I'm looking for a few ideas here...

Over the weekend I fitted a Bright6 dash light unit that I bought from SVC at Newark. It's working well (almost) and it has improved the look of the dash a huge amount.

I have just one problem - my indicators are now blinking almost twice as fast, and the blink rate is a bit erratic. I think it's still legal, but it's a bit annoying.

I have m/cycle front indicators, Land-Rover style rears & Fiat side repeaters (all conventional bulbs). The flasher relay is an electronic one from Premier Wiring (as opposed to an old-fashioned hot-wire one).

Everything worked just fine prior to the change-over when I had ordinary filament bulbs on the dash, so I'm wondering what's amiss.

cheers,
David

Sounds like the bulb in the original warning light was taking enough wattage to load the circuit enough to make the flash rate correct.

What wattage are the front indicator bulbs? They could be small motorcycle ones and therefore not 21w which if fitted should sort it.

Otherwise you could get some ballast resistors from SVC, one for each side that will sort it.

Or you could just wire a hidden bulb in the circuit.

HTH,
Rich.

David

I'm no expert in electrics, but I do have a similar set up to you and I know what happened to me.

I would guess that your flasher relay is load dependant. It will require a specific current flowing through it to make it work at a steady rate. Your previous set up was in effect four bulbs, front bike, side repeater, rear lamp and dash tell tale.

You have removed the tell tale lamps so reducing the load, because the LED's take no effective load. Thus causing the erratic flashing.

Easiest solution is to add in a second set of repeaters, perhaps under the dash / scuttle to make the load up, or increase the power of the bulbs in the front motorbike indicators.

Hope that helps

Mike

(Beaten to it, must learn to type or think quicker!!)

[Edited on 4/7/05 by Guinness]

at a guess the old bulbs resistance helped set the flash rate! Add an extra bulb in temporarily and see what happens........ if it slows down, phone up SVC, see what they say then probably fit a resistor.

Loads of good points there!

I can't remember the wattage of my front units - they are m/cycle ones, but VERY bright, so I had assumed that they were a respectable wattage - they passed SVA anyway!

I'll take one to bits tonight - maybe I can get brighter bulbs in the same size. I can't imagine that overheating would be a problem, as they're on a 50% duty cycle and only used for 10 - 20 seconds at a time.

cheers,

David

is your battery well charged, it's confused me a couple of times now.

if it's flat, the flasher unit doesn't get enough current, so it's like the lowered current draw when you have a bulb out.

hth
tom

Yep - the car is connected to a maintenance charger whenever I'm not driving it, and was showing fully charged when I last disconnected it.

The problem is likely to be the front indicator bulbs, as discussed above. We'll see tonight!

David

If youve used motorbike front flashers David they will be 10 watt this with your dash bulbs would have been OK for the indicator relay as both Mikes and Rich have said.
Exactly the same happened to me just uprate your bulbs mate or if they are the small bulbs and you cant find a 21watt bulb of the same physical size put a 22 Ohm wirewound resistor between each sides indicator circuit and earth,Maplin part No H22
Cheers,
Bob

[Edited on 4/7/05 by splitrivet]

Good info Bob - thanks.

quote:

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Originally posted by splitrivet
Exactly the same happened to me just uprate your bulbs mate or if they are the small bulbs and you cant find a 21watt bulb of the same physical size put a 22 Ohm wirewound resistor between each sides indicator circuit and earth,Maplin part No H22
[Edited on 4/7/05 by splitrivet]

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Well, I took out one of the front bulbs, and it was 10W. I replaced it with a 21W bulb and it worked OK on that side. Trouble is, the 21W bulb was the wrong format, having a large round glass bit, but it looks like Maplin do the right-sized bulb in 18W and that should do the job nicely - I'm only looking to consume an extra 2W each side to get back to where I was before!

Thanks for everyone's help, much appreciated (it's always nice to get info from someone who's already sorted the same problem!)

regards,
David

dave - to take you back to the original point. I thought digital switching relays were supposed to work independant of load???

Or am I missing something?

Your darn right Geoff, me being a bit blaise, if anyone uses a ceramic wirewound make sure its in free air they chuck out loads of heat errr 10 or 15 watts if you tape it up your goose is cooked or your car will be for sure.
The Maplins part No is 10 watt rated so should be OK for what he wanted.
No they arent Hellfire came as a shock to me.
Cheers,
Bob

[Edited on 4/7/05 by splitrivet]

I believe that it's deliberate - the driver gets a clue that a bulb has gone by the rapid flashing of the remaining bulbs.

Anyway, "electronic" is a grand term for a very crude bit of circuitry that's barely advanced from the original hot-wire system!

cheers,
David

I tried to find some bulbs with a higher wattage in the local motor factors, and in Halfrauds - no luck.

Went to a local bike shop, explained that I was using bike indicators, and was told "they all use 23W bulbs now". Paid £1.50 for two! Now the indicators work as they should.

David