At 11:23 PM 7/28/03 -0600, you wrote: >Has anyone experimented with LED turn signal bulbs, the "twist & lock" 2 >filament type? Is such a thing made? Seems like a good idea . . .
In order for the turn signals to blink at the expected rate, the overall resistance through both secondary circuits past the flasher relay has to be approximately the resistance of the incandescent bulbs. That is why when a filament burns out in a rear turn signal the flasher flashes so quickly. The resistance in that half of the circuit goes up to near infinity, the capacitor charges overly quickly and the flasher takes almost no time to blink. The Low Amperage LED "bulbs" would cause the same problem as they're much higher in resistance than a normal bulb (They'd have to have resistors inside for the LEDs to be in a 12-14VDC circuit). They would make great additional indicators, ie. for trailers or side-marker blinkers because in parallel they wouldn't greatly reduce the resistance of the overall circuit, but I think the blink rate would be way too fast to use them instead of bulbs. |
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