Anyone hear from BonS?

[Valkorado]

I had his trunk lights on Ruby but they were pulverized by a rear ender in a SUV last summer.   I finally found a trunk I'll have to have repainted.

I'd pay Bon his old asking price and then some if I could get him to make just one last set.

I just loved them.   

[The emperor has no clothes]

Last I heard, he was retiring in South Korea.

[Valkorado]

Last I heard, he was retiring in South Korea.

Uggh.

[Savago]

The Digisync FB is still active:
https://www.facebook.com/TheDigiSync/

Maybe someone there knowns abou the trunk lights?

[Valkorado]

The Digisync FB is still active:
https://www.facebook.com/TheDigiSync/

Maybe someone there knowns abou the trunk lights?

Thanks.  I'm not on Facebook but I checked and the seller says they sell DigiSyncs on Amazon and eBay.  I looked and the logo is different but design is the same, they're sold out of Kansas. Looks like Bon might have sold the rights to his DigiDync. 

I sure wish I could find more of those LED trunk lights.  Dang.

[old2soon]

I had his trunk lights on Ruby but they were pulverized by a rear ender in a SUV last summer.   I finally found a trunk I'll have to have repainted.

I'd pay Bon his old asking price and then some if I could get him to make just one last set.

I just loved them.   

         Have those L E D brake and run lights he modified. And after I installed them and called him back to thank him for a Good Job he then told me he lowered the intensity of the light output a bit. I'm wunderin how bright they'd be had he not turned em down a bit. Cuz they be danged BRIGHT even in sunlight. Yeah-GOOD mod and worth every penny!  RIDE SAFE.

[vanavyman]

There is a pretty good amount of information on the mod and how to do it on this site. Had him change a set of mine a few years ago. Searched last year to change my wife’s Trike and haven’t gotten to it yet. Someone created the mod if I remember right and Bon S did some for reasonable price in his business. We have found stock Interstate trunk lights to be horrible. Very little difference in brightness during the day between running and brake lights.
Dan

[old2soon]

          Fergitted to add. All the lights now are brake lights instead of just the outer ones as they came stock from Honda. RIDE SAFE.

[Valkorado]

There is a pretty good amount of information on the mod and how to do it on this site. Had him change a set of mine a few years ago. Searched last year to change my wife’s Trike and haven’t gotten to it yet. Someone created the mod if I remember right and Bon S did some for reasonable price in his business. We have found stock Interstate trunk lights to be horrible. Very little difference in brightness during the day between running and brake lights.
Dan

Ya stock trunk lights are horrible.  

Making my own is probably over my head.  I wonder if someone with some engineering/electrical/production skills would be interested in picking this up.  Jersey?

[Avanti]

Each light uses a 48 cluster LED run, brake configuration.
To dim the taillights two resistor (56.2ohm.F) are used.
One on each side for the running lights, brake lights are left at full 12V.

[Valkorado]

Each light uses a 48 cluster LED run, brake configuration.
To dim the taillights two resistor (56.2ohm.F) are used.
One on each side for the running lights, brake lights are left at full 12V.

Yes but that cluster doesn't just snap into the old bulb housings plug and play.  If I remember correctly, getting the angle right was the tricky part.  I was looking for Bon's article explaining this process but can't find it.

I got a bird's eye view of the guts of these things, as mine were smashed into pieces.  Bon set the angle of the cluster just right, then used some kind of hardening fill (liquid plastic that hardened maybe?  That's what it looked like anyway)  to hold the cluster in the housing at that angle.  I remember him posting about this process.  I still have my smashed ones, I may snap some pictures to show what I'm saying.

The BonS trunk lights were actually one of the deal makers when I bought the bike.  They were brilliant like blazing fireballs, even in daylight. I also had the fender light, modded with a flashing brake light.  So, five LED brake lights, one flashing -- at a complete feet on ground stop -- and the kid nailed me!  I'm still almost certain he nodded off.

It was heartbreaking to see those lights smashed up, but I did get to live as a consolation prize!  

[Avanti]

The taillights are assembled using a heat sensitive adhesive. Heat the taillight units in a preheated oven at 225 F for 12 minutes. (Your oven temperature and time may vary.) The adhesive is then soft and the taillight can then be pried apart without damage.

