UK Monster Owners Club Forum » .: Technical :. » Electrics » Warning light is dim after fitting led indicators.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-08-2020, 06:41 AM   #16
Darren69
Transmaniacon MOC
 
Darren69's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Sutton In Ashfield
Bike: Multiple Monsters
Posts: 6,011
[QUOTE=spuggy;578274]I'd swap the stock flasher relay back in temporarily and see how bright the tell-tale bulb was then. I suspect this may be the issue, but have no idea why. Diagnosing is key, though...

Was going to suggest that you swap the old relay back.

It sounds like the flasher may be restricting the voltage and/or current available to the whole indicator circuit - and thus the tell-tale bulb - somehow. The LEDs are probably more tolerant of lower voltage and won't care, but a voltmeter would make it pretty obvious. If that's true, then a higher-wattage bulb likely won't make any difference. Perhaps the relay is in some way incorrect or faulty?


I'm guessing too that the LED relay you have has ballast resistors built in which would explain the dull bulb if that is in the same circuit.
__________________
Roast Beef Monster!

Termignoni and Bucci - Italian for pipe and slippers!

S4 Fogarty, S4R 07T, 748, Series 1 Mirage
Darren69 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2020, 09:41 AM   #17
Dukedesmo
Registered User
 
Dukedesmo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Leics
Bike: M900
Posts: 2,828
If the relay is reducing voltage then a higher wattage bulb is likely to be dimmer is it not?

If everything else is working fine I'd fit an LED bulb for the dash indication, assuming of course such a bulb is available? - it will have the added advantage of a quicker on/off too.
__________________
M900, 916, LeMans II.

Dukedesmo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2020, 02:02 AM   #18
utopia
No turn left unstoned
 
utopia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: leicester
Bike: M750
Posts: 4,543
Well, I haven't had any spare time to fiddle over the past couple of days but I think I'm coming down on the side of fitting the pair of diodes to the warning light circuit.
At £1.57 delivered for 12 of them it certainly isn't cost-prohibitive, so I've ordered them and they should be here by saturday.
They're only 3mm dia and 5mm long so it shouldn't be hard to lose them somewhere in the warning light module.
And the resultant one-way current flow through the warning light gives me the option to fit an LED T5 bulb and possibly gain extra brightness.
I'm hopeful that I'll end up with the desired result.
Thanks for your help everyone.
And Spuggy in particular .. I can't thank you enough.

I'll report back in due course.
utopia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2020, 10:11 PM   #19
utopia
No turn left unstoned
 
utopia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: leicester
Bike: M750
Posts: 4,543
The diodes arrived today and I had an hour or so spare so I rigged them up in a temporary fashion.
Yippity dippity .. I now have a bright warning light again.

Out of interest, while I was at it I attempted to measure the voltage across the warning light.
The reading was obviously erratic due to the intermittent, flashing pulse but at normal flash speed the max reading I could get was just over 12v.
I then slowed the flash speed down to the minimum that the relay would allow and recorded exactly the same voltage, so I reckon its probably a reasonably accurate figure.

I guess the above all suggests that the problem of the dim light was down to a poor earth as a consequence fitting the LED indicators.
utopia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2020, 09:02 AM   #20
spuggy
Registered User
 
spuggy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Farnborough
Bike: M900sie
Posts: 171
Very cool - a fix that costs 26p - we like those!

Now buy a green (if it's going through a filter, it'll work much better with an LED of the same colour rather than white) T5 LED and get a warning light it's difficult to overlook because it illuminates everything around you like The Green Lantern...

Description for these say they're 5W LEDs, but I somehow doubt that... They probably mean it's equivalent to a 5W incandescent's brightness - but as almost no-one ever quotes lumens (and the figures are often suspect if/when they do), it's all guesswork...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T10-Car-L...0AAOSwqeVdXpe-

Those have a projector base, so focus light out through the lens - which will probably work better in this application than the ones with just an SMD chip slapped on top.

Last edited by spuggy; 06-08-2020 at 09:09 AM..
spuggy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-08-2020, 10:10 AM   #21
utopia
No turn left unstoned
 
utopia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: leicester
Bike: M750
Posts: 4,543
Oops .. nearly fell at the last fence there.
Those ones are T10.
You mean these ..
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Super-Bri...8AAOSwtqRbeb~Y
They're rated at 0.12W which doesn't sound much but in this case its a genuine power figure not a brightness equivalent I guess ... and they claim 4 lumens, though I have no comparative info on the original bulbs.
utopia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-08-2020, 11:36 AM   #22
spuggy
Registered User
 
spuggy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Farnborough
Bike: M900sie
Posts: 171
Quote:
Originally Posted by utopia View Post
Oops .. nearly fell at the last fence there.
Those ones are T10.
Oops! Good catch. Damned Flea Bay search substituted something else and I missed it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by utopia View Post
You mean these ..
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Super-Bri...8AAOSwtqRbeb~Y
They're rated at 0.12W which doesn't sound much but in this case its a genuine power figure not a brightness equivalent I guess ... and they claim 4 lumens, though I have no comparative info on the original bulbs.
Yeh, I was going to say I was unable to find a lumens quote for the original bulbs either - until I found this https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ng/5KsbyXGNnhI by chance... Ahh, Usenet....

Those are probably as good as any; the lens is supposed to help a lot over just an unadorned SMD LED emitting unfocused light - although the latter could be more recent tech and thus brighter. Really hard to say for sure.

I've got a superbright white LED I fitted to a key about 8 years ago - great in complete darkness, a really bad idea to look at it directly even in daylight - but visually there's no difference in the package from older tech LEDs that are a fraction of the light output.

Shrug... It's a complete crapshoot without specs - but the 2 quid LED is probably at least as bright as the bulb - and will certainly run cooler/draw much less power - not to mention outlive you in that usage - soooo... I'd probably try and see if I liked it
spuggy is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 09:55 PM.

vBulletin Skins by vBmode.com. Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.