EC300 trail lighting and other electrical fun.

[VxZeroKnots]

Sometimes I find myself still on the bike when it is dark out. On days of particularly bad judgement, i'm just getting started in the dark. Unfortunately, there isn't a dirt bike out there that comes from the factory with a decent headlight for the trail.

Initially I found bike electrical systems to be fairly intimidating and avoided messing with them as much as possible. Okay, fair enough, that is still true but I have gotten a lot more comfortable. That and riding trail in the dark with a weak stock headlight is a powerful motivator

My adventures in electrons with concern to Gas Gas are pretty much all documented in this thread.

I was able to go from the stock nightlight:



To something that was actually usable:





Truth be told I've only ever used this setup once (shown in the last picture) on the trail. It's a good enough system as is to get you out of the woods if you end up out longer than planned but could use some improvement for serious trail riding.

The plan is to try and take the path of least resistance to get a 2012 EC300 to trail worthy night status. Firstoffs I was curious how much juice I had to work with. If I could have my way I wanted to use the cyclops regulator/rectifier that plugs straight into the stock headlight harness. It seems like the LED lights don't really give a shit about voltage variation and don't need a capacitor or battery to operate smoothly.

http://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/Rectifier-for-LED-Light-Module_p_85.html

I only have the high beam input and output hooked up so I was mainly interested in the DC output from the reg/rec unit on this circuit.

With the bike running on the stand I measured:
Idle: 3.8ADC and 14.2VDC
Reved: 4.2ADC and 13.5VDC

It's a little weird to me that it would make less voltage and more amps at higher revs, but I double checked and have a fairly nice multimeter so... Maybe I did it wrong?

Assuming I didn't that gives me 54-57 watts to work with, more than enough to run pretty much any LED unit out there with room to spare.

I've had Squadrons on two bikes now and they are plenty bright to ride almost anything short of desert racing. They pull 42w/3.8A/12V and put out 4,300 Lumens in a variety of beam patterns. Same with the Squaron XL but with better optics, essentially the same brightness and throw of an 8" HID per their marketing. You pay for those with a $350 price tag for the Squadron-XL and $220 for the Squadron Pro.

Baja designs also makes Sport versions of those same two lights at 20W/1.4A/12V and putting out 1800 lumens. $200 for the XL and $120 for the sport. These are probably sufficient for anything a 300 2T would see.

Finally there is the BD S2, which has a few more lumens. Numbers are 2150 lumens at 21W/1.75A/12V.

Fit and finish is top notch on these and they have built in over voltage protection. The Squadron pro and S2 can be ordered pre mounted in a polisport housing that attaches to the fork with rubber straps.

The other contenders are from www.advmonster.com

the Model 60 puts out 3600 Lumens at 28w/2.4A/12V

This retails for $90 so you get a lot of bang for your buck but have to figure out mounting on your own. There are also two other options with the model 44 and model 30 which draw less, cost less, and put out less but you could always run two of them or mix and match to get exactly what you want at the expense of mounting and wiring complexity.

The choice I'm probably going to go with is the F40 light bar from advmonster @ $150.

It puts out 4000 lumens sucking down 38w@ 12VDC and accepts 9-32VDC. I couldn't find any info on the amps for this unit but it will mount nice over a Honda number plate and I'll remove the stock headlight mask. I like the optic choices on this unit and have found that optics make as much of a difference as the number of lumens put out in terms of useable light.

I hope this post helps someone out and I'll post back as I try stuff out, I'm currently torn between the F40 and S2 in a polisport mask and will try the trailtech reg/rec if the advmonster one doesn't work out...

 

[jostby]

Using Watts Law for the F40 light bar (38w/12v) = 3.17 amps consumption. When you measured your amperage you will only get an accurate reading if you have maximum power consumption happening, an example would be using a carbon-pile load tester to slowly increase a simulated load which causes the electrical system to increase amperage until it maxes out. I don't think I'd try that on a bike unless you had a battery hooked up though.

If I remember correct the 2K2 stator produces 30w and the 2K3 60w, so at 12v should deliver 2.5a and 5a respectively, but as the voltage goes up, the amperage will go down.

I've been following your LED interest and like where your heading, keep up the good work and keep us updated!

 

[Neil E.]

I have two of the older model 30 in FLOOD pattern (model 30 is now only available in SPOT). One on each side of the bike provides great light for trail riding with no fender shadow. I'm very pleased with them, however the stock electrical system will not keep up at full brightness. I'm good for about an hour's use before the battery is pulled down enough that the estart no longer cranks the engine (kickstart is handy). I think these were rated at 2.4 amps each.

