Hi all - for the hell of it I adapted my Commando and also Mk2 1971 Rocket 3 to LED Indicators, this involved replacing the bulbs with 12v LEDs, LED-Compatible flasher unit and LED warning light in the headlight. With the engine off and ignition on the LEDs work fine on both bikes, at low revs (up to circa 2500) they also work fine but above that engine speed the LEDs start to flicker. The Commando has an Alton single-phase alternator (it has their electric starter) with Boyer Power-Box regulator, the Rocket 3 has a 3-phase alternator with Podtronics regulator. I suspected a 'rough' DC voltage on the Commando and fitted a 10000 uF electrolytic capacitor to see if it helped. There was a slight improvement but still not very good. Any ideas ?
LED Indicators
- Thread starter mwoo
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mwoo said:
I remember hobot once mentioned that ignition interference can cause LEDs to flash? Are your bikes fitted with resistor plug caps or 'R' plugs? If not, then maybe they might be worth trying?
post159236.html
Which LED does the flickering? Are they flickering on when they are supposed to be off or the other way around? The flasher LEDs may need a parallel load resistor. If it is the other LEDs, it could be a bad ground or as you suspected too much ripple or it could be spikes from the ignition as others have pointed out. You could try adding a capacitor closer to the LEDs to stop noise or ripple.
Jean
Jean
Hi Jean - - they are flickering when they are supposed to be on ...
I've emailed Steve Kelly at Tri-Spark to see if he has any ideas. The smoothing capacitor was placed across the flasher relay. I suppose I could put small electrolytics across each LED (seems a bit extreme though ...)
Cheers,
I've emailed Steve Kelly at Tri-Spark to see if he has any ideas. The smoothing capacitor was placed across the flasher relay. I suppose I could put small electrolytics across each LED (seems a bit extreme though ...)
Cheers,
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mwoo said:
So it's only an assumption that the indicators themselves are flickering? You don't have to be riding it to rev up the engine.
How is the warning LED wired?
In a 'two-pin' flasher relay circuit, the warning bulb is connected between the left and right indicator circuits so the bulb doesn't have a 'power supply' and an 'earth' as such, so I'm wondering if this is affecting their operation, specifically the warning LED?
L.A.B. said:
LEDs, unless they have circuitry inside to make them polarity insensitive, can't be connected like you say because the indicator would only light up when it was polarised correctly thus when flashing only to one of the two sides.
See wiring-diagrams-t4725.html for basic diagrams
Jean
Hi JeanDR - ref the LED only flashing for one direction due to polarity 'sensitivity' - I overcame this by fitting a full-wave bridge rectifier to the tell-tale LED thus regardless of the polarity of the current flow the LED always gets the correct polarity ...
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mwoo said:
Now you tell us!
Why did you use a full-wave rectifier (instead of half-wave)? How is it connected?
Whether the flickering only affects the warning lamp or all indicators is still unknown to us, I hope you will understand that it makes it difficult for anyone to help you when we are only drip-fed information in this way.
L.A.B. said:
That could be the cause of the problem, but to know fully what is going on, why not post pictures or diagrams of what has been done. LAB is right, not knowing will keep anyone from getting a good diagnosis, but that is part of the process isn't it :?:
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