Gen 3 DRL Question

[Wlfman]

Has anyone checked to see if the LEDs in the DRLs on a Gen3 are user replaceable and if so do you know the bulb designator? I've not had the front end of mine torn down far enough to check that.

 

[rbentnail]

What's a DRL

?

 

[Wlfman]

What's a DRL

?

Daylight/time Running Light

 

[Top_Speed1]

They're not really DRL's as classification has it. More like marker lights and they totally get washed out when the piss-yellow halogens are on. They look good (but too dim) without the headlights on. When/if you have the front cowling off, u should find an led or 2 illuminating the bar. Most halo rings use this as well.

As it stands right now, a piss poor design for any type of usage towards actual drl''s . Window dressing at best.

 

[HotRodZilla]

They're not really DRL's as classification has it. More like marker lights and they totally get washed out when the piss-yellow halogens are on. They look good (but too dim) without the headlights on. When/if you have the front cowling off, u should find an led or 2 illuminating the bar. Most halo rings use this as well.As it stands right now, a piss poor design for any type of usage towards actual drl''s . Window dressing at best.

Kinda like the moveable fairing vents. My money is on the same ********* engineer.

 

[Denver_FJR]

What's a DRL

?

LEDs burn out

?

 

[Ignacio]

Has anyone checked to see if the LEDs in the DRLs on a Gen3 are user replaceable

Why? I'll make a wager you'd have more than 500K miles before one burns out.

 

[BkerChuck]

My truck cap has an LED 3rd brake light that's been replaced once and needs to be replaced again due to burned out segments. 81k miles is all that's on it!

 

[Wlfman]

Has anyone checked to see if the LEDs in the DRLs on a Gen3 are user replaceable

Why? I'll make a wager you'd have more than 500K miles before one burns out.

Because I would like to put brighter bulbs in there and possibly yellow ones. So that they do stand out better when the headlights are on.

What's a DRL

?

LEDs burn out

?

Yes, they do.

They're not really DRL's as classification has it. More like marker lights and they totally get washed out when the piss-yellow halogens are on. They look good (but too dim) without the headlights on. When/if you have the front cowling off, u should find an led or 2 illuminating the bar. Most halo rings use this as well.
As it stands right now, a piss poor design for any type of usage towards actual drl''s . Window dressing at best.

I was using Yamaha's term. I would call them accent lights...

 

[NormKern]

Low-power LEDs like in indicator lights last virtually forever. For many years that's all that were available. When the new generation of bright LEDs became available to use for illumination, they are being run near their maximum current. Under these conditions the rate of failure goes up, just like for incandescent bulbs.

 

[ionbeam]

As NormK says, LEDs that are driven at maximum current with poor heat sinking or poor connections can fail sooner that the normal 99 year life span. The halogen headlights run in the ~3.2k to 3.8k color temperature range. Adding 'accent' lighting in that same color range will get swamped out by the greater intensity of the headlights. Moving into a more blue color in the 5k to 6.8k temperature range will contrast the headlights and be more visible.

 

[Top_Speed1]

They are around 5 - 5.5K white as they stand now. So 2K (Kelvin) or just amber LED's is what you are looking for as to the contrast in yellow or amber. Personally I would go as ionbeam mentioned, a high(er) powered LED in the intense color temp 6-7K. Now if I went HID (which my FJR is proudly outfitted with for the H4's), then maybe the amber color would be the contrast combo... hmmm?.

The replacement factor (to higher powered LED) may be more of how the LED is mounted. On the K1600 (the halo rings, or angel eyes as some have it) is a small powerful LED diode mounted to a circuit board with big heat sinks. This would mean replacing could get involved, not only the solder-in part but matching up what the board expects/can handle and output, and whether it's tied into (monitored) by the Canbus. I dought it but ya never know, maybe moreso with the Beemer.

So your first step is to take apart your cowling and start investigating. Another maybe easier "seek" would be to find a microfiche or schematic of the marker light setup. I am the lighting wizard amongst my community, trust me, if I had a Gen3?.. that marker light would already be upgraded into a real DRL! (and the crap halogens long gone as well).

Here is the LED powered unit for my K16's - Halo (or) Angel eyes ...hopefully the Yami is much simpler!

[the actual diode is far right, it's yellow in color when off]

 

[Wlfman]

They are around 5 - 5.5K white as they stand now. So 2K (Kelvin) or just amber LED's is what you are looking for as to the contrast in yellow or amber. Personally I would go as ionbeam mentioned, a high(er) powered LED in the intense color temp 6-7K. Now if I went HID (which my FJR is proudly outfitted with for the H4's), then maybe the amber color would be the contrast combo... hmmm?.
The replacement factor (to higher powered LED) may be more of how the LED is mounted. On the K1600 (the halo rings, or angel eyes as some have it) is a small powerful LED diode mounted to a circuit board with big heat sinks. This would mean replacing could get involved, not only the solder-in part but matching up what the board expects/can handle and output, and whether it's tied into (monitored) by the Canbus. I dought it but ya never know, maybe moreso with the Beemer.

So your first step is to take apart your cowling and start investigating. Another maybe easier "seek" would be to find a microfiche or schematic of the marker light setup. I am the lighting wizard amongst my community, trust me, if I had a Gen3?.. that marker light would already be upgraded into a real DRL! (and the crap halogens long gone as well).

I haven't had the front end torn down far enough to see whats in there. I've looked at the parts fiche and in the Yamaha Service Manual and can't find any info. That's why I was hoping someone with a Gen 3 had already looked at them when they had their front torn apart. I already have HIDs to install, which is why I was thinking yellow/amber LEDs for the contrast.

