L.E.D. quetion for the masses

[Steve Hamm]

i replaces the factory 1157 and 1156 light buls on my 2002 RSMV , with led bulds , i also added some side marker lights on the from forks and under the side of the rear trunk ,all led bulbs,,,,, also added were small led lights into the fairing , for more signal lights only

so here is the out come ,,, turning the key on all the new led lights come on , but not the front marker light where i replaced the 1157s , but the 2 i put in the fairing come on as well , and the signal inticaters are on , but quite dim ,, then when i turn the signal light on the lights flash quite fast ????????? any help would realy help me out

 

i hope i expained it right

[Carbon_One]

Check all of your connections again and make sure you have a good ground too. If no problems found then you'll need to add in a load equalizer to slow down the flash rate.

Larry

[M61A1MECH]

LEDs are typically not omni directional , in that they are brightest when viewed looking directly at the end and do not put out much light when viewing them from the side. With the way that Yamaha mounts they turn signals if you do not use LEDs that that are made so the ends of the LEDs are pointing direcetly front wards or rearwards then they will appear dim, because you are looking at the side of the LEDs. If you did not use a load equalizer on the turn signals they will blink fast with LEDs because the flasher speed is related to the current draw, less current (LEDs) blinks faster than more current (regular bulbs).

Edited May 11, 2013 by M61A1MECH
added not before omni, see post below

[csdexter]

As an alternative to installing load equalizers (which get hot and somewhat kill the energy savings that you may have been planning to achieve by upgrading to LEDs), you can replace your flasher relay with a "load-independent" one. Some sites say "goes from 0W to 100W" (or some other rated power) instead of "load-independent". Some other sites quote it as "for LEDs" -- they all mean the same thing, but the "for LEDs" ones tend not to be able to drive bulbs, so if you plan on going back and forth between LEDs and classic bulbs, keep that in mind.

 

I got one from Louis that has the same connector as the OEM one, so it was a direct replacement. I had to invent a way to fasten it to the bike where the old one was, but that was a piece of cake. Being the load-independent type, I am able to change the bulbs one by one with LEDs without worrying about breaking anything.

 

Everything M61A1MECH said is true, except the word he used :-) It's "unidirectional" (or, even, "directional") for things that look brighter or dimmer depending on the angle you look at them from and "omnidirectional" for things that look the same no matter how you look at them.

He's also true with regard to the fact that RSV owners are unlucky in this regard if you look at the shape of the flasher enclosures. This is why some companies out there have designed LED lights specifically for the Japanese "sideways" flasher that we have on our bikes (and same goes for the tail light), which look like a small board with a number of LEDs that goes between the two pillars where the screws go in and has wires connected to an empty bulb base that you can connect in the OEM bulb socket.

 

For reasons unfathomable to me, said companies charge insane prices for those assemblies (e.g. the one for the tail light is 80USD) which is why I'm currently designing and building my own.

 

Good luck with your LED transformation!

[M61A1MECH]

cs dexter, thanks for that I forgot the word not, I have corrected that . so much for typing when I should be sleeping.

[Steve Hamm]

thanks for the input , i ordered a new flasher and will let you all know how it works out

[djh3]

Problem with just replacing the flasher on the 2nd gen anyways is you loose the auto cancel feature. I tried to work around it but didnt have mush luck. There was a write up floating around a guy modified the flasher unit on his 650 yamaha which has the same basic layout for auto cancel I guess. I tried the LED in the front an rear OEM sockets but didnt care for them in the front, they just didnt look bright enough compaired to the incandesent bulbs. So I built some add on LED signal and running lights. Hard to actually see where lights are when taking the pic as the reflective stuff shows up. But they are in center lower on rear.

[csdexter]

Judging by the schematic, that shouldn't be the case IF the replacement flasher was actually meant as a replacement for the kind of flasher setup the RSV has. When you go look for aftermarket replacements, get a "2-pin" flasher NOT the ones which have more pins. The RSV (both EU/AU and US models) use the flasher relay just to provide the blinking signal, all of the other stuff (hazard mode and auto-cancel) is being dealt with by the other two relays (which you should not touch in any way during the LED conversion).

 

You need a replacement flasher relay that has two pins and starts in the "ON" (i.e. closed) state (which the vast majority do). The one I pointed to in my reply matches everything I've said here -- there may be many alternatives out there, I just showed you what I got.

 

Once again: only replace the flasher relay behind the right sidecover, the black thing between the carb thermo switch and the carb relay (sky blue). It says things like "83 cycles for per minute" and "2x21W+3W" on it. Do NOT touch the two other relays in the front fairing ;-)

[djh3]

I had a flasher I pulled from my truck. I then pulled the leads out of the connector for the bike flasher. Made a couple jumpers and hooked it all up. Couldnt get the auto cancel to work. So I gave up on using a "replacement" flasher. In theroy it should work. but so should our government.

[csdexter]

I'm guessing asking "does the auto cancel even/still work with the OEM flasher relay?" will result in stones being thrown my way :-) (I'm asking because only the US version has auto-cancel and it's known to go bad over time)

 

For what it's worth, the setup described works for me so I'll leave it at that.

[GeorgeS]

Led's are great for your Tail lights, and Marker lights, ie: bulbs that are " On" 100 percent of the time.

 

As to Brake light, and Turn Signals, Hmmm Why Bother ??? These lights are " ON " for an Extremely Short Time, !!!! So, the Current draw is extremely low, " On Average"

 

So---- Why bother, changing them, and spending money, and going to all the trouble of trying to get your signal system to work with these type of bulbs ?????

 

I use them for " Tail " and " Marker " lights, but, turn and brake ???? Whats the point in going to all the trouble

[csdexter]

I don't know why others do it, but in my case the reasons are:

 

• energy economy (I could always use extra spare watts)
  
• last longer than the useful life of the bike (more than 5 1/2 years if I were keeping the lights on 24/7)
  
• impervious to vibration
  
• definitely better light output (the LED version is clearly more visible than the bulb one)
  
• ability to easily (and automatically) control output depending on outside light level (which means I can now see my in-dash indicator lights even if the sun is out while at the same time being able to ride at night without having my eyes punctured by them being too bright). Same comment about "cool looking" brake and turn indicators at day that become eye piercing for the poor driver(s) behind at night.
  
• ability to easily control colour temperature and CRI so that at night I get the exact hue my eyes work best with
  
• last but not least, it's the way forward (IMHO the filament bulb has had its run for the money)
  

[djh3]

I made my marker/turn lights for a couple reasons. Some CSdexter mentioned. In darkness the LED out perform the incandesants.

Any extra lighting to make my bike noticable day or night is a bonus.

Plus I got to fabricate some wiring, brackets and mess in the garage for a couple days.

[GeorgeS]

On the Single Filament, 1057 bulbs used for the Turn signals.

 

You can take an 1157, Double Filament bulb ( used for tail and brake light ) and modify it for the Turn signals.

 

Simply use a Solder Iron, and build a Solder Bridge across the two contacts.

Now use the modified 1157 Double Filament, in place of the single filament 1057.

 

Use this for your Turn signal bulbs, and you now have brighter Turn Signals !! Easy.

 

I added LED's for the Tail light, Works great. ( Rewireing required )

 

For the Brake light, I also use the 1157, with the solder bridge across the two Contact points.

So Both filaments light up. ( But have to remove the Tail Light Wire to that Bulb socket )