Rewiring Lamonster Fog Light Switch

[Turtlesplatter]

Hey all...

I am getting wifey's Spyder ready for the season, and I thought I would address an "issue" that I wanted to tackle last season. I have the Lamonster LED fog lights...and if you do not have them, I HIGHLY recommend them!! It is one of the best mods you can do to the Spyder.

Currently, the switch's LED is on all the time; whether the fogs are on or off...which I guess is good so that one is not fishing for the button at night. However this causes a bit of confusion since you really cannot tell when the lights are on or off especially (obviously) in the day time. I want to wire it so that the switch's LED only comes on when the lights are on.

I have used the type of switch that Lamonster provides before in a simple circuit to light up LEDs and it is just a matter of jumping the (+) and (NO) connectors which go to the lighted accessory; the common (C) goes to the battery and the (-) obviously will go to a ground. However, the way the switch is wired, there are 4 wires going out to the bike's stock pig tail.

20170326_233514.jpg20170326_233721.jpg

Red = (+)
Orange = (Common)
Green = (NO)
Purple = (-)

In order to have the LED to always be on, the (+) red wire and (common) orange wire would need to be jumped and that would go to the battery; but what's throwing me off is that there are still 4 wires going out. However, what I am assuming is that the gray/yellow and pink/red wires on the bike's connector ARE "meeting up" somewhere.

Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.

m.

[jcthorne]

Just a thought but, you do see that the switch button stays in the depressed position when the lights are on? You can see and feel the switch position. Lamonster's swtich works exactly as the factory one does. The button is illuminated all the time so you can find it at night.

[Firefly]

Hey all...

I am getting wifey's Spyder ready for the season, and I thought I would address an "issue" that I wanted to tackle last season. I have the Lamonster LED fog lights...and if you do not have them, I HIGHLY recommend them!! It is one of the best mods you can do to the Spyder.

Currently, the switch's LED is on all the time; whether the fogs are on or off...which I guess is good so that one is not fishing for the button at night. However this causes a bit of confusion since you really cannot tell when the lights are on or off especially (obviously) in the day time. I want to wire it so that the switch's LED only comes on when the lights are on.

I have used the type of switch that Lamonster provides before in a simple circuit to light up LEDs and it is just a matter of jumping the (+) and (NO) connectors which go to the lighted accessory; the common (C) goes to the battery and the (-) obviously will go to a ground. However, the way the switch is wired, there are 4 wires going out to the bike's stock pig tail.

20170326_233514.jpg20170326_233721.jpg

Red = (+)
Orange = (Common)
Green = (NO)
Purple = (-)

In order to have the LED to always be on, the (+) red wire and (common) orange wire would need to be jumped and that would go to the battery; but what's throwing me off is that there are still 4 wires going out. However, what I am assuming is that the gray/yellow and pink/red wires on the bike's connector ARE "meeting up" somewhere.

Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.

m.

This annoys me as well. The BRP switch next to it for the heated grips does the same thing... stays on all the time. Seems counter-intuitive to me. With the way BRP does things it might not be as simple as swapping the leads that feed thru the switch.
Will have to look at the schematic to see what's up. Do you have a service manual?
I haven't had the time to look into 'fixing this'..... yet.

[Turtlesplatter]

Just a thought but, you do see that the switch button stays in the depressed position when the lights are on? You can see and feel the switch position. Lamonster's swtich works exactly as the factory one does. The button is illuminated all the time so you can find it at night.

Yep, I noticed that there is a slight depression when the switch is engaged, however that is near impossible to feel with gloves on as well as see at night. I am not knocking Lamonster's design at all...it's just a preference. I have searched far (but not wide) for a dual LED switch (e.g. blue when off/amber when on) but can only find them in 16mm (need 19mm) and those are in China.

m.

[billybovine]

You can't just move a few wires around at the switch to make it do what you want. All the switch does is connect the trigger coil in the relay to ground. The relay is what turns the fog lights on and off. The only 12V at the switch is the running lights circuit. That is powering the switch led now. To light the switch only when the fog lights are on. You would need to run a wire from the fog lights just to light the switch.

Just another thought. Leave the switch the way it is. Since you would have to run another wire anyway. Install a pilot led on the dash somewhere wired to the fog lights. Let it tell you when the fog lights are on.

[Firefly]

Yep, I noticed that there is a slight depression when the switch is engaged, however that is near impossible to feel with gloves on as well as see at night. I am not knocking Lamonster's design at all...it's just a preference. I have searched far (but not wide) for a dual LED switch (e.g. blue when off/amber when on) but can only find them in 16mm (need 19mm) and those are in China.

m.

This was nothing Lamont did... it's purely how BRP set the system up to work.. which I think is weird. A lit switch almost always means whatever it's controlling is ON when lit.
I probably won't do anything about it.. but think it's goofy for sure.

[Turtlesplatter]

Just another thought. Leave the switch the way it is. Since you would have to run another wire anyway. Install a pilot led on the dash somewhere wired to the fog lights. Let it tell you when the fog lights are on.

