Neutral LED indicator

[silverkrown]

I tried doing a search but couldn't find an answer to my question. I am
in the process sliming down the wiring on my 1982 GS650GL. My problem is with the neutral light indicator. I'm wanting to put a little LED in the headlight as an indicator. I know I have the correct wires because I hooked an old blinker up to the wires and it lights up when in neutral. I've tried hooking the LED to the same wires but can't get it to light up. I'm not to familiar with LED lights. The link below is the LED that I am trying to use. Thanks for any help.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062569

[Steve]

Did you try reversing the leads? LEDs are polarity sensitive.

The red wire of the LED should go to the common wire in the gauge with the black wire connected to the wire going down to the switch.

.

[jed.only]

Did you try reversing the leads? LEDs are polarity sensitive.

The red wire of the LED should go to the common wire in the gauge with the black wire connected to the wire going down to the switch.

.

100% correct, it is a diode.

[drhach]

Also, you can't just plug in an LED where an incandescent bulb used to be. They have very specific current and voltage requirements. You need an inline resistor. You mave burned it up already if you just applied 12V.

[brveagle]

Also, you can't just plug in an LED where an incandescent bulb used to be. They have very specific current and voltage requirements. You need an inline resistor. You mave burned it up already if you just applied 12V.

+1. That led is most likely toast.

What i would recommend is going to radio shack or the equivalant electrical supplies shop and picking up a 12v LED/resistor combo. This will be the plug and play application that you are looking for.

[Steve]

Also, you can't just plug in an LED where an incandescent bulb used to be. They have very specific current and voltage requirements. You need an inline resistor. You mave burned it up already if you just applied 12V.

+1. That led is most likely toast.

What i would recommend is going to radio shack or the equivalant electrical supplies shop and picking up a 12v LED/resistor combo. This will be the plug and play application that you are looking for.

Evidently you guys did not look at his link. It shows a 12-volt LED from Radio Snack.

.

[drhach]

Evidently not. You are correct sir.

[GS1100ez]

doesnt matter
LEDs dont use voltage per say, they works off of amperage

it still has a max amps of 15mA
so he will need a resistor
he prob blew the led up if he wired the + and - right

its amperage tho

if you took an led like that one, and put on the right resistor to ressit it to 15mA you could wire it in to AC, it would blink at 16 hertz, so 16 times per second, but it is running on the 115v

leds run off of amperage, so you will need a resistor to limit the amount of amperage going to it

[silverkrown]

Thanks for the info guys. I kinda figured it was something like that. The old blinker I used probably works and lights up because it was meant for that much power.
So I have the neutral power and ground wires. What kind of resistor would I need and do I just hook it up in between the LED wire and bike wires? Would I only need one on the power wire or would there need a resistor on the negative also? Thank again.

[GS1100ez]

Thanks for the info guys. I kinda figured it was something like that. The old blinker I used probably works and lights up because it was meant for that much power.
So I have the neutral power and ground wires. What kind of resistor would I need and do I just hook it up in between the LED wire and bike wires? Would I only need one on the power wire or would there need a resistor on the negative also? Thank again.

resistor only between the hot wire and the LED hot lead

the resistor depends on the amperage requirements
and the foreword voltage


the radioshack site does not give all the info requires

but if you went by the 12v, which shouldnt be the foreword voltage which is a factor we need
and we assume the bike runs around 13v
and it has a mA rating of 15

then you would need a 68 ohms resistor

the site doesnt relaly give accurate info on the LED so its hard to say

here is a nice easy calculator for you

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

also, if you check ebay, you can get alot more LEDs with resistors for the same price as the 1 you bought

[7th day]

The LED he is using has a resistor built into it. If you look closely you can see it.

[Steve]

... if you took an led like that one, and put on the right resistor to ressit it to 15mA you could wire it in to AC, it would blink at 16 hertz, so 16 times per second, but it is running on the 115v

leds run off of amperage, so you will need a resistor to limit the amount of amperage going to it

WOW, electronics have sure changed since I went to school.

Last I knew, house current was at 60Hz, so I am under the evidently mistaken idea that the LED would 'blink' 60 times every second (also known as 60Hz).
Evidently things happen a bit slower in NJ.
By the way, 'blinking' at 60Hz would not be perceptible to the human eye. Even the frame rate in Hollyweird movies is only 24 frames per second (24Hz).

And, yes, there is a certain amount of amperage involved, but that unknown amount of amperage has a known amount of voltage pushing it. If you look at the link, the description says that it is for 12 volt aplications and, as 7th day noted, you can even see the resistor in the picture.


Back to the original poster:
Jim, have you tried reversing the leads on the LED? You do NOT need any other resistors in either line if, indeed, you have the proper wires for the neutral wire and the ground. I just looked in my wiring diagram for an '82 650L and see that your red wire on the LED should be connected to an orange wire (that originally fed the neutral light) and the black LED wire should connect to a blue wire that goes down to the gear position switch. Please try that and let us know what happens.

.

[GS1100ez]

your right, i ment 60hz

and i didnt see the resistor in the picture
so if its built into the light you dont need an inline one like Steve said

[silverkrown]

The thing I hate about electrical is it never fails to make me look like a moron. You guys were right, I switched the wires around and sure enough a bright green light turned on.
I could have sworn that I had tried switching them but apparently not. Thanks for your help guys, now I can mount it into the headlight.

[tkent02]

your right, i ment 60hz

and i didnt see the resistor in the picture
so if its built into the light you dont need an inline one like Steve said

Is that a luggage rack I see on that Kawasaki triple?
That's just not right.

Get a Hondah for luggage hauling duty, those Kaws deserve better.