Wiring the brake light kit on a GIVI Top Trunk

I have a 2007 VFR.

I installed GIVI top trunk and mount with a standard two wires in the light wiring system harness. When I look at the brake light wiring going to the dual bulbs in the tail light of the VFR, I see a set of three wires going to each bulb, two of which are the same color. Regardless of how I connect the GIVI harness to these wires I get the same result, the lights on the top trunk come on when I turn on the bike but go out when I step on the brake. Obviously, I have this wired incorrectly.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

I just ordered my Givi E46 with the brake light kit and have the same thing!!! Oem Plug has 3 wires Givi harness has just 2 now which one's go were? Damn givi instructions are worse than the Ikea store's!!!! Thanks Italy....Guys please chime in and give us a heads up....

 

Remove the bulb in the Givi case. Does it have a single pin in its base? My guess is, it only has a single pin and is only designed to be a running light and not a combo Brake light / running light.
Now look at the bulbs in the VFR tail light. You will find that the tail light has two pins in the socket and two pins on the base of the bulb. As you said there are three wires running to the tail light. One of these wires is green, and if you follow it it will run to the base of the bulb socket. This is the ground! Now look at the other two wires running to the same socket. One should be green and yellow and should run to one of the pins. The other should be brown and blue and run to the other pin.

The green is always connected to ground. As said before this is connected to the socket base and in turn connected to the base of the bulb when installed. When the ignition is turned on power will be present in either the g/y wire or the br/bl wire this will light the tail light and one filament in the bulb. When the brakes are engaged the other wire will also have power lighting the second filiment making the bulb brighter thus showing a brake light.

Back to the Givi. If only two wires are present check to see if one runs to the base of the socket and the other runs to a single pin in the center of the socket. If this is the case make sure the one running to the socket base gets connected to ground or the green wire. Now if you connect the wire from the center pin to the tail light wire that is energized when the ignition is on your Givi will be lit whenever the ignition is on. It will not get brighter when the brake is engaged. If you connect this center pin wire to the other wire that lights when the brakes are engaged it will be off all the time except when you hit the brakes. In a two wire system you can only wire for a running light or a brake light you can't do both. Plus you bulb only has one filament not two.

Sometimes when a bulb is forced into the socket and not seated properly this can cause the lights to go out when you hit the brakes, so check to see that all bulbs are properly installed.

 

Hi everybody.

I have a VFR 800 i 2001.
I have a Givi Topbox (I don´t know the exact model but it looks like the E46 except it doesn´t have the 4 dots in the center).

I bought some led strips (E5050 60 leds/m IP65);
I managed to wire that up
to have the tail light always on (led strip left and led strip right);

and to have the brake light on (led stip center)
when I hit the brake.
And it looks like the drawing I made: hit the brake


It works OK, but
I would like to have the tail light (left and right led strip) as bright as the center led strip when I hit the brake

I tried to connect tail wire with brake wire;
but as the other fellows above mentioned,
it doesn´t work: in that configuration,
the tail goes on only when I hit the brake.

I made a drawing of the wiring: hit the brake - tail connected to brake


How can I make this work ?
I would appreciate any hints.

Thanks.

Lorenzo

 

My .02.......I heard from atleast four guys at work that the givi brake light harness is crap. Went to admorelights.com and ordered one fo my V46.
Since I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about electrical especially with all the problems with the VFR electrical system, took it to a shop and had them wire it up....brake/running and turn signals with an inline fuze and soldered with that shrink tube wrapped.
Piece of mind it was done correctly. LED also

 

Hi,

I think I´ve found out the issue we all had with brake/tail light (the 2 fellows above and myself).
There is a controller which gives 6V to the tail light and 6V additional to the brake light (to light up the second filament).
If it detects a loss of power on the brake light, it shutdown tail light.

I´ve wired a splice on tail and brake light, therefore when I hit the brake,
it sees a loss of power (because the current wants to go to the givi box tail light too),
and therefore it shutdown the tail light.

I tested that out with the original Givi box light.
Next week, I´ll test that out with the LED strip light.
I was told the load on the LED strip light is so small it won´t be detected as a loss of power
by the controller. So that should work fine with LED strip.

Feel free to correct me.

