LED blinker fun ...
03-23-07, 01:28 PM
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LED blinker fun ...
Wanting to experiment with some leds, I came across some "3W Prolight" hi-power leds on ebay. I got some of these and a couple "collimators"(a focus lens, these were 45 degree). These things throw out a lot of light, and require a heatsink.
The first area to work on for me was the front blinkers. Disassembly of the FC front blinker and reflector. There is a "tab" on the bottom that I folded up 90 degrees.(This also happens to be a decent heatsink for the led
)
This tab is a little long and requires about 1/4" off the top with a dremel/tinsnip etc ... I gathered up some heat sink compound, some loctite, and some PC screws w/ fiber washers(I may go back and use nylon screws/nuts, I just didn't have any atm). Drilling out some mounting holes, applying heat sink compound, and loctite on your screws, you should have something like this.
Some Zap glue and we now have something that should hold, but time will tell.
I wanted to retain the stock stuffs, so I drilled a hole in the ground wire extrusion of the casing.
Now for the fun part ... I headed to my local electronic supply to get some resistors that I needed. Unfortunately they were out of stock on what I wanted (for this led 20ohm/10 watt). I ended up running 2 40 ohm 5 watt in parallel. I ran a line from the main fuse box(10 amp fused) up front, to power in on a relay. Power out on the relay went to the + side of the led, led itself grounded to the factory wire for the blinker. The "blink" line(on only when blinking) was wired to one side of the switch part of the relay, with a 10 ohm/10 watt resistor to the factory ground wire for the blinker.(this provides "load" so you dont have turbo-blinkers) The "running light" line was directly attatched to the other switched side of the relay.(intricacies of the mazda blinker unit made me go this way, it switches to ground when the "lights" are off allowing the relay switch to reverse polarity to blink).
Anyhow, results with the led and your regular "hyper white bulb". Blinker blinks when lights are off, and blinker turns off to blink when the lights are on.(it's really bright, the picture doesn't do much justice)
The fogs may be my next victim ... err experiment!
The first area to work on for me was the front blinkers. Disassembly of the FC front blinker and reflector. There is a "tab" on the bottom that I folded up 90 degrees.(This also happens to be a decent heatsink for the led
) This tab is a little long and requires about 1/4" off the top with a dremel/tinsnip etc ... I gathered up some heat sink compound, some loctite, and some PC screws w/ fiber washers(I may go back and use nylon screws/nuts, I just didn't have any atm). Drilling out some mounting holes, applying heat sink compound, and loctite on your screws, you should have something like this.
Some Zap glue and we now have something that should hold, but time will tell.
I wanted to retain the stock stuffs, so I drilled a hole in the ground wire extrusion of the casing.
Now for the fun part ... I headed to my local electronic supply to get some resistors that I needed. Unfortunately they were out of stock on what I wanted (for this led 20ohm/10 watt). I ended up running 2 40 ohm 5 watt in parallel. I ran a line from the main fuse box(10 amp fused) up front, to power in on a relay. Power out on the relay went to the + side of the led, led itself grounded to the factory wire for the blinker. The "blink" line(on only when blinking) was wired to one side of the switch part of the relay, with a 10 ohm/10 watt resistor to the factory ground wire for the blinker.(this provides "load" so you dont have turbo-blinkers) The "running light" line was directly attatched to the other switched side of the relay.(intricacies of the mazda blinker unit made me go this way, it switches to ground when the "lights" are off allowing the relay switch to reverse polarity to blink).
Anyhow, results with the led and your regular "hyper white bulb". Blinker blinks when lights are off, and blinker turns off to blink when the lights are on.(it's really bright, the picture doesn't do much justice)
The fogs may be my next victim ... err experiment!
03-23-07, 02:12 PM
#3
Originally Posted by T2GTUS
Anyhow, results with the led and your regular "hyper white bulb". Blinker blinks when lights are off, and blinker turns off to blink when the lights are on.(it's really bright, the picture doesn't do much justice)
03-23-07, 02:23 PM
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he means that when you have your running and headlights on, when you flck you directional on the maker light turns off and on to signal you directional.
when the lights are off (like daytime) the cycle of the directional is on and off.
hope that clears it up,
TR
when the lights are off (like daytime) the cycle of the directional is on and off.
hope that clears it up,
TR
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