Blinker speeds

[guitarhero14]

I have seen cars with odd blinker speeds, some almost strobe-like effect. How are they able to do this? Thank you!

 

[D_Eclipse9916]

look up the mustang mod for their taillights for ones that strobe. Put in resistors for the fast blinker effect.

 

[DSMcrazy3]

Another cause of rapid blinker speed will be a bulb going out.

Not sure if that is what you were referring to or not.

 

[guitarhero14]

Another cause of rapid blinker speed will be a bulb going out.

Not sure if that is what you were referring to or not.

I was looking for a mod in particular, but this could be the cause of some i have seen.

D_Eclipse - I will search for that mod

 

[azdave]

I have done surgery to the 2G blinkers in order to stop the "hyper" blinking after installing LED tail lights. There are photos of the mod at the link below. This mod shows how to restore the blinking speed back to normal but it should help you understand how to get a hyper-blink all the time.

If you were to replace the wire loop shown in the photos with a short piece of copper wire the blinkers should function at the faster rate all the time. You will need to experiment with the correct length of wire. Nearly the full current of the turn signals goes through this wire so don’t use too small of a diameter wire or it might heat up and act like a fuse.
You will see in the detailed shots that I actually used a small fuse on my first experiments to get the blinking correct but that 3 amp fuse blew about a week later. I went to a 6” piece of 18ga wire after that and kept cutting it shorter and shorter until I got the results I wanted.

What’s going on here is that the wire loop intentionally has a higher resistance than a normal piece of wire. This little bit of resistance to electrical flow diverts some current through a another monitoring circuit that is set to change the speed of the blinking if the current level is too low (like when a bulb burns out). When you place a copper wire across that loop, the sensing circuit will think a bulb is out all the time thus giving you the hyper-blink you want.

I have recently further hacked into the blinker module so that I can now change the amount of time the turn signal is on as well as off. I did this to fine tune my 7-segment sequential turn signals. The bulbs are illuminated for about the normal time period but the time between the flashes is very short.

I have been driving it for a month or so to be sure my mod is functioning correctly before posting detailed info. I need to shoot some more video and do a proper write up on this. This further modification to the blinker module will probably only appeal to those who are doing LED retro work or installing sequential turn signals.

http://www.rcaz.com/rcaz/sub%20indexes/turn_signal_flasher/index.htm

Short Video of blinker speed:
Right click "Save as" please
http://www.rcaz.com/movieclips/short_tail_demo.wmv

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[Galaxy]

Ok,for those of us wanting to just increase blinker speed on our regular light system,we need to Shorten that wire loop with a piece of 18 ga. copper wire...but would that be like stranded,insulated wire or solid wire from say,Romex kinda like the solid wire that used to be there?

And azdave,you're very good with electronics...I hope to know as much as you one day.

 

[guitarhero14]

WoW, thank you very much. That helps tremendously!!

 

[guitarhero14]

Galaxy - can you explain a bit more? Thanks.

 

[azdave]

Ok,for those of us wanting to just increase blinker speed on our regular light system,we need to Shorten that wire loop with a piece of 18 ga. copper wire...but would that be like stranded,insulated wire or solid wire from say,Romex kinda like the solid wire that used to be there?

And azdave,you're very good with electronics...I hope to know as much as you one day.

Stranded wire is easiest to work with. Try different sizes. I used a piece of a lamp cord but since you probably won't be removing the wire loop you may only need a smaller wire. The sensing circuit is touchy and sometimes it won't blink at all if you go to far out of its range. It's all about a little experimentation. I hung the module out of the side by the passenger footwell carpet so I could test it easily until I got the blinking correct.

My Eclipse now runs full LEDs across the back end so I can't just pop a blinker module in the car and test it for you. As soon as I get access to a normal 95-99 Eclipse for a few days I'll work on the adjustable timing mod and that will be much easier. It may be a few month before I get to that. I may even offer to do the mod and the blinker module for a small fee and exchange of a good core blinker.

Good luck.

 

[Galaxy]

I actually was planning to take that "U" shaped wire completly out but if just "jumping" it with a wire between them works that would be easy as well.

Guitar,lemme make sure I understand this correctly before I explain but you basically just shorten a wire in the blinker module.If you click that first link in Daves post theres pictures that will help you kinda understand at least what wire we're talking about.

 

[guitarhero14]

Galaxy - thank you for being very helpful. I understand what you are refering to now. There is no side effects to doing this mod is there?

 

[n0c7]

Just a heads up - doing this mod is a prefect reason to get pulled over and possibly get a ticket for not properly maintaining your vehicle(even though the singals still work). I always wanted to do the mod but didnt want the hassle.