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New LED headlight flicker


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Just installed a LED bulb from superbrightleds.com; P/N H4-HLV4-M

Even though the new bulb's power comsumption is only 18.6W, as opposed to the stock which is 60/55W, it flickers when first powering up the bike while the fuel pump is kicking in. Is this normal? I havent taken it out on the road yet because I'm gonna do some other work while I have the fairing split.

I really hope the flickering is only during initial power up because my wife has epilepsy and can be sensitive to flickering lights.

While I'm here...ya'll know the part number for the bolt that holds the light bar in place? Had to dremel one of them in order to get that stupid thing off.

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LED headlights in CAN bus systems can have a slight flicker. I have not heard of anyone saying anything about the LED on a "regular" system. I have some in a car and I dont notice it. It may just be a start up deal. The bolts for the light bar if I remember right are a 6mm x maybe 1.25? I replaced mine with some hardware I had left over from something else. If you have one good one, any hardware or big box should have bolts to fit. I used allen heads, you may opt for regular head type bolts.

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It's not surprising.

 

LEDs respond instantly to voltage changes. When the fuel pump cycles it'll pull the voltage down a bit. Once the engine is turning some revolutions the alternator and voltage regulator should even things out. I had a LED license plate frame on my 1st gen and it would flicker at idle as the charging voltage fluctuated. Once it was off idle and voltage smoothed out it would be steady.

 

The reason you don't see it with incandescent lights is the light is produced by a piece of hot wire. The wire won't heat up and cool off fast enough to make a noticeable change in light output. You can see this if you watch vehicle turn signals, the ones with LEDs are instant on instant off where incandescent lights you can see get brighter over a fraction of a second and dim to dark when they click off.

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