Hi,
I've seen a ton of posts on this in the forums, but maybe I'm missing something here. I have a 1981 XS400. When I hit the turn signal, all 4 signal lights blink, at the correct speed. They are all LEDs.
I bought the recommended Tridon EP34 flasher which is supposedly LED compatible, installed it, and it does not light up the lights at all when I hit the turn signal switch. It plugged in to the factory harness just fine and the pins appear to be the correct ones.
I measured the output of the original flasher, it bounces between 12 (nominal) volts and 0 when flashing (as expected). I measured the output of the Tridon flasher. It sits at 6 volts steady, which is not enough to light the lights. When I hook a (incandescent) test light up to the flasher output as well as leaving it in circuit and touch the probe to the battery, the flasher starts flashing like it should, and also starts flashing the LEDs at the same time. Output voltage is 12 and 0 volts.
So, I obviously have some sort of resistance problem going on here and the test light triggers the flasher to work, but I thought the Tridon flasher should have taken care of all that. Something else to note is that original flasher says "For LED" on it, but there's no other part number or brand on it, so I'm not sure where it came from. It seems like both of these flashers should work without concern of the bulb resistance, but neither does properly.
I am considering just going back to stock incandescent signal lights, but it would be nice if the LEDs would work without resorting to resistors.
Can anyone offer some guidance?
--Doug
I've seen a ton of posts on this in the forums, but maybe I'm missing something here. I have a 1981 XS400. When I hit the turn signal, all 4 signal lights blink, at the correct speed. They are all LEDs.
I bought the recommended Tridon EP34 flasher which is supposedly LED compatible, installed it, and it does not light up the lights at all when I hit the turn signal switch. It plugged in to the factory harness just fine and the pins appear to be the correct ones.
I measured the output of the original flasher, it bounces between 12 (nominal) volts and 0 when flashing (as expected). I measured the output of the Tridon flasher. It sits at 6 volts steady, which is not enough to light the lights. When I hook a (incandescent) test light up to the flasher output as well as leaving it in circuit and touch the probe to the battery, the flasher starts flashing like it should, and also starts flashing the LEDs at the same time. Output voltage is 12 and 0 volts.
So, I obviously have some sort of resistance problem going on here and the test light triggers the flasher to work, but I thought the Tridon flasher should have taken care of all that. Something else to note is that original flasher says "For LED" on it, but there's no other part number or brand on it, so I'm not sure where it came from. It seems like both of these flashers should work without concern of the bulb resistance, but neither does properly.
I am considering just going back to stock incandescent signal lights, but it would be nice if the LEDs would work without resorting to resistors.
Can anyone offer some guidance?
--Doug