indicator bulb polarity

[kenloen]

I have replaced all the dash warning indicators with some aftermarket jobs, see another post regarding carbon dash facia,

however the indicator flasher only works one 1 direction, so Im thinking maybe the bulb setup originally by Noble is reverse polarity dependant on direction selected.

anyone know how I can create a single polarity for either direction to make the new indicator work?

here is what i have fitted.

http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/black-bezel-...

[Adrian W]

surely that is the same as the Noble effort?

can you try to explain your question better, I cant understand how the polarity of the bulb will make any difference, you could use a diode on each side to effectively filter out the other.

Edited by Adrian W on Tuesday 24th May 15:44

[kenloen]

Ok the new bulb only flashes when the car is turning left, turning right I get nothing.
The lamps are all directional, meaning if I reverse the connection they don't light (led), whereas a bulb will light up regardless of the wiring polarity.

[Driven]

Are the bulbs LEDs? I had an issue with the turn signals where how it was wired, either the left or right would work. Not an electrical engineer, but I believe both sides of the bulb receive power, just that when the indicator is moved left/right, one side of the bulb receives a ground.

I couldn't figure out why the LEDs bulbs wouldn't work the same as a normal bulb...but I imagine it has to do with the polarity switching.

[Rob_W]

The standard wiring does switch polarity depending on direction which doesn't matter with conventional bulbs but will effect LEDs. I only encountered the issue when fitting LED dash indicators so fitted a relay so the standard circuit fed a constant polarity feed to the LED, assume you would need to do similar on a grander scale for the indicators themselves?


PS Thinking about it the main ones may not be affected at all but haven't checked those circuits

Edited by Rob_W on Tuesday 24th May 19:54

[Adrian W]

Ahh LED's not bulbs, I did mine with shotky diodes , I'll try and remember the circuit, it was a few years ago

[2.5bluenob]

I had the same problem and had to switch the LED for a normal bulb.

[kenloen]

Rob_W said:

The standard wiring does switch polarity depending on direction which doesn't matter with conventional bulbs but will effect LEDs. I only encountered the issue when fitting LED dash indicators so fitted a relay so the standard circuit fed a constant polarity feed to the LED, assume you would need to do similar on a grander scale for the indicators themselves?


PS Thinking about it the main ones may not be affected at all but haven't checked those circuits

Edited by Rob_W on Tuesday 24th May 19:54

I think that's it. a fused direct live feeding into 2* 12v relays, then the indicator connectors 1 to each relay switching the output to the led lamp...

[Adrian W]

I won't bother drawing the correct way with diodes then

[kenloen]

Adrian W said:

I won't bother drawing the correct way with diodes then

oh sorry missed that.. if you wouldn't mind..

[kenloen]

can anyone help with this?? If I feed the negative direction to a relay and use that to switch a positive feed to the LED indicator (sharing the + connection (as they don't normally work together at once), I get both sides working as they should - however when using the hazard relay, both lights come on and stay on, not flashing.. MOT coming up and I need all circuits to work correctly..

[mgbond]

Not sure if this helps but I recently change all me rear bulbs to LED's (including indicator, what a difference that made). I ended up with Cree LED's as they were dual polarity as some of the bulb positions didn't match the bulb type. Maybe there is something in this. Also in order to stop the dreaded quick flashing, a LED relay is required in place of the std flasher unit (simple £10 change). Mybe changing this relay might help?

[kenloen]

apologies for this super crude drawing of the circuit I have, this allows the Dashboard LED direction indicator to flash when either direction is selected. problem is when I choose hazard I am getting a non switched 12v+ feed and the whole circuit comes on, but it doesn't flash. If I remove say the right feed then everything works (except the right dash warning. I guess I could buy another led indicator, but that would look crap..

[kenloen]

sorted. I used both indicator wires to the relay. rather than a feed then earth. I figured if a bulb lights from either direction, then the relay would fire from the same feeds. tried it and everything works.

[andygtt]

I think I did a much simpler method to solve this, I simply had 2 led indicator lights and wired both in but the opposite way around.... left turn left works, right turn right works