Extra Lighting Part 3.

Extra Lighting Part 3.

Right well, I've been quite busy recently so I haven't had much time to get on and get this extra lighting finished completely but, I have had time to get a little bit more done.

First I decided which terminals / connectors to use after cutting the strobe unit from the L.E.Ds. I choose to leave a little wire on the strobe unit just in case I decide to use it later on for something (you can use whichever type of connector you want / prefer). I used a pair of terminal crimpers but the L.E.D's wire is very thin & required me to crimp the majority of the length of the connector as well as removing enough plastic sheath to bend back and double up the wire, to thicken it slightly. You could solder it on but the plastic cover would have to be removed and you would most likely need to add some heat shrink wrap, to stop it shorting. 

I chose to use the female connectors on the L.E.Ds, as the battery has male connectors (for testing). The main wire loom I produce will have the male connectors as well. This just means that they can be removed by unplugging should the front headlight panel need removing or you need to remove a bracket in future etc. The smallest connectors all have a red plastic sheath, it's a key that's marked to the crimping tool. The red dot point on the crimping tool is the place red sheath connectors are crimped at, so it's crimped correctly. It's all pre thought out in a standards sense. I coloured the negative (-) connector with a marker just in case there's a mix up with the polarity fumbling around under the inside of the headlight panel. The connectors for a certain diameter are all red due to the standards, the only way around it is to remove the sheath & use the correct colour heatshrink tubing or use a marker like above. As long as you know which wire is which it doesn't really matter. The male ones are all blue in the same manner, so it doesn't relate to polarity.

Testing the two L.E.Ds on the battery without the strobe, also testing the new connectors are crimped correctly. It all works fine. As mentioned before, this battery is a rechargeable 12 volt alarm battery, model 'Power Sonic PS 1213' I think it says on the picture below?

Next we can get back to the brackets. Getting them back under the install point under the front headlight panel. They're still a bit too tall to fit comfortably, so I cut off 2cm off the length of the front facing part of the bracket (the part I chose to be the front, it's a 90 degree bracket after all). I'm concentrating on one bracket only (right hand side) and we will see why later on.

After checking once more the one corner is still impeding free movement so I mark it up and cut it off.

Using some masking tape and a bit of fiddling we tape the bracket to the bottom of the headlight panel and the L.E.D to the bracket itself to get our position correct. A slight slot can be cut in the bracket to bend the wire back later on, although it's not really necessary. Once in position we get our permanent marker pen (as fine as possible) or you might get away with a sharp pencil if it marks the bracket fine, and draw around the circumference of the L.E.D and mark if we can the hole points for orientation. It's better to mount diagonally here with the holes, also the wire is nearer to the bottom, just where we want it.

We can remove the excess material marked in black at the top, so it's just rounded off. All we will see when we look at it is the L.E.D and it will sit flush, I also plan on painting the bracket and L.E.D casing black with Hammerite so it won't really be visible when finished. 

You can remove it with a hacksaw as best as possible then file, that's what I did as I had the two tools right there in front of me. Or I could of turned the grinder on and ground it all off. Whichever suits you it doesn't have to be a perfect finish, it won't really be seen under there. Just watch for any sharp burr on the edges and file it away as necessary.

Right, now we have the one bracket done we can use this as a guide for our other one. Now the other side of the bike is a mirror image to the one we've just looked at. So we don't just need a copy of the bracket but a mirror image of it! The easy way to do this is to place both brackets facing each other on a flat surface, so they're both level. Then using either a clamp or simple tape, join them together and use one as a template, draw around it and cut and file it to match the other bracket.

Your left with a pair of matching brackets for either side, you will have to once again use masking tape and fiddle the same way on the left side to mark the L.E.D position properly.