Wiring A "Universal Handlebar Switch" Without A Wiring Diag

[The Mighty Volt]

Hi.

I recently picked up one of those cheapo nasty Universal Handlebar Switches.

Here is the very model I picked up

I have gone through the wires with multimeter and identified them for continuity, with some degree of success.

That's about as much fun as I have had. I sincerely have no idea how to wire it.

The indicators I got for it came as a set of 4, 2 of them have yellow and black wires, 2 of them have blue and black wires.

I did manage to get some 12v halogens to light, but only when the switch was pushed fully on, and only one bulb at a time.

I want to run this off a small 12v pack, separate to my main pack.

All and any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Thanks..

 

[oldpiper]

OK, get the switch and your MM back out. Turn on all the switches you can (high-beam, one of the turn signals, the triangle thingy (motor on, master switch?), whatever that yellow thing is on the front-momentary switch for horn?). Then find two wires which are continuous. Flick the switches off one at a time and check to see if/when you have an open circuit (turn each one back on after testing). That switch goes to those two wires. If no switch will open that particular circuit, probably either those two wires are for low beams (maybe using this switch will leave them on at all times for safety, just switching on/off high beams), or those wires are connected together internally for a common ground (not so likely with all these wires). Check two more wires for another switch, rinse, repeat (No, that's for shampoo) - just repeat until all pairs have been ID'd. If you have a pair of wires which will not show continuity, they may be for the other turn signal.

As far as your 12V halogen lights, in order to have them both light like headlights, they will have to be wired in parallel, not series. Series wiring will just get you two dim lights, if any noticeable light at all.

Good luck,

Cameron

 

[The Mighty Volt]

OK, get the switch and your MM back out. Turn on all the switches you can (high-beam, one of the turn signals, the triangle thingy (motor on, master switch?), whatever that yellow thing is on the front-momentary switch for horn?). Then find two wires which are continuous. Flick the switches off one at a time and check to see if/when you have an open circuit (turn each one back on after testing). That switch goes to those two wires. If no switch will open that particular circuit, probably either those two wires are for low beams (maybe using this switch will leave them on at all times for safety, just switching on/off high beams), or those wires are connected together internally for a common ground (not so likely with all these wires). Check two more wires for another switch, rinse, repeat (No, that's for shampoo) - just repeat until all pairs have been ID'd. If you have a pair of wires which will not show continuity, they may be for the other turn signal.

As far as your 12V halogen lights, in order to have them both light like headlights, they will have to be wired in parallel, not series. Series wiring will just get you two dim lights, if any noticeable light at all.

Good luck,

Cameron

Hi Cameron, thanks for that.

I believe I have identified all the wires.

The problem now is that I don't even know how to Power the unit up.

If I run 12v into the + and - terminals {blue and brown} I just get a short.

I can connect one power terminal and the dips to a light, and the next power terminal and the heads to another light, and I have success.

But I am not sure that this is correct as how then do I power all the other applications?

Cheers.

 

[Jethro56]

If it follows somewhat standard automotive the green would be for right turn signal, Yellow for left, Brown for running lights, white for ground. In industrial apps Blue is DC+. Often times you can get a partial ground if the white wire isn't properly grounded and current will try to back feed though the bulb fillaments and into the flasher. I don't know if this is of any help.

By the way this is very cool

 

[The Mighty Volt]

If it follows somewhat standard automotive the green would be for right turn signal, Yellow for left, Brown for running lights, white for ground. In industrial apps Blue is DC+. Often times you can get a partial ground if the white wire isn't properly grounded and current will try to back feed though the bulb fillaments and into the flasher. I don't know if this is of any help.

By the way this is very cool

Hi, thanks for your help. The idea is to outfit my bike with indicators and lights to take some of the danger out of E-biking, especially at night.

Thanks again for your suggestions and tips.

 

[oldpiper]

OK, get the switch and your MM back out. Turn on all the switches you can (high-beam, one of the turn signals, the triangle thingy (motor on, master switch?), whatever that yellow thing is on the front-momentary switch for horn?). Then find two wires which are continuous. Flick the switches off one at a time and check to see if/when you have an open circuit (turn each one back on after testing). That switch goes to those two wires. If no switch will open that particular circuit, probably either those two wires are for low beams (maybe using this switch will leave them on at all times for safety, just switching on/off high beams), or those wires are connected together internally for a common ground (not so likely with all these wires). Check two more wires for another switch, rinse, repeat (No, that's for shampoo) - just repeat until all pairs have been ID'd. If you have a pair of wires which will not show continuity, they may be for the other turn signal.

As far as your 12V halogen lights, in order to have them both light like headlights, they will have to be wired in parallel, not series. Series wiring will just get you two dim lights, if any noticeable light at all.

Good luck,

Cameron

Hi Cameron, thanks for that.

I believe I have identified all the wires.

The problem now is that I don't even know how to Power the unit up.

If I run 12v into the + and - terminals {blue and brown} I just get a short.

I can connect one power terminal and the dips to a light, and the next power terminal and the heads to another light, and I have success.

