Author Topic: New T3 spotlights and wiring  (Read 422 times)

Offline moto

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New T3 spotlights and wiring
« on: June 30, 2022, 01:04:47 PM »
I just installed some spotlights on my T3, the House Tuning LED Spot Light kit, available on Amazon for $80. Here's what I like about them and how I hooked them up to integrate them with the headlight and my two sets of horns.

The spot lights draw 26 watts each, are made of anodized cast aluminum and look like Denalis to me (never having held a Denali in my hand). They are true spot lights and so can be mounted sideways, as I did, without changing the circular light pattern.

They come with a nice wiring harness containing a suitable relay. Since the wiring harness is said to be 12 feet long, it needs shortening. I found that the connectors for the spot lights are plug-compatible knock-offs of the size 16 Amphenol-Deutsch AT-DT connectors offered here: http://www.cycleterminal.com/amphenol-at-dt-connectors.html. You'll need two of the female connectors, or probably just a few female sockets, which are sold separately. (Buy extras for your mistakes.) You'll also need a reasonable crimping tool.

Mounting arrangement





I followed the general mounting scheme of BritChefLee, a former forum member whose posts I always liked. There are two brass plates that hang the lamps from the headlight bolts. These are connected at the bottom by an aluminum plate, painted flat black, that is also anchored via a screw to the threaded boss for the brake light switch on the lower triple tree.

How I think spot lights work best as a warning

My experience with small halogen spots mounted on my Italjet 250 convinced me that flashing them about a half block away at drivers who are about to take my right of way is by far the most effective use of spot lights. Drivers get used to any lights that are constantly on, no matter how they might jiggle up and down a little on the fork lowers. But flashing a light in their eyes simply electrifies them. It's almost as though a direct connection is made to the neurons controlling their foot on the brake pedal. I wanted the same feature for my T3, so I wired them both for continuous and flashing use.

How I wired them up

The new system, combining headlight, spot lights, OEM Voxbell horns, and a Nautilus air horn under my gas tank has these operation features:

1) The spotlights turn on and off independently of the other components for use in lighting up the road. This requires a single new switch on the handlebar.

2) There are three crash-avoidance zones or stages, each with its own warning requirements, per my own judgement of what works best at different distances from a potential crash. No new handlebar switches were needed.

    Stage 1. Distant warning: Using the OEM headlight flasher now flashes the spotlights along with the headlight high beam.

    Stage 2. Medium-distance warning: Pressing the horn button sounds the OEM Voxbell horns alone, just as before.

    Stage 3. Emergency, close-distance crash warning: Pressing the horn button and the head light flasher together flashes the high beams and the spot lights, and blows the OEM horns and a Nautilus Compact air horn hidden under the gas tank.

3) For signaling other cars to dim their headlights on the road at night, it is still possible to use the original high/low beam switch without activating the spot lights (or horns!).

Video demonstration

Here is a 15 second Youtube video of the resulting system in action. In it, I first flash the headlights and spotlights with the OEM flasher button as I ride toward the camera. Then I use the OEM horn button to sound the OEM Voxbell horns. Finally, as a last resort before running over the cameraman, I press the horn and flasher buttons simultaneously, releasing a full half-horsepower of light and sound! (Thanks to my son, who was the cameraman and Youtube uploading wizard.)

https://youtu.be/W0vGmvbJNDQ

Wiring

For anyone interested in the detailed wiring scheme. Three diodes were used to keep the controls separate for the various functions.





(I used the T3's original fuse box positions 5 and 6 to feed power to the relays for all components. Three new relays were installed on a steel strap beneath the left side cover of the T3. Three, 15-amp diodes were used; they were leftovers from my Italjet project where the diodes carried the full head light and spot light currents. Much lower capacity diodes are all that is needed for this system, since only the currents for the relay logic circuits are being carried.)

--------

That's it!

Moto
« Last Edit: June 30, 2022, 08:41:38 PM by moto »
850 T-3
Griso 1100 corretto
2023 Royal Enfield Classic 350
Italjet Buccaneer 250 (ex-SSR) -- now sold
credit for 2500+ postings lost in the database meltdown of Feb 9, 2020

Offline yackee

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Re: New T3 spotlights and wiring
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2022, 06:53:14 PM »
I've played around a bit with mounting similar LED lights from Amazon on my T3. But I couldn't figure out how/where to mount them. What did you use for brackets and where did you attach them? I'm working with a windshield, so maybe that makes it more difficult.

Offline moto

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Re: New T3 spotlights and wiring
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2022, 08:32:10 PM »
I've played around a bit with mounting similar LED lights from Amazon on my T3. But I couldn't figure out how/where to mount them. What did you use for brackets and where did you attach them? I'm working with a windshield, so maybe that makes it more difficult.

I got a strip of brass from mcmaster.com 1/8" thick and as wide as the long dimension of the mount, 1 1/2". (Brass just for a change from my usual aluminum, which always looks crappy in the end. Architectural brass because it came in the right size.) I then cut two pieces 152mm in length, drilled 11mm holes in the end of each to accept the turn signal hollow bolts, and used a grinder to taper each one from the top to the mid point. Here is what was my working design sketch (in hard-to-photograph pencil):





I made a similar strip in aluminum to connect the two brass strips at their bottoms. I bent the aluminum up on the ends to allow the pieces to be drilled and bolted together, making its final length equal to the distance between the brass strips when they are mounted on the headlight hollow bolts. I also cut away part of the trailing edge of this strip, leaving enough material to bend up at an angle as a tab to accept a bolt that connected it to the mount for the front brake light switch on the lower triple tree. I had to use a longer screw for this and also add spacers to bring the switch up level with the tab. Three pieces of a 1/4" copper bar from mcmaster were used, two of them small spacers and the third a longer piece drilled and tapped to form a ground bar or bus for wires from the headlamp that had been secured with the old, now disused, screw. You can see the bright copper bus at the bottom of the picture I first posted, along with the bolts securing the brass strips to the invisible, black-painted aluminum cross-strip.

So, in short, a broad, square "U" of metal strips was constructed that hangs from the headlight bolts and is secured to the front brake switch mounting lug. It should be easy to judge whether this would work with your windshield; there is no problem down below the headlamp, at least.

The mount is quite solid and stable, giving a good foundation for the spotlights. You need to consider whether your particular lights can be mounted sideways, of course, and whether your windshield would block the lights themselves.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2022, 08:37:32 PM by moto »
850 T-3
Griso 1100 corretto
2023 Royal Enfield Classic 350
Italjet Buccaneer 250 (ex-SSR) -- now sold
credit for 2500+ postings lost in the database meltdown of Feb 9, 2020

 

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