 

you are incorrect lorenzo. it is 12 volts, checked the wiring diagram for you. the print says 12 volts for brake light. do you have a dmm or test light?

 

power for it is from fuse b in fuse panel

 

Hi,

I think I´ve found a solution.
I just need to connect a relay to the
tail light with 2 outputs:

Output1: wire with resistance.
that will act as a dimmer.
wire connected to led strip left and right

Output2: wire without resistance
wire connected to the 3 led strips

The brake would trigger the relay.
So, when I hit the brake, it energizes
the wire with the 3 led strips.

I think that could work;
because tail and brake will never be connected.

But I still lack the electrical knowledge
to understand why the current won´t go to the LED strips
if I connect the tail wire to the brake wire.

It only goes to the LED when I hit the brake.

Maybe the tail is 6V, and the controler sees 6V on the brake wire when tail is connected to the brake;
and shutdown the tail wire.

I wish I had a voltmeter.

I´ve seen this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk0v6nwbkPQ
He is using a splice to connect tail and brake wire together
and they´re wire up to the LED.
When brake is energized, I guess it increases the voltage
on the LED wire, so that´s brighter.

As I tested, if I do the same on my bike, that won´t work.

Does somebody have an explanation ?

 

Where do you keep getting the idea about this 6 volt stuff, 6 volt hasn't been used on bikes for 40 years

 

You´re right. The bulb is a Stanley 12V 21W/5W

 

there is no magigical 6v dc book on your bike. it is 12 v, do you have a dmm or test light?

 

box I mean

 

Thanks for your contributions.
I don´t have a dmm.
I do have a test light.
I tested the previous wiring with that light.

No worries, it is definitely 12v.
If I wire the light on the tail,
it´s got the same brightness as when it´s wired on the brake.

But anyway, I figured I would not wire tail and brake together.
Because that would make both tail and brake filaments on all the time.

The best method I believe is the relay + resistor trick.
That would make the givi box tail LED less bright
when on running light; and full brightness when I hit the brake.

I´ll test that out next week when I get my LED strips.

About the question why when tail + brake are connected together
the test light turns on only when I hit the brake.

I think, in that setting, the current goes to tail filament (5W)
and brake filament (21W); and maybe there is not enough amps left to light up the test light.
When I hit the brake, it kicks in.

Maybe that could work with a LED strip (because power consumption is so low).
I don´t know if it´s the right answer, but anyway, I don´t want to wire up tail + brake together.

For the sake of accuracy, which I´ve lacked along the post ,
that´d be grand it somebody could come up with a proper answer.

Thank you pals!

 

All I can say is I have no idea what you are talking about. Obviously with your test light only working when you use the brake is because you have an earthing problem. I don't see why you want to use a resistor,resistor is only needed for blinkers to increase the load so they will flash.Why do you want to fit a relay? what is that going to achieve?, slow down and think it through. I don't know anything about the Givi lighting wiring, does it plug in so you can remove the box or is it hard wired? Does you stop and tail light still work as standard on the bike? Do you have blinkes on the Givi as well or are you just wanting stop and tail on the box?

 

Hi mate,

Resistors don´t increase the load.
They decrease the load. That´s the reason they´re called "resistor".
They drop the voltage, therefore drop the load (Check the "river metaphor")

That´s pretty much the same logic applied to my Givi Box.
I want the LED strips on my givi box to be dimmer than my brake LED
strip.

When I hit the brake, I want all the LED's to be the same brightness (i.e. full brightness).

Check that video out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuCfP77uW5Q

You´ll get what I want to do.
That´s kind of the same I want to achieve;
except I'm not using blinkers on my Givi Box.

The main goal is: with running light ==> givi box LED left right 50% power
with brake applied ==> givi box all LEDS 100% power

That´s the reason I'll use resistor + relay.
Why using a relay? ==> when I hit the brake, it goes on the wire
that has not relay on it.

It´s gonna be hard wired.

 

once again ohm's law says your wrong e=ir

 

Ok so you have completely lost me

 

Let´s start from scratch.
I want to do that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuCfP77uW5Q
without the blinkers

How can I achieve that ?

Would a resitor increase the load ?
And make all the LEDs brigher ?

As regards the earthing problem.
What do you mean ?


Thanks for shedding some light on this topic.

Cheers.