Adding a LED to an aftermarket large housing.

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allenp42

Well-Known Member
Deoodles said:
On high beam it had a flicker and brightness varied for no reason. A steady 5k rpm and it varied in brightness and flickered.
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Just to confirm, this is with the LED bulb? If so, if you haven't already, disconnect your Rec/Reg and try again. With nothing feeding the battery, there should be no ripple on the battery. No AC ripple should mean steady DC and no flickering.

Someone help me here. Is the hi-beam wattage any higher than low beam or is it just the angle of the light?

racerx said:
Run a test lead from the battery to the bulb...use the diode as the other test lead. If the bulb illuminates, reverse the diode leads...it should not illuminate, unless the diode has failed.
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Great suggestion.

Are you using the small AC to DC power supply for any of this testing? Reference post 30.

Deoodles said:
I have a charge rate of 12.5 v at the Battery. I want battery fed led and no flicker.
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it may not be charging. Remove the TL and see if the battery voltage increases from idle. Feel confident the Rec/Reg can supply 2ish amps at 12v. Maybe remove the TL bulb to reduce your load even further and try again.

Just an opinion here based on what I see and my VERY limited knowledge of your stator and Rec/reg. You have way more capacity in that stator than you have in your rectifier/regulator. However, with all LED lighting, and my guess is correct on Rec/Reg (~2 amps), you have plenty of juice to keep the battery charged. I also don't see a need to use the the power supply you ordered.

If you don't get this solved in a day or 2, maybe I can meet you downtown Charlotte at one of the local Breweries one warm afternoon. I work cheap if free beer is involved.
 
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Deoodles

Well-Known Member
Confirming. Led headlight and taillight. The HL has 3 diodes. 2 on low and 3 on high. 18w total. With the key on all lights come on and look/work good. I thought unplugging the rec/reg was genius and would show me where the issue was. I was wrong. With the rec/reg unplugged and the motor running the flash was still there. That tells me the electrical chatter is either in the ground or CDI? What can I do to further troubleshoot this? BTW, the power supply I purchased in post 30 is for feeding the signals from ac at the rec/reg. For now I am not bringing the signals into this. I’d like to first address the HL flash. I did verify my diode is working. It stops voltage one way and lets it pass the other.
I spent some time online trying to understand half/full wave as well as diodes and caps to smooth out a signal. Kind of interesting. What’s next? Also, the battery is new 5Ah and has 12.5v on it
 
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allenp42

Well-Known Member
A couple ideas come to mind. As connected, connect a jumper from the ground side of the HL and run it directly to a good ground location. Then what are the results.

As Bob pointed earlier, you should also run a wire directly from the positive on the battery to the HL.

I would suggest you do these individually before you try both options at one time.

If you stiff have the flicker, remove the HL from the bucket and connect it up directly to the battery and sit it on your seat. Try it with engine running and engine off just real out or confirm the problem.

I guess it's possible that you're picking up noise from the stator, CDI, spark plug but IMHO, this is a long shot.
 
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69ST

Well-Known Member
racerx said: ↑
Run a test lead from the battery to the bulb...use the diode as the other test lead. If the bulb illuminates, reverse the diode leads...it should not illuminate, unless the diode has failed.​
Great suggestion.

Are you using the small AC to DC power supply for any of this testing? Reference post 30.
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No, I use a known, good, 6v battery. It's basic shadetree electrical diagnostics, basic as it gets...but very effective.
 
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69ST

Well-Known Member
Some of this is above my pay grade...i.e. beyond my present knowledge level. I keep hoping that between us we come up with viable workarounds, since pursuing a degree in electrical engineering is, imho, a bit extreme just to learn how to diagnose small Honda lighting problems.;) Case and point...two likely causes of strobing lights: uneven voltage output, uneven current flow. That pretty well limits the potential causes and fixes to: diode (rectifier), capacitor or feeding everything DC from the battery...the optimal method being full-wave. That's less than a handful of possibilties to deal with, less complications than with, say, carburetion.