Yeah, from what I seeing/reading, this may be a good option. But I will most certainly revisit this. I WILL NOT BE BEATEN!!

[Turtlesplatter]

Will have to look at the schematic to see what's up. Do you have a service manual?
I haven't had the time to look into 'fixing this'..... yet.

Yes, I have the service manual and am going blind trying to follow the schematic

[Peteoz]

Turtle, have a look at the link below. There are a list of images on the left. In there, you will find the difference in wiring between a switch that has the led permanently on, and the wiring for an led that only comes on when you depress the switch.

I specifically bought a couple that only have the led on when the switch is on for my driving lights. I replaced the BRP switch. BUT......I didn't look to see if the wiring could be redirected on the stock BRP switch. I don't know that it can, based on Billy's post......

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Switc...-/271641434263

Pete

[Rattlebars]

One can't just jump. You must rewire the switch. No guarantee, but this is the switch I will use for my fog lights when i build them and most of these are the same. It depends on the load and the hot.

[berden]

pay attention, the picture are for + common

brp are - common

the switch is on ground not +12

[Corsacreek]

Turtlesplatter listen to Billybovine advice as he helped me with mine as well. The problem is not the switch but the way BRP triggers the relay to power the fog lights. Furthermore the provided wiring only gives you one choice for the switch led lighting option.

Some guys here have bypassed the oem wiring & fished their own. I installed my own custom fog lights with angel eyes & had to settled with the default always on option because I wanted use the oem wiring.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

[Peteoz]

Turtlesplatter listen to Billybovine advice as he helped me with mine as well. The problem is not the switch but the way BRP triggers the relay to power the fog lights. Furthermore the provided wiring only gives you one choice for the switch led lighting option.

Some guys here have bypassed the oem wiring & fished their own. I installed my own custom fog lights with angel eyes & had to settled with the default always on option because I wanted use the oem wiringk

Spot on, Corsacreek. I had to run my own wiring with a trigger from the high beam wire and use a different switch to let me have a solution where the switch lighting only came on when the the switch was powered on.

Pete

[Rattlebars]

I will draw a proper circuit when I can get mine installed. All one needs to do is substitute + for Ground - on the switch and supply + 12v to the LED and catch the - ground only when the switch is pushed. It just depends on where you put the trigger, before or after the terminal. Just got my F3 and got the manual today in the mail.

[rays hell]

Looks to me as you could remove and cap the red wire [ illuminating the switch ] and install a jumper from the green wire
[ turns on the fog lights] back to that terminal illuminating both the switch and the fog lights at the same time.

[Corsacreek]

Looks to me as you could remove and cap the red wire [ illuminating the switch ] and install a jumper from the green wire
[ turns on the fog lights] back to that terminal illuminating both the switch and the fog lights at the same time.

The oem wiring available for the switch won't allow you to do anything else other than the stock setup. The "green" wire using the stock oem wiring goes to ground and connected to "NO" on the switch. Once the pole is trigger by closing the switch the circuit is completed because all the grey/green wire needed to complete the circuit was ground. If you jump the green to red wire on the switch you essentially have two ground wires.

Again, no way to do anything else with the stock wiring except stock setup. You would have to re-wire a positive point on the relay back to the positive point on the switch to accomplish light on, fog light on.

[Rattlebars]

Here's how I wired my switch and fogs. The CANbus doesn't seem to like it if you try to do it using the ground before the relay. Dunno, it worked on the bench but not on the bike. Simple matter of running a two conductor wire from the actual fog lamp to the LED+ and LED- so the switch is lit only when the lamps are on. There are probably other ways to do it, but this is mine.

Some colors may be wrong here, but it works. Switch terminals are for a U19C2 switch as seen here: >CLICK ME<

[Corsacreek]

Simple matter of running a two conductor wire from the actual fog lamp to the LED+ and LED- so the switch is lit only when the lamps are on. There are probably other ways to do it, but this is mine.

Yes, this would be one option and very simple to do. I tried it but decided not to keep the additional 2 wires because I ran out of friction tape. I like to keep most of my jerry-rigging as close to oem as possible so when I sell the bike the mods are indistinguishable from the originals.

[Turtlesplatter]

So, since we are in lock down and I am "teleworking", thought now would be as good a time as any to revisit this. Using Rattlebars schematic and the Can Am wiring diagram, I managed to get it working perfectly (Fog lights off/switch light off - Fog lights on/switch light on)

I ran two new leads directly from the positive/negative side of the switch to the right side fog light connector and rewired "C" and "NO" connections. When rewiring the switch, be sure to cut off the heat shrink first; makes pulling the connectors off much easier (don't forget to put some back onto the new connectors). When tapping into the fog light connector, if you choose not to cut/splice/solder, I HIGHLY suggest using Posi-Tap connectors instead of those cheap folding wire taps.

I drew up a quick before and after diagram for those interested. Not sure if Lamonster still uses the same colors on his pig tails but the pics should help. The bike wiring colors are for a 2015 F3S but I suppose they should be the same for all others. Thanks all!!

Slide1.jpg

Slide2.jpg

Pig Tail.jpg

Switch.jpg

Splice.jpg