HID Lighting

Mine fires and stays on just fine on the OEM wiring from day one almost a year ago!

mduval said:

I will be installing the DDM HID's in the next couple of days. I have a few questions.
1) Which wire is positive on the factory socket connector (headlight bulb)?
2) How do you install a delay relay?

Thanks.....

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PM me a number and we can hook up (cnnot be Tue/Thur). I don't run a delay but have one if you haven't gotten one yet. Plenty of Autozones around netherless if you want to get one there. I do run a relay though (not needed but I'm a safety wart)

I love HID lighting on my bikes. When I moved to my current ride, I installed HID headlight - having run it on my Yamaha triple prior to that. What I found out - the hard way - is something pointed out above: my BMW turns the headlight on before the engine starts. I burned out the ballast in a couple of months. I mounted a switch, to leave the headlight off until after I started the engine. I was going through a period of rough running and stalled the bike at cold low speeds many times - burning up another ballast.

I just ordered the delayed turn-on relay mentioned above. It has the feature of keeping the HID light on if the bike stalls, as long the ignition switch is not turned off. My bike no longer has the stalling problem, but I will not re-install HID in my BMW until the delay relay is here.

No relay necessary.

1) Kill switch off
2) Press and HOLD starter button
3) Turn on key - headlight will NOT come on
4) Flip kill switch on - bike starts, then headlight comes on

jZ

No relay necessary IF you train yourself to abide by the new procedure pretty much every time you start the bike. I am fairly well disciplined but have proven this won't work for me.

Manfred said:

No relay necessary IF you train yourself to abide by the new procedure pretty much every time you start the bike. I am fairly well disciplined but have proven this won't work for me.

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Why??? Know someone who's had a problem? I was assured by DDM that the lights going off and on while starting the bike would be no problem and with a lifetime warranty not to give it a second thought... almost three years later and 25k plus miles a total non issue..It appears they know what they're talking about. Next topic.... Paddle tires on a 1250....thoughts?

Manfred said:

No relay necessary IF you train yourself to abide by the new procedure pretty much every time you start the bike. I am fairly well disciplined but have proven this won't work for me.

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I have 20k miles and ride every day with multiple starts - I only wait about 15 seconds before cranking it at most, well, mostly I forget or don't care so that should validate how good the ddm kits are.

As someone who's been thinking about HID's for a while but has only seen horror stories about the Chinese junk on 'fleebay, and the no-name stuff thats been imported into the UK to be sold at sky high prices,
I'm really glad to see healthy feedback on some quality products at reasonable price!

Gonna have to get me a set of these ddm HID's

The only remaining questions I have are what wattage and color temp to go for?

I've read elsewhere that the 35watt'ers are more suitable to a bike (temperature issues on the 55's with plastic reflectors) and that as they are that much brighter than the standard bulbs, 35's are "plenty"

On color temp, I've determined (rightly or wrongly) that:

• 3000k - yellower light for fog lamps etc
• 4500k - purest light, akin to the colour of the sun so offers the best lighting for night riding as this is what our eyes are designed/have evolved to see, but means that your less likely to stand out in bright daylight
• 5&6k - close to daylight, but has the blue twinge associated with HID's
• 8000k - a decidedly "blue" light good for getting spotted in the day but not as effective at night as "lower" colour temperatures
• 10&12k - for posers only

Finally, rather than a delay relay, I think I'll fit a switch, I never liked the always on - I never used to forget to put the lights on back before the beurocrats got involved!

Anyone who's got the DDM HID's care to offer feedback/advice on any of this?

I got the DDM HID high low kit for mine too and I have had no problems so far,it's worked great and I also had them on mine last bike with zero problems.I'm sure you know that their kits are also made in China as I'm sure most of them are nowadays,it just took a long time for delivery here because they come direct from China.I got the 35 watt with 5000k temperature color and I really like it,to me it's just very white and I have read that anything higher than that just stats to turn blueish and becomes less useful.I also use a switch to power the low ballast on and off and it works great,you just have to remember to turn it off before re-starting the engine,I used a time delay relay first and it worked great for about 2 days and then it quit so I like the switch.But the light from these are great I can see so much better at night with these.It's one of the best things Iv'e done to the bike so far for safety.

mduval said:

I will be installing the DDM HID's in the next couple of days. I have a few questions.
1) Which wire is positive on the factory socket connector (headlight bulb)?
2) How do you install a delay relay?

Thanks.....

Click to expand...

so is it done yet? LOL How do you like them?

