|
|
06-11-2014, 06:58 PM
|
#1
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: San Francisco/Nevada City
Posts: 3,769
|
weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
So, as soon as I'm a wise-ass in Dave's thread, I come home and work on my van, and have a problem. Damn karma.
I'm adding an extra tail/turn LED and reverse LED in my Aluminess and wiring them in to the trailer harness.
Reverse is all set up, but the tail/turn has odd behavior.
Turn tail lights on, everything works perfectly.
Turn left turn signal on (with or without tail lights), everything works perfectly.
Turn right turn signal on (with or without tail lights), everything works perfectly.
Turn hazards on (with tail lights), they DON'T work
Turn hazards on (without tail lights), and a single led blinks in the middle.
Incandescent test light on the connector to the LED shows perfect behavior.
I'm confused.
|
|
|
06-11-2014, 07:09 PM
|
#2
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: San Francisco/Nevada City
Posts: 3,769
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
I should add that I tested the lights on a battery with jumpers and they work perfectly.
|
|
|
06-11-2014, 07:16 PM
|
#3
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 3,285
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
Was going to say something derogatory, but then thought better of it due to karmic forces being strong with this one
__________________
Ray
Beastie 3: 2002 7.3 EB Cargo: Agile TTB, CCV High Top, Custom Walk Through, Lots of stuff added. www.BlingMyRig.com
|
|
|
06-11-2014, 07:49 PM
|
#4
|
Site Team
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Southern New Mexico
Posts: 10,179
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
Not sure when most vehicles went from thermal based flashers, to pure electronic flasher mechanisms. It used to be adding LED lights to older vehicles caused all sorts of strange behavior. With my '69 Bronco, when I went to LED bulbs, I just swap my old flasher unit (thermal, so it used the heat generated by the current being drawn) to an electronic one that just uses a timing mechanism. LEDs don't draw enough current for the thermal flasher units to work properly.
hy you only get strange results in certain scenarios, I'm not sure.
Herb
__________________
SMB-less as of 02/04/2012. Our savings account is richer, but our adventures are poorer.
|
|
|
06-11-2014, 10:38 PM
|
#5
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: San Francisco/Nevada City
Posts: 3,769
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
Quote:
Originally Posted by BroncoHauler
Not sure when most vehicles went from thermal based flashers, to pure electronic flasher mechanisms. It used to be adding LED lights to older vehicles caused all sorts of strange behavior. With my '69 Bronco, when I went to LED bulbs, I just swap my old flasher unit (thermal, so it used the heat generated by the current being drawn) to an electronic one that just uses a timing mechanism. LEDs don't draw enough current for the thermal flasher units to work properly.
hy you only get strange results in certain scenarios, I'm not sure.
Herb
|
Yes, I had to add a resistor inline when I went to all LED on one of my bikes.. but since I'm just adding to lights, and not removing the stock incandescent.. I shouldn't have to. Flasher still works fine for stock lights, just not the aux LEDs added into the system. Got me.
|
|
|
06-12-2014, 11:11 AM
|
#6
|
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1,005
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
That's because you wired them to the trailer harness.
You need to wire them directly to the lights themselves for the turn signals. I went through this with something else. It is just the way trailer wiring works.
__________________
Sportsmobile-less.
"A job worth doing is worth doing at least twice."
|
|
|
06-12-2014, 11:26 AM
|
#7
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: San Francisco/Nevada City
Posts: 3,769
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
Quote:
Originally Posted by ANZAC
That's because you wired them to the trailer harness.
You need to wire them directly to the lights themselves for the turn signals. I went through this with something else. It is just the way trailer wiring works.
|
Hmm.. But how would trailer lights ever work? I've essentially duplicated a trailer light setup, just in my bumper.
That said, I may try your suggestion, just means redoing everything.
|
|
|
06-12-2014, 11:33 AM
|
#8
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Corvallis, OR
Posts: 5,300
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
Might be the multi-function switch. Could be dirt limiting current, and your incandescents are pulling all the current.
FWIW most trailers I pull are LED and I have not had that problem, except I noticed the hazards on the rear of the van don't really flash when I have the trailer plugged in (weird, huh?). But... it'll barely flash incandescents on a trailer (4-ways..... works fine with turns and brakes). I think the hazard circuit maybe just has less current capacity than the other functions.
I suspect if you unplugged your regular taillights, the new bumper lights would flash normally.
__________________
2000 E450 dually V10 wagon
|
|
|
06-12-2014, 11:39 AM
|
#9
|
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1,005
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
On trailers the lights are combined from the turn signals and brake lights, even on a 7 pin. It weirds things up in hazard mode.
Remove the tail light, you can tap into the turn signal wires there and run them straight down.
Of course this means you would need discrete turn + stop/tail lights.
__________________
Sportsmobile-less.
"A job worth doing is worth doing at least twice."
|
|
|
06-12-2014, 12:01 PM
|
#10
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: San Francisco/Nevada City
Posts: 3,769
|
Re: weird LED auxiliary taillight activity
Quote:
Originally Posted by ANZAC
On trailers the lights are combined from the turn signals and brake lights, even on a 7 pin. It weirds things up in hazard mode.
Remove the tail light, you can tap into the turn signal wires there and run them straight down.
Of course this means you would need discrete turn + stop/tail lights.
|
At least on mine, the turn/hazard/brake lights are all controlled by a single wire on the left and one on the right. So that's no change for the trailer.
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
» Recent Threads |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|