Turn Signal Anomaly

[tomiles]

Hey guys,

Working on a friends honda shadow(super cool, i know), LED and flat black spray paint kind of deals but whatever gives me a buddy to ride with.

We installed a LED passing light bar with turn signals and everything works as it should EXCEPT the running lights on his blinkers. Now these lights are so bright that youll never see the running lights but THEY SHOULD.

So, with everything grounded and the only things necessary are plugging in the running light and flashing light this is what happens:

1. Plug in the running light from the blinker to power; result is the running light (less bright than blinker) power comes on.

2. Plug in the blinker light to the flasher-power; result is the running light cuts out. when the blinker is activated the brighter of the two lights flashes at normal rate.

3. Disconnect blinker light, running light comes on no problem.

I already tried putting in a LED flasher relay which i figured was the problem but that did not solve.

Using a voltmeter you can see that the running light has power, and the flasher light flashes power when activated.



I am not a bike mechanic or an electrician, but pretty much it seems that the issue is a conflict between the running power and latent blinker power. any ideas?

[Sky]

Do you have a good ground?
Does it work with the bike running?
Pics or a link to said light bar
What year Honda Shadow?
Are we talking two white spot lamps and two separate Amber signals? Single or dual "filament" signals?
How many wires?
A lot of theses questions would be answered with one or two pics...
Are you trying to power them all through the existing signal curcuit?

[Medina]

its early, i'm, looking at a foot of snow overnight, so..apologies
sounds like the low voltage, likely cheaply made LED's are allowing bleedthru, hyperflashing, making some, most or all flash with a left turn, and none or two flashing with the right turn etc etc
get those dam resistors install them as instructed and likely the problem will vanish.
also, grounds, add ground from batt to frame, rectifier to frame, you didn't say what year, so pop those connectors apart, spray with electric contact spray cleaner and dielectric grease for reassemble.
then you are the guru and new riding buddy must pay for gas at least once, its like..a rule or something

[tomiles]

Sorry guys, got some pictures and info for ya.

its a 2000 aero honda shadow 1100:



Here are the two wires that connect to one of the blinkers, the other blinker connects just like this. To demonstrate, i will show you what is happening with the left blinker:




Here i will disconnect the FLASHER (very brighter) connection, the result will be the running (lower brightness) coming on:




Now I will swap the connections to show that the FLASHER light is brighter, proving that it is dual "fillament", its an LED cluster.






The problem that i am experiencing is that when both connected how they should, i lose the running (lower brightness) light, it just goes off, as if only the flasher is is telling the blinker, "I AM IN CHARGE HERE, GO AWAY" (this is how working on bikes in my head sounds).

The blinker flashes at correct speed and i have installed an LED relay thingy for correcting hyperflash even though it blinked at the correct rate with the stock mechanical relay.

So basically, each function works but i can't get them to work together.

Notes:

1. If i switch the positions then i have a running BLINKER light but no blinking RUNNING light. so still the running function seems to not work as it should

2. A voltmeter in the sockets shows correct power coming out.

3. The blinker has three wires: red (flash), blue (running), black (ground). I ground the black wire directly to the triple trees on windshield bracket thingy. This thing came with no instructions so i am interpreting those wire colors off my results testing with a battery before i began.

4. Still has incandescent bulbs in the rear. Eventually going LED but for now they work at the correct speed. Just in case that would some how matter.

[Sky]

None of the attachments would load for me
So this is all postulation and guesswork

I believe what might be happening is that the new lights do NOT have two separate led arrays acting as "dual filliment" but you have circuitry allowing for half brite and full brite functionality...
Probably done by varying the amperage to the LEDs
This "modern" circuitry could be back bleeding voltage/ into the mechanical style relay setup in the stock harness.

Does the 2000 shadow have a headlight delay that might also be overcomplicating what should be simple lighting wring?

My suggestion is to establish an isolated switched power for the running light inputs
Don't steal power from the flasher for said running lights

[tomiles]

Taking apart the blinker housing, i find that this is one of those cheap chinese LED clusters just hard wired without socket. I suspect that this is a "dumb LED" based on the quality so i am going to try the following:

1. Connect running light to head light instead of OEM connection for running lights to see if that helps.

2. Load resistors... supposed to fix hyperflash but that's not my problem. $5.00 cant hurt.

3. Cutting these LED clusters and soldering proper 1157 connections and try some Custom Dynamics LED clusters i have for my road king.


i suspect based on the quality of this led cluster that it is just "dumb"