The BSA A7-A10 Forum
Technical (Descriptive Topic Titles - Stay on Topic) => Lucas, Ignition, Charging, Electrical => Topic started by: Gavin on 28.08. 2010 16:08
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Has anyone installed LED indicators on their bike ? I have a 51 Golden Flash and am considering making it a bit safer for the road. I'm not sure I need opinions on the matter, but some insights, recommended products and suppiers etc, know how, pitfalls and how they were remedied would be brilliant. Thanks. Gavin.
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I put indicators on my project but not yet LED ones that's a future to do job, but you do need a LED flasher unit if you use LED indicators, apparently to get the correct flash rate
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They work really well, but you need to buy the complete kit including the electronic timed flasher relay as normal ones will not work with L E Ds.
The kits with a lot of individual leds are better than the replacement globe type
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Thanks Bill and Trevor. trevor, are you able to tell me where you sourced the kit from and any details of it please? Thanks mate.
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bulbsthatlast4ever.com (http://bulbsthatlast4ever.com)
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Paul Goff (Goffy) sells an indicator kit. http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/goffyindicators.htm Thinking of fitting some on mine.
Jim
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Gav,
i don't know if they work with a positive earth?
It might need some tricky wiring.
Mine came off ebay from hong kong.
cheers
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Still doing some research Olev, but it appears that 6v positive earthed leds are available. It may take me some time, but I will update the post as info comes to hand.
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If they have two leads there should be no problem, just a case of using the leads in reverse for positive earth, leds don't work if flow is reversed so if they don't work just try them the other way, should do no harm to the leds, of course if there is any other do dahs on the circuit board they might not like it, any electronic wiz kids reading this might want to throw more light on the subject (joke - pun intended) *whistle*
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Thanks for the help so far. This week I have bought a few led's to help me mess about for a while. I have discovered that they will work on 6v positive earth. But then the trial led stopped doing that. I don't think they like the positive earth world. I have bought a 12 v remote kit with a stop light that attaches to the helmet. It should be an easy matter of a second brake switch concealed behind the original and used exclusively by the remote, powered from a small 9v battery whcich I retrieved at a great price from a used set of smoke detector batteries. I am just experimenting at present.
Once this System works I will buy 2 more and rig them to a new switch I have ordered for the indicators. Then I'll get a flasher unit and connect up the radio kits again... means no wiring on the bike, and hope to get a couple of respectable and very bright yellows for the indicators. A bit of work getting the radio stuff to drive amber and not red lights should give me the outcome I want. And once again I'll use another indipendant 9v battery which I think I can conceal somewhere on the bike without much trouble. So give me a couple of months for parts to turn up and a few bits to be modified and I'll hopefully be back with a few photo's.
Thanks again for the clues and places to visit. Contact with the above websites has been really helpful.
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Finally have them working and sorted. Installed a 12v system and kept it completely isolated from the 6v pos earth system. have a 5 amp fuse, the correct flasher unit, a separate brake switch, concealed switch for the tail light, and switch on handlebars which i modified to include pilot light. hopefully the pix tell the story. Thanks for your support an input. I am really pleased with the results.
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Well done Gavin one hell of job.
It will confuse the hell out of following drivers. Looks like an old bike on the surface but lights up like a space ship with the flick of a switch!
Nice job
Stu
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Nice job Gavin,
However, I was looking forward to seeing the arrangement we spoke about, where the indicators would be on each side of your helmet!
Richard
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Great work Gavin.
Richard, wouldn't they be better on the fingers of the gloves. That way younger motorists will learn that putting your hand out is signaling a turn, not waving.
Cheers
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I'm thinking of fitting some LED indicators to my bike - I'm sick to death of being cut up by motorists who fail to recognise a hand signal, especially in this failing winter light. Also, I'm always a bit wary of the consequences of taking my hand off the throttle to signal that I intend to pull out and pass something or move to the right hand lane on a Dual carriage way etc.
I can't help feeling that a decent set of indicators would result in a much safer me.
Anyway, my biggest problem so far with this plan is that I don't seem to be able to find any "off the shelf" LED indicators which would look even half acceptable on an A. Has anyone come across any, and if so, where?
Cheers,
Simon
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www.bulbsthatlast4ever
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Hi Simon. At this stage I have found the led's I am using are great in red for the tail/ stop light, but the orange indicators just vanish in direct sunlight. (Making them dead useless for road safety). So while I want the style and look of these, I still have some work to do before they will help with doing the job they were designed for.
I have ordered other indicators, and I have been back in contact with the US manafacturer of the ones I currently have to see what can be done to improve them.
Gavin.
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I'm thinking of fitting some LED indicators to my bike - I'm sick to death of being cut up by motorists who fail to recognise a hand signal, especially in this failing winter light. Also, I'm always a bit wary of the consequences of taking my hand off the throttle to signal that I intend to pull out and pass something or move to the right hand lane on a Dual carriage way etc.
I can't help feeling that a decent set of indicators would result in a much safer me.
