Dodgy LED Bulb Connections Rewired

Ordered a cheap LED bulb for my bike recently, that I'd forgotten about an decided to fit it today. 'tried' was originally the correct word, well until Nigel (Doc Cox) came up with a bit of out of the box thinking. Out of the box thinking is nothing unusual for Nigel, not sure he has ever thought inside the box.
I phoned him saying that the Fekin bulb was off when it should of been showing main beam & only showing main beam when it should of been showing high beam & had no high beam at all.
He said straight away that he thought it was possibly a manufacture fault an the bulb could be internally wired wrong.
So he then popped over to mine & tested the bulb with a couple of wires & a small spare 12v battery, which almost immediately confirmed his earlier thoughts. This showed the earth to be in the wrong position (well for a UK bike, at least).
This is an easy fix says Nigel, while I scratched my head in wonder and an easy fix it was.
Nigel then trimmed the bulbs own spade connections with a dremel, so that some small female spade connectors would fit on it. He the cut 3 wires and fitted both male & female connectors to apposing ends and switched the wires to the corresponding connection points and all was fine.

Goes to show how much easier life can be, if you simply think outside the box.



The brightness of  the LED bulb is not as great as a conventional bulb, it is a much nicer light though. Rather than the normal yellowish light it has a very bright white glow.



Just need to fit the buckets LED sidelight bulb that I have, this will give me a lovely looking front light, without blinding on-coming traffic.

Thanks Nigel (Doc Cox)

Nice job Dave, Good to see you working on the bike again too   You say it's not as Bright as a conventional bulb at possibly illuminating the road ahead? They always seem brighter and give a more eye catching light during the day to me though, That's the time most of us ride our bikes anyway, so probably a good thing for the majority of us

Very clever fix 

Had a similar problem with a friends Pontiac Catalina a few years ago, this was the first time I had seen one of these bulbs close up, it looks pretty durable and less liable to suffer vibration or road shock damage, we weren,t sure about how bright it would be on the road but looks can be deceptive, a 3mm led in your hand doesn,t look too bright during the day but will light up a room at night, this definitely a "Cool" light, it,s the first time I have ever been able to hold a lit headlight bulb in my hand and then put it back down again without Anesthetic and surgery...

simbo wrote:

Nice job Dave, Good to see you working on the bike again too 

 
Cheers Sim, I am really starting to get the craving for riding again, after a long 17 months of not really being able to. The spring is on its way again with better weather starting to creep in & that's having a big impact with me & the seemingly diluted biker blood running through my veins that is now starting to become concentrated again. Watch out world.

Simbo wrote:

You say it's not as Bright as a conventional bulb at possibly illuminating the road ahead? They always seem brighter and give a more eye catching light during the day to me though, That's the time most of us ride our bikes anyway, so probably a good thing for the majority of us

Brightness of LED vehicle Bulbs
Standard LED bulbs are generally not as bright as standard incandescent bulbs, they have many advantages over filament bulbs (longer life, faster on/off times, lower power consumption, more vivid colors) but brightness is not one of them. They are generally not as bright but some of them with large numbers of LED's, will appear brighter than filament bulbs. As an exception, some High Power LED car bulbs are as bright or brighter than some standard filament car bulbs. The light is distributed differently so they can appear brighter in some applications and not as bright in others, it depends on the size and shape of the bulb housing and reflector. I really need to compare the bulb in action with another identical headlight bucket, as even this can make a difference. The LED bulb I bought seems to be not as bright at first glance but that was not checked against another incandescent bulb working at exactly the same time.
Another advantage is the extremely low power consumption, this is a massive plus. As very little power is taken from the battery when the ignition is turned on, especially that really important first period of time when the ignition is first turned on.
A very quick way of explaining the huge way in which the incandescent bulbs consume battery power is to suggest that you touch an incandescent bulb that is turned on. I guarantee that you will burn yourself from the wasted power consumption that they turn into heat, This does not happen with LED bulbs.

Flippin eck man, now that is thinking outside the box   good thing is with the led bulb fitted if you leave your ignition on for a few minutes without starting the bike, at least your battery will still have enough power to start it.

Dave are you switching all your lights over to leds, indicators and spot lights as well?

Yes Crash, I am going to be fully LEDed up mate.
Both bulbs in headlight bucket, both of my spot lights, which will be on all the time. As you know the newer 800s have LED rear lights & my indicators I will do at some point, when I can be arsed. All that & with the LED strips that I have hidden all over the bike and I will be a lot more visible but all my lighting will use less power than one normal headlight bulb.

I think this led technology has reached the point now where the light output is excellent. Look at how many new cars you see with LED daylight running lamps on the front... Some are so vivid it's quite dazzling.

In contrast my m800 came with a cluster of leds in the tail light built into the fishtail (factory standard) and it's a little gloomy by today's standards.

I have seen so much on this site that makes me really think, this is yet another. Well done for thinking outside the box as you say. I have either learnt or questioned the way I would of tackled similar situations so often. Well done Sirs.

Must say I was looking at the bulb working inside the bucket tonight & wondered to myself if it looks brighter installed than it did uninstalled in. I know the bucket helps intensify the light but what I do know is that the light is so much nicer than stock.

Good one dave. is it just a straight swap for the original headlamp bulb? (Other than the wiring mod to rectify the fault). I think I read with indicators yoh can't just do a straight swap because the flasher unit isn't compatible?

Yes the LED bulb is a straight swap, well they are apart from the bugger I bought.
No the Indicators are not a straight swap for LEDs, a relay is needed for that job.