But I am not sure that this is correct as how then do I power all the other applications?

Cheers.

So, let's see what you've got. List them all down here.

The blue and brown, do they go through the triangle switch? If so, then that is actually your main power switch, you feed the +12V in one side and the other side goes to one end of all of your other switches. The other end of all those switches goes to your lights, which the other side goes through a wire (or the frame) to your -0V (ground) terminal. Don't worry about connecting your 0V terminal to the frame, it doesn't hurt a thing - just look at the starting battery on a riding lawnmower, that's how they do it.

Cameron

 

[The Mighty Volt]

Thanks for that.

I have a fluke mm and a 12v power supply with a display.

I guess its just a question of time and trial and error now.

I'll keep at it and report my findings here.

Thanks again.

 

[Ricky_nz]

It is definitely a pain the figure it out .
I got a switch sold as a replacement for Royal Enfield motorbikes (its metal, not plastic) and have just been through the same issue of figuring out the wiring.
It may have been worse in that it had park light switch as well.
The indicators were the easy part.
The lights took a little more probing.

I made notes and drew up snippets of the circuit as I went based of the measurments and guesses that needed checking,
Once I got part way through it all came together and made sense but initially it looked like a really nasty job due to the number of wires. Once you start drawing small parts of the circuit for known bits you will soon realise you don't need to check all possibly wire and switch combinations.

 

[amberwolf]

I expect there is no place to run both 12V and ground into the switch itself; there usually wouldn't be.

Typically you ground one end of all the lights (on automotive stuff this would be to the frame, same on some motorcycles and scooters, like the Honda I got CrazyBike2's system from), and then switch power to them via that control. If they're all incandescent it doesn't matter if you switch power or ground. If LED, then it might, depending on how you wire everything.

So what I would do is run a ground wire from your 12V supply to all teh lights, then run each light's 12V wire to the appropriate place on that control.

Some, like turn signals, will have a pair of wires coming from lights (one front and one rear for each side) to the same wire on the control.

On turn signals, usually the 12V goes to one wire of the blinker unit, then from the other wire of the blinker to the common wire of the signal switch on the control.

That red switch might not be a power switch, but might be a hazard-lights switch, so it might be wired in to the turn signals so that it sends the blinker power to *both* left and right at the same time. Otherwise it is likley just a plain SPST switch. If the latter, you can use it as a lighting power switch by running the main 12V into one wire of it, and use the other wire from it to all the other 12V-powered stuff. Then there are no 12V connections to anything on that control *except* to that switch, so if it is off, so are all it's other functions.

If you want that switch to control your whole bike's power, you could have it controlling a DPST relay that uses one pole for 12V and the other for your motor (traction) pack, to cut power to both at the same time if you turn that switch off. It just has to be a relay capable of handling the entire amp load of your motor/controller from the battery. If you use a DC-DC converter from the pack to get 12V, you can have the relay be an SPST instead, controlling just the traction pack power (and make sure the DC-DC tap is *after* the relay).

 

[The Mighty Volt]

Hi folks thanks for the replies.

@Amberwolf: the lights are incandescent, 20w and 35w Halogens respectively.

When you say "lights", do you mean indicators, head lights, basically anything that has a bulb in it?

The indicators are "LED" but they do come with resistors to help them work.

Are you saying that each "light" has one wire or wires that control its activation/switch and some other wire which brings power to that light?

I was laboring under the misapprehension that once you brought power to the unit, in the form of one neg and one pos wire, that it was then simply a matter of hooking up the remaining wires to their pertinent applications.

Thanks again, I am going to try and take everything on board and keep trucking.

 

[amberwolf]

By lights, yes, I mean any of the vehicle lighting you intend to run off that control.

If it is like the control units that I use on CrazyBike2, off a Honda scooter, then all that is in there is switches to connect various things to ground (or power, if that is what you use as common instead).

You'd do best to draw up that wiring chart as someone else directed above, by measuring everything and turning switches off to see what is no longer continuous. Then you'll know exactly how it's wired inside, without taking it apart.

THe lights themselves I'm sure do just work by putting power on one wire and ground on the other...except the turn signals are pretty likely to require a blinker (unless this unit has one built in).

The LED units are probably polarity sensitive, but incandescents (halogens, too) are not. So you should test the LED units with your 12V source and see which way they light up, and mark which is pos and neg. Note that the resistor that comes with them, if it is wired in parallel rather than series, is there only as a "ballast" resistor to force incandescent-style turn signal blinkers to still work (because LEDs don't draw the initial high startup currents often needed to trigger the blinker). If you have an electronic blinker, it will probably work without the resistors and you can leave them out to save power (a lot of it, if you use the signals a lot).

Depending on how the wring for the control unit comes out, I'd recommend creating a common ground harness for everything to plug into, that goes from 12V negative side to all the negative sides of the lights. Then run wires from the lights to the switches on the control unit, and then the commons of teh control unit to 12V postive. (or the master switch or relay for 12V, if you have one, and then to 12V positive).