Simon
Simon, don't hesitate any longer, get those indicators on. I'm amazed at how many classic bikers on these crowded roads of the UK still rely on their hand signals. One 'hand signal' friend of mine always wants me to follow him at a tricky right hander with my indicators on so he can feel safer!
Is it because a lot of riders are worried about the wiring or are they trying to keep their bikes as original as possible? I just don't understand it.
Alan
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Hi Gavin... Well done so far! Possibly what blew your LED was the fact that they had the incorrect, or no resisters. LEDs only require a small correct amount of current. I recently visited a couple of very helpful sites, take a look...
http://www.bedazzled.uk.com/index.html
http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/resistor_color_code.php
Personally I still use hand signals and feel confident with that. I once made a fatal mistake of leaving indicators on while riding and being unaware of this. At least you cant forget to cancel a hand signal. I think the utmost important thing here is some warning light to show you it is functioning so you can cancel it after manoeuvres.
Edit: 'Cant' not can.... sigh!
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Gday Mosin,
Here are the indicators i'm fitting.
They are from Hong Kong. quality seems ok.
The mounting method came from a beesa bill post.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/4-X-15-LED-Motorcycle-Turn-Signal-Light-Indicator-Bulbs-/260592017580?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item3cac7ea0ac
I'm a bit concerned about Gav saying the orange led's dissapear in daylight though.
and I'm really impressed by the warning lights he built into the switch.
And so LJ doesn't forget to switch them off, perhaps a wire from a spark plug through the indicator switch and affixed to a tender part of his body by a bulldog clip might give the necessary reminder.
Also does anyone have an idea how to run the cable for the brake/tail light on a plunger with the hinged rear guard? There is no hole through the guard and the rear light mount is the old open type.
Is there a glue good enough to stick the cable directly to the inside of the mudguard?
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And so LJ doesn't forget to switch them off, perhaps a wire from a spark plug through the indicator switch and affixed to a tender part of his body by a bulldog clip might give the necessary reminder.
Careful I might enjoy that! lol
Running a wire under the plunger guard? It's horrible under there and far better for wiring to be run on the outside but it never looks nice in my opinion. Mine is wired under the guard and I used nylon zip ties to whatever there was to attach them to, it does not have to look tidy, but so long as they dont dangle onto the wheel obviously. Watch out for the stupid mistake that I made by having the cable too tight and then finding the hinged part wont open. *doh* Any connectors really want to be on the outside so as not to collect all the crud under there. *smile*
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*lol* Just like in our moped days, when one of the common pranks was to run a piece of wire from the plug cap to the seat, piercing the foam and cover. The poor guy wouldn't notice until he directly touched any of the earthed parts (brake/clutch lever, etc.). *grins*
olev, try asking a workshop that exchanges front windshields, they very often have small remains of the black glue they're using for this purpose. That stuff is fantastic.
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... Installed a 12v system .... and switch on handlebars which i modified to include pilot light.
Hi Gavin - that looks really neat - very clever mod! Have you a close up photo and where did you source such a tiny pilot light please? Any more info/instructions would be appreciated as I am keen to have a go at doing that myself.
Brian
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Brain this is an old thread so I'll start a new one re LED indicators with some pics of my efforts: http://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php?topic=11396.0 (http://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php?topic=11396.0)
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Hi Mike - thank you for doing that.
I had checked Gavin's profile and he had logged in just a few days ago so I was hoping he would see my post despite being a relatively old thread ;)
Cheers
Brian
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Hi Brian. A bit stunned and staggered mate... but thanks for asking... here we go... please bear in mind that I did this well over 6 years ago so the detail is just a tad fuzzy.
I think I used a 3 pin flasher unit and ran a wire from the 3rd pin (pilot) to the switch. The attached photo shows the small led I used. I purchased these from Jay Car... any electrical come hobby type place would stock them I guess. I think I bought 10 for $1. So if I made a few mistakes I was well covered.
I then attached one side to the pilot lead and the other to the left hand indicator lead, turned the switch on, if it worked, fine, if not I swapped the led "tails" round... I am no expert with electrical stuff... (Limiting myself to a particular confession here, hereby saving days of writing).
When I was happy that it worked, then I used the appropriate sized drill to make the holes, took a bit of clear sealastic to use as glue and seal and then had a ball trimming and soldering wires and tails to get em all to fit in the switch and not short each other out. By now you have correctly assumed that I did the same for the right hand indicator.
I wish I could be of more use to you. But roughly speaking it was as simple as that.
After 6 years of riding they still work really well. However I have found that I also rely on the front indicator itself to let me know if the indicator is on. These are the ones that have enough "Face" showing along the top so that i can see the top part as I ride.
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Thank you very much indeed for replying Gavin!
Sorry to have stretched your memory cells but that is really useful information and such a clever little mod *smile*
Cheers
Brian
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perhaps someone with a better memory than mine will comment here, wasn't there or is there still a convention with leds/diodes the one leg of the lead that is longer is the positive lead ??
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Correct - see https://www.westfloridacomponents.com/blog/led-basics-how-to-tell-which-lead-is-positive-or-negative/ (https://www.westfloridacomponents.com/blog/led-basics-how-to-tell-which-lead-is-positive-or-negative/)