LED wiring

[cbassett]

The FJ tail lights have separate wires for stop & turn.
The LED lights are just as Stu's on his page, http://www.stu-offroad.com/led/led-2.htm, with a shared lead for stop & turn.

Can I splice the stop & turn leads together then to the plug on the LED?

Sorry if this makes little sense, work is crazy right now and I'm running on little sleep.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by cbassett
The FJ tail lights have separate wires for stop & turn.
The LED lights are just as Stu's on his page, http://www.stu-offroad.com/led/led-2.htm, with a shared lead for stop & turn.

Can I splice the stop & turn leads together then to the plug on the LED?

Sorry if this makes little sense, work is crazy right now and I'm running on little sleep.

I don't know if it will work that or not. I'd try it, one of two things may happen. It will backfeed trying to find ground in which case you can run diodes on both leads.

It may also blow a fuse.

Shouldn't be too hard to sort out if they both have ground in common.

[Shades76cj5]

Last Saturday I tried wiring wiring up a set of trailer lights on my sisters ZJ using a 4 wire setup. Didn't work cause ZJ's have the separate signal markerswhich makes it a 5 wire. Tried wiring the stop and turn into the same circut on the trailer light . It worked until you used the brakes and the signal at the same time. When you hit the brakes it backfed and made the dash indcators and the front and rear signals on the jeep stop flashing and stay constantly lit until you let off the brake. You could put a one way diode on the turn signal circut to keep it from backfeeding and it should work fine.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by Shades76cj5
You could put a one way diode on the turn signal circut to keep it from backfeeding and it should work fine.

Are there two-way diodes?

[Stu Olson]

Originally posted by mrblaine
Are there two-way diodes?

Only after they have fused.

[Dan-H]

Originally posted by mrblaine
Are there two-way diodes?

yes, they are a key component in write only memory

[Shades76cj5]

Originally posted by mrblaine
Are there two-way diodes?

OKay Okay you got me. I hadn't had enough coffee in me yet.

[eurobob]

Originally posted by mrblaine
Are there two-way diodes?

Actually, yes. Bidirectional LED's have been around for years. The ones I'm familar with are red with one current flow, green with opposite current flow and yellow with AC applied to it.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by eurobob
Actually, yes. Bidirectional LED's have been around for years. The ones I'm familar with are red with one current flow, green with opposite current flow and yellow with AC applied to it.

Yep, I've already been informed that multi-directional diodes do exist.

Contextually, I will have to re-state that for our intentions of checking the back flow of current, I'm pretty sure a diode used like a check valve for current is what we have in mind. Thus my comment.

I could be wrong though.

[cbassett]

Okay, a sign of how busy work's been... I still haven't fixed my blinkers.

Will a Radio Shack diode do the trick, and if so, what exactly do I need? They probably have a bzillion diodes.


My wiring looks like this:


Brake/tail wire---------------------LED
Turn wire----------(presently open)

Do I just splice the diode in-line on the turn wire, and end up with this?

Brake/tail wire---------------------LED
Turn wire---------diode--/

(imagine the / after the diode is splicing into the brake/tail wire.)

[Blackjack]

What you need is a 6 wire to 4 wire trailer adapter from your local parts house. Cost about ten bucks.

[cbassett]

No no no no no no no no no no ! I want to reinvent the wheel darnit!!

DOH!!!

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into the adapter.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by cbassett
No no no no no no no no no no ! I want to reinvent the wheel darnit!!

DOH!!!

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into the adapter.

Sorry, that job is taken. It's mine, all mine I tell you. If there are five easy off the shelf ways to do something and one that requires 4 times the effort, 3 times the expense and only works half as well, that's the road I take.

I need to make up a new business card- halffast, twicehigh, and none of the quality with all of the attitude.

[Dan-H]

Originally posted by mrblaine

I need to make up a new business card- halffast, twicehigh, and none of the quality with all of the attitude.

add the tag line you can buy better, but you can't pay more and you'll be ready for a move into defense contracting