Motodynamic tail light spliced with led turn signals, malfunctioning

[mikeshungry]

As riders we want to make sure that we are seen. With this bike I didn't want to become a Christmas tree but I wanted to upgrade the rear lights and indicators on my 05 fz6. Somehow I found a motodynamic tail light online and installed it splicing in other LED stem signals with running lights and brake light functions integrated. I expected this not to be too heavy of a load on the battery because I understand LED's draw less power. But because the tail light has a microprocessor inside the light malfunctions until the bike has been running for about 3 or 4 minutes. I'm guessing until the voltage comes back up? The tail light came with resistors already wired in, but I eliminated them thinking it would help some, but not much, the stem signals are still very dim when the bike is off or the RPM's are low. I installed the electronic flasher relay (ELFR-1) to correct the hyper flashing that occurs with LED's. For the most part everything functions at higher RPM's, but when I turn on the brights, (more load) the tail light malfunctions once again and the turn signals go dim and may not even light up! Note I still have incandescent OEM signals up front; I've tested with them disconnected, not much difference. I've gone through my wiring and splicing several times everything is tight as a drum.

Hopefully someone else has run into this problem. Because I am lost beating my head against the wall. I waiting to borrow a multimeter from my buddy so I can get some numbers, of which I will post because they may likely not make much sense to me. Someone else was saying an upgraded stator with a higher output would instantly correct the problem? True or false? Note my battery may be over a few years old but has never gone dead or lost a charge or struggled to crank the engine. I was also planning on doing the headlight mod next but I couldn't imagine anything working properly with adding another application to the load. I also have a 12v cigarette lighter outlet wired to my battery but nothing has been connected to it so it shouldn't make any difference. Any advice??

 

[Motogiro]

How are you splicing your stem LED's? One wire should go to the directional signal wire and the other to black wire which is ground. The brown wire is the left directional signal and green wire is the right directional signal. The Blue wire should not be connected to your stem LED's unless the have a running light wire on the stem.

Your Motodynamics tail light and stem lights should be wired directly to the bike's wiring. The resistors are generally for load equalizing but some LED's use them for voltage drop. Were the resistors you removed, the ones that came with the Motodynamics tail light? If they were the parallel wired type, when you remove the resistors, you just clip them out of circuit and reinsulate unless they're in a separate plug n play harness). A diagram of how you've wired it up would be helpful.

In the photo I see a bright light in front. Is that the headlight?
Naturally check the voltages when you get a chance but if the headlamp is pretty bright then your battery shouldn't be so low the LED's are dim.

Not to be mean but that stator statement seems out of left field.

 

[mikeshungry]

Like I said someone else said an upgraded stator would fix the problem. I have no idea if it would work or not that's why I ask.

Yes that's the headlight on, neither the normal beam or the brights appear dim at all. The only thing that goes dim are the stem turn signals. They don't even light up if the brights are on.

I removed the resistors that came with the motodynamic sub harness. I spliced the left stem signal into the left wires on the tail light subharness and the right stem signal with the right wires on the tail light and used the OEM connectors motodynamic provided to connect to the connectors on the bikes harness. I then spliced the stem signal running lights into the tail lights' running light wires and the stem signal brake lights into the tail lights brake wire and used the connector provided by motodynamic for the tail light. There are no resistors in the circuit now. I spliced it this way so I could leave the bikes harness completely stock with no splicing.

I will also make a diagram to the best of my ability.
And get my hands on a volt meter soon.

 

[mikeshungry]

Problem solved, current was backflowing. I put on two diodes on the running light circuit and presto. Proper function. :thumbup:

 

[Motogiro]

Problem solved, current was backflowing. I put on two diodes on the running light circuit and presto. Proper function. :thumbup:

Good job!
We've seen and solved a similar issue using diodes with regard to the brake light circuit and additional LED signal assemblies.

 

[stark23x]

Thanks to this thread I was able to quickly wire up my rear with the Motodynamic light and some Bikemaster supermicrobright whatever-the-model-is and man, you can see me signaling, I tell you what. Add the hyperlites and it's maybe a little Christmas tree back there, but I'm ok with it. I was hit two years ago from behind by a guy that claims he didn't see my signal, so anything I can do to get the attention of zoned out drivers, I'll do.