The OEM bimetallic thermal flasher is designed for a high load so it won't work anymore. An electronic/capacitive discharge flasher (EL12 from AutoZone) eliminates the load requirements (load resistors) but flashing will be a bit slow (~15 per minute). After a year, my modded EL12 melted so I looked around and had all the parts in the schematic below. I gutted the EL12 and stuck this little perfboard in it and ran a small ground wire out the top. Any P-Channel MOSFET should work fine. Just test the connectors on the car to make sure 12V is going to your source side. 20K pots give you a decent range. Centered is a little faster than normal, and I prefer a slightly faster off duty. The top is off time, and bottom is on time.
Yet another flasher.
Up to 16 different effects. Blinking, strobing, etc. The internal LED is only used for testing. A cheaper 5V reg. can be used, and the MOSFET just needs to be one that can handle your amps.
Each button press changes the pattern.
Optional: Connect 3-wire cable to pins 2,7,8 and use remote button w/LED.
Note: 12V (On with IGN!) is from the flasher input. Pin 2 on the FET is the other flasher pin. Ground is wired to the chassis.
i have saved this page in PDF format, saved all the pictures and copied all the text to a document file in the case this web page should disappear from existence. i like to be positively (+) charged
the adjustable circuit is for adjusting the blink rate of your flashers. one pot adjusts how long the light stays on while the other pot adjusts how long the light stays off.
the other, more complicated circuit is for a preset blink rate. 16 different rates, like strobing, etc... since all the rates are not explained, they are unknown to me till the circuit is made.
ltlfrari, this isnt just a simple flasher like that one. this one is ADJUSTABLE!! while the other circuit is for some nifty blink rates.
The 555 one, for the bike, not the car. Car's fine with an electronic "heavy duty" flasher. On the one for the bike, I'm going to fit it into the original flasher housing (proprietary) so that it looks stock and works stock with all the LEDs I've installed.
I need to talk to you about my Arduino instrument cluster project at some point...
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06:22 PM
americasfuture2k Member
Posts: 7131 From: Edmond, Oklahoma Registered: Jan 2006
here is the parts list, websites, and prices for all of this. i just ordered 4 trimpots and 2 MOSFET's. the rest of the stuff can be had from the shack.
bc that would be badass. of course some variation since yours would be more along the lines of completely custom.
Like that, but fairly different. My bike currently only has three meter movements, tach and speedo of course, plus an ungraduated coolant temp gauge. I'm going to build a cluster that still has tach and speedo (arranged differently) plus oil pressure and coolant temp, both graduated and accurate. In one quadrant of the tach will be a fuel level gauge. All meter movements will be air-core driven by either dedicated air core driver chips from Melexis, or using L293 H-bridges driven from the PWM outputs; I have both chips and support hardware, just need to play with different strategies to see what works best. The hardest part will be the multifunction display. I need a small dot-matrix display that can do 6 alphanumeric characters with decimal point that can be serially driven, something no more than 1/2" x 2" display area with backlight, no luck finding one yet. The multifunction display will handle the odometer and tripmeter, clock, amps, volts, ambient temp, and timer.
Coding is going to be a real biotch, though, that's my weakest subject.
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10:32 AM
Mar 30th, 2011
americasfuture2k Member
Posts: 7131 From: Edmond, Oklahoma Registered: Jan 2006
Like that, but fairly different. My bike currently only has three meter movements, tach and speedo of course, plus an ungraduated coolant temp gauge. I'm going to build a cluster that still has tach and speedo (arranged differently) plus oil pressure and coolant temp, both graduated and accurate. In one quadrant of the tach will be a fuel level gauge. All meter movements will be air-core driven by either dedicated air core driver chips from Melexis, or using L293 H-bridges driven from the PWM outputs; I have both chips and support hardware, just need to play with different strategies to see what works best. The hardest part will be the multifunction display. I need a small dot-matrix display that can do 6 alphanumeric characters with decimal point that can be serially driven, something no more than 1/2" x 2" display area with backlight, no luck finding one yet. The multifunction display will handle the odometer and tripmeter, clock, amps, volts, ambient temp, and timer.
Coding is going to be a real biotch, though, that's my weakest subject.
i used a 16x2 lcd display that is in the MPGuino kit (PFF LINK). i ordered a different colored one to match the pontiac light theme more. im not too sure what smaller ones there are, but i know there are some. checkout www.hackaday.com and browse around and youll find some builds that use lcd displays.
i know how you feel about coding. a lot of my friends are comp sci majors, so i get lost in listening to them talk about their coding stuff. im just a mechanical engineer major. i think im a grunt compared to them haha.
lol, NMCI (Navy/Marine Corps Intranet) and radio shack didnt seem to have any problem with it. but radioshack had PFF blocked > meanies. glad i dont work there anymore tho lol.
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03:19 PM
DIY_Stu Member
Posts: 2337 From: Republic of TX Registered: Jun 2007
No not sound reactive. Been working with the 16F chips. It's a repeating pattern that can be made to run as fast or slow as you wish. you set hold times. between the pattern steps. hold 255 means indefinite.
Here's a sample of the pattern code. It can be as long as you want it, or as short...
code:
seq 14 control 0,1
hold 8 sdat 0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0 hold 8 sdat 0,0,1,2,2,1,0,0 hold 8 sdat 0,1,2,3,3,2,1,0 hold 8 sdat 1,2,3,2,2,3,2,1 hold 8 sdat 2,3,2,1,1,2,3,2 hold 8 sdat 3,2,1,0,0,1,2,3 hold 8 sdat 2,1,0,0,0,0,1,2 hold 8 sdat 1,0,0,0,0,0,0,1
seqend
In this code there's 4 brightnesses. 0=off 1=Low 2=Med 3=Hi
hold = hold # * 10ms
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08:24 PM
americasfuture2k Member
Posts: 7131 From: Edmond, Oklahoma Registered: Jan 2006
Now lets add the sdat info to it and a hold to set the speed it runs
sdat 3,2,1,0,0,0,0,0 hold 2 sdat 3,3,2,1,0,0,0,0 hold 2 sdat 2,3,3,2,1,0,0,0 hold 2 sdat 1,2,3,3,2,1,0,0 hold 2 sdat 0,1,2,3,3,2,1,0, hold 2 sdat 0,0,1,2,3,3,2,1 hold 2 sdat 0,0,0,1,2,3,3,2 hold 2 sdat 0,0,0,0,1,2,3,3 hold 2 sdat 0,0,0,0,0,1,2,3 hold 2 sdat 0,0,0,0,1,2,3,3 hold 2 sdat 0,0,0,1,2,3,3,2 hold 2 sdat 0,0,1,2,3,3,2,1 hold 2 sdat 0,1,2,3,3,2,1,0 hold 2 sdat 1,2,3,3,2,1,0,0 hold 2 sdat 2,3,3,2,1,0,0,0 hold 2 sdat 3,3,2,1,0,0,0,0 hold 2 seqend
seqend means end of this sequence and to go back to the top to repeat.
This type of code is very simple.
Stobe light????
sdat 3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3 hold 1 sdat 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 hold 2
seqend
Stu
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01:01 AM
americasfuture2k Member
Posts: 7131 From: Edmond, Oklahoma Registered: Jan 2006
good guy in my book. 
while the other circuit is for some nifty blink rates.
meanies. glad i dont work there anymore tho lol.
