My headlight arrived a while ago, and I’ve finally had a chance to install it and wire it up. I ordered a handful of the AMP Superseal connectors to use for all my low voltage (ie 12v) wiring connections. They are waterproof, can carry a good amount of current (~14 amps) and are a good overall size/design. I ordered 5 pairs of 2, 3 and 5 pin versions.
After working out which wires controlled which parts of the integrated headlight/indicators, I chopped off the stock connectors and wired on a 5 pin AMP Superseal connector. I then ran the other side all the way back to the 12v “wiring box”. The 5 pin connectors happened to be the right amount of pins as there’s a +12v for low beam (I spliced the daytime running lights to this as motorbike lights in Australia are always on), left and right indicators, high beam, and a ground connection. You can see in the photos below the headlight connector and the wiring loom connector below for the headlights and the grip buttons/throttle. You can also see I used electrical tape to help seal the ends a little bit and protect them from wear and tear.
Once all of the connectors have been added to the brake switch, throttle/grip controls (right and left) and the headlights/horn, I then Brough all the wiring back to the 12v connection box. Cable glands are great for bringing a cable into a box/enclosure while maintaining a waterproof seal. I used quite a few of these for each wire that enters the 12v connections box.
To hold all of the 12v related relays, fuses (each circuit is individually fused) and connections, I used a project box with a clear lid and easily openable latches. This means I can easily access it should the need arise (such as a blown fuse, etc.). This also means most of the wiring connections/splices are inside a waterproof container which should help with preventing corrosion from water ingress. I used some cable glands to ensure there’s a waterproof seal around the entry of each cable.
You can see the connectors at the front after they’ve been sealed up with electrical tape and connected together. These two connectors are for the headlights and grip buttons/throttle, but there’s a few other ones for the rear taillights and horn, among other things.
I’ve also finally sourced some copper flat bar (to be used as a bus bar) so that I can start building the battery pack. My discharger software is nearly finished, so I’m about to start testing/discharging battery cells shortly. Once I’ve tested enough battery cells, I can start assembling the battery pack. I used the horizontal metal bandsaw at HSBNE Inc. to cut the 4m lengths of copper bar down to about 32cm in length. For most of the cell interconnects, I’ll be using pure nickel strip as they’re right next to each other. However, for some of the interconnects that go across the pack, I’ll need to collect the current across a bus bar and use some 25mm2 cable/lugs to connect them.
I ordered some fused nickel strip from battery hookup and have done heaps of testing of it. I’ll be putting up a video shortly that goes into way more depth than I can in a blog post. To assist with testing all of the different components of the bike (but mainly the battery nickel strips, bus bars, cell interconnects, etc.) I bought a FLIR One Pro thermal camera. The camera seems to work very well, but I’m incredibly disappointed that FLIR puts a watermark on every photo/video and there’s no way to remove it. Fortunately there’s a hacky workaround for photos, but no such thing for videos. Here’s a sneak peek.
