NC30 and LED indicators

[manicmedic]

Well the Veefer failed on indicators (front left and rear right not working) ... checked the previous day and working! Bulbes rotten in their holders so off to Cycletreads for some shiney LED ones (no more bulb problems for me).

Wired up and nothing! Read distructions and see that I may need the optional relay .... back from getting the relay and fit 2 of the three wires.

Yellow to battery +
Black to ground
Red to signal wire

What the hell is the signal wire? Using brain decided to look on the net ... found turn signal relay and made inteligent guess on the green one ... wired it in and nothing ..... also tried another one for good measure.

Nothing worked, should have gone for bulbs again .... Can anyone help ... please.

[Ragingrob]

Sorry can't help with that, but just wondering whether you'd have any pics of the bike with LEDs fitted? Be interesting to see what it looks like :p

[lostinflyz]

Well the Veefer failed on indicators (front left and rear right not working) ... checked the previous day and working! Bulbes rotten in their holders so off to Cycletreads for some shiney LED ones (no more bulb problems for me).

Wired up and nothing! Read distructions and see that I may need the optional relay .... back from getting the relay and fit 2 of the three wires.

Yellow to battery +
Black to ground
Red to signal wire

What the hell is the signal wire? Using brain decided to look on the net ... found turn signal relay and made inteligent guess on the green one ... wired it in and nothing ..... also tried another one for good measure.

Nothing worked, should have gone for bulbs again .... Can anyone help ... please.

at a guess reading that you've got constant positive, negative and a pulsing signal from a relay to switch the light on and off. grab a multimeter and check around for a line that is pulsing when the indicators are switched on.

Alternatively it may be like a car amp wiring where you use a signal line to turn the thingy on. (i.e. switching line goes from 0V to some voltage when the key is turned). This ensures that your battery is not continuously drained being feed constant voltage.

but thats all just a guess.

[manicmedic]

I can do that ... they're the cheap ones but look ok from my point of view ..... I'll sort it in a day or two.

[nodrog]

black or brown is not always the ground wire, some bikes like to fuck with your head, eg ducati 1098.

i would be putting the standard relay back in and swapping the indicator wires around to see what happens, before i went any further.

[slimjim]

humm i too would have thought yellow to flasher wire .as too red wire been a power colour wire to flasher(signal wire) and black yup...earth...but yellow to battery ?..

well post up once sorted please ...common knowledge allows pay forward tha

[CookMySock]

They probably connected reverse-polarity. LEDs will simply refuse to operate wired backwards. You will need a flasher unit for LEDs too - usually the standard ones are load-sensitive and they flash way too fast.

Steve

[manicmedic]

But which one is the signal wire on the bike (he says as if he should know)?

[nodrog]

But which one is the signal wire on the bike (he says as if he should know)?

hook it up one way, if it doesnt work hook it up the reverse way. or you could get really flash and waste your money on a test light.

[slimjim]

are the led's still working by earthing straight to battery...haven't blowen them have you.?

[CookMySock]

are the led's still working by earthing straight to battery...haven't blowen them have you.?You can't blow the LEDs unless they don't have an internal current limiting resistor, and that is very unlikely.

Steve

[breakaway]

Can't you just throw a resistor in series with the LED indicator to get around the load sensitive flasher unit?

[CookMySock]

Can't you just throw a resistor in series with the LED indicator to get around the load sensitive flasher unit?Yes you can, but you wire in parallel not in series. By the time you have dicked around with resistors, it is way quicker and easier, and probably cheaper to just change the flasher unit.

Steve

[motorbyclist]

last bike i helped fit LED indicators to (an 07 hornet 900) has issues too:

the problem is they don't simulate real bulbs, low resistance and high current, or low power or something like that i'm not in a fit state to figure it out/remember)

on the hornet that made the indicators blink extra fast


so perhaps the problem is the bike won't work with the equivalent of a wire jumping the contacts?

also, LEDs only work one way. might be wired backwards.


on my viffer i had some blindingly bright oxford ones that worked well - i think they had halogen bulbs in them

[notme]

So, sorted yet?

This should be a very simple exercise, try not to overthink it and get confused - it really is easy.

What you are doing is putting LEDs in place of bulbs. Just one lighty up device in place of another. LEDs have a few special characteristics that make them slightly different lighty up things, but for this application all we care about is that you get them the right way around and that they flash at the right rate.

I'm not sure without seeing the instructions what this optional relay is meant to do - maybe it simulates the bulb loading to get the correct flash rate? But it should not be necessary to get them working initially.

You want them to work first, then worry about the flash rate later if it is a problem, and the relay just confuses things.

So if you go back to basics, you need to put the led +ve wire to the + terminal of your battery, and the -ve to the -ve terminal of your battery (or any other 12v source). Do they light up? If not, you have probably busted them at some point - connecting them backwards is a distinct candidate for killing cheaper LED modules.

If they work, then try connecting in place of the bulbs. With an indicator on, again the LEDs should work. They may not flash correctly but first you want to see if they work in the indicator circuit.

Once they have passed this stage, and if the flash rate is not right, get a 10ohm, 5W resistor from dick smith or jaycar or similar, and connect it across the led module i.e. connect it to the +ve and -ve wires of the led module.

If any of the three steps above fail, reply and i'll try to help further. HTH

[motorbyclist]

good advice right there ^

[manicmedic]

Ok firstly a HUGE thank you. I had a friend look at it who has an electrical brain.

He found several problems ..... original relay broken - new relay broken - and after much tracking down a short between two wires at the point that they enter the 'dashboard' repeater for the indicators. What was happening was all four on or off, so both sides were joined.

Problem solved and WOF passed :niceone: look ok but not amazing. All I need is them to tell others where I'm going anyway. Rear ones are a bit hidden but WOF man seemed to be cool with it.

Now need a cheap chain to replace Mr Saggy ..... price of a case of beer type cheap ..... then 2 tyres for a bottle of scotch ..... and the list goes on.

Again, thanks.

Manic

[manicmedic]

Just pics of the indicators in situ

[motorbyclist]

i find cheap chains aren't economical to buy

spend $50 every few months

or $100 every year or so

no brainer really - same for tyres that don't result in a written off bike and working indicators that following traffic can see

[manicmedic]

wherre do you get a decent chain for $100?

[motorbyclist]

just get a blingy gold coloured X-ring chain

i forget exactly what i had on my vfr, but i went from weekly tightening to tri-monthly when i went from el-cheapo to $270 chain/sprocket kit fitted

and i'm neither gentle nor forgiving when it comes to my daily commute and weekend rides;)