Is there an EE in the house?

[soareyes]

I only know enough about curing electrical problems to make expensive mistakes, so I'll ask here before I start fettling:

I installed new LED front turn signal indicators to get rid of the ugly motorcycle-sourced ones that came with the car. They work, but the instructions warned that they might blink at a much faster rate than the old, and sure enough they do. The instructions recommend installing a resistor in parallel with each indicator to solve this problem. By "in parallel" do they mean across the positive to the negative, or in line with either the positive or negative lead? The resistor they recommend is 8.2 ohm with a rating of 20 watts for each indicator.

I'll post a pic of the end result once everything's back together.

Thanks!
Stan

[slomove]

See e-mail off list. Gert

BTW, if you toss the stock thermal flasher relay and replace with an electronic one you *may* not need the load resistor.

Gert

[soareyes]

This may not be of much interest, but I did as Gert recommended and changed to an electronic relay rather than add a big resistor. My blink rate was still just as fast as with the old relay, but after a little internet research, I realized that the new relay was sensing a burnt bulb (since the LEDs draw less current and mimic a burnt bulb) and the fast blink rate is a signal to the owner to investigate.
So after more research, I discovered which pin on the IC chip in the relay was responsible for triggering the fast blink, and I clipped it. Now it works fine, and the blink rate is normal!
Hopefully there are no unanticipated consequences of this, but I'll carry a spare relay just in case.

Stan

Here's a pic of the LED turn signal indicator on my cowl (you have to look close!):

[slomove]

Congratulations to a clean solution! I did not know that the electronic ones mimic the behavior of the simple ones neither that you can cheat them. Interesting.