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New LEDs -brake lights- Flashing.

For those of you who have a top case... Have you tried to fit those fantastic led flashers on it? Some top cases have room for that, or even have a specific kit:

[video=youtube;HfxfvS_G25A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfxfvS_G25A[/video]

HTH
 
duk2n said:
Lee, do you know if the tail/break bulb is red in colour or just crystal clear? I'm looking for a LED replacement for the bulb:

LAMPARA HAYE 12V 21/5W LEDS

Just asking in case you have seen it. If not, don't worry, I will dismount mine
Click to expand...

It is clear. Red behind a red lens will produce less light. I would be cautious with a bulb replacement as they are generally not good performers. The LED's do not make use of the reflector, so even if the LED's are bright, the result is often a small bright circle instead of the original area of light. The only good LED replacements that I have seen provide a printed circuit board the size of the original reflector with a matrix of LED's on the board. Usually they have a pigtail lead that attaches to the original 1157 socket.

There are also some designs that have side emitters arrayed on the base which have a chance of using the reflector. I do not have any experience with this design, so I can't say that they work well, but they look like a better approach, though still not as good as a PC board matrix.

You may have found something better than I have seen, but from the picture, it doesn't look like it. I am just suggesting that you make a thorough analysis.
 
Last edited:
Beemerphile said:
It is clear. Red behind a red lens will produce less light. I would be cautious with a bulb replacement as they are generally not good performers. The LED's do not make use of the reflector, so even if the LED's are bright, the result is often a small bright circle instead of the original area of light. The only good LED replacements that I have seen provide a printed circuit board the size of the original reflector with a matrix of LED's on the board. Usually they have a pigtail lead that attaches to the original 1157 socket.

There are also some designs that have side emitters arrayed on the base which have a chance of using the reflector. I do not have any experience with this design, so I can't say that they work well, but they look like a better approach, though still not as good as a PC board matrix.

You may have found something better than I have seen, but from the picture, it doesn't look like it. I am just suggesting that you make a thorough analysis.
Click to expand...

I had some experience adding extra brake/tail lights to empty light pods on a Ninja 250 tail. I first installed "white" (they are actually somewhat blueish) LEDs behind red lenses, thinking the overall light output would be brighter. The result was a pink color brake light. I switched to red LED 1157 replacements behind the red lenses, and the resulting color matched the brightness and color of an incandescent bulb. I believe the reason was that the "white" LEDs do not put out sufficient light in the red spectrum, so when the red lense filters out all but red, there isn't much light left. The red LED, on the other hand, was rich in red light that was able to pass through the red lense.

I agree that few 1157 LED replacements are designed to make good use of the reflector, but there are some better than others.

Greg
 
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670cc said:
I had some experience adding extra brake/tail lights to empty light pods on a Ninja 250 tail. I first installed "white" (they are actually somewhat blueish) LEDs behind red lenses, thinking the overall light output would be brighter. The result was a pink color brake light. I switched to red LED 1157 replacements behind the red lenses, and the resulting color matched the brightness and color of an incandescent bulb. I believe the reason was that the "white" LEDs do not put out sufficient light in the red spectrum, so when the red lense filters out all but red, there isn't much light left. The red LED, on the other hand, was rich in red light that was able to pass through the red lense.
Click to expand...

Thanks Greg,

On additional study I find your advice to be correct and mine to be lacking regarding light pass-through with LED's. What I said was true only for incandescent sources. Lee
 
So, both of you mean if I wanna try to replace the OEM bulb by a LED, I must try a red one?
 
duk2n said:
So, both of you mean if I wanna try to replace the OEM bulb by a LED, I must try a red one?
Click to expand...


Yes. I've had the exact same results. White LEDS behind coloured lenses, make for not very good, not very bright colour look. The white washes out the colour of the lens, making red pink, or orange pale orange, etc. Coloured LEDS behind either clear or same coloured lenses, are the way to go.

To add though, I've never had any luck with the cheaper, small LED replacement bulbs simply dropped in in place of the OEM incandescent. As Beemer says, the result is always a disappointment, unless a really good design with multi reflector surface or sheer volume of LEDS are incorporated in.

