Brake light always on, can't figure out a solution

[chyaboi]

So my brake light is on at all times when I turn on my bike, I'm not sure what's going on with the wiring. I bought this light kit and everything works great besides the brake light. First step is trying to figure out the wiring for why my brake light is always on.

First thing I tried was unplugging the positive brake lever wire from my controller, it turned off the brake light but now the light is still always on but dim. Not sure what to do... someone told me that the black wire to the brake levers is actually power positive but I dunno, so maybe I need to wire black from lights to controller positive? Kinda scared to do that though if it's wrong and negative goes to positive mixing.

Here's the wiring ...

At the top is my actual brake levers that connect to rear light from the light kit (white/black wires)
In the middle wires (black and reds), that's how the brake levers connect to the controller brake levers for motor cut off.
At the bottom the green connector is where the brakes get power/signal

I have everything wired how it "seems" it should be, but the brake light is forever on with the lights turned off even. Any ideas?

The light set is is 2nd picture

When I completely ignore the brakes setup (unplug all brake related items). Everything works as normal, the rear light is off unless I turned on my my lights like at night. But obviously I have no brake levers, which I want so.

 

[Deleted member 4845]

" I'm not sure what's going on with the wiring".

Neither am I. Tell me EXACTLY what wires from the light kit, plugged into your bike, and where.

Is the ONLY connection at the ebrake levers, and if so, preferably picks showing BEFORE, and AFTER, connection. Two wires from the lights? NO connection to battery?

Do the ebrake levers function normally and cut off the motor when activated? Are they active when open, or closed, and any info on the light kit describing which switch type they expect?

When you say things like "It turned off the brake light but now the light is still always on", it becomes difficult to grasp your reality. Is it off, or on? It cannot be both at the same time.

Also you mention unplugging ONE, of the TWO, ebrake wires, did you remove one from the two-wire modular plug housing, or are they seperate wires in two individual plug housings, and what happens if you unplug BOTH?

Oh yes, on that connecting the red wire, to the black wire, that is a big, big, HELL NO. At least not yet, anyway. But its your bike and you got insurance and if you do it and we never hear from you again we all will be very sad.

 

[chyaboi]

" I'm not sure what's going on with the wiring".

Neither am I. Tell me EXACTLY what wires from the light kit, plugged into your bike, and where.

Is the ONLY connection at the ebrake levers, and if so, preferably picks showing BEFORE, and AFTER, connection. Two wires from the lights? NO connection to battery?

Do the ebrake levers function normally and cut off the motor when activated? Are they active when open, or closed, and any info on the light kit describing which switch type they expect?

When you say things like "It turned off the brake light but now the light is still always on", it becomes difficult to grasp your reality. Is it off, or on? It cannot be both at the same time.

Also you mention unplugging ONE, of the TWO, ebrake wires, did you remove one from the two-wire modular plug housing, or are they seperate wires in two individual plug housings, and what happens if you unplug BOTH?

Oh yes, on that connecting the red wire, to the black wire, that is a big, big, HELL NO. At least not yet, anyway. But its your bike and you got insurance and if you do it and we never hear from you again we all will be very sad.

So basically how it works is when it's day time, you don't have the lights on, so there is no rear light, but even when the lights aren't turned on, the brake light still works to signal you're braking. But... that brake light is on at all times with EVERYTHING plugged in, but if I unplug the positive wire from the controller ebrake then the brake light is shut off (the brake light is brighter than the normal light) BUT the light is still on as if I have my lights turned on for night time. It should not be on unless I hit the brake and then the brake signal that is brighter should light up.

Here is a picture of the wiring setup

As for your comment on do the brake levers cut off the motor like normal, even if I don't have the brake levers plugged in this problem still persists. So it has nothing to do with the brake levers themselves, it's something with the brake lever wiring going from controller to the brake levers on this wiring kit

I tried to explain in picture best I could

 

[Deleted member 4845]

You have a problem you would like to solve.

I asked you several specific questions in order to help you solve that problem.

I am not in the slightest interested in what you think I need to know.

Read them carefully, read them AGAIN, make CERTAIN you understand what ALL the words mean, and answer each and every question I asked you, I asked each of them for a very specific reason, and you answered exactly ZERO of the questions I asked.

One by one. ALL of them. Take your time.

 

[chyaboi]

#1 I don't know what you mean by the only connection, but I believe no. There is a whole kit of wiring. There's like 6 different fitting that all tie into the brake levers.

#2 I have not tried the levers by themselves disregarding the light set entirely, although the motor cutoff does work with everything plugged in currently, just the light isn't working like it should. I just set this bike up so I've only been trying with the light kit. I don't know what you mean by open/closed or what switch type they expect. This all came in a kit.. should be plug and play into controller ebrake levers so idk.

#3 The light is always on, regardless of what I do. The light is on when it should not be unless I unplug the ebrake wiring from the controller going to the ebrakes.

#4 The only thing I've tried it removing each red positive from both ebrake wires coming out of the controller. It stopped the brake light from being on, but the dim night light is always on instead when it's NOT supposed to be unless I turn it on.

