LED indicators problems

[Nearbymitch]

Hi all, i have recently purchased some brand new led indicators. I have a rather large issue with them, when i signal to the left, none of them go. But when i signal to the right they all light up and flash at regular timing. Installed on a suzuki gs450s 1980. Cheers in advance, mitch.

[bogan]

Hi all, i have recently purchased some brand new led indicators. I have a rather large issue with them, when i signal to the left, none of them go. But when i signal to the right they all light up and flash at regular timing. Installed on a suzuki gs450s 1980. Cheers in advance, mitch.

You need an LED flasher set for the lower current draw of the LEDs.

[Drew]

You need an LED flasher set for the lower current draw of the LEDs.That doesn't solve the issue of them all being hooked up to the one side circuit though.

[Tazz]

Have you wired the old ones back in to see if it is just the new ones and not your wiring effort or bad timing for your switch to play up? Also have you just pulled the old ones and put the LEDs straight onto the existing wires?
Do they come on with the brake light, headlights or anything else weird?


You need an LED flasher set for the lower current draw of the LEDs.

I thought they should only blink faster without that?

[Gremlin]

...when i signal to the left, none of them go... signal to the right they all light up and flash at regular timing.

You need an LED flasher set for the lower current draw of the LEDs.
bogan needs reading comprehension ;)

You need to check your wiring Mitch, it would appear you've botched the wiring, possibly hooked both sets to one side. As Tazz says, how did you replace etc.

[bogan]

That doesn't solve the issue of them all being hooked up to the one side circuit though.

Might be some ass backwards wiring where one side is active high and one active low was my thinking... But it was only a cursory glance, so I might need to update my recomendations to fix wiring, and get a proper flasher. How do you fuck up swaping indicators out though? only two wires at each...

[Akzle]

How do you fuck up swaping indicators out though? only two wires at each...

a'cause they ground out through the opposite side. And youre a nooby noob. Would be my guess

[ducatilover]

Shit flasher units and connections will do that, happens on my Kawashitface when it blows the $1 Chinese flasher units.
Look closely and you may see a set of three LEDs per indicator are dimly lit.

[bogan]

Shit flasher units and connections will do that, happens on my Kawashitface when it blows the $1 Chinese flasher units.
Look closely and you may see a set of three LEDs per indicator are dimly lit.

Mine sometimes come back to life after a while, weird fucking things, makes me wonder if they are expecting a different load. Proper LED flashers should just go on a timer, but you get what you pay for, unless you pay 40 bucks for a 2$ Chinese flasher on TM...

[F5 Dave]

Or if you live in a planned grid city you could just turn right 3 times for the same effect.

[Hobbyhorse]

I went to a LED guy on Shore who fitted up LED bulbs and LED flasher in my R80RT BMW. When signalling left, both left and one right would flash and when signalling right, both right and one left flashed. He had no idea what to do, so I reinstalled original flasher and bulbs and all worked just fine.

[Latte]

Had a similar problem on my Aprilia - had to put a couple of diodes on the dash indicator (as it had a single bulb on the dash for l & r, instead of a separate one for each). What was happening was the difference in current/resistance/flux capacitance with the led flashers was over powering the dash indicator and allowing current/resistance/flux capacitance to operate both L&R.

[Drew]

Had a similar problem on my Aprilia - had to put a couple of diodes on the dash indicator (as it had a single bulb on the dash for l & r, instead of a separate one for each). What was happening was the difference in current/resistance/flux capacitance with the led flashers was over powering the dash indicator and allowing current/resistance/flux capacitance to operate both L&R.Except the flux capacitor operates on the high/low beam switch you friggin idiot!

[imdying]

Had a similar problem on my Aprilia - had to put a couple of diodes on the dash indicator (as it had a single bulb on the dash for l & r, instead of a separate one for each). What was happening was the difference in current/resistance/flux capacitance with the led flashers was over powering the dash indicator and allowing current/resistance/flux capacitance to operate both L&R.

Normally the dash light grounds through the inoperative indicators on the other side, something it can do because it is has very low current draw, and the current it drags back through that light is much less than required to light up the indicators on that side. However, the current draw requirements of the new LED indicators is much less, so they light up because they can get sufficient current via the dash light circuit. As you say, a couple of cheap zener diodes to block that (a diode is effectively a one way valve in a DC circuit) and you're away laughing.

That all probably makes no sense, but a diagram would help, if someone has one.

[Latte]

Except the flux capacitor operates on the high/low beam switch you friggin idiot!

Does that explain the lack of adhesion between the front wheel and the ground?

[Banditbandit]

You need an LED flasher set for the lower current draw of the LEDs.

Only if you have completely replaced all the bulbs on the circuit with LEDS. If you are still running bulbs then you don't need one. The fact that open side goes and the other doesn't suggests this is not needed.

But the problem is that LEDs are polarity sensitive - I didn't know that until I recently wired in some LEDS - and they did not work.

Swap the polarity on the left indicators - that will probably fix it. (Unless you've wired them in at a different place - I wired mine in on the circuit to each side ...)

[bogan]

Only if you have completely replaced all the bulbs on the circuit with LEDS. If you are still running bulbs then you don't need one. The fact that open side goes and the other doesn't suggests this is not needed.

But the problem is that LEDs are polarity sensitive - I didn't know that until I recently wired in some LEDS - and they did not work.

Swap the polarity on the left indicators - that will probably fix it. (Unless you've wired them in at a different place - I wired mine in on the circuit to each side ...)

Nah I reckon Imdying has the gist of it. And he'll need a LED suited flasher if that is the case.

[imdying]

Yes, will need a LED flasher relay. The swap to LEDs causes the bimetal in a regular flasher relay to heat up too quick and thus flash too quickly. The LED ones are basically a small timer chip that does not rely on load to set the timing... which is why you lose your flash quickly when lamp is blown by changing to one... of course, the LED indicators should have an extremely long life time (assuming they're not bottom end Chinese tat) thus negating the problem.. although I believe some jurisdictions require that functionality for legal reasons, but I can't comment on whether NZ is one of those or not. You'd have to be an arsehole, or get an arsehole WOF man, to ever get nicked on that.

[neels]

My guess would be a combination of the above.....

left side indicators wired backwards so left side doesn't go and not drawing enough current to make the flasher work. Other way right hand indicators go and draw enough current for the flasher, right hand indicators can get enough through the dash indicator lamp to light up.

Of course if I'm right, you may still end up with nothing lighting up due to not enough current being drawn by the flasher, but also possible you'll get all 4 all the time.

This might help.....

[bogan]

I've just had some issues with my LED ones, not related to OP but something to bear in mind anyway. A relay (I'm thinking solidstate not so much but they probably do it anyway) LED flasher still needs to do some current sensing to determine when it needs to flash, ie, when its output is actually connected to one side. Mine were quite intermittent, so have put small resistors (still a much larger resistance than the bulb) to just draw that little bit extra to ensure it triggers the current sensing circuit and makes em flash.

And while tracing out the wiring on my 88 bros, it seems perfectly logical that the dash light could allow current to flow through all four and light em up.

[imdying]

The flasher relay I use ticks away consistently no matter if indicators are connected or not, Tridon LED04 iirc.

[Dave-]

I think mitch has indicated his interest in this thread.....