My first thought, to add a diode to the HL feed, was to try and kill the backwave. But, that also suggests that the reg/rec isn't doing its job very well. Thus, it makes sense to test another reg/rec unit first. If another reg/rec makes no difference...then it's definitely time to try a diode. If that doesn't fix it, then adding capacitor to the circuit would be a logical next step.

But there's a caveat I need to mention. A weak battery can cause, or mimic, these symptoms. And, if that's not distressing (at least temporarily) enough, consider the fact that a battery is, in a way, a capacitor in super slo-mo. Something I had to learn the hard way...my full wave setup would sometimes manifest a slight HL flicker but only at idle. Turned out the battery was dying...over the span of two years. When it would no longer deliver north of 10.9V lighting went haywire and the electronic lighting control module acted as if it were on a bad acid trip. The Trailtech fullwave reg/rec unit requires a healthy battery. That's about as simple as it gets and exactly my point, here. I think we're going to find a very simple problem beneath the flickering/pulsating light problems.
 
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Deoodles

Well-Known Member
This may be solved. A wire directly to neg on the batt eliminated flashing so I added a chassis ground in the headlight bucket. While testing if started flashing again. I had the light on and the socket in my hand and noticed touching the connectors on the led changed the light. I soldered the ground and 2 leads. There is a very faint pulse at idle almost none that stops off idle. The bikes back together and a daytime ride then check and it seems to have stayed fixed. Only a night ride can actually confirm. The contacts were solid but the solder made a difference. Hope I get a chance tonight to verify this repair
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Deoodles

Well-Known Member
Adding the signals back in flashed the headlight. Moving the flasher pos from batt to the white lead on the reg eliminates all drain on everything. I hope the converter works and smoothes out the signals. They get brighter and slow down to normal with some RPMs. I actually think I’m happy with this. The battery is at 12.0v with lights on and motor off. 12.2v with motor on. The yellow and the white leads at the reg are both 14.0 off idle. Maybe a better reg would help but I think this will work
 
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Deoodles

Well-Known Member
That was it. Just got back. The light is fantastic. Nothing like the old bulb. Really does throw a Beam far. This is worth the trouble. If I get the signals working it will be on par with a modern bike. Going to have to wait on the converter. If it doesn’t work I have a backup plan. I saw this on the internet.

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Deoodles

Well-Known Member
If someone has the info please post. what are the four wires that go into a single phase regulator rectifier and what is the direction of flow for those wires an internal schematic if you will
 
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Deoodles

Well-Known Member
So
yellow is e. Ac in
White is f Ac in
A is dc+ out
C is dc- out?
where does over voltage get dumped?
Can the yellow and white feed a second reg/rec to feed signals without a batt. Reg #2 could feed dc to the signals on demand and reg #1 would dump the excess ac when signals are not in use?
 
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kirrbby

kirrbby

Well-Known Member
The one that says connect to frame ground, is JUST a ground.
The one that says, connect to white from stator...that one connects to the wire from your stator that you want to rectify to DC power...the red IS rectified power that charges the battery. So, white is AC power IN to the rectifier. Red is DC power coming OUT of the rectifier.

The yellow is the one that gets "T'd in" to the AC power, headlight circuit. It is regulated to 12v AC.
 
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69ST

Well-Known Member
Deoodles said:
So
yellow is e. Ac in
White is f Ac in
A is dc+ out
C is dc- out?
where does over voltage get dumped?
Can the yellow and white feed a second reg/rec to feed signals?
Click to expand...

The system uses a chassis ground, i.e. reg/rec & battery (-). This detail is missing from this drawing.

To be clear, this is a full-wave bridge diode reg/rec unit. The unit shown in kirrbby's post is garden-variety half-wave.

Here's the diagram for the Trailtech full-wave unit, taken directly from their site. The red/yellow tr lead, from the unit, is a relay-controlled (+) output and doesn't have to be used.

Stator lead color coding varies by stator, of course. With small Honda singles, you'd treat the yellow & white leads as the twin yellows shown by TT...if the stator was not grounded. This unit absolutely will not work with a grounded stator...ask me how I know this.:whistle:

Screenshot_2019-11-26 010-ELV-116 pdf.png
 
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