Well, I'm sorry to revive a thread this old, but I have some questions.

My low-beam bulb went out; looking around, this seemed like a good time to put in HID. I purchased the DDM HID Ultra kit, two H7 bulbs, 5000K, 55W.

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Ultra-HID-Kit

This is different from the kit most folks have used, as it has the full-size ballast, but I don't think that is a problem in itself.

I have taken my bike (2008 GSF1250F) apart, removing nearly everything associated with this -- I just find it usually easier, as I have very big hands.

Has anyone used this kit? Here are pictures of the two parts for each light.





I am trying to figure out how to connect this, and I must admit it has me flummoxed.

Can anyone identify the connections, and what they plug in to on the bike? Please refer to the numbers I painted on the pictures. I seem to be getting dumber as I get older...

Thanks.

Dave Kelsen

pretty self explanatory, #3 In first picture plugs to #1 in second picture.
or#1 in second picture plugs into# 3 in in first picture.

#2 in first plugs into #2 in second picture

#4 in first picture connects to head light lead of motorcycle.

Most of the connectors are matched, so its pretty fool proof.

The bulb (1) has a male and female AMP connector (white & black wire labeled "2" in top photo) - these plug into the corresponding female and male AMP connectors coming off the ballast (black & green wires labeled 2 in lower photo).

The ballast has a 9008 (I think that is the style) double pin oval socket (labeled 1 in your bottom photo) - this has the plug labeled 3 in the top photo. The other end of this black and white wire (labeled 4) plugs into the original bike light socket, the black wire should be earth but it has been noted before that they might be wire backwards - it's only a matter of swapping the pins over if it doesn't fire up.

You should note that if you wire to the bike light socket you are powering the HID setup through the bikes existing loom and light switch.

If you look at the gauge wire used by Suzuki compared to that used by DDM you will see its much thinner on the bike. Some people recond this is okay, me, I wired the Suzuki socket into a relay, then had a (fused) larger gauge wire fed from the battery to the (no. 4) wire and another large gauge wire for the earth return.

yes, a control relay is best, at start up the ballast amp draw is higher than a stock bulb, voltage drop on the stock harness could cause the ballast to kick off in low voltage protection mode.

focus frenzy said:

pretty self explanatory, #3 In first picture plugs to #1 in second picture.
or#1 in second picture plugs into# 3 in in first picture.

#2 in first plugs into #2 in second picture

#4 in first picture connects to head light lead of motorcycle.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Leon. That's just what I thought. But I don't see where it gets power in that case.

As nearly as I can tell, the only place outside the supplied parts are the two flat tabs that you and Barry say plug in to the head light lead. If I have that right, I will give this a shot - although I believe I will wire in a relay; I did so for my horns when I put those in. Perhaps I'll get a delay as well.

Thanks again, folks. I plugged everything together just as you say and showed my wife, but said, "I don't see where power comes from." I guess I am limited by my preconceptions.


Dave Kelsen

All the power comes from the wires connected into the existing headlight connector. This goes into the ballast that is sort of like an electronic ignition coil (with extra smarts) that turns the 12vdc into the high voltage needed to ignite the HID "salts" in the bulb.

By supplying the ballast with a good, clean current source via the relay (and heavy duty wiring) we mentioned, and then triggering that relay from the original headlight wires you are ensuring the ballast is getting the best 12v to do its job. Some members have noted the voltage at their headlight connector is down as low as 8 or 9 volts, so you can see (or not as the light is so dim) why we harp on about it.

As far as the delay is concerned, I've got them wired into mine, however a lot of other riders don't and their HID's are working fine. The delay would be wired into the lead coming from the original headlight wires.

This is my setup with relays and delay boxes wired in - as you can see I like tinkering with this stuff . The delay box acts like a slow to activate relay, gets a trigger from the headlight wiring, has a clean heavy duty 12v source (and I've fed that from another relay and fuse) and then pushes out the 12v after a pre-programmed number of seconds:



Edit: I should also mention this particular Delay Box is a one-off trigger, it only activates when power is initially supplied when starting the bike, it doesn't active every time you change from low to hi or visa versa.

Thanks for the picture and the tips, Barry. I did hook things up the way I thought was logical (and the way you guys said...) and the HID lamp lights brilliantly. I will try to grok your schematic and wire in a delay.

Looks good from here.

Thanks again.


Dave Kelsen

Idk if I replied or not on this but. I hold the starter button while cranking over and once the bike is running I let go off it and thus starting the HID bulb. Thing is HIDs do NOT like to be reignited often their life goes down quickly so thus why I've been doing the above from day 2! 5 years later only one Ballast has gone bad!

