cliff.b Posted May 27, 2022 Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 Indicators suddenly stopped working, hazards ok. Decided it must be the flasher unit and on opening it up I can see the wire to the heater has broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff.b Posted May 27, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 Off to the local parts suppliers and one had the original Lucas part on the shelf. Installed with a temp 5A fuse to make sure it wasn't burnt out after a short but all ok and now working again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted May 27, 2022 Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 Never saw the insides of one of those.... fascinating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff.b Posted May 27, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 24 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said: Never saw the insides of one of those.... fascinating! 24 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said: Never saw the insides of one of those.... fascinating! Figured out how it actually works and It's quite ingenious really. I managed to fix it, briefly, until the wire burnt out again lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted May 27, 2022 Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 The inards remind me of the voltage stabiliser unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff.b Posted May 27, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 2 minutes ago, Badwolf said: The inards remind me of the voltage stabiliser unit. Pretty much the same technology I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted May 27, 2022 Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 1 hour ago, cliff.b said: Pretty much the same technology I think Yes. Some differences in the wiring and mechanical parameters, but the same operating principle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff.b Posted May 27, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 Thinking about how this works, the initial current flow appears to be through the heater filament until that heats enough to close the contacts? So if a bulb blows, I would expect less current to flow so longer to heat up and therefore either slower flashing than normal or no flashing at all if it never gets hot enough. Is this correct? I suppose I could remove a bulb to check tomorrow but if someone already knows 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted May 27, 2022 Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 It's not unknown to get no flashing with a blown bulb... but normally with the bulbs on, which doesn't seem to make sense. However, I wouldn't expect a blown bulb to affect the flashing that much, if it works as you say, because the filament must be of high enough resistance to guarantee the bulbs don't glow, which isn't hard but does mean high enough that losing one bulb probably won't affect it significantly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Truman Posted May 27, 2022 Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 On both the Vitesse & Spit the old can style works with 2 LED & 2 incandescent bulbs. I did previously have an electronic flasher on the Vitesse but it failed, replaced it with a new like electronic style, which had a very irregular flasher operation, so reverted back to an old Lucas can and all OK now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff.b Posted May 27, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2022 Also, I've noticed that my original flasher says 21w x 4 and I've replaced it with the same, but now wondering is that actually the correct part? There is a separate flasher for the hazards so as it only has to flash 2 bulbs at a time, should it have a 22w x 2 model 🤔. It does flash a bit slowly but still within spec. Maybe that's why. Perhaps it will last longer if it flashes more slowly 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 Going back a long, long way, I remember that when a bulb had blown on my indicators, the unit flashed faster than normal. That's how I knew a bulb had blown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougbgt6 Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 Yes Indeed, it starts double time! With a solid state that doesn't happen, as I recently discovered. I lost a bulb at the back, didn't realise until got hooted at while turning right. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 the flash rate with a failed bulb is something to do withthe unit type the old cylindrical unit flashes faster when a bulb fails the rectangular FL units flash slower or stop well something like that Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 7 minutes ago, dougbgt6 said: Yes Indeed, it starts double time! With a solid state that doesn't happen, as I recently discovered. I lost a bulb at the back, didn't realise until got hooted at while turning right. Doug Ahhh, Grandsons proved useful then (see 'checking brake lights on your own', thread). Granddaughter, not so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougbgt6 Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 Stalker alert! There's a function on here where you can become a follower of another member, which I think is sort of like registering as a stalker. Don't do it myself, obviously, except Uncle Pete, and you, and Colin,948, JohnD................. I'm watching you ALL! Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 Ok, does that make you a stalker now!!!?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougbgt6 Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 Yup. db Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 no just a flasher !!!!!!!!!!! probabaly the slow version or inopreative Pete 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff.b Posted May 28, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 27 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said: the flash rate with a failed bulb is something to do withthe unit type the old cylindrical unit flashes faster when a bulb fails the rectangular FL units flash slower or stop well something like that Pete Yes, I thought they all flashed faster but as described previously, I didn't see how this 2 pin rectangular type could do that. Useful to understand how it works for any future fault finding purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 12 hours ago, cliff.b said: Also, I've noticed that my original flasher says 21w x 4 and I've replaced it with the same, but now wondering is that actually the correct part? There is a separate flasher for the hazards so as it only has to flash 2 bulbs at a time, should it have a 22w x 2 model 🤔. It does flash a bit slowly but still within spec. Maybe that's why. Perhaps it will last longer if it flashes more slowly 🙂 You do indeed have the hazard version denoted by the H in the part number so the FL2 would be the correct one for indicators. However I cant figure out what the difference except perhaps the higher power hazard one has a bigger contact or the contact is made better so the heater is bigger? This last idea is feasible because as theres 4 bulbs maybe the heater can pass a bigger current without making them glow.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff.b Posted May 28, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 10 minutes ago, johny said: You do indeed have the hazard version denoted by the H in the part number so the FL2 would be the correct one for indicators. However I cant figure out what the difference except perhaps the higher power hazard one has a bigger contact or the contact is made better so the heater is bigger? This last idea is feasible because as theres 4 bulbs maybe the heater can pass a bigger current without making them glow.... Well I assumed that the current through the heater filament is limited by the resistance of the bulbs that are in series with it and 4 bulbs in parallel would allow twice the current to pass compared to 2. This would mean the heater gets hot much quicker and speed up the flash rate, so guessing the heater resistance itself is lower in the 4 bulb version to compensate. If the 4 bulb version is used on a 2 bulb circuit then I would expect the "heavier duty" heater to heat up slower than intended due to the reduced current, resulting in a slower than expected flash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 and some are available as 2x 21 + 5 to compensate if repeaters are fitted Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted May 28, 2022 Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 3 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said: and some are available as 2x 21 + 5 to compensate if repeaters are fitted Pete I thought that the +5 was for the dash bulb. Shows I'm not that bright . . .I need to upgrade my brain the LEDs . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff.b Posted May 28, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 2 minutes ago, Chris A said: I thought that the +5 was for the dash bulb. Shows I'm not that bright . . .I need to upgrade my brain the LEDs . . . If you upgrade your brain to LEDs then you can only think one way 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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