Turning signals & motoplat

[dirtbike]

Hi all!
I have this electrical question that I thought
someone might would be an expert at:

My stator is this motoplat with lightning coils.
The yellow cable 35w (headlight), green cable 18w (stop light)
and red cable 5w for tail light.
I assume that is altered current (AC).

Now, I want to equip my bike with turning signals.
I don't know but I belive that older mopeds (50cc), for example
Yamaha DT50 and such before some date, say -88 or something had
AC systems. At least I have found a horn that is for a Yamaha DT
before -88 that is AC 6v. There are also two types of turning relays.
One before -88 and one later. There are the signals that looks right
and could be fitted to my bike. The there are this switch for the
steering bar that looks to be just right.

My question: is anyone aware of how (if possible) I should connect
everything together from the stator and further without using a
battery, rectifier or voltage regulator. Does anyone know if it can be done,
and if so, how?

//B  

[Doug Wilford]

The motoplat is not AC as you assume.   Each wire carries that wattage and should be hooked direct accordingly, not combined. If you need to run turn signals I would suggest a battery total loss system and hook your wiring bulbs and flasher unit direct off the battery.   After a days use if need recharge the battery from a remote battery charger.  Do Not try to charge the battery from the motoplat lighting coils.   A knowledgeable electrician may be able to do that with diodes etc.   Dane at PVL should be able to shine more light on this subject.   I just didn't want you to ruin your moto plat.[B)]

[TGTech]

Dirtbike,

The Motoplat outputs are indeed AC current, but they are not regulated in any way. This means that you will need to have a voltage regulator in order to get the type of light you want without burning out your bulbs.

The Motoplats were originally rated at 6V, but that was only at 6K RPM. If you revved the engine to 10K, you will achieve around 9V, and in turn, if you are running 6V bulbs, they'll fry.

Since we never used the lighting for anything but quasi enduro legality, we were never concerned with the brightness of the lights. In order to get by, we just upgraded to 12V bulbs, ran the lights all the time so the filaments stayed plyable, and didn't worry about them.

I'm sorry I can't steer you in the direction of anybody that has a regulator that will suffice, but I would check with the standard motorcycle aftermarket people first.

I remember seeing European bikes, that did use the Motoplat ignitions and also had turn signals, but I don't have a clue as to what the wiring diagrams looked like.  Maybe somebody in the Hercules or DKW world can help you.

If you are looking for some extra boost to run a high wattage light, I know of a trick that Carl Cranke and Eric Jensen used on their Baja Pentons that seemed to work OK for the duration of that event. They would use the yellow wire from the stator to power the light, and use the white wire as the light's ground. This seemed to power a 55W headlight bulb quite satisfactorily, though only at RPM above about 1/3 throttle. This was not a sanctioned Motoplat connection, but it did seem to work, and I've recommended it to other people and have never had an unhappy customer call back with complaints.

Hope I have been of some help here.

Dane Leimbach
Penton Imports Co., Inc.
1115 Milan Ave.
Amherst, OH   44001
440-988-4474

[john durrill]

dirtbike . try this web address. the Hammers carry parts for the sachs military bikes.The military bike scame with battery , turn signals , rectifers etc.  includes horns switches and all electrical parts. they should have everything you would need for a motoplat ignition sachs engine. The older KTM engines used very similar wiring.
 http://www.motorrad-klassiker-ersatzteile.de/html_eng/index.htm.
The Heric IGA folks have some wiring diagrams you could use to figure out how to wire up what you have.
http://www.herculesig.de/

 Dane would know more about what could be used to charge a battery from what you have avaiable.
Hope this will help.
John D.

[dirtbike]

Thanks for the replies..
I wanted to go for a setup without battery. These KTM's had this ULO box. What I have heard is that it was crap from the start.

I have found some stuff I thought could be used, check:
http://www.mxbikes.com/forum/view.php?site=mxbikes&bn=mxbikes_ktm1&key=1076453600&first=1076659486&last=1076059450

I'll keep trying...

[vitaminT]

Hello,
In order for you to use a turn signal relay you would need a bridge rectifier in the circuit. This is not possible as is. The coil is at ground potential on one side. Now if you were to lift the ground on the white wire coil then add another white wire so you have two this could be bridge rectified and thus converted to DC for your turn signals and relay. Then you have turn signals and stop light on the same coil. I dig into these qiute a bit and haven't ever tried this but the thoery is correct.  I'm finishing up a DKW Boondocker right now that I would like turnsignals on. The limited output of the Motoplat lighting does not make for good lighting and loading it down more isn't a good idea. If one were to sub low wattage more efficent bulbs or LCDs then we might be on to something. Wish I had more time to mess with this stuff.
Vance Smith
[email protected]

[242]

POGers  I have a 1985 KTM Military bike, it has lights, horn, stop light, and turn signals and I ride it for trips to town and around the county like a dual sport.  I have Kenda dual sport tires, a small windsheld and get around on it just fine.  The motor is a water cooled 250cc MXer with a air cooled cylinder and head.  It runs along great at 50 mph and gets 75+ mpg. It has a 6v Motoplat but no battery???  Right after I got it I had went for coffee and some fellow comes in and tells me I left my lights on? I go out and find my tail light on??? It stays on for a few minutes then gos out??? I have on idea how this works but it does??? I need to take time and run down the wiring some day, then I know.  L8er, Dave

[Rain Man]

LED'S Anyone ?  Thats what all the kids are using these days,;)

Raymond
 Down East Pentons