LED Light Bulb Issue?

[natemoen]

Solid-state electronics are touchier about circuit integrity, so it's likely you have a bad connection of some sort somewhere...

Ugg....

I know there are a couple of wire that are scraped open, that have been like that since I got the bike (i know, I know.....) but surprisingly they have not caused any issues, it was on my list of fixes over this winter. Don't remember what the sure colors of the wires, but I think they might have been dark blue, green, and yellow.

[IanDMacDonald]

Hey Nate- So, I just revisited the SuperBRightLEDs.com I noticed they had the 1157 LED's (http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/m...cle-led-bulbs/), but TC said they were not bright enough. Obviously I've read through all of the forums regarding LED's, etc. Have you found an alternative that is easy to do for tail and turns?

Also, could you dig-up your invoice and check what degree angle bulbs you bought for your dash? Thanks.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Ian,

I didn't actually TRY out the Motorcycle 1157 style bulbs, just that others had commented that they weren't very bright, and in my bike, the dual bulb fixture has the bulbs sitting sideways so that that they were NOT pointing directly towards the rear of the reflector housing, so those bulbs won't work well in that style of housing and bulb position.

Take a look at this one, also from superbright, it's in their boat/rv section:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...-pcb-lamp/175/

It has a separate large 36 bulb array that can be mounted inside the reflector housing and the bulb end is on a loose wire that can then be plugged into the socket, and you have the wider array being able to be pointed towards the rear, you can put longer wires on it if you want to have more room to be able to work with the array....like hotglueing it into the reflector housing and still be able to reach the socket.

T.C.

[natemoen]

No additional diodes needed; LEDs are diodes.....

Not in the sense like you could have with an incandesent lamp. Diodes (and LEDs) only allow current through them in one direction, preventing any backfeeding. But you could have a low-grade short from a positive wire into the grounds for these, which would reduce the difference of potential and cause them to go dim. But I don't see that as likely, as I would expect problems on the 'contributing' circuit to show up.

A defective diode can allow 'wrong' current flow on rare occasions, but they usually just go open. Another possiblity is most aftermarket LED lamps have a little 'mini circuit board' on them to regulate/limit the voltage actually applied to the LED; if that's bad, you might see an issue. You may have just got a set of poorly designed/built lamps.

Solid-state electronics are touchier about circuit integrity, so it's likely you have a bad connection of some sort somewhere...

Since this thread was brought up I will add something. To solve the LED problem I DID have to put a diode into the system for the 1157 bulbs to work. Superbirght even said that the circuit boards are not polarized in any way so the backfeeding still happened. Once I put a diode in it solved the prolems.

I also had to change to a No Load flasher. The electronic flasher I had still needed some load to function.


Ian, this is my other LED thread. It has more explanations and pictures, might be a couple videos still even if I remember correct.

These are the dash bulbs I got. They would have been the 90 degree ones, the 32 degree would be too narrow. Did I show you the pics of the dash bulbs already? Let me know if you have any other questions.