flagstaff
Well-known member
During the buildup of my compact sport touring bike https://www.fototime.com/CF592B8F6C93712/medium800.jpg I wanted to add LED lights to the Givi top case. Admore has a kit for the V46 case but it only utilizes the center red circles for tail/stop and it costs $99. I'd seen where others had done there own thing with LED strips you can buy at auto parts stores or Walmart. These will work but are pretty costly...about $30 for two 6" strips. I was searching Amazon for a better deal on those 6" strips when I came across these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005EHHLD8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
How could I go wrong with 16.5 feet of waterproof LEDs? That is 300 12 volt LEDs that only need 1.2 Amps for all 300 for the whooping prices of $8.67. The nice thing here is that you can cut the strips to the size you want as long as you only cut at marked sections of 3 LEDs. I chose the white, but as you can see there are lots of color options.
Here are some 3 LED strips I cut and wired but didn't need for my project.
Further googling and searching brought me to Custom Dynamic: .https://www.customdynamics.com/
While digging through the site I came across dual converters.
These tiny devices take your tail light circuit and your brake light circuit, combine them into one lead that now controls both functions. The way it works is to cut the LED output for tail lights and give you full illumination when the brakes are applied all for $4.95. These components are buried down in the website. Search for TruFlex and scroll to the bottom on that section.
The camera makes the lights appear orange, but the are in reality a bright red when showing through the case's lens.
BTW, I also have the attention-getting flashing brake lights on my bike's main and top case brake lights. That cost me a whole $10, also from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COGWYTI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I also have a turn signal function built into my top case. I used two 3" amber strips per side, separate from my tail lights, and they show up as amber through the red lens. If you like to combine turn signals and stop lights on your project, Custom Dynamics has a tiny component that will handle that job. It is considerably more that the dual converter I used but still reasonable at $25 for both right and left.
While I placed all my lights under the lens you can place these pretty much where ever you have a flat surface adding lots of visibility for way less than most of the devices sold for that purpose.
The other nice thing about these strips is they can be used on a wide variety of applications. The power needed is so low that they can be powered with a $10 plug-in power supply: https://www.amazon.com/Hitlights-110VAC-24-watt-Adapter-Transformer/dp/B007ME2HMQ/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1406137441&sr=8-14&keywords=12+volt+led+power+supply or if no AC power is available you could power them for many hours using a 12 volt sealed battery like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Volt-Alarm-Battery-12v5ah-Hour/dp/B0010Z4MDK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1406137666&sr=8-3&keywords=12+volt+battery
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005EHHLD8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
How could I go wrong with 16.5 feet of waterproof LEDs? That is 300 12 volt LEDs that only need 1.2 Amps for all 300 for the whooping prices of $8.67. The nice thing here is that you can cut the strips to the size you want as long as you only cut at marked sections of 3 LEDs. I chose the white, but as you can see there are lots of color options.
Here are some 3 LED strips I cut and wired but didn't need for my project.
Further googling and searching brought me to Custom Dynamic: .https://www.customdynamics.com/
While digging through the site I came across dual converters.
These tiny devices take your tail light circuit and your brake light circuit, combine them into one lead that now controls both functions. The way it works is to cut the LED output for tail lights and give you full illumination when the brakes are applied all for $4.95. These components are buried down in the website. Search for TruFlex and scroll to the bottom on that section.
The camera makes the lights appear orange, but the are in reality a bright red when showing through the case's lens.
BTW, I also have the attention-getting flashing brake lights on my bike's main and top case brake lights. That cost me a whole $10, also from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COGWYTI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I also have a turn signal function built into my top case. I used two 3" amber strips per side, separate from my tail lights, and they show up as amber through the red lens. If you like to combine turn signals and stop lights on your project, Custom Dynamics has a tiny component that will handle that job. It is considerably more that the dual converter I used but still reasonable at $25 for both right and left.
While I placed all my lights under the lens you can place these pretty much where ever you have a flat surface adding lots of visibility for way less than most of the devices sold for that purpose.
The other nice thing about these strips is they can be used on a wide variety of applications. The power needed is so low that they can be powered with a $10 plug-in power supply: https://www.amazon.com/Hitlights-110VAC-24-watt-Adapter-Transformer/dp/B007ME2HMQ/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1406137441&sr=8-14&keywords=12+volt+led+power+supply or if no AC power is available you could power them for many hours using a 12 volt sealed battery like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Volt-Alarm-Battery-12v5ah-Hour/dp/B0010Z4MDK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1406137666&sr=8-3&keywords=12+volt+battery
