Total newb needs help rigging light for dirt bike

[jmonintwo]

Hey guys...thanks for taking a look.

Keep in mind I know nothing about leds or electricity....sorry.

Ideally I would like to power a single, high lumen led with a battery. There is a switch involved.

I'm trying to rig a brake light for my dirt bike. I've tried a couple of things using the bikes power supply (no battery, stator only) but the results are disappointing.

What I'm thinking is, I'd like to install a single high lumen led inside the brake light housing. There is already an 1156 socket led "bulb" inside the housing. It works fine off the bikes existing power supply. I tried to rig up an 1157 so I can have a tail and brake light (that's the goal here) but, when I hit the brake switch the 1157 would light up a little more but not enough to be effective.

So, is it possible to mount a single led (like a Luxeon III Star) inside the brake light assembly and have it powered by a replaceable (or rechargeable) battery? The led would then be actuated by the brake light switch.

When the battery runs down I could just replace it or recharge it. So what do you think? Doable? What would I need? Is there an led out there better/brighter that the Luxeon III? I would need the brake led to be much brighter than the 1156 led that is in there now (I have no idea how many lumens it has, it's one I bought at Autozone if that helps).

Thanks for taking the time....looking forward to the replies ! ! !

 

[kan3]

I think a better idea would be one of those better SMD 1156/1157 bulbs with a small sealed battery. You can get a pair for about $15-20 shipped and they use about 2watts on full power for the average sized one. A standard 1.3mah battery under the seat would last quite a while...which you could just recharge after 2-3 rides.

Would take you maybe 20 minutes to wire everything up.

 

[jmonintwo]

So one of the "hot" leads off of the 1157 socket would go to the positive on the battery right? The other "hot lead on the 1157 socket is wired to the bikes power supply. The 1157 socket also has a ground wire that is grounded to the bike frame (I suppose). Would that ground wire need to be connected to the negative on the battery too?

Sorry again. Don't know much about this stuff. Keep the ideas coming.

 

[kan3]

So one of the "hot" leads off of the 1157 socket would go to the positive on the battery right? The other "hot lead on the 1157 socket is wired to the bikes power supply. The 1157 socket also has a ground wire that is grounded to the bike frame (I suppose). Would that ground wire need to be connected to the negative on the battery too?

Sorry again. Don't know much about this stuff. Keep the ideas coming.

I'm assuming at this point you have a bike with a factory AC lighting coil setup.

If this is the case then I would only run the rear light off the battery. If you don't care about have a running light, then wire both hot leads together and connect them to your incoming brake switch. If you want a running light and a brake light, then run the brake light hot lead to the brake switch line and run the running light hot lead to the battery with a $3 switch in between that you can turn on when you go riding.

The LED I mentioned use about .7w while on as a running light so it won't impact the battery much.