DOHC Running Lights

[doodsaibot]

I was riding earlier today and noticed this Honda Shadow 750 had his turn signals doubled as his running lights. When he made a turn, they would flash like a normal blinker and then go back to being solid amber color. Seems like a good idea!

I am searching the forum for information on how to do this but I have come up empty handed so far. Has anyone done this conversion or do you have a link? I will be doing an LED conversion for my turn signals and relay here pretty soon so I figured I could wire them up as running lights while I am wrist deep in this little project.

 

[BBS360]

I did something like it to mine. Mounted a circular ring of red LEDs inside the stock flasher and hooked it up to a relay that turns the red light off when the flasher lights up.
(Red on normally closed contact of relay that is controlled by flasher circuit. When flashers activate the relay opens the contact, turning off the running light.)

It results in a red/Amber/red/Amber flash pattern. Kind of funny looking though because the LEDs illuminate instantly but the stock incandescent bulb does not. An Amber LED bulb would solve that.

I've seen aftermarket indicators with dual contact sockets. Might be Amber/red LED bulbs that would do the trick.

I'll try to post a video of mine later today.

 

[rshutchinson]

In order to do this you'll need dual filament bulbs or get some resistors and do some wiring.

If you have dual filament bulbs and sockets you simply wire the running light power wire to a switched accessory and the turn signal filament is straight forward.

If you want to keep your single filament bulb and socket you'll want to grab a handful of different ohm resistors, probably 100-1000+ ohm or so, and test them out to see what ohm brings the brightness down to a running light level that will still differentiate itself from the full brightness turn signal.

Once you find what ohm is good for you you'll want to splice another wire to the power input on the bulb socket. This wire is what is going to power your 'running light'. Solder the resistor inline and splice the other end of the wire to a switched accessory so it only comes on when key is on.

This will give reduced power (read: brightness) to the bulbs when signal is not flashing and then full power and brightness from the flasher relay.

 

[16VGTIDave]

I replaced the bulb sockets with sockets for 1157 bulbs. Easiest solution.

For more complexity, use red LED bulbs in the rear and a trailer wiring adapter to also have brake light function from the turn signals.

 

[BBS360]

Ah, I misinterpreted the function described.

For my setup I wanted to keep all running light/tail lights red and the turn signals amber.

I find the alternating colours to be more visible for other drivers. If you only want the amber colour it should be a lot easier.