Electrical LED Signal Help Needed!

[Kozy_750]

So, I put an integrated rear light on an R1, hook up the resistors (20W 5 ohm) to each signal, works great. Put led signals on the front also, (Each signal has 14 led's in a cluster) I hook up the same resistance and only 4 of the 14 led's light up. It blinks slow like its supposed to do with resistance but why only 4 led's lighting up? If I bypass the resistors in the front it blinks fast, as expected, and ALL led's light up properly. I'm stumped as to why only 4 out of the 14 led's light up in the front signal when the resistors are hooked up.
Any insight to this would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[djltoronto]

I don't know about your 4 VS 14 problem, but what I do know is this. At 14.4 volts, a 5 ohm resistor will be dissipating 41.472 watts of heat. Even at a 50% duty cycle "flashing" it would still be literally at it's MAX if it's only a 20 watt resistor you are using. You are hooking the resistor up in parallel right? Not in series?

 

[Kozy_750]

I don't know about your 4 VS 14 problem, but what I do know is this. At 14.4 volts, a 5 ohm resistor will be dissipating 41.472 watts of heat. Even at a 50% duty cycle "flashing" it would still be literally at it's MAX if it's only a 20 watt resistor you are using. You are hooking the resistor up in parallel right? Not in series?

Yup, it was hooked up in Parallel, not in series. I'm thinking it's the signals, I've done this many times before and never experienced this. I now have it hooked up without the resistor but its blinking fast and I hate that.

 

[VFR.CBR]

It sounds like you're overloading the circuit feeding the signal lamp. The resistors you're using are a high load and as noted above, are very marginal on heat dissipation.
It's common with LED kits to use individual load resistors to maintain properly flasher function. The better option is to remove all the individual resistors and use a 3 wire flasher. There are 3 wire flashers specifically made for LED operation, the only difference is that the LED flashers don't use the circuit that tests for a blown bulb. Not really a problem as LED lamps will last a very long time.

http://www.grote.com/prodcat/printcatfiles/09_Sec H_F&TS.pdf

These flashers still require a minimum load, usually ~ 1 Amp. You'll need a load resistor in your case, but this way you can connect a single resistor to the output side of the flasher. Use 2 of your 5 Ohm resistors in series (10 Ohms). This will provide the load needed and no worries about resistors burning up.

You might even try the single load resistor on your current flasher, your existing load is on excess of 80 Watts, you want to aim closer to 10~20 Watts.

 

[Kozy_750]

I was thinking about going the route of a new relay meant for LED's. Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

 

[user751140]

I had the same issue with my previous LED strips.. there were 16 leds' and they all worked great and then right after i connected them.. only 3 worked.. So it could just be bad quality..