| Author | Message | ||
     Mstrfrz |
I have some 3-wire led lights that I want to use to combine tail light and turn functions. I’ve grounded to the frame. Hooking up either of the other wires works, but both cancel the turn function. What gives? 99 X1, race ecm. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Did your LED lights come with a diagram? Are you aware the the "D" in LED stands for "Diode"? In other words, they only work in one polarity. Post a picture of your wiring or diagram. You haven't given us much to work with here. | ||
| Mstrfrz |
No, no diagram with the ligts. Each circuit works: brown or violet to one, or/w to the other. Just connecting them at the same time causes a problem. My guess is that 1 input is before a resistor (dim for tail light, the o/w wire) and one is after for bright (the brown or violet wire), rather than separate circuits. | ||
| Oldog |
there are 2 circuits for the tail light, and each turn signal has its own circuit. so you need a total of 5 lines 1. ground 2. running light 3. brake light 4. left signal 5. right signal the basic signal circuit breaks across the handle bar switch, ( selects direction ) to the flasher then B+ IIRC Blue and Brown are the signal line colors. | ||
| Jayvee |
What's that thing called, a resistor or something, sometimes needed for LEDs to blink right. Sorry, can't remember what it's called, but my Kisan Flasher was supposed to have incorporated it. American Sport Bike used to sell a special flasher for adapting LED signals. | ||
| Ratbuell |
It is a resistor, because light bulbs have resistance and LEDs do not. Turn signal circuits are designed to alert the driver when a bulb burns out by flashing fast; LEDs are interpreted - because of no resistance - as being a burned-out bulb, hence the need to add a resistor. In the OP you say "some 3 wire LED's" - as in, you have some freestanding LEDs that need to be made into a taillight? As noted above, you will need: Ground for ALL LED's hot wire for run(tail) - dim light hot wire for brake hot wire for L turn (bright) hot wire for R turn (bright) You cannot use the same LEDs for brake and turn without some sort of adaptor like they use for a 4 wire trailer plug. personally, I hate integrated rear signals - why make it MORE difficult for a cager to figure out what the motorcycle is going to do - but to each his own. For my money, I'd take the LED's and put them in the taillight for run/stop, and put another set in the turn signal housings for turns. I've actually done that on a lot of my bikes - it simplifies wiring, works great, and you get some nice brightness out of them. | ||
| Mstrfrz |
blinking is not the problem; I have it ballasted correctly AND a flasher that I can adjust the rate on. The lights I'm using have 3 wires; red, yellow and black. Red and yellow both light up all the individual LED's. + to red is bright, + to yellow is dim. Black is ground. Sooooo.... O/W (tail light) is to the yellow, Violet (on the left) and brown (on the right) go to the red. Black is grounded to the frame. With ONLY the reds connected, they flash as intended, left or right. With ONLY the yellow connected, dim tail lights, as intended. Connecting the reds and yellows as described above, only an extremely dim glow and nothing at all when turn signal for that side is activated. The actual tail light, if I can get these to work, will only be for braking. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Hook the center light for run(dim) and brake(bright); hook the outers up only for flash(bright) for the turn signals. | ||
| Hootowl |
LEDs do have resistance. In fact, they have a lot. That’s why they are so efficient. The issue with flashers, the bimetallic type anyway, is that LEDs do not draw enough current to operate the thermal switch in the flasher. You have to put the resistor in parallel with the LED so that the overall resistance is decreased (the total value will be slightly less than the resistor’s ohm rating) thus increasing current, and therefore power (P=I x E) and allows the strip to heat up, open, cool off, close, lather, rinse, repeat. | ||
| Hootowl |
No resistance is a short. A burned out bulb has infinite resistance, at normal voltages, anyway.  | ||
| Mstrfrz |
this is the setup I'd ideally like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogIcKhcRd24 | ||
| Mstrfrz |
Nothing? | ||
| Hawgford |
I know on HD that addin the 3 lights together for all to work correctly the system need a "load leveler" balance resistors in a box..Want to say the popular one its from badlander or badlands.. I've never heard of the install notworking.Have done a few, just none recently... | ||
| Williamscottrobertson |
Moto dynamic just got these back in stock. They are nice, I had one on one of my S1s that I sold. https://www.motodynamic.com/94-07-buell-s1-x1-m2-b last-sequential-led-tail-lights-clear.html | ||
| Mstrfrz |
I changed the flasher so load isn't an issue... Might there be some other load problem? That's a nice unit from Motodynamic but... I want the Sportster setup in the clip | ||
| Mstrfrz |
Fixed it. Isolated the flasher and running light inputs to the light with diodes. I kinda figured there was interference between the 2. |
