BMW K bikes (Bricks)


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1Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty LED speedo lighting Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:01 pm

sidecar paul

sidecar paul
Life time member
Life time member
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.

LED speedo lighting Sam_0910

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:

LED speedo lighting Sam_0911

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

LED speedo lighting Sam_0912

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.


__________________________________________________
'84 K100RS (0014643) (owned since '85), 86 K100RS (0018891) with Martello sidecar (built as an outfit in '88),
'51 Vincent (since '67),'72 Montesa Cota (from new), '87 Honda RS125R NF4 (bought 2015) 
....No CARS never ever!
    

2Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Sun Nov 09, 2014 6:56 pm

Dai

Dai
Life time member
Life time member
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.


__________________________________________________
1983 K100 naked upgraded to K100LT spec after spending time as an RS and an RT
1987 K100RT
Others...
1978 Moto Guzzi 850-T3, 1979 Moto Guzzi 850-T3 California,1993 Moto Guzzi 1100ie California
2020 Royal Enfield Bullet 500
    

3Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Sun Nov 09, 2014 7:28 pm

Be made

Be made
Life time member
Life time member
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

    

4Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Sun Nov 09, 2014 10:09 pm

Dai

Dai
Life time member
Life time member
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.


__________________________________________________
1983 K100 naked upgraded to K100LT spec after spending time as an RS and an RT
1987 K100RT
Others...
1978 Moto Guzzi 850-T3, 1979 Moto Guzzi 850-T3 California,1993 Moto Guzzi 1100ie California
2020 Royal Enfield Bullet 500
    

5Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Sun Nov 09, 2014 11:02 pm

Rick G

Rick G
admin
admin
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.


__________________________________________________
"Man sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."   Dalai Lama


Bikes 1999 K1100 LT with a Big Block 1200
    

6Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:08 am

charlie99

charlie99
VIP
VIP
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 .


__________________________________________________
cheezy grin whilst riding, kinda bloke ....oh the joy !!!! ...... ( brick aviator )

'86 K100 RT..#0090401 ..."Gerty" ( Gertrude Von Clickandshift ) --------O%O
'86 k100 rs.. #######..  "Fred " (f(rame) red ) ( Fredrick leichtundschnell ) - -
bits and pieces from many kind friends across the k100 world ...with many thanks ..
1987 k100rs ########   "Red"  - (red sports rs TWB style )
1989 K100rt #009637   "Black Betty"  (naked rt ala Nigel , now sporting an rs main fairing )
    

7Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Mon Nov 10, 2014 8:57 am

Dai

Dai
Life time member
Life time member
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.


__________________________________________________
1983 K100 naked upgraded to K100LT spec after spending time as an RS and an RT
1987 K100RT
Others...
1978 Moto Guzzi 850-T3, 1979 Moto Guzzi 850-T3 California,1993 Moto Guzzi 1100ie California
2020 Royal Enfield Bullet 500
    

8Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Tue Nov 11, 2014 3:57 am

Rick G

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


__________________________________________________
"Man sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."   Dalai Lama


Bikes 1999 K1100 LT with a Big Block 1200
    

9Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Sat Nov 29, 2014 5:03 pm

sidecar paul

sidecar paul
Life time member
Life time member
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:

LED speedo lighting Sam_0913

White bike, white speedo lights, WHOOPEE!  LED speedo lighting 8157

They've just taken me back to my cell Crying or Very sad

Paul.


__________________________________________________
'84 K100RS (0014643) (owned since '85), 86 K100RS (0018891) with Martello sidecar (built as an outfit in '88),
'51 Vincent (since '67),'72 Montesa Cota (from new), '87 Honda RS125R NF4 (bought 2015) 
....No CARS never ever!
    

10Back to top Go down   LED speedo lighting Empty Re: LED speedo lighting Sat Nov 29, 2014 5:18 pm

Arlina

Arlina
Moderator
Moderator
All my K's get LEDs and the white coats still didn't catch me cheers


__________________________________________________
LED speedo lighting Eu-log10  K1100RS/LT - R1200RT - R1100RS - Cagiva SST 350 Ala Verde - K75LT project - K75 Schurgers - K75S - K1100RS - K75RT - K75C
    

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