Hitchcocks Forum

The orange warning bulb in the speedometer of my Jan 99 Bullet 500 only lights on if the trafficator lamp on the left is on. Not for the right, even though the right trafficator light is ok.
I have not found what is the cause. Any ideas ?

Is it a filament bulb or an LED in there? if it's been replaced with an LED, you need a specific type which will work with either polarity for a single indicator repeater lamp because the current flows in opposite directions on each indicator and LEDs are diodes which only allow current to flow in one direction.



Replacing it with a filament bulb or an LED bulb designed for use with a POSITIVE EARTH will get round this problem (they add additional circuitry to these to allow them to work with opposite polarity but they will also work when connected in the conventional direction.



On the plus side, if it works with one flasher, the wiring is ok. I have seen a problem where the bulb holder was earthing against the clocks before (the holder is live in one direction and earth in the other) but this should make the fuse blow on the direction that doesn't work.

Hi Guys-------my mate Myles Forrest of Telford ( Some of you BSA lads will know him ) has just fitted LED indicator bulbs that flash of their own accord ie}--- the indicator can is now redundant... This is on his BSA B40 Dispatch Riders bike...He also has LED headlight witch look really white and crisp.....I'll see if I can get some photos for you....

@Allan. Yeah, flashing LEDs are cool. If you fit one flashing LED in a cluster, all the others will flash with it.



I looked into scratch making autonamously flashing LED indicators for the wifes YB100 a few years back but as I recall, there was something odd in the construction and use regs stating the front and rear flashers had to either flash in synch or alternatley. The way I was going to do it, the front and rear would definately not have synched and probaly would have flashed at slightly different rates.



No reason at all the flasher circuitry can't be built into the circuit boards these days though, which is presumably what your mate has. There is a lot of idiocy and poor design with LED flashers. The worst one to my mind being the fitting of ballast resistors to make them flash, something that negates the entire point of fitting them. They also invariably put the ballast on each bulb instead of one on the feed to the relay, thereby introducing an additional 4 new cable joins to fail. They could more cheaply and easily fit an electronic flahser relay which will flash at the same speed regardless of the current draw.



The problem is we're still stuck in a "lightbulb" mentality. To me, LED flashers should be built using angled, self colour, surface mount LEDs on a heat-sinked PCB which incorporates the flasher circuitry. They should be resin filled and with two leads coming out of the back. They could be such lightweight, low-profile items they could be adhesive backed and stuck onto whichever mounting you want (either directly or retro-fitted to conventional ones in place of the back reflector). They could even be flexible. More like a thick sticker than a bulb holder.

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Kevin has those self flashing LED lamps fitted..









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REOC 15084

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It is a filament bulb.
Good point about the leds. I had not thought about that.

That's really odd then, because if it's working one way, I'd usually expect it to work the other way too because the bulb should earth through the opposite sie indicator. So with the flashers on one way the centre pin of the bulb holder is live, with it the other way, the bulb holder is live. It implies something is fundamentally wrong with the way it's wired in but if it was a broken wire, it shouldn't work either way.



Just to humour me, try pulling the bulb and holder out of the clock, make sure it isn't touching anything and see if it works then just hanging on the ends of the wires. It MIGHT be earthing the bulb holder through the clocks but not carrying enough current to pop the fuse.



There is also the fiddler factor. Has it ever worked properly since you had it? Could a previous owner have connected it up incorrectly? (it's an odd thing to do with a bulb). You should have a white on black and a green on black wire connecting to that repeater light bulb holder. If you have a multimeter, the green on black should have continuity with the centre pin of the right flasher bulb holder. The white on black with the left.



On the plus side, it would pass an MOT with that light taped over because you can see the flashers from the riding position anyway.

Oh, if it does work normally with the bulb holder removed from the back of the clock, you just need to insulate it. Wrapping the outside of the bulb holder with a couple of layers of PVC tape would do it.

Stinkwheel: thanks for the suggestions. I will check that.

@Stinkwheel: that solved the problem ! Thanks for the suggestion.