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led q's

P

pro-rallye

NAXJA Forum User
Location
bozeman/j-hole
i burned out my front blinkers below the headlights and so i decided to replace them with led conversion bulbs. i have some in my tails and they look awesome and are really way brighter. i hooked them up and also installed a no-load flasher but they still don't even turn on. what am i missing here. i would like to get these working soon. thanks
 
Current is what makes the flasher blink! Led's pull EXTREMELY low amounts of current. I had the same issue with a flasher system on my Dune Buggy... I put in a bigger bulb to allow more current and it worked fine. I don't think leds are gunna work there. If you can find a way around it please inform me.. maybe a different type of flasher. If you wanted them REALLY bad it may work to put a flasher relay on the flasher and then run the relay to the led light. Tho Relays pull very little current as well that may not work. you could put an additional bulb in the circuit somehow and it would work then.
 
Pick up a 50watt or so load resistor and put it in line with it. Something like this(first thing that came up in a search, shop around for a better price) http://www.eautoworks.com/html/ord-Light~bulbs-Signal,Corner,Tail~and~accessories~bulbs-1-33226.htm

Also, LED's or Light Emitting DIODES are polarity specific, power will only go through them one way, make sure your power and ground are in the right spot.

If your old bulb "burnt out" check your fuses and check to see if it was even getting power, maybe the bulb wasn't burnt out.

LED could be defective, Hook it up to your battery to verify it even works.
 
Putting the resistor in line with it would decrease the current flow. You would want to put the resistor across the LED to simulate a larger load.
 
XJeremy23 said:
Putting the resistor in line with it would decrease the current flow. You would want to put the resistor across the LED to simulate a larger load.
Click to expand...

bluntly put, that statement is completely wrong.
if you put a resistor in parallel (across) the LED's, the effective resistance is reduced, allowing more current to flow. putting it in series (in line with) will increase the effective resistance, thereby lowering the current through the LED's, and causing them NOT to burn up/explode.

so... if you want to take the load resistor method (recommended for your application, place in in line with the LED's
 
cool thanks for the responses. i think i will try the load resister method and see what happens. should i keep the no-load flasher in as well, or does it even matter. thanks
 
I'm sorry I must be confused. I thought we were trying to increase current flow to get his flasher to work. I will crawl into a hole with my laptop and quietly read posts while fighting the urge to compulsively reply.
 
A light bulb is no more than an exposed resistor... A bigger bulb would fix his problem (More resistance) so in order to use the LEDs, add a resistor.

Flasher works like this:
1. Current flows thru flasher to light bulb.
2. Light bulb needs mucho current.
3. Contact in flasher gets hot and dissconnects
4. Contact cools off and connects
5. Then gets hot and disconnects again
6. Repeat steps 3-5 again and again and again.

If theres not enough resistance to make the contact get hot then it won't flash.
 
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