LED speedo lighting

sidecar paul · 1 LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 5:01 am

sidecar paul

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Number of posts : 1589

As there was no camping this week, LED speedo lighting 177381

I thought I'd fit some LED's in my speedos. I had already bought some green and blue ones from China.......well, at £2.42 for 10, post free, it's worth a punt!

They even list some pink ones......do we know anyone with a pink K? LED speedo lighting 652573

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10X-T10-5-SMD-5050-LED-Bulbs-Side-Green-Light-194-168-W5W-LED-Wedge-Lamp-Bulb-B-/331209978944

As I bought 2 lots, green and blue, I got 10% extra for free. LED speedo lighting 723598

I added some blobs of red paint to indicate the +ve's.

The only alteration needed is to trim the plastic holders with a sharp blade to fit into the rectangular holes in the speedo.
I thought it would be fun to have blue lights on my blue solo K.:geek:

And green ones for the outfit (although I might change them at some time to white?) OCD rules!

Of course, trying to photograph lights is always tricky, in real life they look better than the pictures.

I've only changed the 5 lights that illuminate the display and clock, the other lights are only on for a short time so I don't see any great advantage in changing them. Those 5, in standard form, consume 15 watts, most of which transforms to heat; that's a lot of heat in an enclosed housing. The LED's take 50mA each, so 250mA equates to 3 watts.

One point that had me puzzled for a while, is that the lower 3 lights get their earth from pin 13, and the upper pair get their earth from pin 18.........so when I applied 12v to one of the lower lamp holders, expecting all the 5 lights to come on, I was rather surprised that the uppers were not working. All sorted now though.

Cheers,
Paul.

Dai · 2 Re: LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 6:56 am

Dai

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Funnily enough Paul, I went to LEDs for about a year and then reverted back to bulbs. I found them to be way too bright on a wet night and I also found that they're not as bombproof as you'd expect. Vibration maybe, but LFB was 'blowing' one about every three months - say 3-4000 miles - and I clock approx. 12-15000 miles a year.

Be made · 3 Re: LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:28 am

Be made

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Dai wrote:they're not as bombproof as you'd expect. Vibration maybe, but LFB was 'blowing' one about every three months

mmm . . Interesting.I think there is a resistor to be used with leds to stop them doing that but, on a simliar train of thought, dai, . . .

My old instruments has done 110ks and I don't think it had been apart until I scavenged the clock out of it for the new instruments which had a buggered clock. No blown bulbs in the old one. All standard and, I believe, original. 25 years and 110ks is pretty good methinks. The new instruments is @ 49000 when I put them on to match the replacement engine from the same machine, same age, all bulbs going good

I too had trouble with short lived leds on the interior of a car so went back to standard filaments and never bothered with leds again

Not saying they are no good, just saying they are just not for me. I can see my high beam dash lamp in broad daylight and tell if it's on or not. That's good enough

Dai · 4 Re: LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 10:09 am

Dai

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Standard LEDs are 5 volts ex-factory and need a minimum of a 1K resistor to run off 12 volts. The LEDs that Paul bought and also the ones I used have the resistor built in; so-called '12v LEDs'. I have Gerty-style LED strips in the tail light and they've never given problems.

My bottom-left bulb holder insists on spitting the bulb out at irregular intervals. It did it again last week - about time I changed it, methinks.

Rick G · 5 Re: LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:02 am

Rick G

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I am in the process of making some LED inserts for some Indicators that I got for the K75 chookie when I finish them I will put them up for all to see. I am using big blinkers from a Yamaha of some description and puting 42 bright orange LEDs on a board and then epoxy them into place when I am happy with them. I don't like the tiny LED units from China, I have a couple of friends who have them and they are not as visible as made out and they are not legal because the law has not caught up with technology and still says 21 watt bulbs.

charlie99 · 6 Re: LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:08 pm

charlie99

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charlie99 wrote:looks quite an acceptable glow paul

those 5 element leds do spread a lot of light ...well done !

as you might remember I added an additional led to take up the fill in the instruments ...but put that in context of an 120 degree leds
I recon those leds that you have used spread near 270 degrees or more on vertical axis ...but a good even glow 360 degrees horizontal ?

leds are finicky, yes and usually susceptible to unexpected voltage spikes in the reverse direction .( there are known and usually well documented forward voltage drops of various led colours - applications ranging from about 1.8 volts up to 3.2 volts so don't accept that all leds are geared for only 5 volt applications in fact quite often as raw devices the formula for figuring out the voltage - current limits are well and truly documented and used as any trade disciple would ) ...possibly read into that high switching currents of headlamps during alternator recovery of load change ....or some weird form of back emf s of low impedance fields ( like flasher indicators etc ) in fact I have blow more than a few up just experimenting with that rear end illumination in the indicators ..( to make them glow red at night time )

in these cases an additional diode ...to guarantee positive current flow could well be a good solution for those that haven't considered it .

thanks dai i'm quite impressed that the "gerty style brake lights" have achieved a little recognition ...but more surprised that folks have thought to try similar ...and see that that is an advantage to themselves and safety in general .

our mate blakey has installed some of the brake light mods from the us with the double glow principal of incandescent globes spread all through the rear end tail lamp .... which im positive will be a great result for rear light output and safety at night like many bikes it is woefull to me of the rear end indication of a vehicle ahead on non modified machines .

Dai · 7 Re: LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 8:57 pm

Dai

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I've actually gone for a mild mod on the LED strips: I put a switch in so that the power source can be either brake or tail light. The thinking goes that if one bulb (globe) blows it only takes a few seconds to temporarily sort the problem.

Rick: Does Aussie law actually state watts or does it quote candlepower? It used to be watts over here but its CP now, making LEDs legal. Except HIDs: for some really stupid and obscure reason they're legal in cars but not on motorcycles.

Rick G · 8 Re: LED speedo lighting Tue Nov 11, 2014 3:57 pm

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The Queensland regulations states watts not sure about the other states but they usually go with the Australian Design Rules.

sidecar paul · 9 Re: LED speedo lighting Sun Nov 30, 2014 5:03 am

sidecar paul

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So, I was out last night and pondering my green speedo lights.

Why green?.... Just because BMW originally did green lights, scratch

but there's no other green bits on my 'white' bike.

Well I sneaked past those nice men in white coats this morning and changed the LED's again. :geek: