snoopy
Guest
I've done it - I think I'm the first to be able to mount LED indicators without resistors on a bike that has the hazards option installed.
The front indicators always break in a fall and the price of an indicator is silly. Hein Gerick do lots of LED indicators but the ones that got my attention are the pack of two for £24.99. Cheaper ones on eBay sure but these have LED's in the sides, are waterproof and are ... flexible. Woo hoo!
And they do a waterproof LED relay for £9.99. The connector from the original relay might be tricky to source but I had one from a DRZ so it is universal type. Might be found at Maplin. Alternatively smash up your old relay.
Once you've drilled the original holes larger using a 10mm piece, and soldered them all together (be careful, BMW doesn't get the polarity right on some indicators), then you'll find it doesn't work.
When you "indicate" both sides come on. It's because of the hazard warning system. No schematics of this system exist on the web but it looks to be built into the loom of the bike and most certainly uses thyristors as it stays on when the key is removed.
This system looks for low resistance which the LED's don't provide. At this point you could go stick on a 10ohm resistor but that wastes lot of watts. Through trial and error I found that this 'check' will go to 100ohm and perhaps past it, though 470ohm doesn't work. That means a wattage loss of just 1.2w at 100ohm! The resistor can be small and wont get hot either.
Job nearly done ... but then there is a small flash on the opposite of the indicating side. There is some sort of spike going on. A lower resistor helps but that's defeating the purpose again. Again through trial and error I found a 100uF capacitor will perfectly absorb this flash without causing the LEDs to delay on/off.
So if you want to install LED indicators, and I'll show you how trick they look tomorrow sometime, then it'll cost £60 plus two resistors and capacitors. Wire a 100ohm and 100uF capacitor in parallel with one another and the front LED indicator wires. Note polarity as the capacitor is one way only or it will pop.
Cheers,
Snoops.
The front indicators always break in a fall and the price of an indicator is silly. Hein Gerick do lots of LED indicators but the ones that got my attention are the pack of two for £24.99. Cheaper ones on eBay sure but these have LED's in the sides, are waterproof and are ... flexible. Woo hoo!
And they do a waterproof LED relay for £9.99. The connector from the original relay might be tricky to source but I had one from a DRZ so it is universal type. Might be found at Maplin. Alternatively smash up your old relay.
Once you've drilled the original holes larger using a 10mm piece, and soldered them all together (be careful, BMW doesn't get the polarity right on some indicators), then you'll find it doesn't work.
When you "indicate" both sides come on. It's because of the hazard warning system. No schematics of this system exist on the web but it looks to be built into the loom of the bike and most certainly uses thyristors as it stays on when the key is removed.
This system looks for low resistance which the LED's don't provide. At this point you could go stick on a 10ohm resistor but that wastes lot of watts. Through trial and error I found that this 'check' will go to 100ohm and perhaps past it, though 470ohm doesn't work. That means a wattage loss of just 1.2w at 100ohm! The resistor can be small and wont get hot either.
Job nearly done ... but then there is a small flash on the opposite of the indicating side. There is some sort of spike going on. A lower resistor helps but that's defeating the purpose again. Again through trial and error I found a 100uF capacitor will perfectly absorb this flash without causing the LEDs to delay on/off.
So if you want to install LED indicators, and I'll show you how trick they look tomorrow sometime, then it'll cost £60 plus two resistors and capacitors. Wire a 100ohm and 100uF capacitor in parallel with one another and the front LED indicator wires. Note polarity as the capacitor is one way only or it will pop.
Cheers,
Snoops.
