I have no idea in this case. This has been a CA law for many years and I think if it were in conflict with FMVSS it would have been changed before now. Maybe it's an error that's been under the Federal radar. I dunno. Maybe one day someone will take it to court but that wheel of justice would probably turn very slowly.
I think that the individual states can make laws more restrictive than federal ones but not the other way around. So if the fedsral government says you CAN modulate both beams, California could restrict it to only the high beams. But, if the Feds said you were not allowed to modulate the low beams, then the state could not override that and say you could. Or if they did, they might turn a blind eye but the Feds could still come after you. I guess this was sort of the case with cannabis unitl the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment was passed. "Sure, pot's legal as far as we're concerned but the Feds might still come after you."
That will probably get you a ticket.
Yeah, that's why I never installed modulator on my CBR or VFR since those have one headlight for high and one for low.
Just curious, why not? It wouldn't look different other than the modulation. It's not like one would be on while the other modulates.
A modulator designed for and used with incandescent bulbs modulates between 20% and 80% * of full brightness, so it never goes on/off. You might have that problem using LED bulbs with a modulator designed for incandescent bulbs, I don't know. I don't know what a modulator designed for LED bulbs used on LED bulbs looks like either.
Zackly. By CVC definition that's not modulation. That's wig-wag which is not allowed on civilian vehicles.
But I think a charismatic rider could pass that off as a proper modulator to most cops. Wig-wags would take some fancy footwork and 'splainin'.
I'm guessing that, as long as either beam wire (white or blue) receives +12v, the fan will remain running.
Yes, that's exactly what happens. Low-beam side would stay ON full-time with no changes. The difference is that high-beam is not added to low-beam output. Which normally would have effect of pulsing output from 110-150% of low-beams alone (it modulates high-beam filament only up to 50%).
Please also demonstrate proper operation, and options.
The fans modulate,,, when my high beam is modulating. This pulsing of the fan motors caused one of my bulbs to burn out after a half season. When I am on low beam,, the fans run constantly, since there is no modulation. F3 was asked if there could be a separate fan wire,, but declined as they had never even heard of modulation. CAt'
Thanks for jogging my memory, Ggelly. I have not been focused on lighting for a while. Got to fix a couple of things in my post. Firstly,,, yes,, it's F2,,, not F3. 2nd,, the fans were modulating,, or more accurately pulsing/surging,,, as they can't do that as fast as the bulb pulses. Lastly,,, the bulb is what failed,, on one of the beams,, high I think. The fan still worked,, but I think it affected the bulbs life. I had a backup set of F2's,,, as they are relatively cheap,, compared to silver-stars or similar. So I installed those new F2's and it stayed like that up until BlueSTar's accident. Those bulbs are still 100%,, but I had removed the Kisan stuff during the rebuild. So,, long story short,,, F2's great,,, Kisan great,, F2's + Kisan = a bit of trouble last try. cheers,,, CAt'
