LED gauge conversion

[BassCliff]

Hi,

I've done nothing to modify the lights on my gauges. But I did replace all of the turn signals bulbs and tail light bulb with units from superbrightleds.com. I replaced my stock turn signal flasher relay with an off-the-shelf generic unit. The stock flasher unit needs to "see" a specific load in order to operate properly. The LED bulbs do not offer enough load.

Turn Signal Relay Replacement

Bulb tests:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-J1uwfbuwI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXHNpESTrU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tzCDZ2TDHw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP7WUkQjQew

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Steve]

Resistors.

That's all you need to drop the 12v to 3.5 needed for the led's.

Unless you get LEDs that are designed to be used in vehicles. Then, the resistor is already built in, all you have to do is remove your stock bulb and insert the LED replacement.

You should get an led flasher. They don't care what bulbs you use and will apways flash at the same rate.

True, but ...

If your bike has self-cancelling turn signals, installing ANY flasher other than stock will eliminate that feature. If you wish to use LED 'bulbs' and retain your stock flasher, you will need to use load-compensating resistors, but they will not provide any of the energy saving advantages of LEDs.

Some led's are brighter than others its a matter of trying them and seeing what you find is bright enough for you. Some colors of the same type of led will be dimmer than others.

True, there are differences in 'brightness', but viewing angle is also important. Some LEDs will be intensely bright, but only when viewed directly on-axis. Move sideways a few degrees, you will barely be able to tell that they are on.

Also, when putting LEDs behind colored lenses, match the colors. DO NOT use white LEDs behind amber or red lenses, they will be incredibly DIM. Use amber or red LEDs. One exception is that a red LED works decently well behind an amber lens.

You don't need a power supply. Just use the bikes supply and add a 1kilo ohm resistor in series with the led. You can fine tune the resistance to give the brightness you want but I find 1k is full brightness.

As previously mentioned, if you buy LED 'bulbs' that are designed for a car, they are 'plug and play', no resistors needed.

There are led' s purpose built to just drop in as replacements. Your turn signals for example could be replaced with 1156led bulbs. Same for the brake light.

NOW you finally mention it.

.

[Call Me Ahab]

Thanks everyone! That clears up my doubts and questions - now I just need to hunt down some bulbs =]

My stock turn relay is cooked so I guess I'll go with an LED relay for the new bulbs rather than the generic "thermal" relay I have now.

I'll look into the LED's for the dash and gauges some more... I'm seriously considering going with red LED's for the gauges... maybe.

Great info here, I really appreciate it!