Separate the halves, the light base from the red lens, and let them cool. Set aside the red lenses until you're ready to reassemble the taillights.

Install the LED clusters into the light base in the fashion that you want.

The light base can be put in a fixture to hold it level. Then fill the light base cavity with sugar, or the like, to a level that leaves enough room to pour a quarter inch of epoxy on top and also room for the LED to sit. (The epoxy used must be able to withstand temperature of 225 F.)  After the epoxy cures, wash out the sugar or other fill material; this will leave you with a taillight unit that is light in weight.

Drill a hole in the epoxy for the wiring to pass through which allows the LED cluster to sit in the middle of the light base on top of the epoxy. The LED can be held in place on the epoxy with the double sided tape that comes on the LED clusters. All wiring and testing should be completed before reassembly.

To prepare the lenses for reassembly, put the bases of the taillights in a preheated 225 F oven for 10 minutes then add the red lenses to the oven and continue heating for 2 more minutes (total of 12 minutes for bases, and 2 minutes for lenses). (Your oven temperature and time may vary.)

Once the bases and lenses are hot, remove from oven and press back together. The original glue doesn't migrate and seals up the lenses completely just as they were from the factory.

This process is always reversible.

Remember these lights are no longer available from Honda so be very careful not to overheat. (Don’t melt the base and or lenses!)

[Valkorado]

Uggh!  I was never very good in the kitchen.

Guess that won't be happening.     Thanks for the info anyway.

[Avanti]

Maybe a wrenching day would work for you with some friends that want the same thing done.

[Bighead]

Why not buy a spoiler that has the led strip and put on a standard tail light to boot? Worked pretty dang well for me. 

[Valkorado]

Why not buy a spoiler that has the led strip and put on a standard tail light to boot? Worked pretty dang well for me. 

I would but I use a trunk rack.  I do have the fender light, so I may try to rig up some kind of light bar as well!

[Jess from VA]

There used to be a very nice how-too on the Interstate LED array trunk light conversion with pictures that was created by someone named Red Barber (and I think Bill - Grumpy in FL), but it disappeared long ago.

The link included the company they got the led arrays from.  

Just from memory, it seems to follow Avanti's description pretty closely.

This was the link, when it was working.  http://home.comcast.net/~red.barber/taillight.htm

These were the led arrays in that how-to:  LEDs  (1.85”  RED TAILLIGHTS)  And it doesn't work either.

http://braggengineering.com/bragg_engineering/Products.html

I think it's easier (if not more tidy) to add extra light on the back of a trunked interstate, than to go through the involved process of rebuilding the trunk lights.  

Add the std/tourer tail light assembly under the trunk, and add the bright led array into it instead of an 1157 bulb.  I have this on my trunked Interstate; many LEDs wash out in sunlight, but under the trunk is nearly always shaded.  Honda should have done this on all Interstates (except the lens won't fit with the OE CB radio under there - unless you turn the radio sideways.

Then add run/brake LEDs in a license plate frame with rows of lights on top and bottom of the frame.

Others have added a long strip of red LEDs all the way across the trunk, just under the bottom lip.

And if you don't have a rack on your trunk, you used to be able to get a wing-like add-on for the trunk lid that had a full length led bar on it.

[michaelyoung254]

For what it's worth, when I added a trunk to my Standard, I wasn't too happy with the stock lighting either, so here's what I did to solve it.

I rewired all of my rear lighting using a powered trailer light controller (Hopkins 46365). Basically, I terminated the stock wiring to the tail light and blinkers and then re-routed them to the controller, and then from the controller to the tail light, blinkers and trunk.

The only issue that I had was to trick the stock lighting system into thinking that there is still that the stock blinkers were still functional, otherwise, the blinkers will blink super fast like when you have a burned out bulb. I did this by creating a jumper from the stock blinker wires through a resistor circuit to ground.

This allowed to make the trunk lights into running lights, brake lights as well as blinkers which are nice and bright.

During this time, I also gutted out my stock rear blinkers and replaced the internals with that from some front blinkers that I scored from eBay. This allowed me to replace the amber lenses with red lenses in order to make my rear blinkers into running, blinker and brake lights as well.

All of this gave me MUCH more lighting (Especially brake lights) and it also greatly reduced the load on the stock wiring system.