Article [11] ST1100 - LED front indicator upgrade

This upgrade has been done on an 1100 but I should imagine would be OK for the 1300.

Whilst touring Scotland last June Dave Whitley mentioned that when I was behind him he found it hard to tell if my indicators were on due to my under mirror spot lights washing them out. It's been playing on my mind and has been mentioned on here before. So today I decided to have a go at upgrading the front indicators.
I for once remembered to photograph the project, so here you go.
It's a simple upgrade using 6x 5mm bright white leds.
I took off the mirror pods and simply drilled three 5.5mm holes in the flat surface at the back of the indicator.



I soldered the leds in line with a suitable diode at the start of the feed.



Fitted them into the drilled holes with a smear of silicone around them.



Added (soldered) suitable lengths of wire and connected these to the indicator feed (green/yellow) and the corresponding earth (solid green).



And finally covered the whole mess with good old tank tape to keep everything in place.




OK it's not pretty but it is functional. I can't get the phone camera to get a decent pic of the indicators working. I can tell you that it was worth the effort though and for little outlay cost. I look forward to hearing what Dave thinks next time were winding our way through the Glens.

Re: LED front indicator upgrade.

Very Nice Paul

Re: LED front indicator upgrade.

Nice!

Re: LED front indicator upgrade.

Nice upgrade. Is there any chance of getting some operating photos at all?

Re: LED front indicator upgrade.

Cheers guys
I will try get some pics promise...watch this space.

I have been advised by Hound that I would have been better using amber leds, all to do with loosing light through the amber lens. I may get some amber leds and try get a comparison pic of white versus amber. I think that would be good.
Stay tuned.

Re: LED front indicator upgrade.

Cool, If the amber works better, I can see doing that since Pearl will have HIDs and PIAAs soon. And if three works, wouldn't six or nine be even better?

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Heres a pic of the left lens with the white leds fitted. I can't offer any better as yet, and no comparisson to before and after, but I think you can tell that they are somewhat brighter than standard. I will post when I try out the amber ones.

Re: LED front indicator upgrade.

Paul, it's true that an LED is most efficient when it's the same colour as the lens you view it through... eg amber LED for turn signal, red LED for stop light, etc... but if the white LEDs are so bright that they are satisfactory even after the amber lens blocks a lot of their frequency, then don't worry too much about getting the amber LEDs!

Whay you may find with the ambers is that they don't appear brighter, but their colour saturation is greater so they are more noticeable.

Are these in addition to the incandescent bulbs, rather than a replacement? Hmmm, I guess they must be or your flasher would go nuts.

Re: LED front indicator upgrade.

Evening Houndy matey,
Yep the leds are additions to the incandescent jobbie's.
For what the price of these leds are, I just got to try out the amber, if for nothing more than curiosity.
I wonder why manufacturers of replacement bulbs for brake lights and indicators don't specify that they are coloured? Or are they as I always thought, just plain white leds.

Re: LED front indicator upgrade.

OK Job done. I'm getting better with the old soldering game.

I think I have to start by showing the pics in sequence. I tried very hard to keep the same distance and angle for a better comparison. The light conditions were pretty much the same too, maybe the amber leds pic was taken in brighter conditions because of the snow......

Pic 1.
NO LEDS



Pic 2.
WITH 3 WHITE LEDS



Pic 3.
WITH AMBER LEDS



Now I think they speak for themselves. I'm impressed.
Many thanks to Hound for the pointer you were spot on with the info mate.
Total cost of upgrade no more than ?3 the pair, not including my time which would have taken the costs up by massive amounts....

Go for it guys and gals.

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Nice!... any chance you could show a video clip with one side oem and one side LEDs and use your hazzards? I know.. NOW I ask..

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No it's a good idea Joe and my intention was to do just that but it's blinking snowing again and as much as I love you guys I aint standing in the snow filming my posh indicators......:snow1: :noway
When I get a chance I will do a bit of filmimg I promise.

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Now I have LED Envy.

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Very nice Paul, my comment about 6 or 9 was tongue in cheek, 3 is great!

Re: ST1100-LED front indicator upgrade

OK so this isn't the video clip Joe asked for. Sorry Joe, but I think you can see the indicators are much brighter than standard.
I still thought I could get the indicators up front to be more visable so I decided to adapt an idea I saw in another post. I have added 5x5mm amber leds forward facing to each tip over wing cover. See what you think.

click on the pic, its the first video I have uploaded and this is the best I can do.

Re: ST1100-LED front indicator upgrade

Paul, they look great especially with the tipover wings being colour-coded. Your flashers seem to be very slow though!

Re: ST1100-LED front indicator upgrade

You're right Houndy, they do seem slow but only when on the hazard setting, must be a slow flasher unit. There fine on indicators.
Good job I have the rear facing amber 48 leds as back up for the hazards

I love to mess with electric's on my bikes where I get the chance..... so since reading all these up grades I have ordered the worlds supply of Red, White and Orange LED's, so I'll document what I do and put it up here ,:woo

I'm doing Indicators , but with more LED in there prob 6 per flasher then 8 white in the lower wings like the look of a Audi and not sure with the red ones.... but with the white ones I'll be putting 2 Resistors ther to cut the Voltage down as they will be on when lights are running as onein line only cuts the current down not the voltage..... anyway am of to bed then tinker tomorrow :excited:

Mrfixit said:

I'll be putting 2 Resistors there to cut the Voltage down as they will be on when lights are running as one in line only cuts the current down not the voltage...

Click to expand...

I don't understand this. Surely cutting one also affects the other - they are inter-related. If I wanted to power an LED with a 2v 20mA requirement from a 12v source, for example, I'd just use one half-watt 560 ohm resistor.

Hound said:

I don't understand this. Surely cutting one also affects the other - they are inter-related. If I wanted to power an LED with a 2v 20mA requirement from a 12v source, for example, I'd just use one half-watt 560 ohm resistor.

Click to expand...

Hey, well mi dad in his day (not that hes lost it lol) used to repair electrical goods like hoovers TV etc, and hes the one telling me this, also mi freind is a electronics analyst, who backs this theory, so to cut current you put like you said , a resistor in line on the plus side but to cut volts as well you tie 2 resistors between plus and neg and take your live to LED from between the 2 resistors, like 2x 1k ohm gives you 6v.