Light wiring question

[nzspokes]

Im fitting some 50w spots. If I fit the switch on the earth side of the circut will it need a relay? Im using a 10a switch.

[jellywrestler]

why the earth side?

[nzspokes]

why the earth side?

Because ive already got a strong power source next to the light. Saves running power all over the place.

[ducatilover]

AFAIK there's no real need for a relay, but you could do it just for fun?

[jellywrestler]

Because ive already got a strong power source next to the light. Saves running power all over the place.

describe strong, ie whats it there for?

[mossy1200]

describe strong, ie whats it there for?

Flux capacitor????:eek5:

[nzspokes]

describe strong, ie whats it there for?

Running spotlights.

[jellywrestler]

Running spotlights.

assuming your 'some' is two it shouldn't be an issue 100watts is a bit over 8 amps so a ten amp switch should be a doddle.
next point where you picking up your earth? not on the front end of the bike as the return path will be through the steering head bearings and they won't like that.....

[nzspokes]

assuming your 'some' is two it shouldn't be an issue 100watts is a bit over 8 amps so a ten amp switch should be a doddle.
next point where you picking up your earth? not on the front end of the bike as the return path will be through the steering head bearings and they won't like that.....

Will go back to the battery.

[mossy1200]

Will go back to the battery.

just go back to where the coils are earthed if you like. you just dont want them earthed on the front end infront of steering head bearings. After is fine.

[bogan]

10A switch will do it no problem, just make sure your wire gauge and fuse are at appropriate values...

Also, are they for road use? I think spotlights are not legal, or have to be wired to turn off with the beam dip circuit.

[nzspokes]

just go back to where the coils are earthed if you like. you just dont want them earthed on the front end infront of steering head bearings. After is fine.

Ive already run it for something else.

[nzspokes]

10A switch will do it no problem, just make sure your wire gauge and fuse are at appropriate values...

Also, are they for road use? I think spotlights are not legal, or have to be wired to turn off with the beam dip circuit.

Sorry, there driving lamps, placement lamps or whatever you want to call them to be legal.

They will fall off at Wof time.

[bogan]

Sorry, there driving lamps, placement lamps or whatever you want to call them to be legal.

They will fall off at Wof time.

Funnily enough, more lighting does not equal safer lighting, it's not only you that need to see where you are going...

Trade em in for some ELwire, still illegal, but perhaps beter visibility without the harm to other road users.

[nzspokes]

Funnily enough, more lighting does not equal safer lighting, it's not only you that need to see where you are going...

Trade em in for some ELwire, still illegal, but perhaps beter visibility without the harm to other road users.

Whut?:blink:

[ducatilover]

Whut?:blink: Put simply, he said, let Ducatilover ride your Bandit. I can see how it was hard to grasp

[DrunkenMistake]

Put simply, he said, let Ducatilover ride your Bandit. I can see how it was hard to grasp

Translated this means,
"Allow Ducatilover to ride your bandit so he can 12'oclock the bitch and write it off for you, thus eliminating your lighting issues."

[nzspokes]

Righto, just looked at ELwire. Would look good on a Honda.......

Me, I want to see where im going.

[DrunkenMistake]

Righto, just looked at ELwire. Would look good on a Honda.......

Me, I want to see where im going.


HID kit?
Halogens?
Clear Visor and not a dark smoke tinted one at 6:45 am on a road with no street lights during winter? (Guilty)

[nzspokes]

HID kit?
Halogens?
Clear Visor and not a dark smoke tinted one at 6:45 am on a road with no street lights during winter? (Guilty)

Its more the field of light on the Bandit is straight ahead. Very narrow. I ride alot on country roads at night so no street lighting. I cant see into corners. So will set the spots up to see into corners. Just have them on when needed. Going to start with 35w bulbs but may look at 50w if needed.

[nzspokes]

Oh and stick with halogens. I cant see well with LEDs and HIDs.

[CookMySock]

Oh and stick with halogens. I cant see well with LEDs and HIDs.Whats up with HIDs? I find the 6K ones awesome.

Definitely more light = safer.

[nzspokes]

Whats up with HIDs? I find the 6K ones awesome.

Definitely more light = safer.

