Adventures in blinker gremlins

[Micmada]

So my rear blinker bulbs were good, but they started needing some warm up before blinking, especially the right side, and then the right one stopped altogether, and then the left started getting longer warm up period too and a few weeks later went out too, getting this apparent common creeping gremlin on the M923. Meanwhile I also broke my turn signal handle, the plastic got old. I ordered the cheaper turn signal they had out there.

I thus decided to go to NAPA and buy cheap trailer LEDs, hooked them and every thing was fine for a few weeks for the back blinkers. And then one of the LEDs burned out on the right, so I decided to put more LEDs in series to make it 24 V and it worked for a while and then the right side stopped working but the left is good... well, sort of, the right side is a stay ON for the two blinkers in the back and the one in the front right, instead of flashing for both front and back to the right with the left rear off. When going on hazards I get all 4 on permanent, no blinking.

So, I went to Auto Zone and got a $12 LED compatible flasher and hooked its plus side to the power of the front blinker and run from the L port to both the front right light and the rear right in series. Since it is electronic it does require to have the third negative terminal grounded. And it works when I put my alligator plugs to test it.

However something really strange happened when I started making the fixture more permanent. It is that when the grounding is weak, the small orange side light on the front blinker started flashing with the rear blinker lights but not the front blinker lights. And if I made a very good ground, then the front and back blinker worked but the side orange light stopped.

I thought that was really weird that a bad ground makes the side orange safety light blink on and not the front blinker, but when the ground is good, it shuts off and passes on the energy to the front facing blinker light. The rear LEDs worked fine.

In any case, I think my original problem must have been a bad ground on one of the lights fixtures or somewhere else. Even though the Ohm meter beeps good, it probably is not good enough.

So far I decided to leave it as it is as it is working like that.

 

[Micmada]

I think part of my problem is that cheap turn signal handle I bought. Probably was made in China. If I push it a bit too far to the left, the lights will not blink and stay on. But right now as it is, after playing with extra flashers at the headlight and rear light sites, it all works, whether I have a continuous current or a flashing current going through the turn signal handle.

I did something else a bit strange that happened to allow me to use cheap analogue flashers with LED lights, by accident.

For the rear light I brought in the truck flasher to a LED and I ran the wire for my roof hazards lights (both 12V in series) to another LED in that same left-rear housing, assuming I could combine that as an alternative for hazards lights on roof and on sides. Both LEDs in the rear-left housing share the same ground in sort of parallel alternative circuit. Now, this is when things get a little weird but actually makes it work so far. My batteries have charge and discharge equalizers, so it regulates the loads on each circuits, by the way.

First I disconnected the ground from the roof lights and ran them directly to the rear LED. It did not work, and so I thought there was too much resistance. I thus ran the line instead from between the two roof lights facing each direction to the rear LED. I then grounded the rear facing roof light. I also happened to have a flasher for the roof lights to make them flash and I attached a flasher before the line reached the rear LED (in between the first roof light and the rear LED).

It so happen now that when switching on the roof lights, the LED flashes with it just like a regular bulb. If I take either the extra flasher at the rear or add anything, I get a permanent waving glow or nothing. I have to have an incandescent and an extra flasher before reaching the LED. Also when I switch off the roof lights and run the hazards on the turning handle (which is a continuous on current without flashing), there apparently is some leak through the extra LED flasher to the roof light despite having it grounded as that flasher makes noises but no light comes on the roof. I thought that by sharing a common ground in the housing there would be no power going through the flasher back to the roof light ground, but there it is, it is clicking.

I will make a drawing a few.

 

[Micmada]

Right side blinker. So, if I understand, not all grounds seem to be equal. So much so that a current can go through a piece of frame and back into another wire that is connected to a device that has a better ground. It basically would work like a sort of bucket of electrons that sloshes around the frame various potentials for various resistances.

Also note that the electronic flasher can use either the "L" (light) port or the -'ve port as ground to function, so long the other port is connected to the device. If not it will not work at all. I still am not exactly sure why, but I think a weak ground makes the device switch the "L" port to ground mode and then sends current to the "-'ve" port into the frame, resulting in the side light to come on, as it is the closest light, and the flow goes from that part of the frame, through it and out into another better ground port in the system to which this light is connected (could be going through the other head light bulb's own ground).

 

[Micmada]

Basically, for the left side my turn signal works, so, no need to add flashers to make it work. However, for hazards, I still thought I would add some flashers in the system. This time, however, instead of connecting a flasher to the rear lights, I plaid around for kicks and would use instead my roof light switch to activate a blinking action on the rear right light that would stay on, if not.

I was surprised to find out that using analogue flashers and various resistances upstream, the LED was flashing just fine, whereas any other set up would give it a pulsating glow that was not readily identifiable as a solid flashing.

Given that the market is flooded with digital clickers that go from 4 to 10 times more expensive than analogue ones, I was thinking that a set up like this would end up being cheaper and could get the same result, where you integrate a cheap LED with a couple cheap analogue flasher cores and a few resistances and a ground.

That is a way to "prop-trade" a service. Just a thought for anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit. I still would need to be able to repeat this in a lab and understand it better then. I think it is doable. It is too simple to patent. Patenting is useless anyways these days. Basically the principle would be that instead of selling a turn signal bulb with a complicated turn signal system of connection, simply sell a whole unit containing the flasher and bulb system and connect it directly to the light bulb socket of the turn signal location.

Another interesting thing is that when I shut the roof lights while keeping the blinking to the left going, the flasher connected to the roof circuit line clicks, but no visible glow comes off from the roof light, though. It is like, again, the ground at the rear light housing is not pumping electrons out fast enough apparently, and so there is a spill of current going back up to the roof ground area.

To me that means that there should be in a good vehicle a ground wire that runs around the entire frame that would act as a bus connector to any device around the vehicle, so that there is not this variation of tension throughout the frame and it is all even, no matter what is switched on, instead of creating sorts of pools of tensions around. That is just what I think, as I believe, if my theory is half correct, it would solve a lot of gremlins in an electric system.