| Author |
Message |
R.J.(Bob) Evans (Bobofthenorth)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 12:43 pm: | |
I posted a while back about a King Cruise that quit working when I installed LED taillights. The cruise worked with the LED brake lights but would not work if I turned on the clearance lights.
After a call to King Cruise the fix was (as some had suggested here) to install an incandescent bulb in parallel with the brake lights. I asked the guy at King Cruise why I had cruise control until I turned on the clearance lights and he really couldn't answer that except to say that they sometimes behave that way but that more typically they would not work at all with the LEDs in the brake circuit. |
CRANE
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 5:58 pm: | |
If there are relays in the circuit or solenoids, the problem is probably because the LED lights are in series with the coil and the LED only uses mili amps of current.
ok, its like you need 5 pounds of weight to move a box of stuff. if you have a straw and hold one end and try to move the box with the other end, the straw cannot support the force and will collapse, or cannot move the box.
In the case of a coil which probably needs an amp to creat force to operate, the LED limits the power to less than 1/25th of an amp, so the coil completes the circuit and allows the LED to light but there is not enough current to operate the coil.
The incandesent bulbs will allow much more current to pass through and allow the coil to operate.
The clearance light limitations sound like when you turn on the clearance lights, they are introduced to the circuit and impose a limitation on the coil as described above.
there is a connection to the stop light circuit to kill the cruise when the brake is applied. Be sure you have that wire on the proper circuit.
The cruise dying when the clearance lights come on tells me you may have a wire on the tail light circuit. WHen the tail light comes on, the cruise thinks the brake is applied and the cruise is dropped.
I think a stop light filiment is about 50 ohms, perhaps you can add a resistor so you don't have to use a fragile bulb in the circuit just to allow the cruise to work.
Hope you have it working now. Been nice chatting
Crane |
R.J.(Bob) Evans (Bobofthenorth)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 22, 2005 - 12:46 pm: | |
>The cruise dying when the clearance lights come
> on tells me you may have a wire on the tail
> light circuit. WHen the tail light comes on,
>the cruise thinks the brake is applied and the
> cruise is dropped.
Yabbut....
Everything worked fine until I put the LEDs in. And everything worked fine again once I switched back to incandescents. So it's not quite as simple as the cruise sensing the clearance lights. The King Cruise service guy said that this is not uncommon, he couldn't explain it and that putting one incandescent light in parallel with the brake lights would fix the problem. So far he appears to be batting 1000.
There are many things in this world that I don't understand 100% and this appears destined to join that long list. |
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