| Author | Message | ||
     Chuchor19 |
Hello again everyone! How do I turn off the headlights? I'm messing around with my buelltooth, and it asks me to have the run switch on and key on so the headlights are on, and killing my battery. Is there a switch or trick to turn them off? | ||
| Duanelr |
Modern, North American sold motorcycles do not have a switch for turning off the headlights. They are always on. Have you experienced something different, on other bikes? | ||
| Chuchor19 |
Nope this is the only bike I've ever owned lol sorry for the stupid question. I'm new to motorcycles in general. | ||
| Froggy |
Quick and easiest way to is to pull the fuse labeled "lights". If you do that, there is a safety that will prevent the bike from starting, but you will still be able to do all other ECM functions. For track days and such you can unplug the headlight harness behind the flyscreen. | ||
| Chuchor19 |
Didn't even think about that. Great idea. Thank you! | ||
| Nm5150 |
Look under your the front of your fairing and there is a squarish plug you can unplug and disable the lights without disabling the bike.Before I got a fairing dedicated to track use this is what I did to keep the heat from melting the tape to my headlight lenses and you don't even have to pull the seat.HTH | ||
| Dannybuell |
I would pay for a headlight switch setup. makes sense to me in a weak electrical environment. | ||
| Ebmachine |
I installed a single pole, double throw switch to the left of the speedometer. In the center position, the headlights are off and the super bright W5W LED marker lights are on and act as daytime lights and only draw 5W each. In position one, one headlight comes on. In position two, both headlights come on. I did not think the markers would be bright enough, so I set up a way to run one headlight during the day. All headlights are 20W LED. The bike is highly visible and does not draw many watts. | ||
| Dannybuell |
Ebmachine ~ can you do a story on this? | ||
| Ebmachine |
Sure Dannybuell. I will be on the road a couple of days, but will take a shot at it when I get back. | ||
| Reepicheep |
(The following applies only to a running bike, not a bike drawing power just from the battery) Correct me if I am wrong, but unless you also replace the shunt regulator with some kind of switching or series setup, you aren't really accomplishing anything by disconnecting the headlight besides pumping more heat into the voltage regulator. | ||
| Stevel |
Bill, You are correct of course, but most folks have no idea how the alternator functions on a motorbike or the difference between a motorbike and car alternator system. You may want to explain this. I did this once a while ago. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Just deleted 3 pages trying to explain it. This isn't the first time I've gotten that far in and decided you really need about 2 quarters of sophomore level electrical engineering to really understand it. At a high level it is simple enough, but it doesn't take many questions to trip over something that requires you teach a boatload of neat physics before you can move on. So let me just jump to the relevant conclusions instead: A car alternator will change the amount of power it can make based on the amount of power it needs. It does this by generating the magnetic field to be as weak or strong as needed. A permanent magnet motor (a fixed strength magnetic field) with a shunt regulator (like we have on Buell's and many other motorcycles) will always produce the same amount of power for a given force at a given RPM. It regulates it by directing as much of that power as is needed over to the bike and battery, and throwing the rest away through the voltage regulator (and stator windings, long story). This isn't as crazy as it sounds the first time you hear it, but good for you for thinking "huh, that's dumb" the first time you realize this is how it works. The net effect is that on a Buell, when you disconnect a headlight, you do help with the amount of power available at 1000 RPM. But you also create the need to dump all that power needed for a headlight straight into the voltage regulator at high RPM. And all the Buell's I have played with have all had enough power to run all the accessories (including headlights and 15 watts of heated grips) just fine at idle. An interesting question here for 1125 owners is which case hurts the stator the most? Being shorted to ground by the VR, or being at a higher voltage and pumping power into the battery and lights? If the latter, which I think it might be, you would actually be helping your stator by using MORE headlight power. (Ive wanted to model this out for a while, it would be fun to try and pin down, and the math is all fairly simple). A series or switching regulator would be best for the stator. But these are more complicated and harder to build (but, geesh, not *that* hard). The series regulator would have to be HUGE to manage the heat. But a switching regulator could do it well with something about the size of your fist. It would be doing about what 4 laptop power adapters do. (Message edited by reepicheep on August 01, 2016) | ||
| Ebmachine |
I have a 50amp series VR (SH847)on my '08 1125R. I installed a headlight switch to lower the temp on my stator. It was explained to me that the series VR takes the heat instead of the stator. I also like turning my headlights off when starting the bike. In the past, I fried an HID light system during low voltage cranking. | ||
| Reepicheep |
That's true. A series regulator not only takes the heat instead of the stator, it prevents as much heat from being sent through the whole system to begin with. It will also gain you about .1 horsepower on the dyno (seriously). | ||
| Ebmachine |
I also noticed that my coolant temperature is down a bit after installing a series VR. The only thing I can figure is that the stator is running cooler and putting less of a load on the Buell cooling system by not adding heat to the engine. | ||
| Mrlogix |
just wanted to say thanks to reepicheep for the educational moment. Hadn't thought about it before.  | ||
| Reepicheep |
Ebmachine, that would absolutely be true. On a shunt setup, I expect most of the dumped power is actually being dissipated by the stator, and it's probably something like 200 watts at high RPM. So by switching to a series regulator, you are removing the heat of a small toaster from your primary. | ||
| Drawkward |
Interestingly enough (and obviously) the International Space Station also has to shunt power during daylight orbit periods because the full channeled power system makes more power than the downstream electronics can handle. Upstream of the Main Bus Switching Units a good deal of power is "wasted" because a limited amount of current can be used. There was talk of using this wasted power for different drives instead of using propellant. Interesting stuff. | ||
| Chuchor19 |
Where did you get the led headlights and do you have a part number. Im still new to bikes so a lot of this stuff isn't my jargon lol how expensive and difficult would it be to install a series vr? | ||
| Ebmachine |
Chuchor19, the technology foe LED lights are constantly changing, so the LED lights available today are better than what I purchased a year ago. The 1125R uses H8 light bulbs, so you can shop for an H8 LED light and research the lumens and watts before buying. The same thing goes for the marker lights. I purchased 7.5 watt type W5W LED bulbs after finding a set that put out 300 lumens. The series VR was easy to install behind my license plate. It is expensive at $200 plus, but much cheaper and easier to replace than the stator. | ||
| Chuchor19 |
Ok thanks so much for all of your help. I appreciate it! | ||
| 99qk6 |
Where did u get the series vr and the info to install it | ||
| Joe7bros |
99, I got mine from Roadstercycles. Also, looked at mounting it to the rear fender / plate holder and decided I didn't like the way that would work so I ordered a tail tidy; waiting for it to get here. Also ordered a Deutsch connector kit from WireCare.com so it will look OEM. Expect to do an install shortly. |
