Installing Turn Signals and a Brake Light.

[blueb0ttle2]

I am planning on installing the above-mentioned features (along with a head and tail light) on my 36 volt bike, since it is often used as if it were a moped in a 20mph zone of my hometown, and I thought it would be a good idea for safety and convenience. I am going to use Lyen's handy DC-DC converter (or two: its only 15W), to convert 36 to 24 volts, since I have a mountain of 24 V lights from McDesign
The turn signals are straightforward enough, with a handlebar switch cluster (also from McDesign) and a 24 volt blinker relay from electricscooterparts.com. The brake light though, may require some ingenuity...
Naturally it will be operated by with a relay and the brake switches. But what sort of voltages normally go through a brake switch? The full 36 volts? 5 V from the throttle? I need to find out. I don't want to open the controller, it has a lot of features that a normal brushed controller doesn't have and I don't want to risk breaking it unless absolutely necessary.
Cheers

 

[oldpiper]

Well, you could just measure the voltage with a DVM, or you could use one of the brake switches as normal (connected to the controller) and the other one connected just to your light circuit, assuming you always hit both front and back brakes whenever you use them.

Cameron

 

[amberwolf]

The old Honda Spree scooter controls I'm using on CrazyBike2 used to (on the scooter) directly handle the brake light and turn signal currents/voltages, at 12V and up to a dozen amps or more instantaneous turn-on current for incandescents, which very quickly goes down to an amp or two at most (much less than a second, IIRC). The turn signal still does, at 12V, with incandescents. The brake however now only has to handle about .5-.75A for an LED brake light bar, also at 12V.

On DayGlo Avenger, I first used the 5V-hall ebrake switch that also controls the motor's braking, via a 5V-coil relay, to switch the 12V LED motorcycle brake light. That's because the Fusin controller I used then only had the hall-style ebrake input, which only takes a max of 5V in.

Currently it uses a grounding-switch-style ebrake lever to engage a 12V-coil relay, which switches both the 12V LED MC brake light and the controller's ebrake switch input, each on it's own pole of the relay. This is because the Lyen controller I have on there now is setup to brake by shorting the brake input to ground, so there isn't actually any voltage "input" to it, just a sense line (with an internal pullup inside the controller, probably to 5V, but it's irrelevant in my case) and a ground.

On DGA, I'm using a regular toggle switch (On-Off-On) from some old test equipment panel to control my turn signals, which are still 12V motorcycle-style incandescent, still using the scooter-style semi-electronic flasher (relay, cap, resistor).

There are some details about each of these in the build threads for those bikes.

 

[blueb0ttle2]

I think what I might do is install a brake light. Turn signals will draw to much attention to the similarities my bike has to a moped (It's not a scooter-like bike, but it does look rather speedy. I use hand signals when I travel, and I suspect motorists would notice those more. (one long arm versus an inky dinky yellow light).
I don't drive at night anyway (college town: if you are driving at night, you are probably drunk).

 

[amberwolf]

At least here in Phoenix, almost no one (including the police) appear to have any clue what hand signals are. They are not on the driver's license tests, and are not discussed during any type of training I'm aware of.

That's why I went with turn signals, because it is a method of communication of intent that everyone understands, even pedestrians that don't drive.

Whether they notice them or not is another story. I would not ever depend on them seeing *any* indicators of any kind, manual or lighted, but at least the lighting is pretty well universally understood.

Hopefully people are better-trained where you are, and know what hand signals mean.