LED turn signals

Fuckin' hilarious - I've just walked in after a funeral & that's put a smile on my face. Thanks Pete

You're welcome Dave!

Pete you are right LED-Bollox is just a few steps from Carbon-Fibre-bollox (and race-tyres-Bollox).


Guzzi alternators were never bad I believe originally the Bosch system was the same as Volkswagen (?) and then (definitely) BMW.

It was (and is) just the way that the Mandello del Lario Spaghetti Artist joined them up that had me reaching for my lucky rabbits foot and book of incantations.


So, if you don't mind,  i will hang onto a little LED-Bollox so there are more unescaped amps to crawl along the spaghetti towards the battery and starter

I'll let you keep the LED Bollox as long as you don't snigger too loudly at my carbon fibre front mudguard and exhaust can. Deal?

Deal

Nothing to do with the electrx. I just think the original plasti-chrome monstrosities don't fit the aesthetics.  (Word borrowed from my daughter).

Totally agree on the chrome. My indicators will be either replaced or painted over the cold months.

@Degs be careful with your hates .... there is lots of plasti-chrome on a GRiSO

Be gestalt.....love the whole despite the parts

Only way to love a Guzzi

PS @Degs

should we form a sub-cult within the Ghetto? - the church of the one true silencer??

hey, youse blokes - no religion here!

lcjohnny wrote:

PS @Degs

should we form a sub-cult within the Ghetto?  - the church of the one true silencer??

Luddites!   ....just kidding...

Cult- only if you rally together and source an uprated, properly contorted 'one true pretzel'.

@lcjohnny
Slowly getting rid of the plasti-chome. Need to think of a way around the shinny hole in the middle. And the heel protectors, without resorting to plasti-carbon fibre.
Maybe just paint.
I like to think of the GRiSO as a gentleman's express. Cheap parts will be binned.
End cans Need to be not shinny or carbon fibre.


These are only my ideas and not gospel. Cult notwithstanding.
Do whatever you want with yours.
Except try to increase backpressure.

I got an extra pair of the chrome bezels and painted them matte black. Lukewarm on the difference.

At the risk of triggering some of you, I could use some help with LED turn signals.

First, some context! When I picked up my GRiSO last year, it was a fly and ride. In the process, I didn't catch that one of the front turn signal mounts was broken, and hastily repaired with some glue (that didn't work) and zip ties. The bodge job was enough to get me home and it works well enough. But my OCD can't handle it and it needs replacement.

As it is with these bikes, parts aren't easy to find and I have a set of nice Oberon LED turn signals that match the bike quite well. (I know, I know; some of you don't like LEDs. Please bear with me.) After tearing apart the gauge cluster and attempting to rewire for the new signals... they don't work.

I'm wondering if whatever is controlling the turn signals is thrown off by LED units upfront and traditional incandescent units out back. I know the signals are getting power. The dash is NOT showing the bulb warning light after I've wired in some resistors. Incidentally, I've tried wiring the resistors in both parallel and in serial, and in both cases; the front signals do not flash, and no error code on the dash.

Am I also needing a relay or is there something unique in the wiring of the front signals?

I appreciate the help.

LED indicators usually only work with one wire at +12v and the other at earth.
Unlike incandescent which work in either direction.

So, firstly, try reversing your connectors

One side has sky-blue positive and blue ground. Make sure you haven't reversed them. As for the Oberon units:



[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

lcjohnny wrote:

LED indicators usually only work with one wire at +12v and the other at earth.
Unlike incandescent which work in either direction.

So, firstly, try reversing your connectors

Ahh yes. Good point. I thought I had that sorted last night, but the red mist may have descended and frustration got the better of me. I'll give it another go. Thank you.

beetle wrote:

One side has sky-blue positive and blue ground. Make sure you haven't reversed them. As for the Oberon units:



[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Multi-quote doesn't seem to be working for me so we're doubling up today.

Thanks for the clarification on wire color polarity. That threw me and I assumed dark-to-dark, but I'll double-check that.

Incidentally, that diagram you posted is of the units I'm describing, the rounder ones, that is. I don't see them calling out ohms; does it matter? I believe the bulbs are 7.35W, yes? I'm using some Rizoma resistors as I have a pile of them leftover if that matters.

In any case, I appreciate the help. I love this little corner of the internet!

I've learned the hard way to never assume wire color actually means anything. I was replacing clearance lights on a Volvo road tractor, and wired the new lights (factory Volvo replacements) in matching the white/white and black/black. Lights no workie. Switched the wires and all was well.

I'm now in the process of converting a Kenworth to RV duty, adding all the required lighting to the bed. The marker lights have white and black wires, with white being ground/earth, and black being positive/battery.

