front and rear strobes

Hmm....lets see....

Does a ground sided switched car use a negative current to turn everything on?  (lets say a dome lamp always has a positive feed going to it but for it to turn on, it needs to be grounded?.?)

Also, does a ground sided car still have, (lets say a brake light filament), two wires..one positive and one negative? 

If the devices are not grounded already, i dont think this will work.  BUT if you add another relay to the circuit and some grounded leads heading out, you can make it work.  You would want the relay to let 'ground' pass through the new ground wires when the unit is on, and those would travel to the ground wire of the lamp(s).  You might want to add a few more diodes so the negative feed of a NORMAL operating light will not go back up to the relay.

So, if your lost, this might help: If you include another relay to this circiut, this will allow a ground to be feed through some wires when the unit is on.  Thus, these wires could be hooked TAPPED to the negative wire of the lamp(s) so the lamp would have a ground to work off of.  Then, the positive side of the circut could turn on and off the lamp like it should.  When the unit's power is off, it will disconnect the ground going to the lamps and boom, back to normal.  Along with the 'new' negative wires, YOU WOULD STILL WANT TO HOOK IT UP THE SAME AS I DESCRIBED IN THE EARLIER POST.

(That ground side might be a little too much work but I'll construct a diagram soon)

As for the turn signal: I used a Heavy Duty Littelfuse EFL 363 but i've also used a Tridon EP-30.  Both of these flashers have a bulb-out indicator so I get a little bit of a speed up in the performance.  Depends on the type and brand of the ELECTRONIC flasher that you get.  When I first was messing with this system, I played with alot of different types of flashers with many returns.  P.S. Probably anybody that has electronic knowledge can change the resistors or capacitor of the turn signal so a speed decrease or increase would happen.  (No returns after that, however :) )

My first setup cost me a little less than $40.  Not bad considering I gained knowledge when making/building the circuit and that I got headlight AND taillight flashers for almost the price of one.

I am currently making a better setup that houses EVERYTHING (except the two switches and LED) on a circuit board in a box with screw terminal so i can easily connect and disconnect wires.  [The diagram that is posted is the 'Better' setup but it doesn't show anything on a circuit board so you have to use your imagination.]

**** The relays that I suggested in the diagram are PC board mount relays with a high amp rating.  If you want to use these relays, I would suggest you mount them on a circuit board.  If not, then you can use standard heavy duty automotive relays with the SPDT configuration.

Now, for the quirks in the system:

1. Your normal highbeam operation will NOT work while the unit is operating.  When the unit is OFF, both of your highbeams will work like normal.  (Not that important if you have all of the flashers on)

2. I constructed the unit so the backup lights (and the small ass relays) will be the only load on the flasher. (very important if you have a flasher with a bulb-out indicator) If you go into reverse while the unit is operating, the load is lessened on the turn signal flasher and it may stop the flasher from flashing.  Because the flasher has no big load and will stop flashing, the relay that 'flip-flops' (K2)  will stay in the normally closed position causing the brake lights to be lit. (When I constructed the circuit, I made sure the brake lights were NOT the load, cause you would have the flasher stop all of the time when you hit your brakes) ***A possible solution: find a flasher unit that does not require a load to work properly.

Thats it.  This unit will allow normal brake light operation when the unit is on so people behind you know that you are slowing down, your reverse lights will work (but refer to quirks #2) when the unit is on, and the diodes stop all of the different 'positive inputs' from running in to each other causing mayham.  It's a neat little system that is as cheap as you make it.

Let me know with any more questions here or at mailto:webmaster@sparkyssb.com.  Later!

hey sparky,

thanks for the info! great job with the circuit!

Sound Pressure,

I made a circuit diagram for the ground sided vehicles.  (Yeah, I know.......it could be better)

http://www.sparkyssb.com/newheadtailground.gif

The negative outputs have to have diodes inline with each output so during normal car operation, all of your lights don't turn on with the push on your brake, backlights, or highbeams.  [Notice how the diodes are turned around!] Again, these negative outputs would be TAPPED into the ground of each light you are operating.  The rest of the operation would be installed like I mentioned above.