So basically choose a setup that draws less than 4 amps and you should be OK. My recommendation would be for two model 44 lights @ 1.8 amp each (or perhaps the F40 if you want a single housing that is easier for mounting). Mount it high or the fender shadow will be annoying.

 

[Neil E.]

I see that the F40 is a spot/flood combo. This may be great for open area riding. I would choose a flood only setup for trail riding. A spot pattern may have too much of a "hot spot" which cuts down on your area coverage. Be careful selecting your light pattern. My lights would be adequate for about 50 mph speeds, above that the spot/flood combo might be worthwhile.

 

[VxZeroKnots]

Right on Neil, I was planning on going with the spot/flood combo mounted at about top clamp height. I agree that the setup you have with two spots on either side of the fender would provide the best light. The good news about the light bar is I can just order both lenses and swap between the two to get what I want. I do like the mounting possibilities for it and the riding in the Southwest can vary from wide open high speed desert to tight trees to it's going to have to be a versatile setup.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there two AC and outputs from the 2k3, one (white, higher up on the winding & more voltage) proving power to the battery charging system and the other (yellow) providing power to the headlight?

If i just run the light off that second AC circuit I'm hoping battery charging will be unaffected by light usage unless the light starts to use enough juice to not leave enough AC left to convert for charging that battery. How much does the charging system need?

My goal is to run the light sans battery and just convert AC to DC right before it goes into the light. Would I just be better off to hook the light directly to the battery with the stock charging system as you've done and keep it under 4A?

As always I appreciate you sharing your knowledge Neil.

 

[Neil E.]

There are multiple actual windings but electrically speaking, they function as two windings. In reality the "lower" winding is regulated AC clipped at ~12VAC (on your yellow wire). The "upper" winding is AC regulated and rectified to DC at ~13.5 volts.

So you have two circuits: "Yellow to ground" AC, and "White to ground" AC that becomes DC. The important thing is that the stock voltage rectifier is halfwave. This allows the AC and DC systems to share a common ground. A full wave rectifier (in all your aftermarket kits) does not work with your stock wiring unless you ISOLATE one side of the system.

This means you "float" the stator OR "float" the loads. Floating the loads is all you can do because the stock system will continue to be used as a gounded system.

If you want to run your LED lights on a stock wired bike, connect the input of your new rectifier between yellow and ground (chassis/engine ground). Connect the ouput of your new rectifier only to the plus and minus terminals of your new lights. Confirm that the minus is not common with the light housing. If so you would need to isolate the housing from ground. Your lights will only work with the engine running.

If you want to add another battery to support your new lights, it would need to be isolated as well (so the new rectifier would actually charge it).

 

[Neil E.]

As to using the stock wiring only, I would try this before using a separate rectifier. If the load is low enough, it should function OK. No harm to test it connected to the stock battery using an on/off switch. This does keep the light functioning when you fall off and/or stall the bike.

 

[Neil E.]

Both stator output wires are the same gauge. It's the same magnets passing over both windings. There is a bit higher voltage output on the white wire, but it's not that significant. Both circuits can blow bulbs quickly. If your AC regulator dies the yellow wire will put out high AC voltage. If your AC/DC regulator/rectifier dies the white wire will put out high AC voltage.

 

[VxZeroKnots]

Okay cool, so the cyclops rectifier plugs into the stock headlight plug and thus floats the DC load at the headlight mask which is not grounded to the frame.

So it is essentially a mini DC system which lives behind the headlight mask/numberplate and only has power when the engine is running.

I suspect their unit has some sort of capacitor in it based off my measurements and also from the fact that the light doesn't flicker at low engine RPM.

 

[shang]

I'm following this thread with quite a bit of interest. I tend to get caught out after dark as well, or start early in the morning in the dark.

I retrofitted an LED mountain bike light from ebay into my light housing. It was a huge improvement but still lacking. Recently I bought an LED light bar off amazon and that is much brighter. Unfortunately, what you stated is correct, that the pattern is just as important as the amount of light output and as long as I keep buying cheap ebay lights the pattern will never be great.

It is however much better than stock.

 

[Neil E.]

Okay cool, so the cyclops rectifier plugs into the stock headlight plug and thus floats the DC load at the headlight mask which is not grounded to the frame.

