The + earth Norton/ - earth LED riddle

GDay Chaps,

Thanks Pelican and Hobot- does sound like a great bit of kit. Look forward to trying it out.

Hobot, thanks mate-all looks great. Have Pm'd you.

crusaderports

yeah man, they back up their products too, so no worries

I did the negative earth conversion when I installed a new charging system. Not really a big deal, except that red wires are now negative and that sorta bothers me.

But now I can use generic LED blinkers.

Thanks Maylar,

I'm reluctant to go negative earth- as I say mainly a mental block in departing from standard beyond the point I can easily return things to o/e spec. Trying to have the cake and eat it, I know :mrgreen: !

But thanks for the advice- it's good to know it can be done relatively painlessly. All the old brits I've had have been positive earth and I s'pose that includes me too :mrgreen: !

Hotbot has suggested I post a video when I get it all working with the bulbs for ever LED kit- and I will.

The other good thing about LEDs is that they dramatically reduce the load on the charging system- especially when you fit one in place of the pilot bulb and run that for day time headlamps. That should leave me with the halogen headlamp as the only non LED bulb. Got to be a good thing with the starter motor's drain on the system

crusadersports

I fitted multi element LEDs in the front blinkers on my Commando, but left the rears as bulbs. The LEDs aren't as bright, and I want to be visible from behind. I've not seen the BTLF products in person, but I hear that they're very nice (tho pricey).

Years ago I rewired my blinkers to use dual bayonet 1157 bulbs and tried to run them as daytime running lights. The charging system was very unhappy with that. With LEDs it'd be cake.

I think my system uses like .1Ax4 so .4A as running lights... next to nothing

Hotbot has suggested I post a video when I get it all working with the bulbs for ever LED kit- and I will.

Click to expand...

Maybe you misconstrued my request - I want to see video of signals turned on to wink - but with solid copper plug leads and non resistance plugs - so they turn into syncopated timing lights.

Thanks Hobot (another PM for you BTW),

Do you mean: B4ever fitted, engine ticking over and indicators turned on- with copper plug leads and non-resisted caps?

Might be taking the 70s theme abit far- it would be a Norton disco, me thinks :mrgreen: ! I'll see- may be I do owe you a light show, but my top end is off pending new rings at the mo.... we'll see mate :lol:

Thanks again Maylar! Pelican, is there a way of working out power consumption/electrical load on the system with LEDs? Sounds like you have. It'd be good to know how many watts/amps you'd save by replacing all the bulbs with LEDs.

And has anyone heard of an LED headlamp bulb? Is there such a thing? I know you can get halogens for the pilot bulb and they're meant to be brighter than an LED but I wonder for how much longer- it seems LEDs are slowly taking over- but I'd guess there's a reason why they haven't yet toppled the halogen for a headlamp bulb.

crusadersports

I don't know how to figure it out other than hooking up a mutimeter. you will need some kind of electronic flasher unit or some kind of control system . Then the specs will be provided (hopefully) in the literature. Mine says it outputs .1A for running lights. signal lights I think .25 without looking it up.

I think the flasher unit from btl4ever is around $75.

Whichever way you go if you are interested in the running light feature it you'll have to get an appropriate flasher with 2 outputs- hi for the actual signals and low for the running lights.

I think most normal signal lights are around 20wx4=80w, 80w/12v= 6 something close to 7A keep in mind you only use one side at a time so around 3-3.5A, led's easily cut this in half again if not more


There are led headlights available, but they are expensive. There is no change out a bulb version available as you need multiple lights to even come close to a normal headlight.
google up trucklite led $around 250-300
jwspeaker led $around 450
harley davidson led (jwspeaker light with harley name on it) $550, available as an option on 2011 bikes, though you can buy separately

B4ever has black box to handle the winking and the running light feature in same LED/circuit modules. Lots of light is good and LED's have that can't miss sharp instant sparkle flash to them.

The LED's turn into timing lights unless hi voltage spikes dampened but it is a 70
light show appropriate to the era.

CID lights are the hot item now, but needs some special feature$ to work as fast on/off hi beam. LED headlights are here but expensive and I don't know it they give a type of light that's as sharp to see at night on the fly.

Ms Peel's trick LED kit was one of the last mod features I had to give up to get what I want out of her ax signal stems sticking out will not hack it anymore.

G Day Chaps,

Thanks Pelican- Hobot has an unwanted B4ever kit that he's very kindly forwarding to me. As he describes (above), it has the flasher unit for the running lights and I look forward to seeing how it all goes .

I'm seriously beginning to wonder if I need to bother with a 3 phase Sparx Alternator. The load on the system will be so low with a Pazon and LEDs everywhere except the h/lamp- that I wonder if it's worth it. Having said that, I probably will as the cost is the same as single phase and I think the starter motor clinches it.

Thanks for the current draw info and the LED headlamp thoughts. I googled 'Truck Lite' and found a U tube comparison:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4-kbu5TCTo

No prices but it does look rather groovy and I'd love to know what the current draw might be. From what you say though, it's a non starter while they're that expensive and to be honest an H4 is fine unless you are a Commando riding vampire.... :mrgreen:

Thanks Hobot for the CID-found that on U Tube too- way too groovy for me- though it may be the first Lucas powered Christmas tree :mrgreen: !

Sparx will only help going real slow with dragging brake light on and hi beam. Otherwise a small battery and rpms over 1800 or so and good to go, but also good to have v meter to montior time of drain vs charging, but can still kick or roll start on dead battery, if unhooked, then re hooked while keeping idle up to stay in runing volts.

Thanks Hobot,

I went for the Pazon as it works at the lowest volts of all (I think- certainly no more than points). I'm going to keep the capacitor for the reason you suggest- to get going with flat battery. I just realised the Sparx 3 ph regulator/rectifier doesn't have an inbuilt capacitor, but their single phase does! Boyer 3 ph powerbox might be the go here. It'd be good to simplify the wiring with out a separate capacitor!

The blue can acts as tiny 12 v battery back up and helps tame current spikes in the whole system and can give up juice faster than battery so help horn toot right off.

I appreciated the blue can when I saw cover and battery gone just wires hanging out so I slowed to exam and stalled out. Couldn't kick it fast enough but a farm gave me a tow off his PU till 25ish mph and off I went with a wave. I've also
had young children help push when I was tuckered out to get a fire going.

My most dreaded situation [not a crash] is getting caught at bottom of a hollar d/t tree fall or wash out and its slick mud to put feet down and all directions are up, ugh. Can't stick to kicker and can't push off - dead in the darkness, with hogs and puma and wolves and coyotes packs and black bear, which cattle milling around just beyond vision sure sound like to me.

Oh yeah bulls are cattle and run people down if their cows around - or not.