Turn signals - LED swap
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Cruiser
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 190
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From: Warwickshire
Turn signals - LED swap
I just fitted a rather nice combined Tag plate holder and LED rear lighting set to my Bob (no pictures yet, don’t shout at me – elliptical shape - bought it from Debrix, republic of California) but I had an interesting episode which you may find enlightening.
I guessed that when I removed the existing direction indicators at the rear (or turn signals as you call them in the colonies) I would have the double speed flash problem you get when a bulb blows. And, sure enough, when we removed one of the bulbs as a test, off the front one went at twice the flash rate. Sooooooooo, off I go to Maplins to buy a couple of wire wound resistors (3A power rated just in case) to replace the filament bulb load.
One hour later I’m back, balancing the new light unit in mid air and holding the resistor in circuit as a test. First off I think we’ve cracked it – it chugs away at about 1 flash per second, then after about 4 flashes it jumps back to double speed. WTF!! We play around for a few minutes and it’s no better. We try 2 resistors in series – no different! I switch off the ignition and then back on again and we are back to 4 slow and then lots of fast flashes. Weird.
Then it gets really weird. After another off/on of the ignition, the flashing calms down to a steady slow rate, at the correct frequency (say 1 per second) and, to cut a long story short, it’s been like that ever since i.e. working perfectly - without any ballast resistors at all.
At first I thought that HD had actually recognised that LEDs might be the coming thing and programmed the security/turn control module to reflect this and deal with upgrades. But the more I think about it, the more I realise this wouldn’t happen. My guess is that the TSSM module (or whatever) is programmed to sense that a bulb has gone open circuit (blown) and compensate by returning the flash rate to normal frequency. It just takes a little time or some resets with the ignition off/on to achieve it.
So the lesson we all learn from this is, if you are playing with LEDs on your turn signals, be patient and try a couple of on/off ignition cycles and you could be good to go. I guess the theory also holds true for anyone who wants to disconnect the fronts or rears, like I read in another thread this morning.
By the way, the throw-over saddlebags fit like an absolute dream now. Which is what prompted all this ******* about in the first place!
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