The Yamaha Road Star Warrior Forum

So, I'm finally getting around to writing this up, though I've had it installed now for about 2 months.  First off, I guess I'll start with the schematic, and talk through that, then show a picture in "real-life" as it were.  BTW, the integrated tail is a Clear Alternatives Brand I picked up on Ebay.  Without further adieu...

As you can see, it gets a little complicated, due to the turn signals sharing a common ground with the tail/brake lights.  The stock turnsignal will dissapate 23W, which equals roughly 2A of current @ Approx 12V.  This is the baseline I used to size my components.  For the load leveling resistors, I used two 10W, 12Ω resistors, in parallel, cuz thats what I had laying around.  This gives me a 20W power dissapation and a 6Ω resistance (2A current).  This is almost identical to the original circuit.  Knowing I have a 2A current, I selected 3A 50V diode to wire into my load level circuit.  The diodes prevent the signals from "cross-talking" because they are sharing the resistors AND a common ground from the tail light.  Ok, now the part numbers...

 Resistors - Dale RH-10  Quan - 2

Diodes - Radioshack 276-1141 Quan - 1 pkg

 The resistors were about $3.50 a piece, and the Diodes were $1.50 for two. I figure with incidentals (wire, solder, heatshrink, etc) I've got about 10 bucks into this project, excluding the tailight (which I got for a song).  

 Here is a pic of the wiring in real-life

The Diodes are on the Right, and the resistors are mounted to the tail light bracket, front and center. Yes, its messy.  It made my brain hurt trying to figure it out, and make "real-life" match the schematic.  I'm just a mechanical engineer after all, and a firm believer in "Don't let the magic smoke out of electronics."  

All said, would I do it again?  Maybe.  20 dollars doesn't seem so bad for Kury's load leveler, but I know mine is designed right, and I won't have problems down the road.  Besides, I like these project for my own growth (yeah, its cheezy, but its true ).

Ranger_b0b:

The diodes prevent the signals from "cross-talking" because they are sharing the resistors AND a common ground from the tail light.  Ok, now the part numbers...

Anyway, neat CAD dwg, photo and detailed technical write-up of the turn signal LEQ (Load Equalizer) 

For the record, the diodes in this circuit, using shared resistors, prevent feedback through the TS positive wire acting as a Check Valve and allowing the current to flow pos to neg  .... as there will always be a common GRND for this application! Also, for those less electrically literate, you might want to branch the 0V so that there are only 5-wires

Just my .02 here and not criticism:

The aluminum extruded housed resistors run extremely hot in the heatsink enclosure so mounting them on the Yamaha IFEK was a good solution. There is a tremendous amount of vibration on the rear tailight assy and the exposure to the environments with the open wiring is increased with this mod. I would suggest you use some dieletric compond on the factory snap connectors and apply some silicone compound to all your soldered joints and resistor mounting screws and tie-wrap the loose wires to the IFEK! The solid wires on the diodes should be soldered else they are more prone to cracking and failure from the vibration IMO.

Once again, neat post...... my original Kuryakyn 4810 LEQ mounted to the IFEK lasted several seasons with lots of miles. The stranded wires became brittle from the heat and the GRND eventually cracked

If interested, here is how i did it the 2nd time around when i went Frt & Rear LED's w/ DIY LEQ @ 30W 2.8 ohm:

• http://flickr.com/photos/15071518@N07/sets/72157602604626135/
• http://flickr.com/photos/15071518@N07/sets/72157602601844694/
• http://flickr.com/photos/15071518@N07/sets/72157602604626389/detail/

BTW, i use to live in Lowell, MI

very nice thanks

AlanH:

For the record, the diodes in this circuit, using shared resistors, prevent feedback through the TS positive wire acting as a Check Valve and allowing the current to flow pos to neg  .... as there will always be a common GRND for this application! Also, for those less electrically literate, you might want to branch the 0V so that there are only 5-wires

Just my .02 here and not criticism:

You know, my original circuit had the T/S tied in to the 0V wire coming from the taillight.  For some reason that did not work.  I'm thinking it must have been a error on my part, but I know it works this way (its how I wired it), and thats why I left the diagram the way it is.  FWIW, This is the second time I've done this, the first failed due to, you guessed it, vibration.  I did not use solder the first time.  This time every connection is soldered, and yes, the whole thing will be zip tied, and taped before its done.