Chris in the guide I received it did not mention anything about load resistors, only heat sinks. Can you help me understand this load resistor issue better?
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Introducing the Acura NSX DIY LED Taillight Kit
- Thread starter apkarian100
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What parts do you need help on?
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The reisitors how do I identify them so I know where the are in relation to stuff that might melt.
Confirmed.
Gound white line with green strip... works like a charm.
Cut off the load resistors... cap off the tips with tape.
Lights still work.. and no nag light on dash.
Gound white line with green strip... works like a charm.
Cut off the load resistors... cap off the tips with tape.
Lights still work.. and no nag light on dash.
Very nice, great success. Thanks for letting me know this.
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Got a request for more details... I edited my message a while back but guess it didn't take.
1. white/green wire on the passenger side tail light
2. tail light side of the connector is white/green
3. car side of the connector is orange/white
4. tap into white/green
5. attach that new wire to ground
6. snip off all load resistors
7. put some electrical tape on the now exposed ends
Done.
1. white/green wire on the passenger side tail light
2. tail light side of the connector is white/green
3. car side of the connector is orange/white
4. tap into white/green
5. attach that new wire to ground
6. snip off all load resistors
7. put some electrical tape on the now exposed ends
Done.
Thanks! Very helpful...
did you ground it to the chassis? this doesnt do anything to the aluminum does it? (probably a sillly question)
or is there a ground wire on the harness that can be tapped into ?
thanks again!
did you ground it to the chassis? this doesnt do anything to the aluminum does it? (probably a sillly question)
or is there a ground wire on the harness that can be tapped into ?
thanks again!
Ok! I found a quick and easy solution with everyone's help...
I just cut the resistor off of the socket nearest the harness on the passenger side. I determined which of the wires was the ground (which is connected to the side of the 'barrel'.... I stripped the end off of this one and slid it into the harness connector in the pin 1 position (described in earlier posts). I could have soldered it in place, but just decided to be lazy and tape everything with a mountain of electrical tape.
problem solved.
I couldn't have done this without everyone's help.
I left the blinker resistors in... thinking that this may prevent the dreaded 'hyper blinking.'
In summary, this eliminates the use of 4 of the load resistors. The warning light does not go off. The excess heat problem is solved. Only one bulb base is used and this should shave a couple of bucks off of Chris' production costs.
I just cut the resistor off of the socket nearest the harness on the passenger side. I determined which of the wires was the ground (which is connected to the side of the 'barrel'.... I stripped the end off of this one and slid it into the harness connector in the pin 1 position (described in earlier posts). I could have soldered it in place, but just decided to be lazy and tape everything with a mountain of electrical tape.
problem solved.
I couldn't have done this without everyone's help.
I left the blinker resistors in... thinking that this may prevent the dreaded 'hyper blinking.'
In summary, this eliminates the use of 4 of the load resistors. The warning light does not go off. The excess heat problem is solved. Only one bulb base is used and this should shave a couple of bucks off of Chris' production costs.
This will indeed help me out. I never really liked the use of load resistors, but they solved the problem, and during this time, I didn't have another solution.
I like this method of modifying the taillight wiring harness more than my gauge cluster method. The taillight harness is easier to replace say if something goes wrong.
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I like this method of modifying the taillight wiring harness more than my gauge cluster method. The taillight harness is easier to replace say if something goes wrong.
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So Chris are the resistors needed for the blinkers (turn signals)to prevent hyperblinking or are they only needed to satisfy the system for the light out indication ?
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The original system used 6 load resistors, 3 per side. One each side, two of them solved the brake light failure warning and the 3rd solved the turn signals hyperblinking. You'll want to keep the turn signal ones on. The choice is up to you if you want to remove the brake light warning resistors and follow the taillight wiring harness modification.
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How did you determine the value of the load resistor? i.e. resistance, wattage.
For this time, I didn't really do many calculations to determine the exact valued load resistor needed. In many automotive applications, usually a 6 ohm 50W resistor will do the trick to solve any issues on LED modules. In this case it did. If you go on any big automotive LED supplier's website, like V-LEDS.com, they will be selling 6 ohm 50W load resistors. They also sell 12 ohm 25W load resistors, but I like the higher Wattage ones for better heat dissipation.
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I really feel the need to chime in here....
IMHO, the load resistors are only necessary for the turn signals. Because they are intermittant at best, the resistors should not get hot.
But the other four resistors serve no real purpose other than to 'trick' the dash warning light not to go off. The downside is that the resistors reportedly get hot.
By grounding Pin 1 on the passenger side wiring harness as described in earlier posts, you can eliminate the 4 resistors altogether and still not have the dash warning light. The grounding of the pin can be easily accomplished in minutes, and you need not worry about the heat problem.
