Installation Tips For
Signal Dynamics LED 24" Flex Strips, Step & Courtesy Lights:
The 24" LED Flex
Strips are new and have the same LED lights except are a lot easier for most
people to install and wire up.
LED Flex Strips Details:
Positively the
easiest light mod there is. All you need to do now is hook up a fused power
source (5 amp or less), and switch to power up your lights. Then you can place the LED strips
anywhere you want. The jumpers come in different lengths with connectors on
both ends, allowing you to keep connecting LED strips together very easily. If
wanting to daisy chain LED strips, you just need to have at least 6 LED's per
segment (there is a connector every third LED). When you want to connect power
to everything, just cut one of the connector ends off and hook power to the
wires. The connectors make it very easy to put LED lighting on Tanks, Panels,
Trim Pieces or anything else that you might need to remove sometime, because the
connectors just unplug from the LED Strip. The jumpers also are covered with a
protective black heat shrink, making them durable and unnoticeable.
Each strip can be cut (where indicated by scissors), giving you up to 13
sections per Flex Strip. The Flex Strip and or Sections can be bent at any
angle to fit different needs. Adhesive on the back of each strip for easy
mounting!
EASY
INSTALLATION (LED
Flex Strips):
-
Cut the Flex Strip (where indicated) to desired
lengths, up to 13 pieces.
-
Place each piece onto the chosen area with the
adhesive on the back of each strip
-
Connect Jumper Wires
to each cut section (i.e.: if you cut 1 Flex Strip
into 2 pieces, you will need 2 Jumper Wires. If you cut 1 Flex Strip into 3
pieces, you will need 3 Jumper Wires, etc.) Jumpers are available in different
sizes.
-
Attach to Hook-Up Wire (Red
Wire to Ground, Black Wire to 12-Volt Power Source).
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Shown below on one of our
bikes, a nine segment portion of LED Flex Strips attached to the frame and
hidden. Jumpers are hooked to the segment powering the segment up and
also jumpering to the next segment to power that one up also.
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Picture below
shows jumpers available for the LED Flex Strips
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Picture Below shows Blue 24" LED Flex
Strips installed on our own Suzuki C90 Boulevard.
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Electrical:
- Always use a switch so you can turn the LED lights off when not in use
(unless using with your running lights).
- Sometimes it's a good idea to use the LED Step Lights on an Aux. circuit
(Power only when your ignition is turned on), because its easy to hit the
switch in the daytime or forget to turn them off. Using a relay is also
an option, but because of the small current draw it is not necessary most of the time.
This obviously depends on how many sets of LED's you decide to install.
- Take your time running wires or Jumpers as
with the Flex Strips. Hide everything and if using step or courtesy
lights, solder all
connections.
- Plan all locations, figure out and maybe draw out your wiring ahead of
time.
- Heat shrink is the way to go. With the
new LED Flex Strips, the jumpers that you will purchase already have heat
shrink on them. Install heat shrink over the LED lead
assembly and then a little bigger diameter piece of heat shrink over your
soldered connections. Make sure you tape those connections first.
You can put the larger heat shrink over the smaller diameter heat shrink for a
nice sealed connection and protection for your wiring.
Radio Shack has Heat Shrink, Switches, Wire, Electrical tools,
Soldering Irons and Solder. If you are unsure of what type of Soldering
Iron and size you need just ask, they usually have a good selection of
different sizes and types available. They can also fix you up with a
small heat gun for shrinking heat shrink. You can also pick up a decent
Digital Multi Meter from Radio Shack or even Sears.
You should be able to pick up something for about $40. There are cheaper
ones but the ones in this price range are easy to use and will take care of
anything you need for a long time.
- Use 2 wire power connectors available at radio shack. You can then
use LED lights on the bottom sides of gas tanks or on other removable objects,
and also be able to disconnect several lights at a time if necessary. With the
new LED Flex Strips, this is not necessary because the jumpers have quick
disconnect connectors on both ends allowing you to just unplug any LED strips
on components that you have to remove on your bike or vehicle.
- Fuse different parts of your circuit. This can be helpful for
troubleshooting and isolating a problem with one of your lights, especially
one that if it came loose could be damaged by heat or moving parts.
Mounting LED Step and Courtesy lights:
- We use Double
Sided Industrial Tape for
most frame, engine and body applications.
The lights are very secure with the double sided industrial tape. The lights can be moved or removed from the bike using
this mounting method with no leftover holes. You can use the supplied screws for mounting around license plate brackets,
etc. Because of their small size, the Step &
Courtesy lights can be mounted just about
anywhere. Industrial Velcro also will work
just fine.
- You can help secure the step light with a thin tie wrap. This can be
helpful if the mounting location is hidden.
Locations:
- I would suggest using a small power supply, charger or your bike power to
jumper power to a step light and hold it in all possible locations before
actually doing any mounting. Some locations might not work out as good
as you think, and other locations might even look better. Keep an open
mind and explore all possibilities.
- Try back lighting. Look for places
where the light itself is hidden but can shine down and reflect on your
chrome, engine, exhaust, etc.
- Make sure when looking straight on at the bike from the front, that you
can't see any of the colored light. It is pretty much illegal everywhere
to have anything except white shown from the front center.
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Picture below shows
Purple LED's on our own Valkyrie.
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