Inspection day today for state registration.
I discovered the rear brake light running light came on when I switched on the headlights but stepping on the brake or grabbing the front brake lever did not make the rear brake light go brighter.
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skip 2 hours of troubleshooting and experimentation
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Discovered the green/yellow wire that went into the back of the rear brake light was broken.
Attachment 30137
Try to use spudgers and professional mobile phone tools to open the LED brake light. Nope its epoxied or worse the electronics potting epoxy was used...
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a few minutes with the angle grinder cutting wheel
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Attachment 30138
Done! and YES! The very top middle solder pad has a black/gray circle on the left where the wire broke off of.
Two things I noticed.
1. The green/yellow wire is physically shorter than the other two wires used in the light assembly.
2. The end of the wire and the solder blob show signs that acidic solder flux was used to assemble this unit.
It's toast... but I can experiment and hook the wires back up to the bike. Press the brake pedal or pull the brake lever on the handlebar and physically touch the green/yellow wire to the solder pad... and yes, it works, the red brake light goes twice as bright.
So, there you go using one short wire and two long wires is a recipe for disaster as the short wire takes all the physical abuse when the wire gets pulled or stretches. These two factors led to the early demise of the green/yellow wire in this rear brake light assembly.
Now unfortunately I am on the hunt for a new rear brake light (keeping the separate LED turn signals on the bike and leaving them alone). But have to get it delivered and wired up (reverse wiring fun times to deal with the polarity issue?) all before the time expires to get the bike to pass a state inspection in time.