The blinker unit, if not integrated into the control unit, would go as I said before, between common fo signal switch and 12V positive. Some blinkers are polarity sensitive, some are not. Thermal flashers usually are not, electronic ones are.

 

[The Mighty Volt]

OK.

Some progress to report.

Having gone to work with the multimeter, we determined that the brown is the power into the switch, and that the blue and white wires pertain to the lights, dip and head.

The brown is for the basic power. You connect the positive from the power source to this wire.

The bulbs will themselves have 4 wires coming off them in total, two wires from each bulb.

These wires are not polarity sensitive.

Lining the bulbs up besides each other like SO:------------->

Then mate the two "inside" wires, like SO------------------>

Now run the blue wire to one of the remaining wires, and the white to the other remaining wire.

I can't remember which one is dip or head but its only a matter of checking.

Now, earth the negative from the power supply and with it, or along side it, earth the two wires you already twisted together. I had to scratch some paint off the handlebar to do this.

The switch should now work, changing between the 20w and the 35w bulbs and drawing the appropriate current accordingly.

 

[amberwolf]

Myself, I'd run the ground on a separate wire rather than thru the frame, but you can do it either way. All the old generator/light systems I ever had ran ground thru the frame.

 

[The Mighty Volt]

Myself, I'd run the ground on a separate wire rather than thru the frame, but you can do it either way. All the old generator/light systems I ever had ran ground thru the frame.

How do you mean, "separate wire"?? Surely they all have to eventually touch the frame at some stage?

 

[amberwolf]

Not if you're not using the frame as ground. Just make sure the ground wire from each one connects to 12V negative (ground) and they'll work the same (or better) as using the frame as ground. Adds a bit of weight and more wires, is the disadvantage. Makes a better electrical connection is the advantage.

 

[The Mighty Volt]

Not if you're not using the frame as ground. Just make sure the ground wire from each one connects to 12V negative (ground) and they'll work the same (or better) as using the frame as ground. Adds a bit of weight and more wires, is the disadvantage. Makes a better electrical connection is the advantage.

Oh sure, I see what you mean now, wire everything into the negative from the power supply? I'll probably have to hook up a few splines and splices to give everything a route into the negative but thats just a matter of work.

Thanks for your help.

 

[The Mighty Volt]

I've since come back to this issue after I got a bit more local help. Apparently, every aspect of the switch has a positive, power-in lead which must be connected up to the mains positive. The other wires either then ground or go to the application in question, viz. lights, dips, indicators etc.

 

[marcexec]

Thought I might add to this as a reference:
Have the following universal right handlebar switch:

bought those a while ago, closest currently on offer I could find is eBay# 200945953140

wiring:
Clip on top
[pre]BN/WH BK/WH YE/RD
GN YE/GN
BN BK[/pre]YE extra bullet connector

YE/GN & BK on brake switch connector

GN & BK/WH on engine kill switch: closed when switch depressed on “ENGINE STOP”,open when pressed down – opposite to standard motorcycle setting
has additional solder pad to change over or add additional cable

YE/RD & BK on starter pushbutton (n/o)

BR, BR/WH, YE & RD(=BK on connector) on light switch
setting 0 (off): BR-BR/WH
setting 1 (sidelights): BR-BR/WH-BK
setting 2 (running lights): BR-YE- BK

[pre]Colour Abbreviation (IEC 60757)
black BK
brown BN
red RD
orange OG
yellow YE
green GN
blue BU
violet VT
gray GY
white WH
pink PK
turquoise TQ[/pre]

 

[marcexec]

... and the left one:


view from connector side:
Clip on top
[pre]BK WH GN
GN/RD BU GY
LBU or VT TQ OG[/pre]
YE extra bullet connector

GN/RD & GN on brake switch connector

WH, BU & YE on high/low beam selector
high beam: YE-BU
low beam: YE-WH

BK & TQ/OG (=BU) on passing momentary switch
BK has no connection to YE

Indicator selector:
GY, OG and LBU or VT
GY-LBU or VT – right
GY-OG – left

Horn
GN-TQ

 

[The Mighty Volt]

If it follows somewhat standard automotive the green would be for right turn signal, Yellow for left, Brown for running lights, white for ground. In industrial apps Blue is DC+. Often times you can get a partial ground if the white wire isn't properly grounded and current will try to back feed though the bulb fillaments and into the flasher. I don't know if this is of any help.

By the way this is very cool

Thanks!

 

[The Mighty Volt]

... and the left one:


view from connector side:
Clip on top
[pre]BK WH GN
GN/RD BU GY
LBU or VT TQ OG[/pre]
YE extra bullet connector

GN/RD & GN on brake switch connector

WH, BU & YE on high/low beam selector
high beam: YE-BU
low beam: YE-WH

BK & TQ/OG (=BU) on passing momentary switch
BK has no connection to YE

Indicator selector:
GY, OG and LBU or VT
GY-LBU or VT – right
GY-OG – left

Horn
GN-TQ

Thank you very much indeed. Sorry I missed this. I moved to England, became a very irregular user of this site. Thanks again.