One side blinks faster than the other?

[Klondike1020]

I have just gotten my bike
It has integrated tail light LED signal and break with front incandescent flush mounts. One side blinks faster than the other? could it be wired incorrectly through a resistor or something?


I didnt find the problem of one side blinking faster than the other while searching?

[Alex]

All 4 blinkers (front l/r, rear l/r) all work, but just one side blinks faster? Typically that means one of the bulbs is out on one side, but this might be a strange case where the rear integrated lights are putting up strange resistance on one side but not the other.

[dcj13]

As Alex says, definitely a difference in circuit resistance between the left and right side!

But why? Flakey wire nutting, posi-lok, or soldering? If the turn signals are "bulbs", is there a higher resistance at one of the bulb sockets? Some individual wire strands broken somewhere?

[Klondike1020]

I am not sure how to go through and test it

but all the lights work and there is no visible difference in wiring.

I will have to play around with it.

[DEFY]

That's why they invented multi-meters.

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by DEFY

That's why they invented multi-meters.

Yeah, I was thinking that too. Does a multimeter give one an accurate resistance (perhaps impedance?) through a diode? Does one see anything at all? I'll have to ask some of my sparky friends on Monday (taking a day of vacation tomorrow).

In the mean time, I'll find a diode and check if I get a reading. I imagine it'll be polarity-sensitive to the current direction (albeit really small) of the multimeter. I'll also try it using a 60 year old d'arsenoval type meter.

[dcj13]

Ok. Found a couple of spare LED christmas light bulbs...

One direction, I get multimeter resistance bouncing-around measurements from 3 to 10+ megohms. Other direction I get zero. On both bulbs, individually.

I'm gonna be bold here and claim that one can't use a garden-variety multimeter (on the ohms setting, anyway) to test the impedance of a diode circuit.

One might have better luck inserting a multimeter in series with the circuit of interest and and measuring the current through the turn signal circuit. Then one could measure the voltage across the turn signal circuit and back into the overall impedance (resistance) using ohm's law.

But I'm not the right guy to be advising how to do this stuff. Maybe I can ask my EE daughter when she gets home from work.

[DEFY]

Originally Posted by dcj13

Ok. Found a couple of spare LED christmas light bulbs...

One direction, I get multimeter resistance bouncing-around measurements from 3 to 10+ megohms. Other direction I get zero. On both bulbs, individually.

I'm gonna be bold here and claim that one can't use a garden-variety multimeter (on the ohms setting, anyway) to test the impedance of a diode circuit.

One might have better luck inserting a multimeter in series with the circuit of interest and and measuring the current through the turn signal circuit. Then one could measure the voltage across the turn signal circuit and back into the overall impedance (resistance) using ohm's law.

But I'm not the right guy to be advising how to do this stuff. Maybe I can ask my EE daughter when she gets home from work.

For starters I would go with the measuring of the live circuit, ideally the measurement of a diode's resistance is zero.

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by DEFY

For starters I would go with the measuring of the live circuit, ideally the measurement of a diode's resistance is zero.

Yeah. That's what EE daughter says. So how would one (you) measure the impedance/resistance of a live circuit? I'm a dumbass Mech E.

[DEFY]

Originally Posted by dcj13

Yeah. That's what EE daughter says. So how would one (you) measure the impedance/resistance of a live circuit? I'm a dumbass Mech E.

As an EE I have thought of getting a degree in M.E. as well so ain't no shame in it, I work along side them. You purdy much had the concept in your post, place a current meter in series with the circuit, between your power source and the circuit itself, and measure your source voltage into the circuit. Using ohms law you can figure out the resistance of the whole circuit. V = I * R; lol. Say you have two head lights, same bulbs and wattage consumption they should have similar resistances, Ideally, if they both have the same power source voltage.

[DEFY]

Hyper flashing is a common symptom for LED lighting systems in a vehicle, normally bleed resistor between power and ground is the fix. Also a loose bulb connection can cause this, tighten the bulb.

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by DEFY

Hyper flashing is a common symptom for LED lighting systems in a vehicle, normally bleed resistor between power and ground is the fix. Also a loose bulb connection can cause this, tighten the bulb.

Yes. Higher resistance seems to cause faster flash rate. And adding the resistor in parallel to the LEDs lowers the resistance and decreases the flash rate. And dumps heat wherever the resistor is mounted.

Our man Josh has one side flashing faster than the other. So if they are LED bulbs, I suppose he can try to clean up the connections at the bulb/socket interefaces on the side that is fast-flashing.

Still would like to know if or how one can measure impedance/resistance of an LED circuit with a multimeter without measuring current and voltage and then calculating overall impedance/resistance. Anyone? Anyone?

[tc.young]

did you check your blinker fluid

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by tc.young

did you check your blinker fluid

Excellent question! (I like this guy!)

[StephenA]

haha blinker fluid. Might want to check the bulbs themselves. When I did my blinker relocation (into the pods) I accidentally put a dual filament bulb in and now it blinks faster than the other side (which is a single filament). It's no biggie since I don't care too much but if it's bugging you, then might want to check that out.

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by DEFY

...purdy much had the concept in your post, place a current meter in series with the circuit, between your power source and the circuit itself, and measure your source voltage into the circuit. Using ohms law you can figure out the resistance of the whole circuit. V = I * R...

Ok, thanks! So it's not just my goofy way of looking at things...

I like this guy, too!

[Klondike1020]

Thanks !
It is not an issue of bugging me, as much as when I observe a symptom on a vehicle I want to figure out the exact cause ... At that point I decide if I will let it be or not!

I will take the bulbs out and inspect them, and let you guys know what I find
@tc.young - sorry I took the blinker fluid resivoir off for weight savings. I am selling it on eBay if you want to upgrade your ninjette one to the high performance Gsxr swap. It's popular swap next to the R1 galloping gear upgrade for higher top end power!

[dcj13]

How much for your blinker fluid reservoir? Is it free of water damage?

Hopefully you just have a bad (non-LED) bulb.

[Yarhj]

I'm an electrical engineer, which means I can talk at great length about how diodes work, and if I wire up your house it will quickly burn to the ground. Exciting!
I'll keep it short and spare you my lecture on semiconductors. For now...

It's unlikely that the LEDs are the issue here (as long as they're all lighting up!), and it's more likely that:
1. One side of the bike doesn't have a load resistor installed correctly
2. Both sides of the bike don't have the same size load resistor installed
3. Something funny happened to the wires on one side of the bike, but not the other (Like, the resistor is shorted out on one side or something)

The easiest way to diagnose those would be to measure the resistance between the wires going into the LED lights and ground. You should get similar values for both sides of the bike (they should both probably be around 100 ohms).

The load resistor should be wired up sort of like this:



This is all assuming that both of your regular incandescent turn signals are actually working. If one of those is burned out, that would be your problem right there.