Idiot lights being fed direct from indicators

[Plasticpaddy]

Hi,

Loooong time lurker but never posted before, thankfully have not had much cause to visit the workshop section in the past. I have spent the last hour or so searching for answers to my particular question and seen that you guys are pretty good with electronic bits and pieces so hopefully you may find time to help.

This isn't really related to an LED light retrofit, hence the new thread.

My query: the dashboard has lights to show you when the indicator lights are on, it has both left and right indicators as opposed to just one single bulb telling you that either the left or the right indicators are on.

The circuit board that used to light these indicators on the dash has corroded and is not repairable by me (un-solderable flexi plastic PCB) so I am looking for a way to take a few wires piggy-backed from somewhere near the actual indicators in the headlight cluster to run two bulbs that I will glue in place in the dashboard.

Ideally I'd like to use cheap-as-chips white LED's and simply tap into the live wire for each indicator at the front light cluster and ground to a suitable point. I am unsure whether this would work or whether the extra current draw would cause all the lights to dim/stop working. I have ordered some LED's from ebay LED's from ebay with in-built resistors and leads which I can find a use for if not in this project.

I understand that an electronic flasher relay unit would help me if I was doing a full conversion, but in this case I only want to power a couple of LED's.

If anyone could provide some idea of what is the simplest way to get a couple of idiot-lights running on the dash I would be grateful. If it is just easier to get an electronic relay and fit LED's in the indicators and spur some extra LED's off for the dash then so be it. I'm probably making it seem more complicated than it is, but electronics always baffled me.

Thanks in advance,
Pads.

[StormCrow]

You should be fine just running a 'spur' from the indicators to the LEDs - that's exactly what I've done on my GPZ500 for the built in idiot lights I've fitted to the cluster...

[Plasticpaddy]

[stinkwheel]

You can buy 12v LED lights with flying leads attached which are ready to "plug and play" on your bike.

So all you need to do is find the wires that are already coming into the dash (there will be a big connector block somewhere). Then you have the option of cutting this wire and attaching the LED flying wire to it or just soldering the flying wire into the original connector.

I wouldn't recommend the latter for most things but LEDs are very forgiving of a less than perfect connection.

Remember LEDs are true diodes and therefore directional, check you have the polarity correct before proceeding too far.

You can get bezels that the LED will snap into the back of for a very neat finish.

Be aware, they can easily be WAY too bright. I did the whole dash on my VFR with LEDs and had to paint the top half of most of them black to stop them dazzling me.

Mine was the same problem, a rotted flexi PCB. I'd do it neater next time but it's still working well.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f216/stinkwheel/clockwire.png
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[moonzoomer]

For your intrest, this product called conductive paint is useful when repairing flexible PCB, its very cheap and easy to use.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CONDUCTIVE-SILVER-PAINT-CAR-DEMISTER-REPAIR-PAINT-/110907861539?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item19d29faa23

[Plasticpaddy]

Thanks for taking the time to post this Stink, your old PCB looks pretty similar to mine. I imagine it took you a while to make such a complete rewire of it, looks so much easier to maintain now. God knows why they put such crappy PCB's in there and (in my case anyway) offer no protection from moisture. I wouldn't mind so much if you could buy them second hand but parts for my bike are like rocking horse sh*te at the best of times.

In your case were the wires at the indicator cluster the same colours as at the dash wiring harness? My wiring loom looks standard but is wrapped in tons of electrical tape so I think I'm going to have to tear it all off to trace the cables properly. Deep joy.

On the plus side I've just managed to get a couple of fairing panels off that were giving me all sorts of grief and I can now swap out all the hoses and clean the carb, so at least she'll run a bit better mechanically. My next house definitely needs to have a garage so I'm not annoying my missus with bike parts all over the kitchen floor

[andy_uk]

[Plasticpaddy]

[Plasticpaddy]

[andy_uk]

[Plasticpaddy]

[Plasticpaddy]

Update, for those of you who are interested my progress so far:

So it turns out that motorbike electrics are fairly straight-forward, even I can understand them. I’ve discovered some amateur electrical work done before my time that looks like some sort of immobiliser/remote start that has since been removed. Probably best not to go near it.

https://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/plinky_plonky/speedo4.jpgI tried the silver paint idea and managed to get the high beam indicator working solidly again. Sadly the dash illuminator lights don’t seem to work, they are grounded by the longest track of degraded copper and my attempts to fix it don’t seem to have worked. Shame. I have a crappy multimeter but checking for continuity with it seems to be asking too much. I will leave the PCB intact for now and just try to fix what isn’t working.

https://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/plinky_plonky/speedo3.jpgSo back to the original idea of splicing LED’s into the wiring harness. As you can see I have glued some LED’s into where the idiot lights should be and to keep it all demountable I have used some molex connectors I found on ebay to make a new harness. I will wire some more LED's into the headlight circuit to act as dash illumination at night. Sould be simple enough.

I will cut, spur, and re-solder the harness on the bike and cover the work with some heatshrink tubing I got from maplin. This should keep it all neat and simple for maintenance and for future owners to understand.

Unless I hit any problems I won't report back on this, it's a lot simpler than I thought it would be and the help from you guys was invaluable so thanks once aqgain.

Cheers,
Pads.