Tazman2 said:

Idk if I replied or not on this but. I hold the starter button while cranking over and once the bike is running I let go off it and thus starting the HID bulb. Thing is HIDs do NOT like to be reignited often their life goes down quickly so thus why I've been doing the above from day 2! 5 years later only one Ballast has gone bad!

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That's the technique i use , it's second nature to me now. Hold the starter button down as you turn the key on and pull in the clutch lever to start the bike.
DDM seems to be the best kit out there from reviews I've read ; don't forget to order their h7 spacers to hold the bulbs into the socket if you get a different brand. I bought those and a relay harness which was really top notch quality and inexpensive to boot

I spent some time considering how to wire my DDM HID headlight, then all of a sudden I had to get somewhere on short notice. So I used the stock wiring with the DDM HID kit (low beam), and set off.

It worked just fine.

I bought this product because my low-beam bulb burned out. I verified that the bulb was the problem by putting the working high-beam bulb in the low-beam's place, and it worked fine. I did not research what caused the bulb to burn out in the first place, but I did think that I had a short somewhere -- stay with me here... I presumed a short because my left turn signal function had the rapid-flashing behavior that I associate with a short, and the rear left signal lamp did not light. The problem could have been a bad rear bulb, but it had been working when I parked the bike...

I took off down the road, headlight working fine, left turn rear turn signal not flashing, left front turn signal flashing more rapidly than its usual behavior.

When I left, I was in a hurry, and didn't tuck everything in the way I would (and will) for a finished product. Also, I did not re-install my windshield.

I ran in to a thunderstorm. I had a good rain suit, and I was in a hurry, so I just kept going. I noticed that my left turn signal indicator was flashing at its correct speed! Sure enough, the rear indicator was working. It healed itself. I thought it might be water-related, a connection being made that had not been doing so earlier. Then, while going down the road at 75 mph, my electrical system reset itself completely. The drive train continued to run without a hiccough, but the tachometer went to 12K, then to 0. At the same time, the right side of the instrument panel flashed every light, then went blank. Before I could even slow down much, it reset, and was working completely normally. The clock reset to 1 o'clock. I was a bit freaked out, and return the 80 miles home. The entire 80 miles, everything worked splendidly, including my left turn signal.

I am not electrically competent, but I presume that some water got in to something that it should not have. Does anyone have any insight as to what could cause this, and what I might do (besides keeping water from getting to connections in the future, of course) to prevent or troubleshoot this?

Sorry for all the detail, but I don't know what might be important.


Dave Kelsen
--
"They tell you that you'll lose your mind when you grow older. What they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very much." -- Malcolm Cowley

The bikes wiring should be somewhat water (or at least splash) proof so whilst I personally would not ride through a thunderstorm without a windscreen hopefully it has not caused any permanent damage.

The fast flashing front indicator is more than likely a direct effect of the rear bulb not working.

To have so many things play up that aren't (directly) connected to each other sounds to me like there is a bad earth, check your battery terminals and where the negative terminal is connected to the chassis.

Thanks, Barry. I will recheck the connections, and pay close attention to the battery.

The rear bulb is working now; I am not familiar with the scenario wherein a bulb goes out, then 'comes back in', so to speak. But I gather you are saying the turn signal not working, for whatever reason, was the reason for the fast flashing, rather than a short.

Thanks again. I intend to get the delay-relay and wire it in to this circuit.


Dave Kelsen
--
Three logicians walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “Do all of you want a drink? The first logician says, “I don’t know.” The second logician says, “I don’t know.” The third logician says, “Yes!”

Suzuki turn signals are good at corroding around the bulb and losing ground, hit a good bump and they will work again.

my Kawasaki ZRX11 uses a latching relay system for the headlight, it does not power the headlight till you push and release the starter button.

focus frenzy said:

Suzuki turn signals are good at corroding around the bulb and losing ground, hit a good bump and they will work again.

my Kawasaki ZRX11 uses a latching relay system for the headlight, it does not power the headlight till you push and release the starter button.

Click to expand...

In the intervening 4 years, my turn signals have never failed to work again. I doubt that the problem in this case was corrosion. Nor did I ever had that problem on my 73 Suzuki GT550, my 79 Suzuki GS750 or my 79 Suzuki GS1000.

Obviously not enough motorcycles to be a scientific sample representation, but they do represent 44 years of riding. Your mileage may vary.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
One does not ask the sun for mercy. -- Afghani saying