Thanks for compliments.

Eric Lucas (AKA SparkySSB)

hey eric(sparky)

cool deal with the ground side circuit. you the man!!  how would tear this circuit apart as being only for the rear? like myself i have the front flasher already. missing the rear. you know thinking about it i'm wondering if the same unit that i have for the front would work the same way in the rear. hey that would be a first! having your rear do three different patterns. hmm? each rear side twice, then both flash together twice, then the fast backer wig-wag. that would be awsome. what do you think? or am i getting out of hand with these strobe wanna be's?

Hey SoundPressure,

Well, I caught a error in my original 'ground sided' circuit so DON'T use the diagram that I posted!

Here is the updated diagram for both the headlight/tailight flasher circuit for ground sided vehicles:

http://www.sparkyssb.com/newheadtailground.gif

(*There was an error in the positive input of the new relay I added for the ground side.  It is fixed now)

As for just tailight flashers, here is the diagram for a 'ground sided' car:

http://www.sparkyssb.com/newtailground.gif

*Notice the removal of K3 and change in wiring.

Also, yes I have seen the multipattern flash work on taillights and backup lights.  But additional relays might be required.  Can you tell or send me the wiring digram for it and I will see how you would wire it in for the taillights.

Talk to you later and hope this helps,

Eric Lucas

Hey Eric,

Not sure on the rear tail light configuration. The item has been on back order, but I was guessing that it would be somewhat the same as the high beam hookup. Maybe cutting the main wire for the rear stop, not sure how this would work with multi stops meaning more than a few bulbs for stop on one side, then hooking up one side to one wire while connecting the other side the the other wire. Possibly connecting the reverse lamps together or seperate. Not sure how that would work! I didn't think that they made a multi-pattern for the rear. Now that was for a multi pattern but the item that's on backorder is a basic wig-wag which is tapping into the main stop lamps and reverse lamps, so basically flashing two sets of lamps. I'll try to get a hold of a schematic of the circuit. I might just have one at home. I'm at work right now but most likely if I could find it tomorrow I'll post it for review.

talk to you soon, thanks

Eddie M.

Hey Sound Pressure,

You still alive?  if so, whats up with the tail lights?

Thanks!

Hey Sparky,

Yeah still alive and kickin. Oh man let me tell you busy is not the word man. How you been? The tail light flasher I have not got to that point yet, can you believe that? Front wig-wag though-beautiful on the ground side. It's pretty sweet. I have my fog lights switching as well with the Bonneville with the Multi flash pattern up front. You the man. Hey got any other idea's that we can do with some relays besides this? Good to hear you are still around to man!

Hey Sound,

Well, I was thinking about having a relay become a starter kill....yeah...not a new idea on the block....but i was thinking of spicing it up by having a momententary to about a 5 second pulse so that when i want to start my car, i jump in, and flick my highbeam stick..  i never heard of anybody doing it like that....

but, im confused...were you able to mess with any of my circuits or no..?  if so, how was it to install and what are the downfalls to it....if not, thats cool...ill find out later.

I only ask this because I plan to make a solid state circuit instead of the current one...and it wont matter what the load is and will have a variable speed knob on it....i need to build it soon because I have 2 installs I need to do for some friends (police officers ) before I'm off to college..i just want to improve the whole circuit(s).

Lata Dude,

Eric Lucas

Hey Eric,

I have not been able to mess with the circuit yet! I did print them out and the first one that I am going to try is the tail light flasher.

So when you hit the high beam stick it kills the pre-start mode going to ignition like regular alarms? That's different, and cool at the same time. You know you would be the first to do it

I'm thinking of doing something real fancy with an amp rack that I want to build, it being motorized where you look at it and you don't see anything, but then you either press a button or flip a switch and everything comes out to view. Any ideas.

Thanks