They may look ok at night, but in daylight they are nearly invisible.
 
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turbodieseli4i6 said:
Would these be worth a shot?
1157 Type, Dual Filament, STD, Red, 12 Volt, Negative Ground (Part Number L57RN) | LiteZupp!
Click to expand...

I would not think so. Other than a custom fitted PC board matrix, the only ones I think have a chance of working are the ones with an extended base like this:

http://www.customdynamics.com/Images/gen_200_new.jpg

or, better, the SMD ones with at least 60 side emitters like this:

White DC 12V 1157 68 3528 SMD LED Brake Light, DC 12V, White

There are some side emitter bulbs with round 3 or 5 mm LED's that probably won't do too well, even though they will make some use of the reflector.

It has been determined that red under red will be brighter, but you'd have to consider that this would give you a red license plate light as well. Given the difficult regulatory environment that some of our members live in, that might cause concern.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the link. I just ordered one.
White DC 12V 1157 68 3528 SMD LED Brake Light, DC 12V, White
 
turbodieseli4i6 said:
Thanks for the link. I just ordered one.
White DC 12V 1157 68 3528 SMD LED Brake Light, DC 12V, White
Click to expand...

A lot of people will be interested in your result. That bulb should still illuminate the license with white light. The PC board matrix lights that I have seen have red LED's but there is a bottom row of white LED's pointed down to do the license plate duty.
 
I installed some brake flashers today. Looks like FlaNC700X and I used the same product -- Electropods. I bought mine at Cycle Gear here in town, $30. Had these same flashers on my last bike for 60k miles and they never failed -- I knew I was going to install a pair on the NC since day 1.

Here's where I mounted mine:


2012-10-13_14-30-03_354 by treybrad, on Flickr

You can't really see, but I just used a piece of aluminum flat bar that I had lying around, ran it horizontally the length of the license plate and left enough excess on each side to bolt the flashers to. Pretty easy install. Honda did a nice job allowing access to the wires under the tail section, Beemerphile is dead on with the wire colors -- green/yellow is the brake, solid green is the ground. The taillight comes off easy, and you can route the wires in through the factory location into the tail section.

A crappy pic:


2012-10-13_14-28-55_48 by treybrad, on Flickr

All in all, it probably took me around an hour and a half to make the bracket, do the wiring, and put it all back together. I have a long-ish 500 mile ride on deck tomorrow -- possibly in the rain -- so the extra visibility when braking will be nice. I've felt naked without them on my commute the last couple weeks.

YouTube video:

[video=youtube_share;TdsdxwcFs28]http://youtu.be/TdsdxwcFs28?hd=1[/video]

NC700X Electropods LED Brake Flashers - YouTube

trey
 
treybrad said:
I installed some brake flashers today... Had these same flashers on my last bike for 60k miles and they never failed....
Click to expand...

Well, that's what I get for saying that. I never could get the Electropods to flash correctly, even with the filter that StreetFX was nice enough to send me for free. So... I installed a different LED tonight.

PSZLEDSTB0421-2T.jpg


Super High Intensity 4 LED Surface Mount Lighthead

I emailed 'Santa' the LED I was after, which was the Strobes N More linked by Beemer, but for whatever reason, the in-laws went with this unit. It's a little longer, which isn't the end of the world, just fab'd up a quick bracket out of some flat aluminum stock.

So far, it's great. If anything, it's too bright and I need to jump the 'dimmer' wire to decrease the intensity. I'm going to wait and see what it looks like in the light of day in the morning.

[video=youtube_share;8-LrkkzWCOA]http://youtu.be/8-LrkkzWCOA[/video]

What it's actually doing there is four rapid flashes before each pause... my phone couldn't quite keep up.

I may add the Universal Flasher mentioned in this thread to control the pattern eventually. This unit has 22 different patterns, but they all repeat and it never goes solid, which may win me some unwanted attention from a grumpy LEO.

I'll update if this unit self destructs or something :p

trey
 
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