LED lighting on 78 eltigre 5000 ?

[HudCo]

can automotive led lights be used on 78 eltigre 5000 electrical system  , if so what needs to be done

[Vintagesleds.com]

[big danno]

Won't work as led are DC powered and your sled is A.C. powered .If you were to add a battery and a rectifier regulator to the machine you could make it work

[HudCo]

thats what i thought , but i thought  i seen a post about adding led light strips to sleds  .    i am after just brake tail and head light  and hand warmers , also thought i seen some kind of converter box ?

[motorman45]

You can run led from the ac on a sled. Just to put a diode in line with the power lead to the led light. It half rectifies the AC to a pulse of DC that works just fine on small lights.

[HudCo]

thanks,  what do i go ask for and where  (part numbers) ?  so that means i need a diode for tail wire and one for brake wire , what about the head light , i was thinking about useing a 3"x3" square light  thanks Hud

[IowaSledKid]

isnt an led a Light Emitting Diode?  adding a diode would only be redundant.  if you hook it up it will work but it will only turn on for one half of the ac wave, in turn making it flash.  ever notice how led christmas lights make ur eyes hurt.  its cause there flashing 60 times a second.  shouldnt have to do anything other than add you resistor to limit current to the led.

[AHood]

Led' are polarity sensitive. They have a + and -. They should not be hooked up backward. If you run AC to an LED it's essentially hooking it up backwards many times per second. It would probably burn out.  What the guy said about a diode in series makes some sense. A diode only allows amp flow in one direction. Or very tiny amount back the other way. It's a one way valve for electricity.   

[HudCo]

that may be right about the diode because arnt some of the briggs un regulated or rectified just one diode in one wire to charge the battery

[T-Dub13]

HUD I believe you're right about the Briggs charging circuit: I think the little red connector has a diode in it and the circuit is used for charging a battery. or running a single incandescent light.  The light works because the filament doesn't have time to cool and re-heat, so the light is somewhat constant.  Although, you're only using 1/2 the available power.

I think the best way to accomplish this project would be to ad a rectifier / regulator to the AC output and connect it to a small rechargeable battery, (like a 12v battery from a cordless drill).  Then run the lights from the battery.  You'd even have light when the motor isn't running.  Maybe a good safety measure if you need to change a belt or spark plug on the trail at night...

[motorman45]

the 78 eltigre already has a voltage regulator in place ( or should ) but it dosnt rectify it to DC, you could replace that with a regulator /rectifier like used for when installing a battery for e start. but you wont need a battery for the led's. just get an led light that's rated for 12v or you could build one with parts from radio shac , all depends on what you want to do.

I've build my own before , just used a marker light and bunch of led's and a diode to make this custom moped taillight. it had a bosh stator/lighting setup just like old sleds. just took out the bulb, soldered 2 sets of 8 small led's together with a 200 ohm resistor on each ( to eliminate need for v regulator )  so it could take 14v. hot glued them in the lens. put 1n4001 ( under $1 at radio shak ) diode in line and it works great. but you can buy led lights already made that are made for the 12v.
 all depends on what you want to do.

[AHood]

A have a nice DC rec/reg I use on my ignitions to run DC. It could be used to run all dc lights if you wanted.

[HudCo]

i wonder if i could just use one of our kolher or briggs reg. rectifiers in place of the one that is on there.      i think have a used one on blown up kohler command  14 in our bone yard

[T-Dub13]

Motorman,  I like that set-up on your ped.  Do the lights dim at idle?  I'm planning on registering an IT175 and it's missing the tail light, so I might upgrade to LED's.  I just want to avoid dimming at idle and the flickering of AC, so that's why I was thinking Reg/rec + small Battery to keep the juices at a constant.

[AHood]

The regulator/rec I use has a battery output and a lighting output.

[T-Dub13]

Since sleds usually idle pretty high compared to other gasoline toys, I'd guess light dimming isn't that much of a factor.  I know most of my Dirt Bikes won't produce much juice idling and the lights dim at stop lights etc.  It can be annoying!

Adam, What's the difference between the Lighting output and Battery output in you REG/REC?  Is the light output AC for incandescents?