So it is essentially a mini DC system which lives behind the headlight mask/numberplate and only has power when the engine is running.

I suspect their unit has some sort of capacitor in it based off my measurements and also from the fact that the light doesn't flicker at low engine RPM.

Correct on all statements, however not flickering at idle is difficult to pin down. There is not necessarily a capacitor involved. The LED emitter voltage is much lower than 12VDC and the emitters can be grouped for connection. No way to know whether they are series or parallel connected or if some other components are hidden in the potting compound.

If there was a capacitor, the LEDs would extinguish slower. A big capacitor might give several seconds of operation after the engine stops turning. It is nice that they don't flicker.

 

[VxZeroKnots]

Correct on all statements, however not flickering at idle is difficult to pin down. There is not necessarily a capacitor involved. The LED emitter voltage is much lower than 12VDC and the emitters can be grouped for connection. No way to know whether they are series or parallel connected or if some other components are hidden in the potting compound.

If there was a capacitor, the LEDs would extinguish slower. A big capacitor might give several seconds of operation after the engine stops turning. It is nice that they don't flicker.

What about if I have my multimeter hooked up to the output of reg/rec (light unplugged) and it takes probably ~5 seconds for the voltage to drop below 9 volts, and ~10+ seconds for the meter to read zero after I kill the engine. Am I erroneous in thinking that indicates a capacitor in the system?

 

[Neil E.]

No, you are totally correct. Your numbers indicate the powering down effect that a capacitor provides, however you have to look at it a bit differently. If your connected lights took that long to power down, I'd be impressed with the performance. In reality the capacitor is only supporting the few milliamps drain of your multimeter so it's not a fair test.

Ten seconds of operation with your lights connected would be great. That might be enough time to even find your bike in the dark!

 

[VxZeroKnots]

The light certainly doesnt stay lit that long, I was merely guess as to why I am not experiencing any flickering.

 

[VxZeroKnots]

Whelp it's been a while but I ended up finally buying the ADV monster f40 light bar and a cycra stadium number plate. In the mean time I've been rocking the cyclops LED headlight bulb and it works awesome. Unfortunately I can't ever leave well enough alone and the rubbing of the fan housing on the headtube bothered me.

The light bar is huge! The measurements are posted on the site but it just seems bigger now that it's in front of me.

Haven't gotten too far but here is the general idea:

Notice I've routed the front brake line like a rallye bike or baja bike. Before anyone says anything about it getting caught on branches also notice it is still laterally inside the width of the radiators so whether the brake line is there or not if you catch a substantial branch there you are going to have problems regardless.

More to follow.

 

[fst96se]

Mount that puppy up so we can see how it looks! Er, I mean, works!

 

[VxZeroKnots]

Soon enough

I did get all the wiring taken care of today, I still have to think up a good way to mount the light bar but took the opportunity to clean up the mess behind the mask.

I ordered two waterproof connections with the light bar as the three-prong headlight connectors take up a bunch of space and are just cheesy in general.

Wired into the rectifier, it was a pain to keep track of what was supposed to connect to what but I was able to somehow keep everything straight.

notice I isolated the unused white wires with some heat shrink.

much cleaner

the finished layout. the reg/rec is double sided sticky taped to the number plate and the connector position should make it easy to install or remove the light bar.

there is a bit of a gap down at the bottom but i've seen stock bikes that look worse imho (bmw 450 and husabergs) and it isn't as bad in person.

Next to mount the light bar and cruise it around in the dark.

 

[VxZeroKnots]

After a hard day of riding and snapping off my rear brake lever I spent some time making a bracket for the light. The stainless bits the light comes with are much better than what i was able to hack together out of alloy but it will do for now.

Started with a cardboard template in order to minimize mistakes

looking good

getting there

Looking pretty good, the horizontal cutoff is the top of the light. No fender shadow of consequence though. woohoo!

I didn't get any good photos but the throw of the light is impressive. Easily goes out about 70 or so meters.

for reference here are photos with the stock light and then the LED "bulb" in the stock housing (which is perfectly sufficient for just screwing around or getting back off the trail when you get caught out)

stock and worthless

LED bulb

 

[Neil E.]

That light bar really puts out the illumination. What is the current draw for the F40? I didn't see any specs on their site.

 

[VxZeroKnots]

They post 38 watts @ 12V DC so that would give ~3.17A right? That should leave me about .6A spare before I start draining the battery.

I'll go through the packaging and see if i can find exact specs.