bramfrank
BramFrank
I'm not done with the install yet, but the recent spate of posts about the Whelen TIR3 got me to thinking that I'd like to shock drivers on my tail out of their reverie.
But what's better than a TIR3?
Why obviously TWO TIR3s! And here is how I came to install THAT solution:
I had a very bright and interesting LED trail light retrofit on my '03 Concours C10 that used a variable flash rate (started fast and slowed over 10 seconds to solid on) that was amazing - but the company that made them went out of business. I then tried to go into business with a bunch of Germans who were doing LED tail light retrofits of a similar sort, but their prices were out of sight.
$50 for the TIR3 was a great price. But money is a bit tight here, so I've waited . . . .
At the start of the month I had a significant number of 'Ebay Bucks' to get rid of and on the very last day became somewhat concerned about wasting the money (as in letting $300 in credits expire), so I bought a bunch of supplies that I needed, but even then, there was too much that I wanted and not enough money to buy it all.
What do do? What to do?
I had an epiphany. If I couldn't bring myself to buy something I needed, I would buy something I DIDN'T need and decided to locate a TIR3 and a flasher module on Ebay - but there were no red ones (it seems that Ebay bans the sale of red police lights) and even then none with reasonable 'Buy It Now' settings and I HAD to spend the money or lose it.
My searches brought me to a Whelen product called a 'Dominator D2'. The D2 is an assembly comprising not one, but TWO TIR3 light heads (that's what they call the flasher modules) in a black aluminum extrusion that measures about 1" high by about 7" across - almost as wide as a typical moto license plate.
There was even a vendor with a BIN who said you could specify the color you wanted and he was including a mounting bracket (not sure I needed it - and even now don't know because he forgot to put it in the box and is just now shipping the missing part to me). But the price was $115 (his latest auctions are $125) and I had about $140 left, so I bought that, plus an adjustable flasher designed for 'back-off' duty from another vendor in Cali.
Nothing I do is ever simple.
When the package arrived at the border, my buddy brought it (and a bunch of other stuff I ordered) back and handed me the bits on Friday evening.
The Dominator is a VERY nice product (photos posted). It is available with 2, 4, 6 or 8 TIR3 modules and can cycle through a number of flash patterns . . . . . . . . but . . . . . . . it turns out that there is no 'steady burn' among the available choices. And I need the 'steady burn' to work with the brake modulator, otherwise the rear of my bike would simply be flashing away looking like the lights on any police bike and that wasn't going to make any LEOs behind me at red lights happy. I suppose I could have simply installed a cut-off timer to let them run for 4 seconds, then shut off, but I fear that the incandescent bulbs wouldn't be seen after my light show came to an end.
No. I needed a proper solution. What could it be?
The TIR3 has a 'steady burn' function. The Dominator uses two TIR3, so it should offer the 'steady burn' as a selectable option. Seems reasonable, at least to me. But no. I tried. It doesn't.
It was very 'police like' over the week-end in my home (with the lights off at night). These things are bright enough to burn your eyeballs, especially when used in pitch blackness!!!
Whelen tech support was closed until Monday (today) and the dealer who sold me the asssembly didn't respond over the week-end, so first thing Monday morning I called Whelen to find out what the story was . . . their phone system is just awful; First of all they don't have a toll-free number (not a hardship for me, I have unlmited North American calling on my phone line), then their automated attendant doesn't have any form of call center software. The phone jjust rang for 5 minutes before 'Brian' (his real name) came on the line and promptly informed me I was SOL and if I didn't like it I could just return the lights to my dealer or I could buy a pair of TIR3 modules from my dealer and mount them inside the Dominator extrusion.
But isn't that what I already bought?
Apparently not.
While they may call it a TIR3, it seems that (according to Brian) they took a lot of poetic license and provided a 'special' TIR3 that has a limited subset of flash patterns and does not offer 'steady burn'.
So how about selling me a pair of TIR3 at a special price?
Nope - too bad. Go away and buy a pair where you got what you have now . . . . not nice Brian.
But I am nothing, if not tenacious - I decided to disassemble the Dominator to see what makes it tick - there is a drawing they provide and it sure looks like a lot of bits and pieces go into this thing - and if I must say, Whelen does a very classy job of building their products - Everything is plugged together using waterproof connectors and their boards are all fully potted.
But the most interesting discovery was that the external wiring went, not to the TIR3s, but rather to a module into which the 2 TIR3s were connected - and I could see what appeared to be the top of a transister poking up near the surface of the potting compound. . . . . could it be?
