FAQs for Motorcycle Installs

Depends – do you want single color or multi-color? Do you want to light only the engine? The engine and the ground below? Do you want to light your wheels? Your bags? Your entire bike? What is your budget? As you can see, there are a lot of variables. Plus, to a large degree, personal preference is a major factor in the decision. If you need some help figuring out what to buy use our LIGHTING SUGGESTIONS pages. Answer a few questions and we'll reply back with some suggestions and links. Also, if you want some ideas of what others have done, take a look at our Customer Photo Gallery.

We remind customers to check their local laws when it comes to driving or riding with after-market accent lighting turned on (turned off isn't a problem). The laws for motorcycles and cars (or larger vehicles) are often different. Many states have restrictions on what colors can be used while riding a motorcycle on public roads whereas most states don't allow them at all for cars. Also, in many states, riding a motorcycle with RED and/or BLUE lights on will likely earn you a free breakfast with the local authorities! In other states, there are no restrictions whatsoever for motorcycle riders (a safety issue). Of course riding with accent lights off is never an issue. Ultimately it is the rider's responsibility to make sure they are in compliance with all laws in their state.

First thing to do is check your wiring connections. 99% of lighting issues come from a bad connection. Check the obvious first. If for example you have a pushbutton switch wired into the circuit, make sure the pushbutton is ON. Next, check all your wires to make sure you have a good solid connection including the ground and positive connections on your battery. Also check the fuse(s) to see if they’ve blown as this could be a sign of a short somewhere. Single color lights will have one fuse included with the wiring kit. Our multi-color remote adds a second fuse link on the positive side of the controller.

To further troubleshoot your lights begin by eliminating variables. If you have a remote, wire a single light strip directly to the power source (bypassing the remote) to determine if your led light strips are working. Once you determine your lights are powering up you can add the remote back in to that one good strip to further test the system. Be careful wiring your remote though – it is sensitive to reverse polarity. Hooking it up incorrectly could damage the unit and that’s not covered under warranty. As with any trouble-shooting process it's important to elminate all variables and one by one test each individual component to determine where the problem is. This is a process of elimination. You can find further suggestions in our TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE.

Check all the wiring connections to make sure they are solid as outlined in the previous question. Try reconnecting the remote to the controller (if you have an RF KEY FOB remote, you may need to pair it with the controller). We have instructions for this on our site. Here’s the link to our Installation Instructions section.

Most orders placed by noon eastern time Monday through Friday ship the same day. Customized orders typically take an extra day, sometimes two. We are located in Florence, KY in the Cincinnati Ohio metro area. We prefer to use UPS as we have found it to be more reliable overall. That said, at the time you check out you can choose USPS as an alternative. It's your choice. Continental USA locations east of the Mississippi River are usually 2 or 3 days via ground. Locations west of the Mississippi River are typically 4 to 6 days ground shipping. We also ship to Canada, Hawaii and Alaska. Canadian orders require taxes/duties to be paid by the customer. Orders over $99 qualify for FREE ground shipping. If you want your order faster you may elect to upgrade your shipping from ground to 3 day, 2 day or even Next Day service. If you are in doubt, give us a call and we'll be happy to assist.

Lumens data is not available for BOOGEY LIGHTS® products. Why? Because frankly it's a marketing gimmick. Simply put, lumen output is a poor measure of the suitability of the type of LED lighting solutions we offer. If we were offering a single color, single bulb to replace a typical 60 watt incandenscent bulb used in a lamp for your living room it would be a different matter. The reality however is that our LED lighting products are made up of many LEDs, sometimes hundreds - not a single bulb. And most of our LED lighting solutions have many color combinations, up to 16 million different color combinations in some cases. The Lumens measurement changes dramatically based on the temperature of the color which is measured in Kelvins. In our view anyone attempting to compare motorsports LEDs based on an artificial Lumens value is wasting their time. If you're concerned about the brightness of any BOOGEY LIGHTS® lighting solutions we suggest bench testing them against whatever other brand you want to compare. We're confident you'll be pleased. If however you're not, we cheerfully accept returns up to 30 days.

The short answer is maybe. It depends on the type of LEDs you're trying to power. In the 12vdc LED lighting world there are two types of LEDs: Common Cathode and Common Anode. The most common and cheapest LED lights made today are COMMON ANODE which are widespread in Asia. A Common Anode LED strip share a common POSITIVE lead and the negative side of the circuit is switched. For these lights the positive side of the circuit is always energized. This is NOT however the typical circuit design in the UNITED STATES particularly for 12vdc. In the United States, the typical 12vdc circuit shares a common NEGATIVE lead and the positive side of the circuit is switched. Think of your car battery. The negative side of the battery goes to ground (the car chassis) and that ground is common (shared) with all 12vdc devices in the vehicle (radio, lights, nav system, horn, etc). The positive side of the circuit is only energized when your car is in use. When the car is off, the circuit is not energized. This is how BOOGEY LIGHTS® controllers and LEDs are built. Why? Lots of reasons but briefly it's a safer design (think "UL" approved), it's more robust in terms durability and allows full 12v power to be applied directly to each LED instead of being shared amongst all LEDs (making them the brightest they can be). Of course it's also more expensive to build a controller that switches the positive side of the circuit which is why most every LED strip being sold today in the RV and motorsports space tends to be Common Anode. So before you try to hook-up a Boogey Lights® controller to any other brand of LED, make sure that LED is a COMMON CATHODE LED strip.

