LEDs in the Tail

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I had a bulb burn out in my taillight, so I picked up a pair of 1157 Sylvania red LEDs at O'Reillys. Big difference in the light. I'm thinking of doing the turn signals now too. Do they have LED bulbs that have the resistor in them already to slow the blink rate? I'll be doing some searching here in a bit, but thought I'd ask. IMG_0568.JPG
 
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mikesim

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I'm not aware of any LED's that have the resistor built in but at your O'Reilly store in the Sylvania light bulb section there are dummy load resistors that you can wire in that will "fool" the flasher into thinking that they are incandescents. This will work on the rear bulbs. The fronts are a different story. They are a single filament bulb that acts as both a running lamp and a turn signal. One of the other forum members (Brillot) engineered a way to use LED's in the front as well. He documented his modification in detail. Do a forum search and you will find it. I've often thought of doing the mod myself but I haven't been motivated enough to do so. Now that I'm fully retarded..... err... retired I may tackle the job one day.... as soon as momma runs out of honeydews that is.....

Mike
 

Frosty

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I think that electricity is magic, and a little information is dangerous, so I'll ask the pros to chip in ...
I have not heard any problems with the NT700 Regulator/Rectifiers failing. Honda uses the R/R to convert the unused power to heat. If you reduce the load on the system (lights, instruments, etc), you may increase the amount of heat that the R/R has dissipate.

It may not be a problem on this model, but worth considering.
 
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mechahayai
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I've read Brillot's posts and seen his Youtube videos. I'm going to add a euro turn switch for 4ways. The LEDs I put in the brake light are so much brighter than the stock bulbs. It's a brighter/deeper red too when I hit the brakes. I like how the whole lens lights up with the yellow LEDs. I'll probably just add them in the rear and leave the fronts be. I have added accessories, so I don't think my RR is all that stressed. I run the high beam all the time too.
 

mikesim

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I think that electricity is magic, and a little information is dangerous, so I'll ask the pros to chip in ...
I have not heard any problems with the NT700 Regulator/Rectifiers failing. Honda uses the R/R to convert the unused power to heat. If you reduce the load on the system (lights, instruments, etc), you may increase the amount of heat that the R/R has dissipate.

It may not be a problem on this model, but worth considering.
I wouldn't be overly concerned about overloading the R/R. IIRC, the 1157 dissipates about 21W vs 2W for an LED times two. Using Mr. Ohm's law that results in a difference of ~3.2 amps or 38 watts. That shouldn't overly tax a healthy R/R. Plus, theat extra 38 watts will allow you to add another farkle of your choice like a GPS or sumpin'.

Mike
 

Sunny

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I kept the incandescent lights in my turn signals...but did put a Sylvania LED brake/tail bulb in. As much for safety as for the clean cut-off, bright-brake to dimmer-tail. There's fewer worries about a taillight failure at night and then getting run down on the road before noticing it.

I have a couple of LED turn bulbs, but unless the housing is just-so, they're not as visible as incandescent. So I passed...

I'm assuming the flasher is hard-wired to a canbus or other un-reachable part of the electron magic web. In which case, it's easy to have a dummy load under the seat or anywhere - just splice in a couple of bulbs to the circuit. If you're only going LED on the tail, you shouldn't need more than one - and you can bury the dummy bulb behind the rear taillight housing, under the load platform.

If the flasher is available for access, and is adaptable to a standard auto flasher, just an LED or heavy-duty auto flasher should do the trick.


why not put the Kisan Electronics plug and play relay... it should take care of the 4 way hazard and LED Bulbs...



PS: don’t be like me: bought the wrong unit listed on their website for NT700. Get the right unit as listed in this thread...
 
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I had covered this topic in one of my older threads. Brillot2000 - Turn Signal Module - How Does It Work???

Post #17 has most of the important information you are looking for. Also a couple of the previous posts too.

The stock lighting module controls both the turn signals and makes the single filament bulbs into running lights on the front. You are going to have to install a 12 ohm 50 Watt resistor across each of the LED bulbs in order to get the lighting module to function normally.

 
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I had a bulb burn out in my taillight, so I picked up a pair of 1157 Sylvania red LEDs at O'Reillys. Big difference in the light. I'm thinking of doing the turn signals now too. Do they have LED bulbs that have the resistor in them already to slow the blink rate? I'll be doing some searching here in a bit, but thought I'd ask. IMG_0568.JPG
Did you use Sylvania or Sylvania Zevo? I’ve got a burnt out tail light and about to replace. Thanks.
 
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Did you use Sylvania or Sylvania Zevo? I’ve got a burnt out tail light and about to replace. Thanks.
I think that I picked up the Phillips LED bulbs about 3 years ago. Any good quality 1157 LED Replacement Bulb will work fine in the taillight. However, the turn signals are a different story. Refer to my post #9 for further information on the subject.
 
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mechahayai
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I don't have the original packaging to look at, but I'm pretty sure it was the standard Sylvania. No problems so far.
 
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