Well, the TIR3 modules in this thing each has 2 wires (one Black and one Red) poking out - the standard TIR3 has 4 wires . . . I wondered.
OK, I unplugged the connector from one of the TIR3 modules and applied a 12 VDC source.
LO AND BEHOLD, THERE WAS A BRIGHT UNWAVERING RED LIGHT SHINING FROM THE MODULE.
So all I needed to do was to cut the mating cables from the separate flasher module that the Dominators use and connect those to the output of my newly purchased back-off flasher module and I'd have what I wanted (and a spare cannibalised Whelen controller to boot).
Brian CLEARLY has no clue about his products
So I wrote an e-mail to the VP Sales who thanked me for taking the trouble to write - we're going to chat later this week and I gather that he is taking my complaint seriously (then again I did record the call). Brian. Can you say discipline action and maybe some product training'?
I did some trial fitting and without the backet, the light bar will fit perfectly between the bottom of the license plate bulb and the top of the plate itself. Unfortunately that means that it will block the bulb from lighting up the plate - maybe a white LED mounted below the Dominator can do the job?
I then thought about lowering the license plate bulb assembly - it is simply held in place with two screws - and it can be dropped, - however the special mounting hardware the Dominator ships with isn't long wnough to mount through the plastic and spacers - and finding a captive dome-headed screw with a square collar like the one they use was not going to be a simple task.
But it WILL fit below and it WILL poke through the plastic itself just fine - even so, I will wait for the bracket.
More, as the plot unfolds.
What I DO know is that the brake modulator can be adjusted to flash the Dominator VERY quickly - People to my rear will not be happy - If I set it right it might trigger epileptic fits!! These are the same light heads that police cars use - they are BRIGHT. Though, if you want EVEN BRIGHTER in a package that's the same size, Whelen does offer the Dominator 2+ - that model uses the LINZ6 light head which has six of the high power leds in each where the TIR3 has 3.
Between my headlight modulator and my HID driving lights that face front and the new LED Aux brake lights facing rear I HOPE I won't get hit due to inattention.
Note; the flasher module I bought is a REALLY nice device. There are two adjustmnents, one for the flash rate and another for the duration of the flashing, which ranges from almost no time to perhaps 20 seconds and a flash rate that varies from about 15 Hz to almost full on. For $15 shipped, it is a steal.
This is a link to one of the vendor's back-off flasher auctions.
The Dominator 2 looks like this:
More as I get this thing installed.
But what's better than a TIR3?
Why obviously TWO TIR3s! And here is how I came to install THAT solution:
I had a very bright and interesting LED trail light retrofit on my '03 Concours C10 that used a variable flash rate (started fast and slowed over 10 seconds to solid on) that was amazing - but the company that made them went out of business. I then tried to go into business with a bunch of Germans who were doing LED tail light retrofits of a similar sort, but their prices were out of sight.
$50 for the TIR3 was a great price. But money is a bit tight here, so I've waited . . . .
At the start of the month I had a significant number of 'Ebay Bucks' to get rid of and on the very last day became somewhat concerned about wasting the money (as in letting $300 in credits expire), so I bought a bunch of supplies that I needed, but even then, there was too much that I wanted and not enough money to buy it all.
What do do? What to do?
I had an epiphany. If I couldn't bring myself to buy something I needed, I would buy something I DIDN'T need and decided to locate a TIR3 and a flasher module on Ebay - but there were no red ones (it seems that Ebay bans the sale of red police lights) and even then none with reasonable 'Buy It Now' settings and I HAD to spend the money or lose it.
My searches brought me to a Whelen product called a 'Dominator D2'. The D2 is an assembly comprising not one, but TWO TIR3 light heads (that's what they call the flasher modules) in a black aluminum extrusion that measures about 1" high by about 7" across - almost as wide as a typical moto license plate.
There was even a vendor with a BIN who said you could specify the color you wanted and he was including a mounting bracket (not sure I needed it - and even now don't know because he forgot to put it in the box and is just now shipping the missing part to me). But the price was $115 (his latest auctions are $125) and I had about $140 left, so I bought that, plus an adjustable flasher designed for 'back-off' duty from another vendor in Cali.
Nothing I do is ever simple.
When the package arrived at the border, my buddy brought it (and a bunch of other stuff I ordered) back and handed me the bits on Friday evening.
The Dominator is a VERY nice product (photos posted). It is available with 2, 4, 6 or 8 TIR3 modules and can cycle through a number of flash patterns . . . . . . . . but . . . . . . . it turns out that there is no 'steady burn' among the available choices. And I need the 'steady burn' to work with the brake modulator, otherwise the rear of my bike would simply be flashing away looking like the lights on any police bike and that wasn't going to make any LEOs behind me at red lights happy. I suppose I could have simply installed a cut-off timer to let them run for 4 seconds, then shut off, but I fear that the incandescent bulbs wouldn't be seen after my light show came to an end.
