Indercator

[Mattzxr750]

okay, i got some small indercator for the rear of my bike and im having problems with getting them going.

when the new indercators are plugged the lights just stay on, same as when only the front one is plugged in.

i went and talk to the shop about them (they were very helpful) they said to put in a resistor to draw more currant (20 ohm). so i did. hooked them up and all that happens is the light gets a little dimmer.

Do i need a bigger resistor? or is it that my bike just cant run them?

the old light is 21w and the new is 6w

[MidnightMike]

Maybe it would help if you could spell indicators? :laugh:

sorry

couldnt help myself :killingme

[Mattzxr750]

yeah me england not good

[Jonathan]

P = V^2 / R
Someone work out R

[Jonathan]

Which is useless because I changes with P also... So maybe you want a resistance that keeps the current the same as before... Who knows more about physics?

[avgas]

just do the resistance difference between the 2 bulbs. I and V need to be kept the same i think

[Sketchy_Racer]

If you find your Flasher unit, there should be a Draw Current on it. That is how much draw that the circuit needs to draw from teh unit to make it flash.

Or jsut go buy yourself a adjustible flasher unit?

[Jonathan]

At 21W the bulb draws
I=P/V
=1.75
current

At 6W it draws 0.5
That's 1.25 less

to draw that 1.25 you need a
R=V/I
=12/1.25
=9.6 ohm resistor

Try 10ohm resistance

(Please correct me if I am wrong!)

[Jonathan]

...per bulb.

[Mattzxr750]

okay i tryed the 10ohm didnt work(tryed everything from about 10 to 50).

just going to track done the flasher unit and see if there any info in to

[Mattzxr750]

Okay, the flasher had nothing on it.

so i got out the muitimeter and cheack the ohms of both lights and here what i came up with:

Old light 5.8 ohms
New light 2.4 ohms
---------
differents 3.4 ohms

so if i got a 3.4 ohm resistor and put it in would that solve the problem?

[Mattzxr750]

Update: im really confused now i just tested the old lights and the reading is coming up as 0.8 ohm. i just dont now what to do

[Jonathan]

Are you sure you connected the resistors in the right place (one in parallel with each indicator)?

There was another thread on this:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=30275

May be different situation from LED indicators though...

[Mattzxr750]

problem solved. if anyone has this problem. go to supercheap and buy a 12v non-load flasher unit and replace your one with that. it cost about $5. and works great

[degrom]

Yes... Was it hard to fit the new unit? I really need to fix my bike in the next few days... If I understand correct this non-load unit will also work it you want to fit Led's in the future. (Not dependent on heat to make it flicker...)

[Mattzxr750]

the new unit just plugged straght in on my bike, all i had to do was cable tie it in because it didn't fit into the old holder but that was easy. and yeah i think it would work with leds too

[degrom]

Thanks!!! I think I will take the current one I have and take it to SuperChaep just to make sure it will fit the same as the old one. Who told you to about the non-load units?

I was at the point of building my own electronic unit that would do the trick

[Mattzxr750]

bruce at afc in palmy said to try supercheap, and there it was a new flasher

[degrom]

bruce at afc in palmy said to try supercheap, and there it was a new flasher

It worked for me 2!!!!

Thanks for sharing and helping us out... (It cost $5.99...)

[Racey Rider]

When I put the road gear back on my KR150, My indicators light up, but don't flash. I think this is because I am not useing a battery in the system, just running things from the magneto. Would buying one of these non-load flashers solve the issue? Worth a try I guess.
Thanks.
Racey.

[notme]

Just in case anyone's interested -

- The resistance of lightbulbs changes with temperature (lower when cold) - that's probably why Mattzxr750 got different results when measuring the resistance

- The "no load" type flashers will work with anything from LED's to different size bulbs from the originals, but this type of flasher will NOT change flash rate to warn you that a bulb is dead (a lot of the time a the original flasher and resistor across the bulb will not either though....)

- Jonathan's calculations are all good and 10 ohms should work for most bikes - just don't forget that the resistor
should be fairly grunty - 1.25A @ 12V means you technically need a 15W resistor, however I'd try 5W since the indicators are not continuously on (i.e. they flash...we hope!) and they are not continuously flashing. Keep the resistor away from delicate melty bits of your bike! resistors in an aluminium casing with 2 screw holes are perfect and easy to mount.

[Waylander]

Did you check to make sure you had the right wires plugged in to each other? Some bikes have it set up so there is always light soming from the indicators it just gets brighter when you turn them on. uses three wires for this ground, power, and the one making it flash (tech terms all of them lol) Most aftermarket indicators only have two wires that need to be pluged into the ground and flashing wires but if you plug it into the ground and power it will just stay on all the time.

[notme]

Ah yes good point mr W - my Kwaka had that 'feature'.

[degrom]

When I put the road gear back on my KR150, My indicators light up, but don't flash. I think this is because I am not useing a battery in the system, just running things from the magneto. Would buying one of these non-load flashers solve the issue? Worth a try I guess.
Thanks.
Racey.

I think it might work. And for $6 its worth try out. I have found that the Cheat units need to get up to speed before they work properly. Mine flashes very quick for the first few times and then they start to tick more constantly.

I also think that these units including the original units are very sensitive to vibrations. My old unit sort of worked when I rev ed the bike a bit. That was because of the vibrations. The new unit stabilizes sooner if the bike is not vibration a lot.

I hope this could help.