Electrical gurus? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Electrical gurus?

Wingboy

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I have a pair of LED 55w lights for my tenere. (no canbus) They have a black box on the cable (no room for it) that i have been told contains capacitors to deal with canbus wiring systems. Can i cut the black box out and just splice the wires together?
 

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Probably. Or, can you splice in more wire, to allow it to fit?
 
Link to light (or manufacturer/part no)? There's a good chance you can cut it out but it would be nice to know what it's trying to do. Is that one bulb low and high with two wires? Or does this keep the shutter and the bulb is just always on?
 
I'm not an expert, but I'd expect CANBUS to require resistors to emulate the draw of a conventional headlight, rather than capacitors.

However, it looks like adding capacitors to LED headlights is a technique to avoid flickering, which would be applicable for non-CANBUS systems too.
 
I'm not an expert, but I'd expect CANBUS to require resistors to emulate the draw of a conventional headlight, rather than capacitors.

However, it looks like adding capacitors to LED headlights is a technique to avoid flickering, which would be applicable for non-CANBUS systems too.
That's why make/model of lights may help. Is this box a resistor so you don't get a light out fault, a communicating canbus interface, capacitors to reduce PWM flicker, something else or a combination of some of the above? It looks like it has two wires in, not sure how many wires it has out (for instance it could have three or more out to convert a canbus signal to high/low beam at the bulb).
 
"Link to light (or manufacturer/part no)?"
While we wait:

 
I can't see WHY a simple light would need a capacitor... lights don't NEED capacitance
Are you sure it's not a resistor? If the bike came with incandescent bulbs it needs resistance (load) to make the flasher work with LEDs.
A couple of seconds with a multi meter....
 
I can't see WHY a simple light would need a capacitor... lights don't NEED capacitance
Are you sure it's not a resistor? If the bike came with incandescent bulbs it needs resistance (load) to make the flasher work with LEDs.
A couple of seconds with a multi meter....
Some vehicles (no idea about the ST) use PWM on the headlight to reduce brightness for DRL. No issue with a filament but an LED can behave badly when PWM'd without a suitable filtering capacitor.
 
I can't see WHY a simple light would need a capacitor... lights don't NEED capacitance
Are you sure it's not a resistor? If the bike came with incandescent bulbs it needs resistance (load) to make the flasher work with LEDs.
A couple of seconds with a multi meter....

Resistors and capacitors perform different functions when connected to LED lights and turn signals.

Resistors mimic the load of an incandescent or halogen bulb so the CANBUS doesn't report a lamp out fault. Wingboy's Tenere doesn't have CANBUS, so wouldn't be able to detect a fault anyway.

Capacitors smooth out the pulsing that some electrical systems output to dim incandescent/halogen. Fine for those bulbs, but PWM causes flickering on LEDs, or in some cases, won't even light up the LED.

Obviously, you can't run resistors and capacitors on the same light, they will cancel each other out.
 
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Obviously, you can't run resistors and capacitors on the same light, they will cancel each other out.
Not necessarily. Yes, some of the capacitor's energy would bleed through the resistor but you may need the resistor to keep the computer happy (I don't know if canbus checks resistance before lighting or if looks for proper current when lit) and the capacitor to smooth the flicker when modulated. If canbus is checking circuit before lighting the bulb, the magic brain box could easily show the proper resistance when it gets lower voltage and flip the circuit to be pure capacitance when it sees full voltage. I'm not sure how smart they are making these lighting boxes.
 
So many questions, so few answers.
Cleaned my wife's closet out this morning. I'm on my second margarita. Later.
 

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So many questions, so few answers.
Cleaned my wife's closet out this morning. I'm on my second margarita. Later.
That's a good looking margarita. Take some time for yourself in the sun. You are always welcome to drop in if you need a destination (or a room to switch up the local riding roads).
 
Link.
NOVSIGHT H11/H8/H9 LED Headlight Bulbs, 100W 20000 Lumens 600% Brightest Low Beam Conversion Kit, 6500K Cool White, IP68 Waterproof, Extremely Brighter Halogen Replacement https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08THFYYQ3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_i_4YCWKGW7BJQSBQNS1EKP?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
There isn't enough information to determine everything the black box is doing. My guess is it's handling the CANbus resistance and any modulation that dims and brightens the lights. It probably drives the LEDs so removing it would probably be a no-va.

Not sure why you would need to rewire, there should be enough room behind a SuperTen's light housing to mount a Margarita holder.

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There isn't enough information to determine everything the black box is doing. My guess is it's handling the CANbus resistance and any modulation that dims and brightens the lights. It probably drives the LEDs so removing it would probably be a no-va.

Not sure why you would need to rewire, there should be enough room behind a SuperTen's light housing to mount a Margarita holder.

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Haha. He needed bigger caps to get the bulbs in. The heatsinks on leds is huge.
 
Don't cut the box off. It probably has important brains in it. It shouldn't need too but they chose to make things complicated instead of simple. If you wanted, you could probably cut it off and run light and fan on full at all times but need more information on fan on the small chance it actually needs a driver (and fan life would be reduced). It's not tragically hard to make a cap with more room if that's required (eg ditch the taper and make a cylinder).
71TEKu79lgL._AC_SL1000_.jpg
 
Tidbit....I upgraded my filament (halogen???) DRLs with LED lamps which did not come with a black box...they ended up being waaaay too bright so I added a high wattage resistor in series with them....my vehicle has PWM. All good.
 
@ Wingboy ...one issue I had when replacing a filament bulb with LED...unlike a filament, the LED does not cast light in a 360 degree pattern, usually. The one you posted a pic of appears to be flat sided. The 360 degree ones have little LEDs all the way around the "center mast". which mitigate the issue for the most part. So in a reflector housing that is designed around a filament bulb, you may get an undesirable pattern or beam shape coming out.
 
@ Wingboy ...one issue I had when replacing a filament bulb with LED...unlike a filament, the LED does not cast light in a 360 degree pattern, usually. The one you posted a pic of appears to be flat sided. The 360 degree ones have little LEDs all the way around the "center mast". which mitigate the issue for the most part. So in a reflector housing that is designed around a filament bulb, you may get an undesirable pattern or beam shape coming out.
My Tenere has a projector type headlight.
 

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