need better turn lights as least

I use hand signals for turning. They don't require wires or a battery......

Go to the local auto part store and get the cheapest flasher that they have. It has only two terminals and goes inline with the positive. I doubt anything would run long on a 9v battery, 12 volt would be best; you can get a small gel-cell from Radio Shack which would give you power for a few days. You would also need to get a SPDT (Single Pole Double Throw) switch for selecting which light you want flashing. The bulbs in the little 3in1 sets that you use should be enough to activate the flasher. If not, get automotive light sockets and bulbs because they need to draw enough current through the flasher to make it flash. The more current the bulb(s) draw, the faster it will flash, it also works the other way where if they draw little current, it will flash super slow if at all. Hope this helps.

Looks like you've got it all figured out. I would order that stuff for my own setup, but I don't have a card to order anything and I don't even have enough money to order any of it anyway.

oldpot said:

ty m8 , i got a different pair for led lights bit cheaper than the ones in link ,also auto zone was clearing out some lights and few flashers so got them as well so all together cost $27 for 2 sets of flasher and lights just need to try putting them together now , the flasher unit got 2 pins and (x and l) does the x go to the battery and L goes to the middle pin on toggle ?????.

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It sounds like you got a good deal. It doesn't matter how you hook up the flasher, they're not polarity specific so they can be hooked up battery on either side or even on the negative instead of the positive.

I don't quite see what you could be doing wrong. You said those are regular lights and not led? It should work as long as you go positive into the flasher, into your switch, from the switch to either light, and then back to negative. If you want to bench test without it, you could go from positive, to flasher, to light, and back to negative. Either way, it should work just fine everytime. It may be possible that your aa batteries cannot put out the proper amperage to work it. They may have the voltage, but not that kick behind it. Try taking the rig outside and touching the leads to your car's battery and see if it works there.

That is a good possibility, but generally any 12v incandescent should make that flasher work.

It sounds like those lights are probably not big enough to operate that flasher. Being you said you had led lights and led flasher on the way, you should be set with that. By "pulling amps", your friend means they don't draw enough power from the battery to work the flasher. Every electrical device pulls/draws some kind of amperage and most appliances are rated in amps. Think of amps as torque and voltage as horse power; the same even halfway applies for what they mean: voltage is how fast you'll hit the wall and amperage is how far you'll go through it. (voltage hurts, amperage kills!) There are way too many books written about it and way too many classes available to take on just basic circuits and all that fun stuff, but the one you drew up is correct for what you want to do. I had the same thing and was going to use it, but never moved it from the bench to the bike. But I was also using the bigger number 1157 bulbs that go in my truck's taillights.

With incandescent bulbs, polarity does not matter. However, most led's are polarized (some arent, but automotive bulbs usually are) meaning they have a specific positive and a specific negative. So if you are using led's, make sure that you are connecting the wires to the appropriate terminals. If you've got a double pole double throw switch, then the flashers should be connected to the end poles, not the middle pole. Try connecting them this way and see what happens. I don't use turn signals, just a headlight and a brake light, both automotive led. Here is my wiring setup. I have the negatives of both batteries and lights grounded to the frame. I have a double pole single throw toggle switch for my headlight, and I have the positive from the headlight connected to one end pole and the positive from the battery connected to the middle pole (could be the other way around, not positive but definitely using middle pole and one end pole). The switch does not need to be grounded (and in fact, most switches will fry the circuit if grounded). It is only a positive interrupter (can probably used on negative as well, but has to be one or the other). I have my brake light (metal body, so its automatically grounded) connected to one wire from my brake light switch, and the other wire from the brake light switch to the positive of my other battery. Also, incandescent bulbs are very high wattage, where comparable led bulbs are usually much lower wattage. I was using an incandescent brake light for a long time until I looked at the package it came in and discovered it draws a whopping 16W. The led bulb I replaced it with draws only 3.6W, which is much more efficient.

Oldpot - I think this is what bbb is saying only in a schematic. Basically you should be able to trace the path the electricity will follow in your sketch or in a schematic from the ground of the battery through the circuit (whichever loop you are interested in) all the way back to ground. Try it with a Hi Liter with your sketch and you will see the issue with the brake light. Try it with two colors on the schematic using one color for each loop and you can see how the circuit will work. Sometimes visualizing a problem is most of the challenge!

That's exactly right, Harold. I'm not very good at drawing diagrams. Usually I can understand them but no one else can, lol.