LED Turn Signal Conversion

Hello all, I've been reading posts that I hoped to fix my LED turn signal conversion on my motorcycle but have not had much luck.

Here's the setup.

Original: 8w 1003 incandescent bulbs. One bulb per front left/right pod, ditto for rear.

Conversion: Luxeon3 LEDs. Two LEDs per front left/right pod, ditto for rear.

I have replaced the OEM Thermal Flasher with a Tridon EL12 Electro-Mechanical Flasher.

Luxeon3 LEDs specs:
Vf = 2.95
I = 1400mA

Bike Source Voltage = 13.6v

LEDs are in a string of 4 with a 1.3ohm 5W resistor (5W is what's available locally to me). I have the same string setup (4 LEDs) for my taillight and they light up just fine. For my turn signal, even though the LEDs are wired in the same configuration, I got weird results when it's plugged into the Turn Signal leads.

Here's what happens:
All four turn signal lights light up no matter if I activated the LEFT or RIGHT signal. The odd thing was that they lit up at about 1/2 of their full brightness. I took a multimeter (while the LEDs were still ON) and took a reading and got 7.7V. Without the LEDs connected to the turn signal leads, I got a reading of approximately 13.6v.

So I turn off the turn signaling and took a reading off the turn signal leads. Voltage was low, around 0.001 which is correct because the turn signal switch is OFF. I activated the turn signal, 13.6V comes back on. So this tells me that the switch and current coming out of the turn signal leads are fine.

With the turn signal now off, I plug in my 4 LED String to the left side turn signal leads. I took a meter reading and the voltage dropped to 7.7V. The odd thing is that I haven't activated the turn signal and yet the voltage dropped. When I tried to activate the turn signal (left or right), LEDs light up but again, a little dimmed @ 7.7v instead of the 13.6V it was wired for.

Fine, I disconnected the LED leads from the turn signal leads and plugged the LED leads directly to the battery leads. Instant FULL brightness. This means my LEDs are fine.

Ok, so I disconnected all of the turn signal LEDs off the bike and plug back

I think that if I can get the 7.7v to go back up to 13.6v, the e-flasher will activate and I'll be set. But how?

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Try an electronic flasher as the load s probably not enough for the mecanical flasher to work correctly

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WOW Sight and Sound
Maroochydore
Nothing is impossible!
Do it right the first time or don't do it at all.

"Tridon EL12 Electro-Mechanical Flasher"

I'm using the above flasher and I think it is an electronic flasher.

Quote: "With the turn signal now off, I plug in my 4 LED String to the left side turn signal leads. I took a meter reading and the voltage dropped to 7.7V. The odd thing is that I haven't activated the turn signal and yet the voltage dropped. When I tried to activate the turn signal (left or right), LEDs light up but again, a little dimmed @ 7.7v instead of the 13.6V it was wired for. "


Correction....I take the above details back. The 7.7v reading IS when the turn signal is ACTIVATED instead of merely attaching the LED leds to the Turn Signal leads. I hadn't readlized that the turn signal was activated because I didn't hear the Electronic Flasher tick.

Ok, I figured it out. I re-inserted one of the old incandescent bulb in the front pod and the LEDs lit up. After reading a lot of the previous posts, it's the same solution, additional load is required for the electronic flasher to kick in.

For now, I have the rear pod using 2 Lux3 LEDs connected to 2 Lux3 LEDs in the front pod. In the front pod, an incandescent bulb is left in there and it lights up along with the two LEDs.

I will soon replace the incadescent bulb with a resistor setup because if the incandescent bulb pops, the front and rear LEDs on that particular side will not work. Since I'm really trying to reduce the electrical load, I didn't want to have 2 incandescent bulbs lighting up alongside with the Lux3 LEDs. The brightness of the Lux3 is enough to compensate the missing incandescent bulbs.

Solid state flasher is probably the ideal way to go but @ $40 or so a piece vs a resistor, I'm sticking with the resistor method for now.

Thanks.

Thanks mad550....I thought what I had was an Electronic Flasher. I was wrong. The EL12 is an Electro-Mechanical flasher, hence part of my confusion thinking I was using a pure Electronic Flasher.

Found something that might be cheaper than what I tried to look for online from some of the LED Bulb suppliers with their Electronic Flashers for LEDs.

https://www.tricoproducts.com/index.cfm?location_id=129

Just pick the one that best suit your application.

No probs man happy to help

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WOW Sight and Sound
Maroochydore
Nothing is impossible!
Do it right the first time or don't do it at all.