My DIY LED Turn signals - Man these are bright

I wanted something a little different than the typical mini-signals a lot guys are running. So off to ebay to purchase a set of signals for a ca90 from the 1970s. Only problem was when they arrived from Thailand, they had a 6 volt bulb the same size as my cluster lighting. Sooo, not going to be very bright and therefore noticeable.

Long story short I purchased a bunch of 5mm superbright leds, some resistors and soldered up some new lights.

First half of the video is the oem lights for a Sr250, 2nd half is the LEDs. You might be able to see the difference. If people are interested I'll post a how to on the wiring aspect.

Jay

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If people are interested I'll post a how to on the wiring aspect.

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Post away my friend. ;D

def like to see how you wired these up. just borrowed the solder gun. so im ready

Seems like a How-to is in order. Seeing as that video is only one signal that I built to test I'll do a more thorough post with images when I build the 2nd signal.

Jay

This is awesome!
Keep us updated. Will you be posting here or making a new thread?

goodfornothing said:

This is awesome!
Keep us updated. Will you be posting here or making a new thread?

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I'll post in here. A lesson was learned last night. Don't show off your lights to family using a battery charger as your 12 volt source. Should have realized that it outputs more than 12volts resulting in the loss of 2 leds and 1 rectifier. :-[

Jay

Must have been some show.

"Hey guys! Come here and check out my cool LED lights! C'mon! It's really cool! REALLY! Hurry up!.... ok, shade your eyes, this is REALLY BRIGHT! Count down with me 10, 9, 8, 7 c'mon guys, help me out, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... click, fizzle... uhh.... hmmmmmm..... bump stumble, someone turn the lights back on ok?.... yeah, I'll get this fixed up and I'll show you again later...."

I don't think I could convince my family to come out to the garage and check out my signal lights, but if I did, and they failed, man, they'd never let me hear the end of it.

Tim said:

Must have been some show.

"Hey guys! Come here and check out my cool LED lights! C'mon! It's really cool! REALLY! Hurry up!.... ok, shade your eyes, this is REALLY BRIGHT! Count down with me 10, 9, 8, 7 c'mon guys, help me out, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... click, fizzle... uhh.... hmmmmmm..... bump stumble, someone turn the lights back on ok?.... yeah, I'll get this fixed up and I'll show you again later...."

I don't think I could convince my family to come out to the garage and check out my signal lights, but if I did, and they failed, man, they'd never let me hear the end of it.

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Ha! Been there, done that. Not signal lights, but I still felt like a moron.

First week I had my bike, was at a friend's party and they wanted to hear it run. Apparently I had completely forgot about how a petcock works, because after about 50 kicks and almost running my battery dead with the electric start, my buddy reached over and turned it on for me. Fortunately I've been able to live that one down after a few months......

That's awesome. You should plot your revenge on your buddy and strike in about 10 years.

Well the awesome thing is, he did the same thing that same day except this time I was the guy reaching over and turning his on. We both had a pretty good laugh after that.

Tim said:

I don't think I could convince my family to come out to the garage and check out my signal lights, but if I did, and they failed, man, they'd never let me hear the end of it.

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Yea, I got the "I wonder if that would fry them" from my younger brother but I did manage to blind them before I realized that I burned out 2 LEDs. Not a big loss just time

Jay

Awesome stuff, I can't wait for it to be complete. I was thinking the same thing. Not that the styling of the vintage aren't easy on the eye or anything, it's just that they aren't as bright on the road compared to new Japanese bikes with large panels of LED lights. So if not making the bike look slightly modernised, from a safety point of view they're fantastic.

I was actually looking for a set of LED lights that are wide and thin that I can fit snugly underneath the end of the seat. Any ideas where to find a set?

Cheers guys

Id be interested in the same thing there. Something a little different, that still looks vintage I put LED's on my old 87 ninja brake light and was very pleased with the results. It just makes sense to be a little easier to spot on the road.