Ray Irons <rayirons@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
: Okay all your electrical geniuses.... I have a project
: for you to figure out. I have a 97 Suzuki motorcycle
: and I want to hook up a push button type switch as a
: flash to pass deal. My bike has the normal rocker type
: switch for high to low beam. I've looked at newer
: models of my bike and they have this type switch
: installed at the factory as standard equipment. What I
: want to know is what type of switch can I use (I know
: it needs to be a momentary push button) but anybody
: got a guess at what amp rating? How about which wire
: might I need to tap into? For those that don't ride
: motorcycles, the hi/low beam rocker switch is located
: on the left side control cluster. That houses the
: hi/low beam switch, turn signal switch and the horn
: button. Where I want to put my switch is on the top of
: this control cluster so it is accessible by just
: moving my fingertip to hit it.
: I want to do this for safety reasons. If while riding
: with the low beam on and a car starts to pull out from
: a side street, I can hit that button a few time to
: rapidly flash the headlight to get their attention
: that I am in their line of travel. Too many drivers
: claim they didn't see the person on the bike after an
: accident. A flashing light tends to get someones
: attention rather quickly.
: So come on you electrical wizards and gurus.... don't
: let me down. A parts list, wiring schematic would be
: nice, but I'll settle for an idea on the size switch
: and which wire to tap and where.
Well, I'm no wizard, but I do know enough to get myself
into trouble. ;-)
Unfortunately, I don't know how much help I'm going to be
since it really depends on how your bike is currently wired.
Here's the basic process I would use, I don't know if it will
be of any help or not...
I am assuming that your low beam headlight is on all the
time, and what you want to do is to be able to hit a momentary
switch which will either switch the low beam to the high beam,
or run both low and high at the same time. What I would do is
to open up the electrical housing on the handlebar and put a
multimeter on the high/low beam switch, in order to determine
how the factory is triggering the switch between high and
low beams. I am assuming it is probably a DPST switch, where
+12v comes into the common pole, and the position of the switch
sends it to either the high beam bulb or the low beam bulb.
I'm not sure if the full voltage for the headlight would be
passing throught the switch, or if it is just a trigger voltage
which uses a relay to send the actual power to the headlight - it
could be either. Anyway, in the case of a simple rocker switch
like I described above, you could probably just tie the common
from that switch into one side of your momentary switch, and
connect the high beam wire to the other side of your switch.
That way, when your low beam is on, and you hit the switch, the
high beam will come on also as long as you are pressing the
switch. Of course, if your high beam is on already, then
pressing the switch will do nothing. That may or may not be
what you want. You could tie both the high and low beam wires
to your momentary switch so that they both go on when you hit
the button , that way, wether your high or low is on, when you
hit the button, at least something different will happen...
(Of course, if you are looking to alternate between low and high
beam with your switch, that method won't do it for you...)
I don't know if that helps at all? Its just hard to say
without knowing how the factory wired the bike. I think its
just going to be one of those deals where you have to crack it
open, play around with a multimeter and some jumper wires, blow
a few fuses and figure out what makes it tick. :-)
A couple other possible options:
If there is a newer model of your bike that has this feature,
possibly the switch from that bike could be swapped into yours.
You could buy one of those headlight modulators, but wire it
to only function when you are holding down the switch. (Or wire
it to be on all the time if you would prefer it that way.)
Of course, the cheap, cop-out method would be to just flick the
high and low beam switch back and forth. :-) (Granted, not always
easy to do on some bikes.)
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger --- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| 67 Dodge Coronet, 70 Plymouth Barracuda, 76 Peugeot TSA |
| 78 Dodge B100, 90 Dodge Dakota Convertible, 92 Dodge Ram 4x4 |
| 96 Dodge Dakota, 96 Suzuki Intruder 1400, 96 Kolb FireFly |
| 99 Jeep Cherokee 4x4, 01 Dodge Ram 3500 CTD |
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