I bought a 1993 Triumph Tiger last August to run through Winter. As it happens, for one reason or another, I didn’t get it on the road until December. In the three months I ran it, I went through around six stop/tail bulbs of various types, including LED bulbs. I have no idea why the bulbs kept blowing but I decided that I could resolve this issue by designing my own LED circuit with some over voltage protection built in.
The main reasons for deciding to build my own circuit were as follows:
- Off-the-shelf LED bulbs are not efficient at putting the light where you want it -- and because of this, are often not as bright as filament bulbs.
- My bike was blowing bulbs quicker than I was able to buy replacements.
- I wanted to incorporate a flashing brake light circuit
- I fancied doing something different
The initial design included two 12v regulators and two polarity protective diodes; one for each of the stop and tail light circuits.
When fitted to the bike, I found that the voltage drop across the regulators and various diodes was too much and the LEDs were not bright enough. I removed the voltage regulators from the circuit and this solved the problem -- thought the LEDs were still not as bright as during testing. This was my fault as I only had an 18v source when testing.
Videos of the original breadboard test circuit:
I only have pictures of the installed circuit on the bike -- no video. Since installation, whatever was killing the bulbs seems to have affected the brake flasher circuit and, although it still works, it no longer works the way it should.
Update: I replaced a capacitor on the circuit board and it is now working -- shame about the rest of the bike 
I am sorry there is no circuit diagram or more in depth detail about the circuitry. I didn’t keep the circuit diagrams as I was using unregistered software which wouldn’t let me save the diagrams. I am planning a version 2 of this circuit that will be based on 9v instead of 12v so that voltage drop shouldn’t be a problem (if anyone reads this, can you please recommend a decent circuit diagram package).
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Hi, my name is wai kit. I’m planning to make a LED tail light for my bike. My bike model is kawasaki eliminator 250. The reason i wan to do this is because LED light are more brighter compare to bulb. Can u give me the circuit diagram on how to do that, so that i can DIY myself!!! Thanks you
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matt Reply:
December 20th, 2009 at 12:36
Hi Wai, I lost the circuit I designed. The web page for the flashing part of the circuit is no longer available, but I do have a print out of that circuit which I will upload. You may find you will need to tweak some of the components on the bread board before use. I will try and get the diagram uploaded today.
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Hi Wai, I managed to restore most of the original page for the flashing part of the circuit. You can find the rescued page here: http://www.axia.org.uk/downloads/rescued/motflash.html
I will be adding a copy of the circuit when I have scanned it.
The following link is to the PWM part of the circuit: http://www.reuk.co.uk/LED-Dimmer-Circuit.htm
I used a 556 timer chip so that I could modulate the tail light brightness and the brake light brightness. There is probably no need to modulate the brake light brightness in most cases, though.
If I get time, I will try and create a schematic for the circuit I implemented on the bike.
Matt.
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Matt,
Looks great.
Did you use the stock brake light bezel (light cover)? Did it blur/muffle the leds?
I’m doing a sequential turn light setup for my kawasaki concours, just concerned that the light cover will blur the leds and loose the effect of blinking leds.
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matt Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 00:40
Hi Colin,
I used the stock light cover. If I knew how/where to get a replacement cover made, I would have preferred a smoked lens cover. Ideally, for normal operation you would want to use diffused LED’s so as not to create “hot spots”, but if you want a blinking effect, then the none diffused LED’s would be best. These were not diffused but were the damn brightest red LED bulbs I have found to date. Unfortunately, they have also become quite expensive http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=220752 (N26FN).
Hope this helps to answer your questions.
Matt.
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