Accent lighting

[rock_rebel]

A friend of mine bought these for his bike. Basically consists of two strips of tiny LED lights and they connect directly to the bike battery. Kit was initially set up for demonstration purposes in the package so it also contained a small battery and a passive toggle switch. My friend has a 2004 Intruder 1500. Bought a different on/off toggle switch to use with it. Connected each light directly to the bike battery, they work fine. Try connecting the lights using the toggle switch, no power. Do the same thing while connected to the little battery, the light works, switch works. I'm not sure what I'm missing. The toggle switch has no polarity on it so that wouldn't be the issue. But for some reason when I hook up the switch, and connect the wires to the bike battery terminals, the lights don't work.

[Paulcet]

The switch has no polarity.  But the lights do! Swap battery connections.

[rock_rebel]

The switch has no polarity.  But the lights do! Swap battery connections.

Sorry for sounding dumb  but how do I do that?

[adidasguy]

There are lots of types of switches. Sounds like the switch is more than just single pole switch, so you might have connected to the wrong terminals on the switch. What kind of switch is it? What brand? Does it have a part number? Also could be a defective switch. You can buzz it out with an ohm meter to see if it is good.
Generally on the lights, black is ground and red is +12.
I connected my accent lights from the main bike power when the bike is on. That way they always come on when I turn on the bike and go off when the bike is off.
What color are the lights? Federal law prohibits blue unless you're parked for posing or photos.

[rock_rebel]

There are lots of types of switches. Sounds like the switch is more than just single pole switch, so you might have connected to the wrong terminals on the switch. What kind of switch is it? What brand? Does it have a part number? Also could be a defective switch. You can buzz it out with an ohm meter to see if it is good.
Generally on the lights, black is ground and red is +12.
I connected my accent lights from the main bike power when the bike is on. That way they always come on when I turn on the bike and go off when the bike is off.
What color are the lights? Federal law prohibits blue unless you're parked for posing or photos.

These are blue ones. I'm not sure what the regulations are here in Canada. The switch does work when I hook up the small battery that was included in the package. And they do work when connected directly to the bike battery. Just that the owner wanted to be able to turn the lights on and off with a toggle switch. He might be sadly out of luck of I can't get the switch to co-operate.

[Nwhiteside]

...
I connected my accent lights from the main bike power when the bike is on. That way they always come on when I turn on the bike and go off when the bike is off.

Im looking to install white Street Fx LED lights the same way, hooked into power switched by the ignition 'on' switch; any suggestion on where exactly I can splice into?  Im guessing piggybacking off the brown running/parking light line used by the back brake light is not a good idea?

[adidasguy]

Park light works fine. LEDs on when bike on or in park. LEDs consume so little power, no need to worry about overloading anything.
if in doubt, look at the wiring diagram of the GS500.
On older bikes there was often the park light wire also going into the headlight bucket and dead ending there. Even though there was no front park/running light, the wire is there for European markets. I have connected it when replacing headlamp with one that does have a running light. "F" models have a front running light below the headlamp in the fairing.