BTW, I watched my car get driven off to spend the winter down south.... the lights really look awesome!
dont let this discussion about the resistors dissuade you from getting this mod!
IMHO, the load resistors are only necessary for the turn signals. Because they are intermittant at best, the resistors should not get hot.
But the other four resistors serve no real purpose other than to 'trick' the dash warning light not to go off. The downside is that the resistors reportedly get hot.
By grounding Pin 1 on the passenger side wiring harness as described in earlier posts, you can eliminate the 4 resistors altogether and still not have the dash warning light. The grounding of the pin can be easily accomplished in minutes, and you need not worry about the heat problem.
BTW, I watched my car get driven off to spend the winter down south.... the lights really look awesome!
dont let this discussion about the resistors dissuade you from getting this mod!
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In basic electrical design, the resistor is for current limiting. In fact, the generally accepted rule is to NEVER use an LED without some sort of current control (i.e. active current source, current-limiting resistor, etc.)
The reason for this is that LEDs will pull as much current as they can… and if allowed to do that, several BAD things can happen. They can burn-out immediately, they will generally run hotter than normal resulting in a limited life, and they can even catch fire. Not using some form of current limiting can also put your wiring at risk.
In some cases, batches of LEDs (like in the application here) you can have uneven illumination where some LEDs glow brighter than others.
LEDs want to see a particular current. Doing otherwise, the LEDs will not operate as specified.
Chris, do you provide enough wire length to keep the load resistors for the blinkers far away enough from anything that could potentially melt? I understand that for temporary blinker use this is not a problem. However, I would like to bring up that if we were to use our hazard lights for even just 10-15 consecutive minutes the bulbs would get really hot, i.e. the load resistors will get really hot. I'd just hate to see one of us experience on an unfortunate day of needing to use our hazards...only to discover later that we melted something. Thoughts?
I have these in my '00... in the newer cars you cannot eliminate the resistor on the turn signals there is no flasher mod solution. All my resistors get hot, they are meant to bleed-off about 50~60 watts of energy in the form of heat to make the circuit have the correct resistance & current for the bulb out warning. I want to stress they do get hot enough to melt things. I have not tried to take pin1 to ground, will not tinker until I look at the circuit to find out what it does before it damages something.
I totally agree with what you are saying. I will defer to Chris for the final say... But from my installation, I could see that the LEDs were definitely getting a regulated amount of current from the supplied circuit board. This current draw to the circuit board was not exactly what the car needed to see to prevent the bulb out warning light, and thus the resistor was added. There was another resistor supplied that actually went to an empty bulb socket (one on each side) that prevented a bulb out warning. Im no rocket surgeon, but this makes sense to me!
I sure hope it doesn't damage anything!
a whole lot of information can be found on this thread, I hope it helps!
http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19896
please let us know if I am advocating something damaging! that is the furthest from my intention!
First off, these LED taillight kits are fully voltage and current regulated, with or without the use of the load resistors. The load resistors are literally an accessory device, that I additionally mounted to the taillight kit. They do not alter the brightness of the LED taillight kit because the load resistor is run parallel with the taillight kit circuitry, not series. I only used the load resistors because at the time there was no other way to remove the bulb warning light. Of all the LED taillights I made, I use load resistors, for hyperblink fix and brake light warning fix, as last resort. Now that a new method to eliminate the brake warning fix has been found, I recommend new customers to try this method, as opposed to the load resistors. I am going to see how this method fares with my next customers, and if all of them have success, I will charge any new customer an extra $20 to have the 4 brake light warning load resistors now. Basically, if they aren't needed, there's no use in me buying them, and it's only an extra, unnecessary expense. I will still be using the load resistors for the turn signals, unless someone finds another successful method to eliminate hyperblinking. To answer the question, I do add enough wiring to mount the turn signal load resistors safely away from the turn signals.
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It shouldn't be damaging anything. This circuit mod is only providing a ground to the circuit before the module has a chance to sense the current going through and make the decision to ground the circuit or not.
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I thought guys may have wanted an updated list; well here you go:
1. vf2ss
2. chippy
3. nsxinkl
4. Hugh
5. SMYLDOC
6. doc_tai
7. Ashik
8. HGL1668
9. Sze Chi
10. 99blueNSX
11. gar123
12. NXTIMEE
13. HIJACKER
14. SOURCENSX
15. nakaza
1. vf2ss
2. chippy
3. nsxinkl
4. Hugh
5. SMYLDOC
6. doc_tai
7. Ashik
8. HGL1668
9. Sze Chi
10. 99blueNSX
11. gar123
12. NXTIMEE
13. HIJACKER
14. SOURCENSX
15. nakaza
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What would happen if the resistors were wrapped in an insulation so that the heat they give off would not be allowed to radiate as much, then they could just be placed in the pockets where the old bulbs resided ?
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