Two Prong Flasher Auto Cancel Mod

[cywelchjr]

Eureka! It works! I've got a couple more pictures to take of the finished job, and I've got to get the whole thing written up, but the mod works!

I found that I've been beating my head against not having a good ground on the relay, and the relay needing just slightly more voltage with the engine off than it gets to turn the flashers off, so it doesn't kick in when you turn the key on, but it does when the engine starts and the RPM's rise above idle and it starts charging.

I'll have a full writeup on the mod plus a parts list (as generic as possible so you can source local parts) for everybody in the next few days and I'll post it here and on .org.

[crazy steve]

Cool... a future tech tip?

[cywelchjr]

A tech tip is what I'm aiming for. It's pretty simple to do, if one is not a bonehead is actually uses a proper ground for the ground side of the relay then it works fine. I've actually had it in place and the only thing keeping it working for well over a month was the ground I selected wasn't .

[crazy steve]

...and the only thing keeping it working for well over a month was the ground I selected wasn't .

Yeah, that pesky electricity is persnickity about that kind of stuff...

[petejw]

nice work cy, looking 4ward 2 the write up.

[bikerphil]

Cy, can your mod be used with just regular bulbs and not LED's? I would like to find a flasher that blinks fast but retains the self cancelling feature. Any way to add an electrical component in line to make a flasher blink rapidly?

[cywelchjr]

Don't know about the speed of blinking, but this mod will work with any type of bulbs that the installed flasher will handle, as the cancel function is a factor of the load seen by the cancel unit which is a constant of the relay and has nothing to do with the bulbs, so yes, it works with regular bulbs.

So if you can find a flasher that works at a higher flash rate, it would work.

[bikerphil]

Thank you. By the time I find a faster flasher you'll probably have your tech tip done.

[MrOzz]

Eureka! It works! I've got a couple more pictures to take of the finished job, and I've got to get the whole thing written up, but the mod works!

I found that I've been beating my head against not having a good ground on the relay, and the relay needing just slightly more voltage with the engine off than it gets to turn the flashers off, so it doesn't kick in when you turn the key on, but it does when the engine starts and the RPM's rise above idle and it starts charging.

I'll have a full writeup on the mod plus a parts list (as generic as possible so you can source local parts) for everybody in the next few days and I'll post it here and on .org.

Really Cool !

Any time frame on the write up?

[cywelchjr]

This mod is really quite simple. It requires cutting two wires close to the flasher connector and wiring in a relay.

First, get together the parts and tools you will need to do this. Here is the list of parts and tools that I used.

Tools:

Soldering Iron
Needle Nose Pliers
DVOM for Troubleshooting

Parts:

Heat Shrink Tubing
Zip ties (cable ties)
Mounting bases for cable ties
10 Amp SPDT 12v 30 MA Relay Philmore part # BG-112
6" to 12" of 14 gauge stranded automotive wire



Now, your going to start by cutting two wires close to the flasher plug, one you can cut as close as you want, the other you need to leave enough wire to strip, tin and solder another wire to.

Cut the Yellow/Green wire, you can cut this as close to the connector as you want, as it will NOT get connected back to the connector.

Next cut the Brown wire. Make sure to cut this far enough from the connector that you can connect another wire to both ends to extend the wire, you will be inserting the relay in here to enable it to turn off the turn signals when the auto cancel unit tells it to.

Determine where you want to locate the relay, I located mine just below where the flasher unit lives, and since it's really small and light I let it just hang by the wires, but you can fasten it in place with double sided tape or with zip ties if you wish.

Find the leads for the switch side of the relay, and find the normally closed side. The DVOM on ohms can be your friend here. Solder a short piece of wire to each side of the normally closed switch. Put shrink tubing over it and shrink it with a heat source (I use the soldering iron). Do the same with the coil side of the relay, keep track of which ones are which.

Now, slide some heat shrink over one of the wires for the coil side of the relay, but keep it back a ways so it doesn't shrink when you solder the wire. Solder the wire to the Yellow/Green wire from the bikes harness. Push the shrink tubing up and strink it into place. Connect the other wire to a good ground, I used the ground screw of the accessory connector.

Now, the last electrical part, solder the remaining two wires to the two brown wires, making sure to cover the solder joints with heat shrink. Fasten everything into place, I used the cable tie mounting bases and cable ties to mount things, and your ready to test.

