LEDify Your Bike's Indicator Lights!
by dewdrop01 in Circuits > LEDs
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LEDify Your Bike's Indicator Lights!
In this instructable I'll show you how to replace your bike's indicator bulb with power LEDs. I made this for my Yamaha 100cc motor bike beacuse it is the only vehicle that I own. However this project is scalable to car or even truck!
So why you would like to replace your regular bulbs with LEDs. Following are some of the reasons.
1- LEDs consume much lower power than light bulb so they are much gentler on your battery and also lit up when battery is low.
2- Power LEDs are very bright. Since indicator light is an important safety feature of your vehicle so you want them brightly lit.
3- LEDs last much longer than regular bulbs.
Materials Required
These are materials for 1 indicator light. Multiply with 4 for both front and rear indicators.
3, 1-watt LEDs per indicator.(Forward voltage=2.1 volts. Current=470 mA. I used orange LEDs, you may use yellow instead)
3 heat sinks for LEDs
Some wire
Some thick electrical wire
Super glue
Tools
Soldering iron
Screw driver
Wire stripper
Nose plier
So why you would like to replace your regular bulbs with LEDs. Following are some of the reasons.
1- LEDs consume much lower power than light bulb so they are much gentler on your battery and also lit up when battery is low.
2- Power LEDs are very bright. Since indicator light is an important safety feature of your vehicle so you want them brightly lit.
3- LEDs last much longer than regular bulbs.
Materials Required
These are materials for 1 indicator light. Multiply with 4 for both front and rear indicators.
3, 1-watt LEDs per indicator.(Forward voltage=2.1 volts. Current=470 mA. I used orange LEDs, you may use yellow instead)
3 heat sinks for LEDs
Some wire
Some thick electrical wire
Super glue
Tools
Soldering iron
Screw driver
Wire stripper
Nose plier
Solder LEDs to heat sinks
The first step is to solder LEDs to heat sinks. Take care to solder -ve terminal of LED to -ve mark on heat sink and vice versa.
Inter-connecting LEDs
We want to make a series circuit here, so attach -ve terminal of LED to the +ve of the next. Also attach wires at both terminals to supply power to circuit.
Assembling
I took a single copper strand from electrical wire and super glued it to the back of heat sinks(see picture). It is important that you do not use any material for assembly which covers the back of heat sink (such as electrical tape etc). I cut wire which is significantly longer than combined length of modules, which will be explained in the next step.
The first step is to solder LEDs to heat sinks. Take care to solder -ve terminal of LED to -ve mark on heat sink and vice versa.
Inter-connecting LEDs
We want to make a series circuit here, so attach -ve terminal of LED to the +ve of the next. Also attach wires at both terminals to supply power to circuit.
Assembling
I took a single copper strand from electrical wire and super glued it to the back of heat sinks(see picture). It is important that you do not use any material for assembly which covers the back of heat sink (such as electrical tape etc). I cut wire which is significantly longer than combined length of modules, which will be explained in the next step.
Fitting the assembly in the indicator unit
Remove the light bulb but do not remove the holder assembly. You do not want your LEDs to roam about in the indicator so attach it to some support(This proved to be the most tricky part of this project). Find point of attachement of long support wire which we left in previous step. In this case I attached it to screw on one side and bulb holder on the other side. I wind wire to the support with nose plier.
Attach power wires to respective terminals, place cover and you are done.
Remove the light bulb but do not remove the holder assembly. You do not want your LEDs to roam about in the indicator so attach it to some support(This proved to be the most tricky part of this project). Find point of attachement of long support wire which we left in previous step. In this case I attached it to screw on one side and bulb holder on the other side. I wind wire to the support with nose plier.
Attach power wires to respective terminals, place cover and you are done.