Led

[Dirty200]

I do a lot of riding at night and the stock lights aren't cutting it. I want to replace the stock 350x lights (with out molesting the housing and Saving the originals) and replace them with an LED bar. Has anyone do this or something similar? Is there anything funny with the wiring? Suggestions for company's to use? Thanks
-dirty

[f76]

To run a led light properly you need to convert the lighting circuit to dc voltage. Your 350x puts out 12 volt regulated ac power. You will need a rectifier to convert the ac into dc. This unit here: http://www.rickystator.com/product/other-parts/item/regulator-rectifier-w-relay I have used twice with good results, it also acts as the voltage regulator so you will not need the factory one installed on your 350x. You will need either a large capacitor or small battery pack to act as a "surge tank" so to speak and smooth out the voltage as LED's run best on smooth, clean 12 vdc power.

As to wiring it in, there are two ways to go. Either float the ground inside the stator or ground everything using the converted dc power back to the battery or capacitor without using the frame as the ground. Floating the ground inside the stator involves removing the stator cover and disconnecting the frame ground. A wire in the color of your choice will need to be soldiered to the wire previously frame grounded, then run outside the stator cover and used as the other input for the rectifier/regulator. This method allows you to use the frame as a ground for the LED lights.
The other method involves simply using the green wire coming out of the stator without floating the ground as the other input for the rec/reg. The lights will then need to be grounded back to the battery/capacitor without using the frame. If you use the existing light wiring harness, you will need to remove the frame connecting points. Either way works but I recommend floating the ground.

On my 350x I was lazy and didn't float the ground. It works fine though. Here's a picture of how I wired it up.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160411/acd37f90501ad368ea6f22bc39f66525.jpg
Not the prettiest but you get the idea. I had a spare 350x headlight shell that was rough so I didn't mind cutting out the middle bar to fit the light inside of it.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160411/1fa1b88aac9f3f4c895270b4a1be5ddc.jpg

[deathman53]

first, you need to convert a DC power. I have LED light bars on my dritbikes, I kept the headlights that were on them(LED cyclops h4). I made a mount for the light to bolt to- 2" aluminium, then in the center of it put a base for a 1" ram mount ball, got ram double socket bar and they have a wide variety of options for the 1" ram mount ball to attach to anywhere on your bike(and so you can remove the light where not need easily). For the wiring....first get a LED taillight(yes, it can work on AC, just not as bright). I would keep the stock headlights in there, but disconnect the high beam. From the high beam lead, connect a small reg/rec full wave(trail tech can set you up with what you need), put a small battery in the airbox(use one from a Tusk dual sport kit) to smooth out the power and run the LED headlight off the switched feed from their reg/rec. Or convert the whole system to DC, its not hard. Remove the tank and find a 3 pin connector, unplug it, one pin goes to tail light, one pin is power lead and other is ground. The mating connector goes the handlebar swtich(kill swtich lead should be a bullet connector with black/white stripe). Go to Eastern Beaver and buy the connectors you need. From the hot lead off the harness and ground go the 2 yellow leads on the Trail tech reg/rec, from the black and red from reg/rec go the a battery, now take hot from the battery to go to connector for the handlebar switch and reconnect the other wires how they were before. Lights will work w/o bike being on with this setup. If you only want lights working when bike is running, connect headlight switch to switched DC feed off reg/rec. To save energy I would get a LED tail regardless.

[deathman53]

I positive that the system will work with grounds all the same(ktm did it on their bikes and I built a few wiring harness like so). I made this to more easily show you what wires go where---This to to convert the whole system to DC

switch plug wire harness
-------------------------------------A(green wire) (green wire)D-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------B(brown wire) (brown wire)E-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------C(white/yellpw wire) (white/yellow wire)F-------------------------------------------------------








trail tech switching reg/rec



---------------------------------G(yellow wire)
---------------------------------H(yellow wire
---------------------------------I(black wire)
---------------------------------J(red wire)
---------------------------------K(switched wire)





battery


-----------------------------------L(negative)
-----------------------------------M(positive)


A goes to D and G
B goes to E
C goes to M and J
F goes to H
I goes to L

if you want the lights to work only when bike is running connect C to K and M to J

[jb2wheels]

Did you search the forum at all before posting the question? Yes - I'm that guy today.

[jb2wheels]

Now that I'm done being obnoxious...

I run LEDs on my 85 350X and 85 250R without modification - mount 'em up, plug 'em in and go - I run them (2x 18W 4" LEDs on each) using the stock AC lighting system along with the stock headlights, tail light, and LED whip. I did have to add connectors as I recall.

I had a 72W LED bar on an 85 Tecate using stock AC lighting system plus a 2-wire regulator. Tecates don't come with a regulator and will fry the LED.
Similar with TRX and ATC 70s - added a 2-wire regulator and ran a 27W LED using stock AC system.

I get a little flicker at idle.

Maybe it's bad for the LEDs but none of mine failed yet.

[deathman53]

yes, its not good for LED and they don't work as well as they do on full conversion. When you do it using a AC system, you are only using half to the wave and the voltage goes up(spikes above 12-14v), then none, up and the cycle continues. With a half wave DC reg/rec the top half of the wave is brought down to 12-14v and the bottom half is cut off, so it goes to a consistent 12-14v, none, 12-14v, its more stable than the high spikes of AC system. With a full wave reg/rec it changes the whole wave to a solid line that doesn't go up of down much above/below 12-14v, this the most efficient DC system. Most LED lights like and work best with consistent voltage with little to no up/down spikes, in fact if you convert your lights to either half or full wave DC, they will be ~20% brighter and have no flickering or diming. I found this out when converted my ktm dirtbike to DC system and kept the same type headlight bulbs(before going to HID, then LED). My bikes light, 55w h4 is much brighter than my friends(who has the same bulb), we both have nearly the same stator output, but mine is full wave DC and his is AC and his dims/brightens where mine stays the same. His will brighten to almost to how bright mine in, but it won't stay there(and he has to be at atleast half throttle to be where mine is at idle). The LED tail light I am using on my atc200x, it clearly said on the package "will work with AC or DC, but half as bright when using AC power", so yes, LED will work on AC, but not near as well.