Here's a video to try and explain better...

 

[Deleted member 4845]

Front light and horn work, right? Tried different switch positions?

Brake lights get the ground from the controller, thru the switches in the brake levers. I believe these work similar to the throttle, with a voltage between 0-5 volts, and are pretty much on/off. So a small current all the time, and more when activated, or the other way around. That's what that closed or open switch thing is about. Accessory lighting connectors from the controller can vary quite a lot.

I am not at all an electrical engineer.

Do the brake lights work correctly other than being on dimly all the time, do they get bright when brakes activated?

The main power lead from the light kit, this plugs directly into an accessory kit on the controller, right?

Anything in the setup menu regarding accessory or lighting power output.

 

[chyaboi]

Front light and horn work, right? Tried different switch positions?

Brake lights get the ground from the controller, thru the switches in the brake levers. I believe these work similar to the throttle, with a voltage between 0-5 volts, and are pretty much on/off. So a small current all the time, and more when activated, or the other way around. That's what that closed or open switch thing is about. Accessory lighting connectors from the controller can vary quite a lot.

I am not at all an electrical engineer.

Do the brake lights work correctly other than being on dimly all the time, do they get bright when brakes activated?

The main power lead from the light kit, this plugs directly into an accessory kit on the controller, right?

Anything in the setup menu regarding accessory or lighting power output.

Yep, everything was easy plug and play and works flawlessly until the brake levers. So yes front light and horn work perfectly. The rear light works perfectly as well if I don't use the brake levers from the light kit, but of course I have no brake light if I do that.

No the brake light doesn't work at all, I haven't gotten it to work once yet.

Yes, basically the picture above the input 12-60v plugs directly into the controller, from there all the wires are on their own and connected which powers the front light/horn and the rear light/brake light.

There's basically no menu/manual, it's from China with no menu.

Things I HAVE tried.

I unplugged the POSITIVE ebrake (red) line, leaving the black from the controller going to the brake lines and the problem persisted, nothing changed.

I unplugged the NEGATIVE ebrake (black) line, leaving the red in and the rear light turned off, but still turns on the light like it should when I press the light button on the switch but still no brake signal.

I am personally thinking that the wire colors are wrong on the ebrakes and the blacks should actually be going to controller positive because it's the power source wires and the black on the controller goes to the reds on the ebrake cables grounding them. I could certainly be wrong but my 2nd finding I described above makes me believe that.
(I unplugged the NEGATIVE ebrake (black) line, leaving the red in and the rear light turned off, but still turns on the light like it should when I press the light button on the switch but still no brake signal.)

So far the only progress I saw was that unplugging the black negative from the controller going to the ebrakes solved the light always being on problem, but the brake light still not working. Maybe I need to swap sides of the ebrake wires? (white/black cables coming from brakes)

Would it hurt to try swapping the red and black in the sm connector coming from the controller ebrakes and give that a shot?

 

[chyaboi]

Got it. So yep, it was a mix up of wires. The black IS the power and the red is actually the ground on the light kit wiring. FIXED!!!

So I put my controller ebrake ground to the red on the light kit and I put the red from the controller ebrake to the black which is actually the power wires. Idk why they would do that, but working as intended now!!! I knew it the whole time, I was just too scared to try it but I said screw it and just tried it and it works!

edit: adding visual to help anyone in the future that may find this post

 

[ped]

Got it. So yep, it was a mix up of wires. The black IS the power and the red is actually the ground on the light kit wiring. FIXED!!!

So I put my controller ebrake ground to the red on the light kit and I put the red from the controller ebrake to the black which is actually the power wires. Idk why they would do that, but working as intended now!!! I knew it the whole time, I was just too scared to try it but I said screw it and just tried it and it works!

Thanks for a really helpful posting, had the same problem putting lights on my fat bike conversion, nearly gave up till found your post

 

[PaulT]

So my brake light is on at all times when I turn on my bike, I'm not sure what's going on with the wiring. I bought this light kit and everything works great besides the brake light. First step is trying to figure out the wiring for why my brake light is always on.

First thing I tried was unplugging the positive brake lever wire from my controller, it turned off the brake light but now the light is still always on but dim. Not sure what to do... someone told me that the black wire to the brake levers is actually power positive but I dunno, so maybe I need to wire black from lights to controller positive? Kinda scared to do that though if it's wrong and negative goes to positive mixing.

Here's the wiring ...

At the top is my actual brake levers that connect to rear light from the light kit (white/black wires)
In the middle wires (black and reds), that's how the brake levers connect to the controller brake levers for motor cut off.
At the bottom the green connector is where the brakes get power/signal

I have everything wired how it "seems" it should be, but the brake light is forever on with the lights turned off even. Any ideas?

The light set is is 2nd picture

When I completely ignore the brakes setup (unplug all brake related items). Everything works as normal, the rear light is off unless I turned on my my lights like at night. But obviously I have no brake levers, which I want so.

The micoswitch is a monetary contact the is open with the brake lever activated if there is break in the wire or the switch is out of adjustment the brake light will stay on and normally the motor should be disabled