I cant see with them. Ive been told some people cant and im one of them.

[bogan]

Its more the field of light on the Bandit is straight ahead. Very narrow. I ride alot on country roads at night so no street lighting. I cant see into corners. So will set the spots up to see into corners. Just have them on when needed. Going to start with 35w bulbs but may look at 50w if needed.

Ah, thats not so bad then, are spot lights diffuse enough to do the job? You might be able to shim the bulb a bit to make a more diffuse beam pattern (not like it's compliant anyway!).


I cant see with them. Ive been told some people cant and im one of them.

You know you're supposed to look where they are pointing, not directly into them right? :p

[neels]

A 10A switch will be fine, doesn't matter which side the lights are switched on.

The only advantage of a relay is that you can wire it to switch off with the headlight or ignition.

[CookMySock]

I cant see with them. Ive been told some people cant and im one of them.Bizarre. I've never heard of that.

[nzspokes]

Bizarre. I've never heard of that.

Get out more then......

HID and partly LED light can give some people trouble with depth perception. Im one of them.

I bought some headlight bulbs for the Bandit. The guy selling them to me said they give 90% more light than stock. They didnt. I rode on them once and took them out. I had to ride on full beam at 50kph and couldnt see much. He argued they were brighter than halogens which they were. But the quantity of light they produced was very low. They were Xenon 6000k bulbs.

So for me halogens seem to work.

[nzspokes]

Ah, thats not so bad then, are spot lights diffuse enough to do the job? You might be able to shim the bulb a bit to make a more diffuse beam pattern (not like it's compliant anyway!).


Will find out soon. Have to polish the lights yet as they come in white.

[Coldrider]

Get out more then......

HID and partly LED light can give some people trouble with depth perception. Im one of them.

I bought some headlight bulbs for the Bandit. The guy selling them to me said they give 90% more light than stock. They didnt. I rode on them once and took them out. I had to ride on full beam at 50kph and couldnt see much. He argued they were brighter than halogens which they were. But the quantity of light they produced was very low. They were Xenon 6000k bulbs.

So for me halogens seem to work.Light output can be measured as foot candle, lumen, lux, candlepower, radiance, illuminance, candela, but 6000k merely means the temperature of the colour.

[nzspokes]

Light output can be measured as foot candle, lumen, lux, candlepower, radiance, illuminance, candela, but 6000k merely means the temperature of the colour.

Agreed. I tend to use lumen.

[bogan]

Agreed. I tend to use lumen.

Yup, lumens for the source, lux for the lit surface. Incidentally, you want to ensure the lux is balanced out a bit, rather than having one very bright spot, which reduces you ability to see in the less lit areas of vision.

[Coldrider]

Yup, lumens for the source, lux for the lit surface. Incidentally, you want to ensure the lux is balanced out a bit, rather than having one very bright spot, which reduces you ability to see in the less lit areas of vision.Illuminance is lux and lumens.

lumen is one foot candle on one square foot of area. lux is the metric equivalent. radiance is energy released at the light source.

[bogan]

Illuminance is lux and lumens.

lumen is one foot candle on one square foot of area. lux is the metric equivalent. radiance is energy released at the light source.

You sure? Somebody needs to re-write the wiki page then, and a bunch of LED data sheets...

[Coldrider]

You sure? Somebody needs to re-write the wiki page then, and a bunch of LED data sheets...One lux is a lumen per square meter, a lumen is one footcandle on one square foot of area. The measurement is different but they are both measuring light falling on a surface distant from the source. The lux is metricated. Lumens are not the source.

Unashamedly stolen from wiki
The unit is defined as the amount of illumination the inside surface of a 1-foot radius sphere would be receiving if there were a uniform point source of one candela in the exact center of the sphere. Alternatively, it can be defined as the illuminance on a 1-square foot surface of which there is a uniformly distributed flux of one lumen. This can be thought of as the amount of light that actually falls on a given surface. The foot-candle is equal to one lumen per square foot.

Illuminance is a measure of how much luminous flux is spread over a given area. One can think of luminous flux (measured in lumens) as a measure of the total "amount" of visible light present, and the illuminance as a measure of the intensity of illumination on a surface. A given amount of light will illuminate a surface more dimly if it is spread over a larger area, so illuminance is inversely proportional to area.

