Blinkin eck!

[DesmoDog]

Got my lovely motrax indicators, insulated them (cheers Ped), soldered the horribly fiddly thin wires to some decent bullet connectors, fited the things, tested them and, horrors, the right hand indy blinks at twice the speed of the left!! :confused:

Now I can live with that, but why is it happening? Also (and this is one of those, I fitted it so well I have spare bits type things), why does the right hand indicator calble have three connectors, one of which was taped up and hanging loose when I undid all of the gubbins around the headlight? :eek:

[queen_gpants]

I'm not that technically minded but you'll probably find its something to do with the bulbs being a different ampage (not sure if that's a real word?!)

When I was going to fit a rear fender with the bug eye indicators Stuart at Spareshack explained that I would have to jiggle about with the bulbs on the front to get the correct flow, circuit....told you I wasnt very technical!

I think you can either do the bulb thing or buy some sort of electrical connector that does it all for you?

Sorry if this sounds like a load of twaddle I've got flu so things are a bit hazy today! :confused:

[A Yerbury]

I've encountered this one before. If anyone has the answer then please let us know!
AY.

[DesmoDog]

OK, thanks Celeste - that makes some sense in a mangled sort of way. But then why is it only on the right indy and not also on the left? Alex - if you encountered it once, what did you do to rectify it? Or did you just replace the original?

Any further detail anyone?

[A Yerbury]

I ignored it! It was on a cx yrs ago. on the m600 one indy flicked double time untill I put the other on. now they are both the same. technically Im a bit like qg as it may be the "blinky thing" that needs looking at. mind you if it worked with other indicators that would suggest a fault in the indys? do you have another pair you can compare?

[queen_gpants]

ha ha here's me going out on a limb now, so this could be complete crap.....

I would assume that the right hand indicator is blinking because it is the end of a complete circuit i.e. all the indicators work as one circuit?

Have you replaced just the front indicators or all of them? The micro indicators use much smaller bulbs than the standard ones, if I remember rightly (this could be crap again) you need 20 amps in total?

I did actually do a C&G in electrics a couple of years ago but it was really boring and I probably wasn't paying attention when it counted but I am rather good at soldering now! :D

[DesmoDog]

Celeste,

I've got the alloy tinycators (whatever) on the front and carbon look micro arrows on the back. Your end of a circuit theory makes sense. I had thought that there might have to be a resistor fitted on account of the size of the bulbs. Time to hit the motrax site with a big why? I'll keep you up to date.

[Garry Hogan]

It' true that if you replace the indicators with some that use a lower wattage bulb, then the new ones will flash like crazy! The indicator relay is set to work with 20 watts per side and if you reduce that wattage (coz of the new indicators) it, being the relay, don't like it! Maybe one side of your new indicators satisfies the 20 watts that the relay needs, but the other side doesn't (differing bulbs maybe?) I had to use a resistor/diode thingy when I replaced my 'flashers' and then they worked fine! Stuart at Spareshack had some of these for £5 each but I don't know if he still does 'em. Hope this helps, Garry. :burnout:

[DesmoDog]

Cheers Garry, I'll take a look. I still need to go over to motrax to see what they say. but thanks.

[A Yerbury]

having taken a few apart motrax stuff does seem rather cheaply put together, then again they are cheap so mustnt grumble.

[DesmoDog]

Well this is true, these were only £29 for the pair - but that's still £29 of my hard earned. Also, I thought about taking them to bits and using the heavier cable, but there seems to have been some jiggerypokery (great word) so I can't.

[DesmoDog]

Update, just been on to motrax who can only suggest that I check that the bulbs are the same in the new indicators!! So Garry's advice wins in this one, quite why a newly packaged pair of lights would have differing bulbs is beyond me but there you go.

He told me to check if they are 6 watt bulbs so there's an 8 watt short fall straight away. If like QG says it's at the end of a circuit that could be the case? So a 8 watt resistor should do it? Time to get out the toy electronics set before I bugger up my bike.

Anyway, all of this has been helpful. My second question remains unanswered. What was the extra cable for? There was a third cable on the right hand (DX) indicators cable bundle. Any suggestions?

[Scotty]

i could have a look , scratch my chin a bit and go 'hummm'
and then say no idea not for an alarm or sumit ?

[Garry Hogan]

Hi again, about that 3rd wire - with the indicators running on that side, test (with a circuit tester) to see if the 3rd wire is "live" when the indicators flash! If it is, the circuit tester will flash a reading (of 12volts or so) in time with the illuminatig bulbs (don't forget to earth the black wire from the tester) If it is live, insulate it fully and tuck it out of harms way! You could connect it up to the appropriate wire on an alarm (to "flash the indicators upon arming") but you'd also need to earth the other wire from the alarm (associated with "flashing the indicators upon arming") to complete that circuit! Hope this helps, Garry. :burnout:

[DesmoDog]

Garry,

that makes a lot of sense. To be on the safe side I taped it up anyway - didn't like the idea of an open connector in the elements. I took the lot to bits last night and went over my steps again. Both indicators now flash at an even rate so I think I must have had a poor connection somewhere, can't explain the drop in current though.

[Melnie Mouse]

Motrax also are realizing that with a lot of their indicators they need to supply resisters to stop them blinking too fast... - still waiting.... particularly on the LED arrows....

[Pedro]

The speed of the flash is indeed linked to the wattage (not amperage!!) of the bulbs and is why LED versions flash like a madman - they're very low wattage!!

Ped

[queen_gpants]

The speed of the flash is indeed linked to the wattage (not amperage!!) of the bulbs and is why LED versions flash like a madman - they're very low wattage!!

Ped


Did I say amperage?? :confused: I knew it was wattage all along really just seeing if anyone spotted the deliberate mistake! :rolleyes:

Hope you've got it sorted now Desmo?

[berto]

:D Bet it's the bulb When I fitted my wee dp indicators the first thing I had to do was change the bulbs to higher wattage ones as the ones that came flashed double quick cos of their lower wattage...Apparently!!!

[DesmoDog]

Thanks guys all working fine now - I'd like to say that I'd fixed it but it seemed to fix itself after I pulled it all to bits and put it together again. Strange that.