Wiring the Chin LED light - is the Black wire Earth, White Live?

[Flier Tuck]

Just purchased a chin LED light for my S2S even though it is not strictly legal here in the UK. The short piece of wiring has a length of black and a length of white with waterproof plug. Is it safe to assume that the black wire is earth and white live. I know where to wire connect it safely. Could one of our electrical wizards please confirm or deny my assumption please.
Thanks.

 

[TheMariner]

Howdy,

Normally you'd assume black is -ve, but these days with so much stuff being made in China where standards are a bit wishy-washy, anything is possible. The good news is that LED's will only work if they are connected with the correct polarity and it's almost impossible to damage them if they are wired backwards. Simplest way is to temporarily connect wires with bare ends and just touch the strip light terminals to see what works and what doesn't.

 

[CopperSpyder]

https://brp.my.salesforce-sites.com/ISPublicArticleInfo/apex/BWLightningViewerWithTranslate?#id=kA00c000000PUOaCAO&googtrans(en|en_US) The instructions show a locking plug that will only plug in one way. As mentioned, most leds wires can be wired in either way. U.S. and Canada use black as ground on bikes, cars and trucks etc. but for household wiring it's black is power and white ground. Some people have said they had a hard time to find the wire the the light plugs in to because it was pushed up where they could not see it.

You could send it back and try this: https://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/showthread.php?137750-2020-21-RTL-Auxiliary-Light-Install-with-optional-on-off-switch&highlight=2020%2B+Auxiliary+Light

 

[Flier Tuck]

Thanks for the replies. I was under the impression that LEDs would be damaged if connected backwards, that is why I asked. As a lot of the lights on the bikes as standard on the US bikes are illegal here in Europe CanAm do not include the wiring onto the bikes.

 

[LexxyT]

Thanks for the replies. I was under the impression that LEDs would be damaged if connected backwards, that is why I asked. As a lot of the lights on the bikes as standard on the US bikes are illegal here in Europe CanAm do not include the wiring onto the bikes.

I've got the same issue with my Australian RT; no wiring harness for the chin light on the bike. Where did you end up wiring your light to?

 

[Mikey]

Grab a wire from a marker light, or head light! Use a meter to check polarity, and power.

 

[Flier Tuck]

G'day,
On my light unit, I took an uneducated guess and found that indeed white was positive and black negative. So as not to risk interfering with the can-bus system I ran the wiring back to the keyed power supply under the R/H front side panel. I have a volt meter and my sat-nav wired into this and it has not blown a fuse yet. Hope this helps.
Alan

 

[LexxyT]

G'day,
On my light unit, I took an uneducated guess and found that indeed white was positive and black negative. So as not to risk interfering with the can-bus system I ran the wiring back to the keyed power supply under the R/H front side panel. I have a volt meter and my sat-nav wired into this and it has not blown a fuse yet. Hope this helps.
Alan

Cheers mate, yeah that was what I was thinking of doing. Just need to find a splitter cable to fit into the accessory port under the R/H front side panel. Not sure what kind of plug it is as I'd make up my own splitter if I could buy the plugs by themselves.

 

[Flier Tuck]

For a splitter connection I used 2 Wago connectors (see Ebay); one for positive, one for negative. That made it simple to link 3 outputs to the bike's 1 output. I used the 5 output versions and stuck them to a suitable place on the bike, then painted the negative one black to avoid mistakes.

 

[racoon]

I used this on my 2024 Spyder RT S2S:

Can-Am Spyder RT 12V Accessory Power Harness (2020+)

Easily power your favorite Can-Am Spyder RT 12v accessories with our Plug and Play power harness

www.slingmods.com

 

[LexxyT]

For a splitter connection I used 2 Wago connectors (see Ebay); one for positive, one for negative. That made it simple to link 3 outputs to the bike's 1 output. I used the 5 output versions and stuck them to a suitable place on the bike, then painted the negative one black to avoid mistakes.

So did you just cut the original cable coming out of the bike output and splice the wago connectors in with your extra wires?

 

[LexxyT]

I used this on my 2024 Spyder RT S2S:

Can-Am Spyder RT 12V Accessory Power Harness (2020+)

Easily power your favorite Can-Am Spyder RT 12v accessories with our Plug and Play power harness

www.slingmods.com

Cheers I did look at that but by the time it lands here in Australia I'm looking at about 80 bucks Australian. If I could figure out what connectors slingmods and others are using I could make my own. Maybe even sell them to others in Australia looking for a cheaper alternative...

 

[racoon]

 

[TheMariner]

Cheers I did look at that but by the time it lands here in Australia I'm looking at about 80 bucks Australian. If I could figure out what connectors slingmods and others are using I could make my own. Maybe even sell them to others in Australia looking for a cheaper alternative...

Howdy.

Mate, I reckon you'd be struggling to buy the connectors down here in Oz for less that $5 each even if you did know what they were. Then there's your time, wire, shrink tube etc. to add to the bill. My advice is spend the $80 & save yourself the headache.

If you do want to start making & selling them, having the Slingmods one in your hand would help ENORMOUSLY in determining the connectors needed.

 

[Quickdraw]

The light you bought isn't the plug and play light that plugs into the harness behind the plate?

 

[EdMat]

The light you bought isn't the plug and play light that plugs into the harness behind the plate?

In some countries the harness is not there.