converting lights to LED

Oh yeah - pics are DEFINATELY needed now.....

 

hmm my right flasher wasnr isnt flashing

could it be because i put in 4w bulbs instead of 23w?

i just had 4w handy and i cant find 24w anywhere!!

 

Yup - you got it. Our bikes have a thermal flasher that requires the resistance of the full wattage bulbs to function. 4w bulbs drop the draw low enough that the flasher thinks a bulb is blown.

Replace with an electronic flasher, or a resistor block, or stock bulbs.

 

Nice job - where I'm going for some heated gear I'll probably have to look into doing that myself... that and/or rewinding the alt.

 

Woot if you have the xjcd theres an alt. upgrade in there.
from 19 amp's to 23 amp's
Parts at bike bandit 177.00 USD

 

Awesome mod. I'll do mine next!

 

>sheepish< I still haven't ordered the CD... and I've known about it for years

 

Well, I recieved my LED lights for testing the rear turn signal/running light amber lens that-I-painted-red color of the bike. My concern was that the amber lens, now painted red, would filter out both an amber or a red LED light. I have found that that is not the case. With the amber lens painted red, it acts as a red lens with the red LED lamp, and an amber lens with the amber LED lamp. I had 3 folks judging the intensity and color both with and without the lens. They felt that the colors were shining through true, and that although there was a detectible diminishment in intensity with the lens on, it was not that noticeable.

The 90 deg bases don't allow for use of the reflector, and as TaZMaNiaK mentioned, the LED angle is to narrow for use in the turn signal housings. I primarily wanted them to test as they were inexpensive. I also tested SuperBrightLEDs #67 LED bulb for the license plate light, and I don't like that one either. I will keep looking.

Later

 

i have 12v4w bulbs in my right side

can this be why it dont blink?

i cant find 24w bulbs anywhere only 4 or 8w!

 

Yes, the OEM flasher requires 27 watt 1156 bulbs all around.

 

So I've received and installed my 1.85" :ED clusters from CustomDynamics. They are the brightest I've found to date, but pricey ($40 each). But the LED flasher I purchased from SignalDynamics isn't working at all. Fortunately the original OEM will work enough that I can test the brightness, but it won't flash, so it's off to the auto parts store tomorrow to see if they have a 3-prong elecronic flasher. The 48 LED tailight bulb is nice. I'm very happy with this mod and the headlight no longer dims at idle. It does make a difference. I'll take pics when it's dark and not raining.

 

Has anyone had any experience with certain brands of LED electronic flashers not working? I've converted everything over and the electronic LED flasher module I purchased will not work.

Thanks

Michael

 

I was kinda waiting to see how your project came out before I converted mine. But I had a parts rep. come by the other day and had him order me a flasher designed just for led's.
Well he sent me a solid state electronic flasher($35.00) that would have to be installed on the bike somewhere, it has its own mounting holes. and has to be hard wired, it has no prongs just 3 wires. Comes with connectors and heat shrink.
Can be used with 2 or 3 prong applications.
I just put it up in the shed this morning, I'll get it tomorow and send a pic, name and part#.
Don't know if it works until I get some bulbs.
I haven't heard of anyone using one of these before.
It would be nice to stumble onto something that would allow the auto cancel to work.
Can someone explain the difference between solid state and an electronic flasher?

 

I've never had so much annoying "fun" in my life trying to understand the little black box beneath my tank, otherwise known as the "cancelling unit".

This is what I know:

1. One function is to measure the AC Generator output and close the contact to the headlight - thus turning it on - when there is enough current being generated.

2. it disegages the flasher relay when the reed switch in the speedometer housing changes state.

3. it disengages the flasher relay when you push the cancel switch.

So when upgrading to LED lights all around, and wanting to keep the cancelling unit, you would need to place one lead of a load resistor on each LED power wire, then run the other lead to ground. These load resistors are 6 ohm 60W heat-sinked, heavy-duty resistors. NOTE: You will need four, one at each turn signal lamp.

OR...do you? I'm wondering if you could attach a single load resistor, or maybe two in series from the black & white wire on the flasher relay. Since the load needs to be somewhere in the flasher circuit, this seems the more logical place, and would put the same load in the circuit regarless of which turn signal was on.

Does this sound correct?

Thanks.

Michael

 

I've come across a site that has a solid-state turn signal flasher with a built-in programmable time-out and other features, but the cost is listed at $110.00. They also have headlight, brakelight modulators, and mirror mounted LED signals.
Sno if we register our club with them we will get a discount of some kind.

 

What's the site?

 

sorry guys... must of had a brain failure... coulda sworn I put the link in....
here it is

http://www.kisantech.com/

 

"Can someone explain the difference between solid state and an electronic flasher?" Sure. The solid state utilizes a bi-metal arm that has two dissimilar metals, each with a different expansion co-efficient. As this little arm heats up as current is passing through it, it warps and the contact is broken. As the arm cools, it straightens out and closes the current path once again, beginning the cycle all over again. The electronic flasher relies upon an crystal oscillator to vibrate at so many cycles per second. The Integrated Chip inside counts the number of cycles and at a predetermined number of cycles switches the current off of those contacts and starts counting again to a predetermined cycle count to turn it back on. How's that for simple. You could learn more about the solid state flasher at howthingswork.virginia.edu, you just have to ask the question. Another source for this knowledge is Way Things Work by David MacAulay. The sources are many (heck, my daughter's encyclopedia shows how the solid state one works). There you go. $110 seems a little steep to me Nick, I expect you should be able to modify the $35 one that Rich picked up with reasonable results. Let us know how it all works out. I'd love to play with this one too but I'm not modifying any time soon.

 

Did you just swap this out with the OEM flasher? Did your cancelling unit still work?