One lux is equal to one lumen per square metre:

[ducatilover]

6000k bulbs. .

There's the issue, way to high a colour temp for my liking too. Sad thing is you can only really learn this by buying expensive bulbs and having a :facepalm: the first time you ride.
Linky for help with colour temps too :D http://www.automotiveforums.com/t177538-aftermarket_bulbs_color_temperature_and_usable_lig ht_output.html

[Coldrider]

Try this thread http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php/118585-Cornering-light-mod?highlight=spot

[bogan]

One lux is a lumen per square meter, a lumen is one footcandle on one square foot of area. The measurement is different but they are both measuring light falling on a surface distant from the source. The lux is metricated. Lumens are not the source.

Unashamedly stolen from wiki
The unit is defined as the amount of illumination the inside surface of a 1-foot radius sphere would be receiving if there were a uniform point source of one candela in the exact center of the sphere. Alternatively, it can be defined as the illuminance on a 1-square foot surface of which there is a uniformly distributed flux of one lumen. This can be thought of as the amount of light that actually falls on a given surface. The foot-candle is equal to one lumen per square foot.

Illuminance is a measure of how much luminous flux is spread over a given area. One can think of luminous flux (measured in lumens) as a measure of the total "amount" of visible light present, and the illuminance as a measure of the intensity of illumination on a surface. A given amount of light will illuminate a surface more dimly if it is spread over a larger area, so illuminance is inversely proportional to area.

One lux is equal to one lumen per square metre:

Give it a closer read (esp the bold bit), the amount of illumination on the inside of a sphere, is going to be the total light output from the source, where else is it going to go? Also, lux is defined as lumens per square meter, if lumens were already a per-area unit, this would not make sense.

[Coldrider]

Yup, lumens for the source, lux for the lit surface.

Have another read, lumens is not for the source, a CANDELA is the source.
A square metre of surface, one metre from the 1 candela light source, 1 lumen falls on this surface. incidently, the lux measured on a surface 1 metre from the 1 candela source is also 1 Lux. So at this point (only) both 1 lumen and 1 lux are the same. So how can the lumen be the source?

[bogan]

Have another read, lumens is not for the source, a CANDELA is the source.
A square metre of surface, one metre from the 1 candela light source, 1 lumen falls on this surface. incidently, the lux measured on a surface 1 metre from the 1 candela source is also 1 Lux. So at this point (only) both 1 lumen and 1 lux are the same. So how can the lumen be the source?

Thats is how they calibrate/normalise between the different units. It makes it easy to judge how bright a surface (lux) will be from a bulb of specified brightness (lumens). Candela is not used for total output intensity either, the candela unit is the power emitted by a light source in a particular direction.

Candela: intensity of a beam output form a light source, think single dimensional measurement (though in practice a small area will always be used.
Lumen: Luminous power of all beams output from a light source, normalised so 1 lumen is output from an omnidirectional light source of one candela
Lux: Light hitting a surface, given by lumens per square meter.

To bring this back to more practical discussion. My HID kit (legal) outputs 3100-3400lumens with a color temp of 4300k, a 50W halogen outputs 800-900lumens at around 3000k. A tail light is around 200lumens.

[Coldrider]

My practical experience is replacing my orignal headlamp oem bulb with a repco artic blue, same watts, but throws a beam such that I can see as much with my tinted visor at night, as with the original with a clear visor. I think it is more luminous because it throws a beam with less holes and scatter in it.

The bulb also relies heavily on the light reflector design, which is alot harder to alter, if at all. Some models will no doubt be very affected by this.

[FROSTY]

hey spokes-not taking the piss here-Try wearing dark sunnies about 15 minutes before you ride and as you are getting on the bike. It tricks your eyes into working better

[nzspokes]

hey spokes-not taking the piss here-Try wearing dark sunnies about 15 minutes before you ride and as you are getting on the bike. It tricks your eyes into working better

Ive tried that for MTB riding. Worked ok so you have night eyes from the start. But I adjusted my low beam so will see how that works out Wednesday night.