Anyone using LED indicators?

[Oldnick]

My trike has LED lamps in the rear indicators and the flasher unit is running at 180 FPM, instead of the 70-80 it should be. Does anyone know if there is a flasher unit that will fit the Valkyrie's flasher socket? I bought a LEDflasher, but it has the standard triangle formation of the contacts and not the tiny in-line my Valk trike.

I was going to use 2 ordinary lamps in an Al box to make a fake load (they want $30 for a resistor and of course Ineed 2!), but that seems a bit crazy and I just wondered.

Appreciate any assistance.

Nick

[Blackduck]

Nick,
May have to measure the resistance of the LED lamp and a standard bulb.
You can then see how much more resistance you require.
Jaycar will be able to supply resisters for a dollar or two.
Cheers Steve

[Colin]

I just bought a 2 connection LED flasher unit and made a short adapter cable. You can use a 2 connection cheap LED flasher with the 3 connection Valk wiring look as in fact only 2 wires are needed. Just check out the wiring diagram. AS you have a 3 connector flasher just make up a short conversion loom.

[Oldnick]

Nick,
May have to measure the resistance of the LED lamp and a standard bulb.
You can then see how much more resistance you require.
Jaycar will be able to supply resisters for a dollar or two.
Cheers Steve

Hey Steve. You can't measure the resistance of a globe, because they change heck of a lot when they get hot and that's their rated load. LED's are also not measurable. But I do know that flicker bulbs are about 21-24 Watt and the LEDs would only be 3-4 at most. So you need about a 7 Ohm resistor.

The resistors needed here are 50 Watts, to keep them cool and not to burn out. They are not just a couple of dollars. In fact I could not find a 50W resistor in Jaycar. I would have to make up a whole "nest" of values to get the right Ohms and enough wattage. It would be easier to just shell out for the big resistors or simply use a couple of flasher globes. I was just looking for a neater solution. IT seems silly using LED lights then having to add load again!

Nick

[Oldnick]

I just bought a 2 connection LED flasher unit and made a short adapter cable. You can use a 2 connection cheap LED flasher with the 3 connection Valk wiring look as in fact only 2 wires are needed. Just check out the wiring diagram. AS you have a 3 connector flasher just make up a short conversion loom.

Yeah it looks as if the switch itself takes care of the dash indicator light, in place of the falsher unit. It all looks liked a really complex way of going about things!

I did wonder about a pigtail wire adaptor. Just lazy.

Did you remove the existing socket, or just put spade connectors on there?

Nick

[Blackduck]

Nick,
Google potentiometers, first thing that came up was for controlling LED flashers.
They should have the current rating you require plus you can dial in the amount of resistance till you are happy with the flash rate.
Also still a lot cheaper than the resistors you were looking at.
Cheers Steve

[Patrick]

When I changed to LEDs on this and other vehicles I just use higher wattage/ CP front bulbs to slow down the thermal flasher. If I remember correctly I used #198 for the front turns. I can't get electronic flashers to work correctly, I got a bunch of them, expensive buggers.

[Oldnick]

Nick,
Google potentiometers, first thing that came up was for controlling LED flashers.
They should have the current rating you require plus you can dial in the amount of resistance till you are happy with the flash rate.
Also still a lot cheaper than the resistors you were looking at.
Cheers Steve

WOW! OK. I will check that out And I just thought. I only need _one_ of them due to the way the setup is. The switch does the splitting left and right, not the relay.

Nick

[Oldnick]

When I changed to LEDs on this and other vehicles I just use higher wattage/ CP front bulbs to slow down the thermal flasher. If I remember correctly I used #198 for the front turns. I can't get electronic flashers to work correctly, I got a bunch of them, expensive buggers.

Thanks, that's a good thought, but what's a #198. I checked out Wiki for bulb types and it was not shown.

Nick

[Patrick]

http://www.bulbtown.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=198



Also, if you decide to go the resistor route, they can be found locally for around $5 and need to be installed where they are supplied with some air circulation.

