I am really new to motorcycles, new enough to keep forgetting to cancel my turn signals. So in my mind, one of the most important upgrades i have to do is to make the indicators brighter. The cheap leds i ordered from china have just arrived, and I know about the diode mod. but I am too lazy to solder two extra diodes, and I don't like the idea of having to make a non-reversible mod to the bike by slice open 3 wires right under the gauge. so I just jammed two led in there, and hopefully, this helps someone in the future.
I bought these cheap Chinese led with #74 plugs, because they have to cut cost, and it is basically only a led soldered with a resistor, then jammed into a plastic base. which in this case making the mod that much easier.
(https://i.imgur.com/slGugcK.jpg)
then you pull two led out of their socket connect the one led's resistor side with the other led's no resistor side like so.
(https://i.imgur.com/ScNTHLZ.jpg)
then you twist the end together and jam it back into the original socket then bend the wire up, make sure they are not bent up on the same side. if you are not sure either refer to what other less you have or just check the bulb socket and try to understand the connection
(https://i.imgur.com/PYU4871.jpg)
once that's done, plug it back into the socket to test it
(https://s9.gifyu.com/images/effect.gif)
Right now one led will turn on when you have the left turn signal on, and the other for the right turn. in theory you could have two different colors led so you know which turn signal you currently have. but consider there is a green filter on the gauge I don't know how well that works. now just install it back to the gauge and test it again, if it's dim there is likely a short so pull it out and try to solve that.
This works because the stock indicator bulb is a mini incandescent light bulb that doesn't care about which direction the current flows.
(https://s9.gifyu.com/images/stock---Copy.gif)
LEDs only work if the current goes in one direction and not the other way around. which makes your turn signal indicator only work half of the time.(only left turn or only right turn)
(https://s9.gifyu.com/images/led-dont-work.gif)
so two diodes mod allows you to redirect both direction's electricity into the ground and make the led turn on both left and right signals. (middle is ground
(https://s9.gifyu.com/images/2-diode-mod.gif)
or in my lazy setup, i just have two led so each handles one direction of the current.
(https://s9.gifyu.com/images/2-led-mod.gif)
the two downsides i can think of about this method are that the wires are way too close and they could short each other out, and because the LEDs are facing different directions the light looks slightly different on the left and the right turn.
Great write-up and neat gif's.
Thanks, will archive this for future reference.
FYI you could have used just one resistor for both. But whatever works, good times.
This is clever! Not sure its any easier than the diode mod but I like it.
It's basically just like the diode mod! But the diodes in this case are LEDs, and in place of the bulb, you put the resistor. Shoulda made them red and green LEDs, red for right, green for left :) That'd be slick.
I am just too lazy to use a soldering iron and cutting wires on the bike. Plus this makes it a plug and play mod so if I don't want it down the line I can just remove the bulb and restore it back to stock. Also, anyone got tips on removing rust inside the light socket?
the "diode mod" is also totally backward compatible. Once you have done the mod, the socket remains as usual and an incandescent or LED bulb can be put in.
Quote from: mr72 on September 10, 2021, 01:17:39 PM
the "diode mod" is also totally backward compatible. Once you have done the mod, the socket remains as usual and an incandescent or LED bulb can be put in.
Oh yea you are totally right! Stupid me never considered swapping LED to incandescent bulb and therefore always consider it incompatible