If you did everything right, you can turn on the turn signals before starting the bike, and then start the bike. The turn signals may start to flash before you start the bike, but as soon as you rev the bike a bit above idle the first time, the signals should shut off. If not, make sure that you have ~12 volts on the Yellow/green wire and that your ground is good.

If this test passes, take it out for a test run, the auto cancel should work just like you have the stock flasher in place with the correct normal bulbs, whether you have the normal bulbs or LED bulbs.

Before:



After:

[psycoreefer]

Nice job Cy, I had the idea bouncing around in my head at one point that someone properly motivated might be able to figure out how to use a relay to restore auto cancel...I guess I was never properly motivated...

Quick question, my understanding is that the stock unit will cancel using either "time" or "distance", and when I played with it I thought that the canceler unit was counting "flashes" via the wires from the stock flasher and that is what made the "time" part of the equation work. I have no doubt that this mod makes the "distance" part work (the canceler is wired to the reed switch directly) but does the "time" part work as well?


I'm not sure if I did a good job explaining my question - I'm just wondering, I'm sure 99% of the time it ought to cancel based on distance.....

[cywelchjr]

Nice job Cy, I had the idea bouncing around in my head at one point that someone properly motivated might be able to figure out how to use a relay to restore auto cancel...I guess I was never properly motivated...

Quick question, my understanding is that the stock unit will cancel using either "time" or "distance", and when I played with it I thought that the canceler unit was counting "flashes" via the wires from the stock flasher and that is what made the "time" part of the equation work. I have no doubt that this mod makes the "distance" part work (the canceler is wired to the reed switch directly) but does the "time" part work as well?


I'm not sure if I did a good job explaining my question - I'm just wondering, I'm sure 99% of the time it ought to cancel based on distance.....

This does both time and distance as both are done by the auto cancel unit which can't see the flasher flashing or not. The cancel unit has both a timing circuit and a counter that counts the pulses from the speedometer. The difference is that with the stock flasher, it won't shut off till it hits the off cycle, which is why it won't cancel if it doesn't flash, as it stops turning back on once the disable signal is applied.

[fredintoon]

Cy, can your mod be used with just regular bulbs and not LED's? I would like to find a flasher that blinks fast but retains the self cancelling feature. Any way to add an electrical component in line to make a flasher blink rapidly?

Hi Phil,
a 3rd signal will do it. My XS11SG came with the stock thermal flasher that worked with the canceller.
My sidecar came with 2 teardrop flashers that only had 22Watt bulbs in them so my first set up had flashing left signals and right signals that turned on but didn't flash.
I added a 3rd 22Watt signal and the right signals flashed real quick. This worked fine until the stock flasher burned out. No effin' way I would pay the outrageous price for a replacement Yamaflasher. $10 for an electronic 2-pin, that I could do.
So, yeah, the stock thermal flasher speeds up with extra load so fit a 3rd signal. Play with the total Wattage to get the flash speed you want. Be aware of the legal requirements for flasher speed, a ticket hungry cop might try to nail you for flashing too fast if he can't find anything else to book you for.

[bikerphil]

Thanks Fred, my blink speed is so slow now that I have changed lanes already before it has a chance to blink.

[cywelchjr]

OK guys. If you haven't already gone out an ordered the relay, you might want to hold off a bit. I found today in hot weather on a little longer distance ride that the relay gets warmed up and tends to stop pulling in and enabling the cancel.

I'm trying to decide how to handle the situation as it's two fold, one the cancel unit it providing just barely 12v to drive the relay, actually it's like 11.8 or so, which is just barely enough to drive the relay, and when it gets warm/hot it takes more to work it, and then it doesn't pull up (I can tell cause just a light tap in that situation and it pulls up fine and then works for a short time, and if I don't use the flashers for a while, but don't leave them activated it kicks back in after the relay cools back off). So, I'm looking at either a way to get the voltage up (I may try just cleaning the connections, or maybe replace some wires to make sure I get max voltage to that line) or try a higher quality relay that may work better with the marginal voltage (I may try the wiring and connector cleaning first, cause if I can get just .1v more that should do it).

I'm going to check the ground first, maybe it's just slightly not good enough.