Thanks

 

[Top_Speed1]

They are around 5 - 5.5K white as they stand now. So 2K (Kelvin) or just amber LED's is what you are looking for as to the contrast in yellow or amber. Personally I would go as ionbeam mentioned, a high(er) powered LED in the intense color temp 6-7K. Now if I went HID (which my FJR is proudly outfitted with for the H4's), then maybe the amber color would be the contrast combo... hmmm?.
The replacement factor (to higher powered LED) may be more of how the LED is mounted. On the K1600 (the halo rings, or angel eyes as some have it) is a small powerful LED diode mounted to a circuit board with big heat sinks. This would mean replacing could get involved, not only the solder-in part but matching up what the board expects/can handle and output, and whether it's tied into (monitored) by the Canbus. I dought it but ya never know, maybe moreso with the Beemer.

So your first step is to take apart your cowling and start investigating. Another maybe easier "seek" would be to find a microfiche or schematic of the marker light setup. I am the lighting wizard amongst my community, trust me, if I had a Gen3?.. that marker light would already be upgraded into a real DRL! (and the crap halogens long gone as well).

I haven't had the front end torn down far enough to see whats in there. I've looked at the parts fiche and in the Yamaha Service Manual and can't find any info. That's why I was hoping someone with a Gen 3 had already looked at them when they had their front torn apart. I already have HIDs to install, which is why I was thinking yellow/amber LEDs for the contrast.

Thanks

y bi

They are around 5 - 5.5K white as they stand now. So 2K (Kelvin) or just amber LED's is what you are looking for as to the contrast in yellow or amber. Personally I would go as ionbeam mentioned, a high(er) powered LED in the intense color temp 6-7K. Now if I went HID (which my FJR is proudly outfitted with for the H4's), then maybe the amber color would be the contrast combo... hmmm?.
The replacement factor (to higher powered LED) may be more of how the LED is mounted. On the K1600 (the halo rings, or angel eyes as some have it) is a small powerful LED diode mounted to a circuit board with big heat sinks. This would mean replacing could get involved, not only the solder-in part but matching up what the board expects/can handle and output, and whether it's tied into (monitored) by the Canbus. I dought it but ya never know, maybe moreso with the Beemer.

So your first step is to take apart your cowling and start investigating. Another maybe easier "seek" would be to find a microfiche or schematic of the marker light setup. I am the lighting wizard amongst my community, trust me, if I had a Gen3?.. that marker light would already be upgraded into a real DRL! (and the crap halogens long gone as well).

I haven't had the front end torn down far enough to see whats in there. I've looked at the parts fiche and in the Yamaha Service Manual and can't find any info. That's why I was hoping someone with a Gen 3 had already looked at them when they had their front torn apart. I already have HIDs to install, which is why I was thinking yellow/amber LEDs for the contrast.

Thanks

Good deal going HID. So then you will be taking the complete front cowling off anyways, if nobody can give you earlier heads up you just may be the guinea pig. Trust me, I would be (the guinea pig) if I had a G3 as right after a PDM60 I would farkle in HID's and try to upgrade those LED surround lights.

Keep us updated, I'm always interested in this stuff

 

[Wlfman]

They are around 5 - 5.5K white as they stand now. So 2K (Kelvin) or just amber LED's is what you are looking for as to the contrast in yellow or amber. Personally I would go as ionbeam mentioned, a high(er) powered LED in the intense color temp 6-7K. Now if I went HID (which my FJR is proudly outfitted with for the H4's), then maybe the amber color would be the contrast combo... hmmm?.

The replacement factor (to higher powered LED) may be more of how the LED is mounted. On the K1600 (the halo rings, or angel eyes as some have it) is a small powerful LED diode mounted to a circuit board with big heat sinks. This would mean replacing could get involved, not only the solder-in part but matching up what the board expects/can handle and output, and whether it's tied into (monitored) by the Canbus. I dought it but ya never know, maybe moreso with the Beemer.

So your first step is to take apart your cowling and start investigating. Another maybe easier "seek" would be to find a microfiche or schematic of the marker light setup. I am the lighting wizard amongst my community, trust me, if I had a Gen3?.. that marker light would already be upgraded into a real DRL! (and the crap halogens long gone as well).

I haven't had the front end torn down far enough to see whats in there. I've looked at the parts fiche and in the Yamaha Service Manual and can't find any info. That's why I was hoping someone with a Gen 3 had already looked at them when they had their front torn apart. I already have HIDs to install, which is why I was thinking yellow/amber LEDs for the contrast.
Thanks

Good deal going HID. So then you will be taking the complete front cowling off anyways, if nobody can give you earlier heads up you just may be the guinea pig. Trust me, I would be (the guinea pig) if I had a G3 as right after a PDM60 I would farkle in HID's and try to upgrade those LED surround lights.

Keep us updated, I'm always interested in this stuff

Yes eventually I'll be tearing it down and seeing how to best cram the HIDs in there. I was hoping that some one knew about the LEDs so I could order them and do it all at once instead of tearing it down twice. Since I ride year round I don't have a lot of down time to tear it down and leave it torn down while awaiting an order.

 

[Top_Speed1]

I totally understand. A lot of these guys here are just not into the lighting as much as myself (and you). Instead of improving what you have (H4) to HID, alot just tack on clearwaters etc. Nuttin wrong with dat, as they are real master blasters (especially the Erics's) but I prefer the clean look/route and use or better what I have existing.

Hopefully somebody as crazy as us will come along that has the G3 and chime in. (and hopefully before your project starts). Heads up never hurts right?

Good luck