I gave it another; no dice. I’ve tried every possible wiring combination and while I’ve successfully kept the failed bulb light from coming on, the front signals won’t fire. My guess is that the resistors I’m using, Rizoma units, have too high a resistance at 15 ohms.

[url=https://servimg.com/view/11571593/1][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

My only other option is to find a new pair of Rizoma units and hope that works, but I’m not too keen on dropping $150 for another pair of signals. Le sigh…

UPDATE! For the tl;dr crowd - fixed.

The long of it is that the resistors I had, Rizoma units, didn’t want to work with my Oberon LED turn signals. No matter which combination of resistors or wiring I tried, the lights would not flash. I could keep the dash from showing the bulb error, but never could I get the signal to flash.

So I do what I didn’t want to do and pointed the money gun at the problem. My local Ducati shop had a pair of bullet-style Rizoma signals on the shelf that they sold me for a discount. One resister per side and she’s good to go with functioning front turn signals. Yay.

I’ll snag a picture once I complete the oil change.

You know you could have gone to your local Radio Shack (or whatever they're called now) and spent less than $5 on off-the-shelf resistors. Just sayin'

Indicators, sometimes I prod them sometimes I don't. sometimes I prod them and forget to unprod them.
Have a turn cancelling option am yet to fit but like startus interuptus even though I now know what to do am loathe to do it until it causes me aggro.
Indicators are almost like Led headlights except the headlights are useful and work the alternator/ battery less on bikes that need that, I have neither.
I will probably never swap out the rusty plastic indicators, how do they do that rust.
Who needs them, if your that frightened of being seen going somewhere your times probably already up. Besides my bike looks stunning as it is with the originals and like I could give two fucks [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

beetle wrote:

You know you could have gone to your local Radio Shack (or whatever they're called now) and spent less than $5 on off-the-shelf resistors. Just sayin'

Yes, you’re correct… if it were many years ago. Here in North America, when Radio Shack declared bankruptcy, nearly all stores were closed and liquidated. So I don’t have anything local selling resistors. Besides, I couldn’t find the resistor specs required for these Oberon units… I also didn’t look very hard.

The weird part about these particular signals is that I ran them many years ago on my Multistrada 1100 and along with the Rizoma resistors I had at them, worked well enough. For whatever reason, on this Guzzi; no dice.

In any case, job done and I’m glad to have the bike back together, the oil changed, and the service light reset. Now, about that oil leak…

Hi,  Can I add a little to this discussion?  

The reason load resistors are needed differs depending on the bike.  

If the bike uses relays etc. then the flasher is electro-mechanical, it uses the current drawn by the indicators to heat up a coil which breaks the connection so the current stops, the coil cools and off we go again.  LEDs don't draw sufficient current to make it all work.

I'm new to my bike - but I read here that the indicators are driven by the dash. Generally the issue is then the need to fool the electronics that the indicators are present and intact.  On my (ex) Ducati S4R the dash reads the low current draw as being a blown bulb - and deliberately doubles the flash rate (emulating a traditional relay with one blown bulb).

With a relay you need to draw a lot of current - the 15W resistors in parallel "look" the same as an incandescent light bulb.  Note that you then don't save any power, it all down to appearance and reliability.

The load to fool the dash will differ, but (if I remember correctly) a 1kilohm per side worked for the Ducati.  Only one per side is needed if the front and rear are in parallel.  This is also why the flash rate is correct with only one end changed to LED.  The "old" bulb is a resistor - literally, one that gets so hot it glows.  Given that the experience in these posts is that this does happen, it sound to be that the front/rear are on the same circuit.

That 1kilohm resistor can be tiny.  Shunting 12v across 1000 ohms is a load of just (12 x 12)/1000 watts. That is 0.14W.  

With 1kilohm you are probably OK with a 1/4W resistor (especially since it's an on/off duty cycle), 1W is plenty.  Given the minuscule load I wouldn't bother going more than 1kilohm, if you need a lower resistance e.g. 500 ohm, then the power increases, but even 500ohm is well below 1W.  Even if my memory has faded and it was 200ohm, and allowing for 14v, that's still only 0.98W, 50% of the time.

The Rizoma resistors at 15 ohm are, I would guess, way too low, not high.  Side lights are typically 5W IIRC.  Then each bulb has a resistance of circa 29ohm, and since they are wired in parallel the circuit load is halved - 15ohm.  I suspect these Rizoma resistors are emulating a full incandescent sidelight circuit - they would draw the same power (and get as hot?).  

Now please double check my reasoning and numbers!