No. I needed a proper solution. What could it be?
The TIR3 has a 'steady burn' function. The Dominator uses two TIR3, so it should offer the 'steady burn' as a selectable option. Seems reasonable, at least to me. But no. I tried. It doesn't.
It was very 'police like' over the week-end in my home (with the lights off at night). These things are bright enough to burn your eyeballs, especially when used in pitch blackness!!!
Whelen tech support was closed until Monday (today) and the dealer who sold me the asssembly didn't respond over the week-end, so first thing Monday morning I called Whelen to find out what the story was . . . their phone system is just awful; First of all they don't have a toll-free number (not a hardship for me, I have unlmited North American calling on my phone line), then their automated attendant doesn't have any form of call center software. The phone jjust rang for 5 minutes before 'Brian' (his real name) came on the line and promptly informed me I was SOL and if I didn't like it I could just return the lights to my dealer or I could buy a pair of TIR3 modules from my dealer and mount them inside the Dominator extrusion.
But isn't that what I already bought?
Apparently not.
While they may call it a TIR3, it seems that (according to Brian) they took a lot of poetic license and provided a 'special' TIR3 that has a limited subset of flash patterns and does not offer 'steady burn'.
So how about selling me a pair of TIR3 at a special price?
Nope - too bad. Go away and buy a pair where you got what you have now . . . . not nice Brian.
But I am nothing, if not tenacious - I decided to disassemble the Dominator to see what makes it tick - there is a drawing they provide and it sure looks like a lot of bits and pieces go into this thing - and if I must say, Whelen does a very classy job of building their products - Everything is plugged together using waterproof connectors and their boards are all fully potted.
But the most interesting discovery was that the external wiring went, not to the TIR3s, but rather to a module into which the 2 TIR3s were connected - and I could see what appeared to be the top of a transister poking up near the surface of the potting compound. . . . . could it be?
Well, the TIR3 modules in this thing each has 2 wires (one Black and one Red) poking out - the standard TIR3 has 4 wires . . . I wondered.
OK, I unplugged the connector from one of the TIR3 modules and applied a 12 VDC source.
LO AND BEHOLD, THERE WAS A BRIGHT UNWAVERING RED LIGHT SHINING FROM THE MODULE.
So all I needed to do was to cut the mating cables from the separate flasher module that the Dominators use and connect those to the output of my newly purchased back-off flasher module and I'd have what I wanted (and a spare cannibalised Whelen controller to boot).
Brian CLEARLY has no clue about his products
So I wrote an e-mail to the VP Sales who thanked me for taking the trouble to write - we're going to chat later this week and I gather that he is taking my complaint seriously (then again I did record the call). Brian. Can you say discipline action and maybe some product training'?
I did some trial fitting and without the backet, the light bar will fit perfectly between the bottom of the license plate bulb and the top of the plate itself. Unfortunately that means that it will block the bulb from lighting up the plate - maybe a white LED mounted below the Dominator can do the job?
I then thought about lowering the license plate bulb assembly - it is simply held in place with two screws - and it can be dropped, - however the special mounting hardware the Dominator ships with isn't long wnough to mount through the plastic and spacers - and finding a captive dome-headed screw with a square collar like the one they use was not going to be a simple task.
But it WILL fit below and it WILL poke through the plastic itself just fine - even so, I will wait for the bracket.
More, as the plot unfolds.
What I DO know is that the brake modulator can be adjusted to flash the Dominator VERY quickly - People to my rear will not be happy - If I set it right it might trigger epileptic fits!! These are the same light heads that police cars use - they are BRIGHT. Though, if you want EVEN BRIGHTER in a package that's the same size, Whelen does offer the Dominator 2+ - that model uses the LINZ6 light head which has six of the high power leds in each where the TIR3 has 3.
Between my headlight modulator and my HID driving lights that face front and the new LED Aux brake lights facing rear I HOPE I won't get hit due to inattention.
Note; the flasher module I bought is a REALLY nice device. There are two adjustmnents, one for the flash rate and another for the duration of the flashing, which ranges from almost no time to perhaps 20 seconds and a flash rate that varies from about 15 Hz to almost full on. For $15 shipped, it is a steal.
This is a link to one of the vendor's back-off flasher auctions.
The Dominator 2 looks like this:
More as I get this thing installed.
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