[Oldnick]

http://www.bulbtown.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=198
Also, if you decide to go the resistor route, they can be found locally for around $5 and need to be installed where they are supplied with some air circulation.

hmm. that site is dead.

Locally would be Perth Western Australia and I can tell you they aint $5 at the auto store. And yeah the ones  I saw warned of getting hot.

I reckon I will do some testing and wqork out what terminal is what and do a pigtail adaptor.

Nick

[srteach]

I bought a digital flasher from the parts store for two of my Honda bikes (a CB550 and VF750), and another from here http://www.customled.com/collections/electronic-led-flasher-relays(ELFL-1 is the model I got) for my VT750. Just match the position and number of lugs to a heavy duty or LED rated flasher module.
The important thing is to isolate each directional set from the other. if you don't, you get four way flasher instead of turn signals.

[Patrick]

http://www.bulbtown.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=198
Also, if you decide to go the resistor route, they can be found locally for around $5 and need to be installed where they are supplied with some air circulation.

hmm. that site is dead.

Locally would be Perth Western Australia and I can tell you they aint $5 at the auto store. And yeah the ones  I saw warned of getting hot.

I reckon I will do some testing and wqork out what terminal is what and do a pigtail adaptor.

Nick

Hmmm, don't know what to say, it comes up for me.

[Oldnick]

Yeah it says

"Category Not Found
Sorry, the category you are looking for is not available." and all I did was follow the link. 

It has the Bulbtown sign at the top.

Nick

[Patrick]

http://www.bulbtown.com/Automotive_Flashers_s/907.htm




How about that one. If that doesn't work for you, try googling bulb town.com or just going to www.bulbtown.com

[Oldnick]

OK. Did it. It was not easy. Whiole As was said it looks as if the Valk needs only two terminqals to work, but my flasher unit needs 3: (-, (+) and Load. The little charmer has none of the usual terminals maps on its side that relays have and no manufacturer's label to help me find out. It also seems to be reversed in polarity to such as Narva etc. (WTF??)

After trying to get a result with the pigtails plugged into the Valk socket, I managed only a "click" with no cycling. I decided that I was going to have to learn both the flasher unit and the Valk socket's pinouts.  I managed to get a "click" out of the unit when I connected power without the socket...but until I applied a load, it would not cycle.

At last, using all 3 of the Valk's sockets (+), (-) and Switch (load) I had flickers. Beautiful 80 flash per minute flickers.

BTW it did notr help much that after using a wire back to the indicator light to get a load, when trying to learn the flasher unit, I left it connected and worked with the flasher in the Valk socket: if I asked for _right_ indicator, I got left indicator, but if I switched to the left I had major palpitations of the flashers at about 300FPM.

So yeah it was fun. Nothing seemed to agree with anything else. But it felt good to see thos flickers.

Nick

[Joe Hummer]

Hello Nick,

It looks like you have a Standard/Tourer Trike so if you decide to go LEDs all the way around, expect some troubles.  The trouble comes from the signal indicator in the headlight bucket.  The way that guy is wired into the signal circuit allows the current to backfeed through the bulb...and if you have LEDs all the way around, when you turn your signal on, they will all flash.  I know this because I just went through this on my girlfriend's Tourer.  Not the end of the world though...you can still have your LEDs. 

First off...the flasher relay that I am using on my bike is this one Optronics ALEDFBP LED Flasher (Click here for link).  But any LED Capable flasher relay will work.  You re-wire the 3 connectors from the stock connector to the new relay.  Doing this...you don't have to worry about load resistors or hiding bulbs under the body work. 

Now...to solve your signal indicator wiring problems...first, you will need to get one of these diode kits (click here for link).  It doesn't matter whose you use...just as long as you have this same setup.  You will need to remove the headlight from the bucket and I found it easier to pull the 3 indicator lights out of the bucket (there is a connector in the headlight bucket to allow you to remove these 3 indicators).  Wire in the diodes so that the single leg goes to the indicator and each of the two legs go to the left and right signal wires.  The other wire from the indicator gets wired to ground (which you can get from the bucket mounting bolts inside the bucket).  Re-assemble, test, grin. 

