I got me an electrical head scratcher

I installed the hyperlites that are turn, brake and running lights. At first all worked great, no codes and the turn signals work fine, still do.

When I turn the ignition off, a few of the turn signal LED.s are very dimly light. I am using the turn signal wires for + and - and can't figure out why the turn signals are doing this.

They aren't full bright and not all 4 on each side are on but a couple of them on each side are very dim.

I have disconnected the - side of the battery until I get this figured out. Reason I am not using the stock turn signals is I installed a tail tidy.

Any ideas? TIA

This is a mind boggler for me, a non electrical type. I undid the led lights and plugged up the stock incadescent lights and no glow from them, plug the led back up and they are very dim.

I will call hyperlites on Monday and see if they may have a explanation as I don't see one.

Don't know the system but how about the diodes to make led's work right.

Corrected--- resistors

Not sure about the diodes but I have used hyperlites on the last 5 bikes I have owned and never had this problem, but then again I have never used the part number that included turn, brake and running. I have always just used the brake light system.

It is like there is some power "leaking" to the turn signals.

Looks like you may be getting a back-feed from one of the other connections. Without knowing the internal construction of the lights, it's just a guess.

Tell us exactly what connections you made to what wires on the bike, please.

I removed the rear fender and unplugged the left and right  turn signal connectors,and the connector for  the tag light.

Below is the wiring instructions from Hyperlites, a picture of where I tapped into the wires and a picture of one of the turn signals that stays lite even with the key off.

I used positaps that came with the kit.  In the top of the middle picture I used these wires to tap into a switched wire, brake light  and a ground wire

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The top eight lights are for the turn signal while  the bottom 8 are for the brake and running lights and this is with the ignition turned off

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What are the blue & brown wires connected to?

beetle wrote:

What are the blue & brown wires connected to?

One is for the brake light the other for the running lights. they connect to the controller module.

Er..your not putting the key switch in park, by any chance? Sorry, had to ask...

beetle wrote:

Er..your not putting the key switch in park, by any chance? Sorry, had to ask...

Let me go look and see, I have done dumber things than that LOL

Nope, definitely in the off position.

I will call hyperlite tomorrow and see what they say.

Thanks for the help

So you've completely removed the stock blinkers? Well, check the right blinker connector for +12V. Even with the key "off", +12V appears there if there is no load on it.

The stock blinkers are removed and only the + wire is used for the hyperlite blinker, it uses a common ground from the controller module for it's - feed

All the more reason to check for +12V.

Backfeed, I tells ya.

Well I just took my multimeter and when I put it  on the bike side + wire for the turn signal it reads a constant 12v even with the ignition key off.  When I touch the + wire for the turn signal it drops to 6v.

I am going to disconnect the controller brown wires bundled together and see if any thing happens and then I will try the blue  wire from the controller

Disconnecting the controller wires did nothing for the reading, so I am at a loss where the "leak" could be coming from

The 12V is coming from the dash. On mine, when the LED blinker is connected, the voltage drops to 0.4V with the key off. I also have a resistor in the ground connection.

I'm guessing this hyper lite thing doesn't require any added resistance?

I talked to the hyperlite guy today and he was as confused as we are. He said that they don'r require any added resistance and asked me to hook up the stock turn signals then tie in the hyperlites and see if it still happens. I will try that this coming weekend. I had bought some other led turn signals and decided to hook them up and they don't come on when the key is off. I have unhooked the hyperlite turn signal but still use the running and brake lights.

My bike came with LED indicators without resistors from PO -and it had exactly the same issue: The rear indicators were multi-LED and some of them were dimly lit with ignition off.
It went away when I installed the resistors. Might be related to the "check bulb" feature of the dash.

thekenheld wrote:

My bike came with LED indicators without resistors from PO -and it had exactly the same issue: The rear indicators were multi-LED and some of them were dimly lit with ignition off.
It went away when I installed the resistors. Might be related to the "check bulb" feature of the dash.

Where did you get the resistors and what is the description of them, thanks

Any resistors that 'mimic' 10W indicator bulbs will do and the ready-prepared ones (connectors etc) just call themselves 10W load resistors - you need one in series in each indicator connection & they are all over the web...

Meant parallel!

paulbrice wrote:

Meant parallel!

Thanks

The current required to light a typical LED is extremely small, just a fraction of a milliamp or tracking across a dirty wet insulator but still it shouldn't be happening. Do you have any other accessories connected to the bike?
Try pulling each of the fuses one by one to see if it goes out.

Which GRiSO is it?

thekenheld wrote:

My bike came with LED indicators without resistors from PO -and it had exactly the same issue: The rear indicators were multi-LED and some of them were dimly lit with ignition off.
It went away when I installed the resistors. Might be related to the "check bulb" feature of the dash.

That makes sense

I did search for Load Resistors on this site [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] they have them listed as 6 Ohm 50 Watt, personally I find it objectionable to save power by switching to LEDs then waste it by applying a dirty great resistor. It's also a lot of additional connections to give trouble in the future, I think I will stick to incandescents.
BTW, Superbright have a shop by model but I prefer the Universal section otherwise your choice is limited.
The GRiSO has 4 outputs from the dash, 2 left and 2 right so you may have to have 4 resistors to fool the "check bulb" function.

I use LED flashers lamps on my old loop without resistors but the GRiSO flasher is part of the dash so it may need resistors to make the dash happy.