relatively easy to adjust the lighting once you play with it a couple times. I generally run my LR4s at 20% along with 100% when triggered with high beam. When I’m riding more early mornings or night, I’ll increase to 30% for better fill with the low beams.

~G

[raYzerman]

Don't know what Timmy gave you, perhaps a PWM, I'd think a simple diode would prevent feedback but that shouldn't be happening anyway... what is the power source, maybe all you need to do is change it to something from your fuse panel or aux. fuse panel. Timmy may have some more insight if he's not out campaigning for TimDog BikerGeek 2020.

[DesignFlaw06]

I did the best I could without having the hardware myself. It was a simple PWM controller with a remotely wired potentiometer. We were supposed to improve upon it once he had things more finalized, but that never happened since things were working.

But then Josh starting being Josh.

I wasn't there to install it, but I thought we took care of some grounding issue last time. Maybe that was with the horn. I can't recall anymore, but I thought that was going to fix everything. A diode could help if there's a feedback issue.

There's probably an entire Tech Day weekend that could be devoted to that bike's wiring.

[ionbeam]

For the past three years I have been using an ADVmonster LED controller with a remote wireless power adjuster. I think they are someplace around $50 - $70. The power steps are good and it has a high beam bypass. (The picture is a clickable link.)



It would be nice if it were a bit smaller.

[Cav47]

Tim is absolutely right, it was Me being Me! It worked great but I had the crazy feedback issue and dove into to “fix” the problem.


When removing then good thing Tim made the wires came out. Totally not his fault. Th años for the responses. I am gonna check out the suggestions.

[extrememarine]

I have a Skene controller on my bike, with the 3 position switch set up that allows for 3 power / brightness settings plus the highbeam bypass.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[bigjohnsd]

I’ve got Skene controllers mounted on both bikes Cav. So far, rock solid performance from both and it’s relatively easy to adjust the lighting once you play with it a couple times. I generally run my LR4s at 20% along with 100% when triggered with high beam. When I’m riding more early mornings or night, I’ll increase to 30% for better fill with the low beams.

~G

What George said - Skene is the way to go!

[Uncle Hud]

Note that the dimmer switch for my LED Clearwater lights is neither a rheostat or potentiometer. It regulates bursts of 12V to the LEDs. Slow rate = dim lights; fast rate = bright lights.

Took several days of frustrating work with a voltmeter and my old electric theory books before I called Clearwater. Ten minutes after the call, everything worked perfectly.

Photo coming this afternoon.

[Hppants]

Tim is absolutely right, it was Me being Me! It worked great but I had the crazy feedback issue and dove into to “fix” the problem.


When removing then good thing Tim made the wires came out. Totally not his fault. Th años for the responses. I am gonna check out the suggestions.

I have long held the belief that when combining tequila with motorcycle repairs, one finds the point of diminishing return. The problem is that during the phenomenon, one often doesn't realize he's found it until some time thereafter.

I'm not quite ready to publish the paper. Maybe just a bit more research.....

[Cav47]

So is that an offer to help re-wire the Horn and lights? We would obviously only be consuming Agave in the name of science l of course. Someone has to be the Rhesus Monkey in the experiment right? Can we volunteer as tribute?

[ionbeam]

Note that the dimmer switch for my LED Clearwater lights is neither a rheostat or potentiometer. It regulates bursts of 12V to the LEDs. Slow rate = dim lights; fast rate = bright lights...

Any quality power controller uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to control the power. In the chart below the bottom of the wave form is ground, the top of the wave form is +1.7 to 2.2 --or-- +12 volts*. The LEDs are being powered when the wave form is at +12 volts and they are off when at ground. The rate of pulsing needs to be greater than 60 cycles per second (60 Hz), your eyes will not be able to see the pulsing, it will look like steady light. In the first wave form the power is on half the time and off half the time, a 50% duty cycle causing the light to appear 50% bright. In the next wave form it is high 75% of the time causing the light to appear 75% bright. When you turn on the high beams the voltage is a steady 12 volts. This kind of power controller is really easy to design.



