second brake light option.

Some info please on fitting a second brake light to the b.m.w r1200 gs lc te 2016 model. this is my first b.m.w so unsure about the cambus system what I want to know is it possible to connect a second brake light to the o.e.m brake light wiring simple by connecting the earth and live of the second brake light to the o.e.m brake light earth and live wires. I'm concerned with it being the cambus it may put the engine man light on. I understand I can fit and use a hexex can or the denali to install but just want the extra brake light don't need to to do all fancy things just light up with the o.e.m brake light when I apply the brake. if this is not possible will consider either the hex ex can or the denali plug and play. but not sure how easy theses are to install and to program.

There's two ways you can do this.

Option 1 is to install a relay using the wires that feed your light to operate the relay and power equipment up to the rating of the relay with appropriate wiring.

Second option is to use the Hex Ezcan that plugs into your canbus and that use the existing switches to operate auxiliary equipment.

Third option would be to piggyback a LED auxiliary break light and hope that the computer doesn't see it as a fault due to the increase in current.
Myself, I used the Hex Ezcan you can add up to 4 auxiliary equipment 2 @ 10amps with 25 amps peak for 20 seconds & 2 @ 4amps
Only downside is the price about £220 from abroad.

thanks for the info mate.. I would prefer not to mess with the cambus system due to me not understanding how it works. is the hezecan or the dennali easy to install have watch a you tube clip on how to install the dennal but not sure how it plugs into the cambus it said in the you tube clip it plugs into the tyre sensor unit.. would have thought it plugs into the e.c.u. this as put me off installing one. is the hexecan easy to install and program?

I fitted LED brake lights to my R1200RT LC. I bought them from the US. They are called Skene P3s from Skene here - https://www.skenelights.com

Top company, great customer service. They just splice in to the wiring using taps, no issues with the can bus. Downside, not cheap to import from the States

Connect your brake light to the existing brake light wiring and see what happens. If there is a problem it will come up on the dash and you can disconnect it. If there is not a problem you will be quids in. Try it and see.

I've been through this process. I bought a brake light that fits on my Shad luggage rack under the impression that it was LED based. It wasn't and when I connected it across the existing brake circuit it triggered an error and shut down the circuit. I then removed the bulbs and their holders from inside the light and fitted an LED strip in their place. This worked OK, presumably because the small extra current was within the tolerance of the Canbus settings for that circuit. I later fitted a HexezCan for other reasons but decided to connect the additional brake light to that as I also obtained some brighter LEDs and thought they might trigger the Canbus.

I think using a relay with the brake circuit will not be practical as the same circuit also drives the rear light, but provides reduced power for this and just increases the power to maximum whenever the brakes are activated. I believe it does this not by supplying a reduced voltage, but by a method called pulse width modulation (PWM) where the circuit is rapidly turned on and off, with the off interval set to give an overall average level which gives the correct brightness. This could cause the relay to also try to switch on and off very rapidly to the point where it would probably rapidly fail.

The reason that you don't see the PWM as a flashing rear light is that the on and off flashing is too quick for the human eye to register, so you just see an average brightness. A flashing effect is sometimes visible on video footage because video essentially consists of a series of still pictures or frames, and depending on the relative frequencies of the the video frame rate compared to the PWM frequency some frames may catch the LEDs turned on and others might catch them turned off.

I also fitted a high level BL on my top box, I went down the route of using a "microrelay" to interface the new BL with the feeds to the existing BL.

Originally tried just piggy backing the new BL but it brought up a fault light, new BL was also an LED unit..

Casbar.. this seems a great way of adding a extra brake light.. seems easy enough to connect was hoping to send private message just wanted to know what light option you went for and to check some wiring details.. it says connect controllers red wire to the red wire with the blue trace on the 2016 model.. do you have the 2016 model or the pre 2016 model as the wires for the pre 2016 model are red with brown trace.. but can't find the private message link do you need to request friend for the private message option? also was there a need to program the p3 so it would flash while braking?

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beema said:

Casbar.. this seems a great way of adding a extra brake light.. seems easy enough to connect was hoping to send private message just wanted to know what light option you went for and to check some wiring details.. it says connect controllers red wire to the red wire with the blue trace on the 2016 model.. do you have the 2016 model or the pre 2016 model as the wires for the pre 2016 model are red with brown trace.. but can't find the private message link do you need to request friend for the private message option? also was there a need to program the p3 so it would flash while braking?

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I went for the standard P3. The decelerator model wasn't available at the time I bought mine. My bike is a 2014 RT, connecting was a doddle, following the instructions on the site. But if you have specific questions, email Skene, they are a good company and will reply. Programming is easy as well, you programme once connected by using the front brake leaver, I seem to remember you can also do it by connecting wires across the control box, but I did it by the brake leaver as in the instructions. I have mine set to normal brake lights, no flashing.

thanks for you help in this matter

+1 for skene P3. Have had them on both my LC gs and gsa and they have worked perfect.

Jerry at Skene is a great guy and always ready to help with queries.

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No need for relays and shit. Decent connection (none of this crap T tap splice connectors) to the rear brake light and route the wiring. If you are handy you can mount a waterproof plug inline as a supply to the rear brake light. Have a look at the RT and K1600GT for inspiration as a guideline in routing the cable.

Casbar......decided to go this route with the skene p3's can't go the p3 ts as the red flashing is illegal in the uk. can you tell me if the led rear lights where secure enough on the uk size number plate? noticed that the us guys who have fitted the p3's led lights to their number plates have much stronger number plate housing!