Just starting, need help

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Chief Pilot

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 7, 2010
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It has been awhile since i have made anything but I am trying to build a 4157 LED automotive bulb and everytime I do something doesnt add up. It will come on but not flash for turnsignals and vice versa. I build one for my motorcycle I sold over a year ago and it came our great but cars I am having problems with. I looked around but could not find much about it. can anyone help. its for a 98 corvette. thanks
 
Well you should start at the top! Look at the OEM bulb and connections, notice how many there is and how they make contact, and which do what, take your multimeter and test the voltages coming out with the bulb off, with your headlights on, and with your blinkers on... find out how your car blinks the lights, does it have a older tin can style or black box style blinker/flasher circuit that plugs into your fuse or relay box??

I'm assuming the car has 2-4 wires, 1-2 for the constant bulb that's on when you turn on your headlights, and 1-2 for the blinker bulb. (I'm saying 1-2 because it depends on if the lights are chassis grounded)

If i'm on the right path, you should just have a continous 12v terminal and a "blinker" 12v terminal that would "flash" 12v as the blinker relay clicks... Then all you should have to do if wire up 2 seperate light ckts, for example if it's 12v, and you get some ~3v leds than you could just wire up 4 in series to the constant terminal, and another 4 in series to the blinking terminal.

FYI that's just a quick dirty solution. If you really want it to look nice and last, maybe get 2 12v piranha light bars and use a simple filter/rectifying/smoothing circuit to clean up the noisy DC of a car. (12v piranha light bar is a ready made string of super bright leds wired for 12v operation.. they run like 8-15$ a piece, check out besthongkong.com for all kinds of cheap 12v auto stuff)

*P.S., I've run leds off the car power with no problem, but that was years ago as a teenager, I'd really reccomend getting some advice on how to simply and cheaply clean up the DC. Even a 1$ cap to the chassis or something may help alot. Don't quote me on that :whistle:
 
Another thing I just realized, filament bulbs are very resistive, compared to leds... you will probably HAVE to replace both tailights with led configurations to get proper operation, or add a resistor to try and match the lamped side, which would get awkward fast because the filament bulbs will change resistance over time.. Forget that part, just make sure to do leds to both sides at the same time. Shoot, you might even have to determine if the car has it's blinkers wired in series or parallel.. An easy way to do that would be to put on your hazards with all OEM bulbs in... remove ONE bulb, if they all go out, then its all in series, if none go out than they're individually paralleled and if one goes out (like you take out a left front bulb and the left rear bulb goes off but the other side continues than it's in 2 in series, paralleled! Any bulbs in the same circuit as the one you modify will probably have to be converted to leds..

-You should be able to find some slap in replacements with leds built in, and all the work done for you online for relatively cheap...

If you want to go the homebrew route you need to identify how the OEM blinkers hooked up to the car, and what else is hooked in inline with that, as a starting point. :thumbsup:
 
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