I hope you find this information helpful.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Joe

[Bagger John - #3785]

For a plug and play solution...look here:

http://www.customled.com/products/elfr-1-electronic-led-flasher-relay

Radiantz used to offer one which was load-independent and offered a variable flash rate. I had one on my VTX1800C and used it with a number of bulb types.

As noted earlier you'll need a diode isolator for the flasher indicator to work properly.

[Robert]

I have leds all around and used the Kisen signal minder with no problems plug and play with leds. A bit more pricey than the Johns option but I also wanted 4 way flashers and self cancelling signals. There are so many options that you can do with this module which was my consideration in buying it.



http://kisantech.com/mag/index.php/signalminder.html

[Oldnick]

I have leds all around and used the Kisen signal minder with no problems plug and play with leds. A bit more pricey than the Johns option but I also wanted 4 way flashers and self cancelling signals. There are so many options that you can do with this module which was my consideration in buying it.
http://kisantech.com/mag/index.php/signalminder.html

Wow. OK. ATM I just want my flickers to work for the porpoises of registration, but yeah self-cancelling and safety signals would be some nice stuff for future consideration. Not just for bling either. I was actually thinking about safety flashers last night, because with LEDs you could do it without killing the battery.

Nick

[Oldnick]

For a plug and play solution...look here:

http://www.customled.com/products/elfr-1-electronic-led-flasher-relay

Radiantz used to offer one which was load-independent and offered a variable flash rate. I had one on my VTX1800C and used it with a number of bulb types.

As noted earlier you'll need a diode isolator for the flasher indicator to work properly.

I need to check all these out, but ATM I have working LED indicators and want to rego my trike, so this tuff is a "want to" down the track.

Nick

[Oldnick]

Hello Nick,

It looks like you have a Standard/Tourer Trike so if you decide to go LEDs all the way around, expect some troubles.  The trouble comes from the signal indicator in the headlight bucket.  The way that guy is wired into the signal circuit allows the current to backfeed through the bulb...and if you have LEDs all the way around, when you turn your signal on, they will all flash.  I know this because I just went through this on my girlfriend's Tourer.  Not the end of the world though...you can still have your LEDs. 

First off...the flasher relay that I am using on my bike is this one Optronics ALEDFBP LED Flasher (Click here for link).  But any LED Capable flasher relay will work.  You re-wire the 3 connectors from the stock connector to the new relay.  Doing this...you don't have to worry about load resistors or hiding bulbs under the body work. 

Now...to solve your signal indicator wiring problems...first, you will need to get one of these diode kits (click here for link).  It doesn't matter whose you use...just as long as you have this same setup.  You will need to remove the headlight from the bucket and I found it easier to pull the 3 indicator lights out of the bucket (there is a connector in the headlight bucket to allow you to remove these 3 indicators).  Wire in the diodes so that the single leg goes to the indicator and each of the two legs go to the left and right signal wires.  The other wire from the indicator gets wired to ground (which you can get from the bucket mounting bolts inside the bucket).  Re-assemble, test, grin. 

I hope you find this information helpful.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Joe

Hi. Thanks for the detailed reply. So far as you say I have found that my electronic LED capable flasher unit can be used, just that in my case a complete lack of info made it a guessing game

I assume that under an incandescent system, the back- flow you talk of does not matter due to the high current flow/low resistance of the main flasher bulbs? This whole wiring seems most peculiar, considering that most vehicles just use a 3rd terminal on the flasher unit to drive the dashboard lights. As I am looking at going all LED, your info is most welcome, because if weird stuff started happening, I would have been tearing my hair out. Using somebody else's shredded locks is always easier! And yeah all of this is because I really felt that going LED then having loads to meak it work was just daft.

Rest, assured that I will have questions. 

Nick