Running rear brake light from a battery?

[alanscottj]

Evening,

Recently I put a battery on my scooter just to power my EGT gauge and my Trailtech Vapor - it isn't connected to my loom it solely powers the two gauges. Had it on for ages and haven't had to recharge battery yet so it is obviously not drawing two much power (I have hidden a little switch inside tool box door to turn it off/on when required).

My question is, would I be able to run my rear light from this battery as well? Because I have a Varitronic, at low revs the rear LED light is very, very dull and flickers. I am really not clued up with electrics so any tips most appreciated

Tia

[mick1]

The simple answer is YES........but how you do it is a bit trickier.

You would have to have an independent switch for the rear light and the back brake light would have to have new wires run to the brake switch.

I would not try to use the existing loom but pull new wires through for the brake switch and rear lights.

The only drawback would be when your battery runs flat you would have no brake light or rear light. An led light unit would lengthen the life of the charged battery

[mick1]

Yes...........you would have to "isolate" the new dc wiring from the existing ac loom, but it's not too complicated.

Bear in mind when your battery runs flat you will have no brake light or rear light

Fitting a led light unit would give a longer run time.

[alanscottj]

Sounds too much hassle and like you say, no rear light when the battery runs out.

[Donnie]

why dont you charge the battery from the regulator???

[Chris in Margate]

Very simple to do. Can't off the top of my head remember the colours. Did mine years ago. Just take the live feed and reroute it to the battery.

[mick1]

Very simple to do. Can't off the top of my head remember the colours. Did mine years ago. Just take the live feed and reroute it to the battery.

Then you would be powering all the electrics via the battery. Most regulators have only a trickle charge facility and won't put enough power in the battery to run all the lights, the battery would flatten, leaving you with no lights. This is why a "Wassell" regulator/rectifier is used as this pumps out more power.

[Chris in Margate]

No only the brake light. Lights are 12 V AC.

[mick1]

Although slightly unclear, I thought the op was needing both the brake and rear light running off the battery ? splitting the feed to the rear light is the tricky bit as it uses the same feed as the headlight. If it's just the brake light I agree it's a lot simpler.

[Monty]

Then you would be powering all the electrics via the battery. Most regulators have only a trickle charge facility and won't put enough power in the battery to run all the lights, the battery would flatten, leaving you with no lights. This is why a "Wassell" regulator/rectifier is used as this pumps out more power.[/quote]
The wassel set up powers your lights via the stator with the battery topped up with what's left, the battery acts to top up the stator if you like, on tickover when you would get the lambretter flicker. The main benifit is everything is DC so gauges phone charging and LED lamps all work as they should.
A small bgm type regulator will charge the battery as you ride if you want to keep AC, I would simpley change the brake light to DC via the brake light switch. Simply disconnect the AC feed from the loom and connect it to your battery switched feed. The brake light is the high powered part of the lamp and that's what makes your headlight dim, if it's only lit when you brake a decent battery will cope with it