Here comes da curve ball: We live in a voltage compliant world. Turn the voltage up and it gets brighter, hotter, moves faster... turn voltage down and it gets dimmer, cooler and goes slower. LEDs live in a current compliant world. Measuring voltage right at the LED terminals when it is fully ON, it will never get higher than ~2.2 volts no matter how bright or dim the LED gets. Since LEDs live in a current compliant world, to know how bright an LED is you would really have to measure the current or look at the PWM percentage. This is why the voltage in the chart is fixed and doesn't vary in amplitude, it only varies in how long it is on.

Some PWM controllers let the voltage drop happen within the controller resulting in the output voltage being only +2.2 volts (approximately) on the output wires. This kind of controller will get HOT. Most PWM controllers output +12 volts and let the voltage drop down to +2.2 happen within the LED housing, these LEDs will get HOT and some even come with fans. If you put +12 volts directly to the terminals of a LED it will instantly die.

[raYzerman]

So is that an offer to help re-wire the Horn and lights? We would obviously only be consuming Agave in the name of science l of course. Someone has to be the Rhesus Monkey in the experiment right? Can we volunteer as tribute?

Both of you would require adult supervision..... I might be available one day, when I decide to grow up. Right now, immaturity is so much more fun.

[raYzerman]

I would think what Hud has is a PWM with perhaps two settings. Low current ones are small, simple. Larger ones have heat sinks, even bigger ones have fans as Alan says. They're cheap... I see nothing wrong for aux. lighting with a cheap constantly variable one. I have a couple of 10A and 20A, but once you go that big, they get bigger... board is roughly 1.5-2" square with depth varying with the size of the heat sink. Overkill for aux. lights IMHO... check the current draw on medium and full bright and size accordingly (I defer to Alan for further expertise).
Not sure what CAV's issue is, just needs rewiring to better power source?

[DesignFlaw06]

So is that an offer to help re-wire the Horn and lights? We would obviously only be consuming Agave in the name of science l of course. Someone has to be the Rhesus Monkey in the experiment right? Can we volunteer as tribute?

I'm OK with that. But I'd like to have a better plan than of how everything should be wired. It's the problem with adding things one at a time. My bike is guilty of it as well. It's harder to go back and justify cleaning things up when things are working. However, troubleshooting becomes a bigger pain in the ass when something goes wrong.

[Intech]

Likewise. It works great.

I have a Skene controller on my bike, with the 3 position switch set up that allows for 3 power / brightness settings plus the highbeam bypass.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Hppants]

So is that an offer to help re-wire the Horn and lights? We would obviously only be consuming Agave in the name of science l of course. Someone has to be the Rhesus Monkey in the experiment right? Can we volunteer as tribute?

I'm OK with that. But I'd like to have a better plan than of how everything should be wired. It's the problem with adding things one at a time. My bike is guilty of it as well. It's harder to go back and justify cleaning things up when things are working. However, troubleshooting becomes a bigger pain in the ass when something goes wrong.

Lots of truth to this. On '05 FJR #1, accessories got added one at a time. It was a rats nest. On FJR#2, I built a wiring harness complete with strain relief and other features to make it more resilient. When FJR#2 got crashed, I pulled my custom wiring harness. Made accessorizing FJR #3 much easier.

[Uncle Hud]

My controller is fully variable (smooth transition from dim lights to bright lights) and has no cooling fins. The LED lights have cooling fins as part of their housings, and should get plenty of airflow mounted on the FJR forks.

I’m confident the “adjustable” waveform is created by a variable capacitor and a tank circuit; all likely housed in the thimble-sized package with rotating knob. (Where’s that photo?)

From the suppler’s website:

[ionbeam]

...the “adjustable” waveform is created by a variable capacitor and a tank circuit; all likely housed in the thimble-sized package with rotating knob...

In electronics there are so many different ways to achieve the same end result, and usually there is no 'right way' to get the outcome you need.

The item in the picture above is a 20,000 ohm, waterproof potentiometer, pot for short. IP67 is the waterproof rating of the component.

A common way to solve a PWM circuit is to take a level comparator of some sort, send a sawtooth wave to one pin and a varying DC level (from the pot) to the other pin. Where the DC crosses the sawtooth will determine the output pulse width. In the first picture the DC level only crosses the small tips of the sawtooth and produces a narrow pulse. As the DC goes down it crosses more of the sawtooth creating a wider pulse. The sawtooth never changes frequency or amplitude. For LED lighting the sawtooth will always be more than 60 cycles per second (60Hz).