If you have a wireless remote it is possible that another device is activating the controller. Our wireless remote controls use radio frequencies that are common in the garage door opener industry so yours or neighbors garage remote may be turning on your lights. To prevent this we recommend the use of our inline pushbutton on/off switch. This will turn off the power to the remote control module. To break the connection to your neighbor’s garage door opener, follow the instructions on our site to reset/pair the remote to the controller. Here’s the link to our Installation Instructions section where you can find resetting/repairing information.

If you have a wireless remote it is possible that even though the lights are not on, the small amount of power the controller draws will drain a weak battery over many months of sitting idle. We have a couple of suggestions. First, if you aren't using a battery tender during those times when your bike is sitting idle, you might consider buying one. Lots of reasons to use a battery tender but keeping the battery fresh is probably the best reason. Second, we recommend the use of our inline pushbutton on/off switch and to wire it on the NEGATIVE side of the circuit. Since the electrons in a 12vdc circuit run from negative to positive, having the switch on the negative side will ensure power, regardless of the amount, is not making it to the control box at all. You can find a wiring diagram on our Installation Instructions section to make sure you've wired your lights correctly.

We are growing our dealer network. Check our dealer listing to see if there is a shop in your town. Know of a good shop you think would be a good fit for Boogey Lights®? Send us their name and any information you have – use our Contact Us form here. We’ll contact them to see if they are interested. If you're in the Florence, KY area, we offer INSTALLATION SERVICES at our Florence, KY location.

While many customers prefer to have a professional install Boogey Lights® on their ride, doing it yourself is relatively simple using our DIY LED lighting kits. With some basic mechanical and 12vdc electrical knowledge, most of our light kits can be installed in a few hours. If you're undecided as to which way to go, we provide some General Installation Information to give you an idea as to what is involved in installing our lights yourself. We also offer a number of DIY VIDEOS as well as links to our INSTALLATION MANUALS. If you're still unsure as to whether or not you want to do the installation yourself, Boogey Lights offers INSTALLATION SERVICES at our Florence, KY location. So too do many of our dealers.

The first thing you need to do is confirm your Boogey Lights® controller is indeed Bluetooth enabled. Not all controllers we offer are Bluetooth capable. Most Boogey Lights® Bluetooth controllers will have a button on the front that says, "RESET PAIRING" or just "RESET". If you have a question as to what model you have, you can contact our tech support department to confirm. Assuming you have confirmed your controller is Bluetooth enabled, the next thing to confirm is that you are trying to connect to the controller via the Boogey Lights® APP and not your phone's Bluetooth settings. This is important. Connecting to the controller must be done via the free Boogey Lights® APP (IOS or Android). If you haven't reviewed the documentation on using our APP, we suggest taking a moment to do so. You can find the latest documentation on our INSTALLATION RESOURCES page. Other things to check include making sure the controller is powered on. There is a green power on light on most of our controllers that can quickly let you know if the controller is receiving power or not. If you've tried all of the above, you might want to power off (cold boot) your phone and then power it back on. Also, uninstall and then reinstall the APP. Bluetooth technologies can be somewhat temperamental particularly with the constant flow of new smartphone hardware and operating systems. If after trying all of these options you are still unable to connect, we suggest givinng our tech support team a call.

 

Bluetooth / APP Controller Issues:

The Boogey Lights® APP and controller have been extensively tested to work on iOS and Android devices with Bluetooth 4.0. iPhones running iOS 5 and newer as well as Android phones running 4.3 or newer work. Bluetooth communications issues however can be some of the most difficult issues to trouble shoot because much of what is going on is dependent on the operating system of the smartphone. Bluetooth depends on both hardware and software to work properly. The problem is further complicated by the fact that smartphone hardware is constantly changing with operating system updates being done all the time. Do a quick search on Google about Bluetooth communications problems and you'll see hundreds of thousands of results for Android and iOS devices. Bluetooth is a great technology when it works but it can be frustrating when there’s a hang-up pairing the two devices. The Boogey Lights® Bluetooth controller devices use BLE - Bluetooth Low Energy (aka Bluetooth Smart). Bluetooth Low Energy is an "always off" technology and as such, only uses a fraction of the power of Classic Bluetooth. It transmits short packages of data that allow large devices to operate for long periods of time even on small batteries. This process of an "always off" technology can however present problems with pairing, particularly with new devices that have never been paired previously. If you're able to connect to the controller but are unable to control it, here are some things you can try:

Bluetooth Wireless General Issues:

Make sure you are in the correct color mode. The Boogey Lights® APP is designed to work with Boogey Lights® single color and multi-color remote control devices. If you have your APP in single color mode but are trying to operate a multi-color controller, the phone will connect to the controller BUT you will be unable to operate the controller. Make sure you have your APP in the color mode that matches your controller. Details on how to do this can be found in our APP instruction manual found on our website here. Power both the phone and the controller off and back on. A soft reset sometimes can resolve the issue.

Make sure there is no electromagnetic interference from other devices such as a microwave or cordless telephone. All wireless communication devices, including Bluetooth, that use radio frequencies to connect to each other are vulnerable to electromagnetic interference. Minimize electromagnetic interference by moving other devices away from the area.

Bluetooth Wireless General Issues:

If you have an Android device that has gone through at least one operating system software update and you've tried all of the above unsuccessfuly, there is a known issue with some Android operating system updates and Bluetooth functionality that requires a reset of the device. This is a last resort but in every situation we've encountered, doing a factory data reset has fixed 100% of all Bluetooth issues. It also have improved the overall performance of the device and fixed other problems with the phone.

iOS General Issues:

If you have an iPhone and are experiencing problems with Bluetooth connections, here are some iPhone specific steps to try:

Check for Software updates: Connect to the Internet with Wi-Fi. Tap Settings > General > Software Update. Tap Download and Install. If a message asks to temporarily remove apps because iOS needs more space for the update, tap Continue.

Reset Network Settings on iPhone: Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Now hold down the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons together until you see the Apple logo on your iPhone. Now try setting up the connection from scratch.

If none of the above solve the problem you’ll need to do a Factory Reset of the phone. This wipes the device of any and all personal settings and data you’ve acquired while using the phone. We recommend performing a backup of your information before continuing with this reset. In every situation we've encountered, doing the factory reset has fixed all Bluetooth issues. To perform a FACTORY RESET: Settings > General > Reset > Erase all Content and Settings. Here’s a video of this process: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-factory-reset-an-iphone/

 

If when trying to update to the latest APP version the APP is crashing when first launched the problem is not the APP itself but rather your phone. There are variables still in memory on your phone that won't allow the APP to launch due to the APP's integration with the Bluetooth stack.    To fix this situation follow these steps precisely in this order:

1. UNINSTALL the existing Boogey Lights APP on your phone.  It needs to be uninstalled completely. 
2. Power Down the phone completely.   It must be turned OFF.   Not restarted.  Power has to be off.
3. Power Up the phone.  When the phone reboots, do not run any other APPs. 
4. Go to the APP Store and install the latest Boogey Lights APP version for your device.

At this point you should be able to launch the Boogey Lights APP.    If after doing this you're still unable to get it to it to work, please submit a support ticket with us. We will need to know your phone's hardware make and model.  Also, we need info on the Operating System version number and kernel version. We will research. In the meantime if you're running Android and wish to roll back to the previous version (10), you can do so by doing a manual install of the APK file.  Version 10 of the APK file can be downloaded from our website. If you're interested in this option, let us know and we'll provide you with the link and password.

ANDROID OS NOTE:  The Boogey Lights APP has been tested to work with Android versions 7, 8 and 9.  The most recent version we've tested is version 9, Kernel 4.4, Build Number PPR2.180905.005 with Android Security Patch Level September 5, 2018.  

 

Check our Rally Schedule here. Know of a good rally we should attend? Let us know and we’ll take a look. Use our Contact Us form here.

You can send a single pic by using our Contact Us form here. Use the SEND A FILE option at the bottom of the page. Include your name and details of your bike. We love to show off our customers rides! You can also share your photo on the Boogey Lights® Facebook page.

Hell Yeah! Our lights are perfect for many applications and limited only by your imagination. We can help you light your bike (of course), trike, trailer, atv/utv, car, pickup truck, tractor trailer, golf cart, boat, RV, classic car, bicycle, bar, patio – you name it and we can probably light it! The recent introduction of our LEDS by the Foot are perfect for many applications that weren't as easy to do with our motorcycle accent lights. If you need some help figuring out what to buy use our LIGHTING SUGGESTIONS pages. Answer a few questions and we'll reply back with some suggestions and links. If you need additional assistance, just ask!

Like every other phone APP on the planet that's made for Android or IOS, you can find our free APP in the GOOGLE PLAY STORE or the APPLE STORE. Just search for 'Boogey Lights'. More information on our Bluetooth APP can be found here on our website too.