REAL FLA$HERS, no more $2 bulbs for me.

[gspd]

quad.jpeg (64.18 KiB) Viewed 491 times

I was doing a few final tasks on the ol' PD, getting it ready for its first spring ride, when I suddenly decided I needed to have the planet's absolute best and brightest tail/stop/turn/DRL lights. Anyway, I was sorta bored with the 1157 LEDs I've had for years so I whipped out the MasterCard and ordered some Weiser lights https://www.weisertechnik.com/products/legacy-3/ b'cuz they looked real super-cool and they were specifically tailored to airhead rectangular flasher housings. I soon discovered that the running lights can not be turned off via the headlight switch. Spoke to Mark Atkins @ Weiser and he basically said: "..nobody really needs to turn their lights off anyways, and nobody else even asked..". I say his engineers should have designed the printed circuit with a separate terminal for the running lights, rather than piggy-backing it on the stop light circuit. How hard could that be? So I returned the Weiser lights, got a refund, and ordered 4 Feniex Q-2222 Quad Cannon Hide-Aways. So far, so good! https://www.feniex.com/uploads/products ... mEOmAf0FFc

All these lights need extra wires to function as stop/tail/turn/DRL lights. I ran my wires through the stalks so they are hidden. Having them hang out as Weiser shows looks tacky.

Below are my observations (Weiser vs. Feniex)
Lots of youtubes about these.
All comments welcomed.

Weiser Technik Legacy 3 Evo combo kit...$449USD for 4 flashers
PROS:
Up to 4 year warranty.
No hassle 60 day return policy (true!)
SUPER BRIGHT!
Less than 1 amp draw, approximately 0.1a on running light only mode.
CONS:
Circuit board looks vulnerable if flasher housing gets moisture in it.
Looks a bit delicate.
Very expensive.
The deal breaker Running lights can’t be turned off from the switch on bikes that have that capability.

Feniex Quad Cannon 4 color Hide-Away...4 x $69.00 = $276USD for 4 flashers.
PROS:
5 year warranty.
No hassle Amazon return policy.
SUPER BRIGHT!
Less than 1 amp draw, approximately 0.1a on running light only mode.
BMW flasher relay no longer needed.
Completely sealed module, shock and water proof.
Looks virtually indestructible.
Proven on police cars, etc.
Super easy to DIY integrate into airhead flasher housing.
Individually programmable from 'mild' to 'wild'.
CONS:
Not inexpensive.
Nothing else negative to say.

[dwerbil]

Great! Like me riding with a safety vest on - they'll either make you stand out more or make you an easier target to hit.

[Rob Frankham]

Do they work correctly with the stock flasher unit or do you have to fit a LED rated flasher?

Rob

[gspd]

Do they work correctly with the stock flasher unit or do you have to fit a LED rated flasher?
Rob

The Weiser lights have no built-in flash function. The turn signal is triggered by power from the bike's flasher relay. The stock flasher relay should work fine, as the lights are sold as plug'n'play replacements. I already had a LED type flasher relay on my bike because I was using 1157 bulb type LEDs for the past 10 years or so and the Weiser flashers worked fine with that.

The Feniex Quad Cannons use a steady 12v so no external flasher unit is needed. You feed a steady 12v from the flasher switch to the Quad Cannon (remove and bypass flasher relay) and cycle through the options (list below) and stop at the flash rate (or steady on) you want. There is no external processor or 'box'. Each unit can be programmed as you wish. I'm pretty sure some of the rapid-flash-side-to-side-attack-mode functions could get you in trouble with the cops, but when using the 'normal' flasher mode, everything looks and works as stock, only 10 times brighter. The 10% running light mode is really bright, about on par with a stock 1156 incandescent on brake mode. The 'brake pop' mode is incredibly bright, almost blinding. I'm glad I'm not riding behind me...

flash.jpeg (27.82 KiB) Viewed 433 times

[Rob Frankham]

Interesting... I think the Weiser units might have issues with a stock flasher unit. Most pre-electronic flashers rely on the current drawn by the indicator bulbs to control the flash rate. 2 x 21w incandescent bulbs + a 3w repeater in parallel equals a total of 45w meaning a current drain at a nominal 12v of around 3.75 amps. If the LEDs only draw 1 amp, I think a lot of indicator units will have issues.

In passing, a lot of the functions of the Feniex units would be likely to cause comment from the boys in blue in the UK. In fact, technically, any LED indicators are non compliant... although no one really bothers about it providing they don't cause problems or advertise themselves to blatantly.

Rob

[gspd]

Interesting... I think the Weiser units might have issues with a stock flasher unit. Most pre-electronic flashers rely on the current drawn by the indicator bulbs to control the flash rate. 2 x 21w incandescent bulbs + a 3w repeater in parallel equals a total of 45w meaning a current drain at a nominal 12v of around 3.75 amps. If the LEDs only draw 1 amp, I think a lot of indicator units will have issues.
Rob

Hi Rob-
From Weiser instructions: "the Weiser LED lights supplied are compatible with the 21w turn signal bulbs they are replacing and will not cause a bulb failure fault."

Weiser supplies a power supply relay/harness with their kit.
They offer 2 different installation options: one option is with their supplied harness/relay. The other option is without their supplied harness/relay.
with relay: https://www.weisertechnik.com/wp-conten ... ressed.pdf
without relay: https://www.weisertechnik.com/wp-conten ... ressed.pdf
I didn't see the point (do you?) of the extra wiring so I chose without.

The reason I returned the Weiser lights and do not recommend them is that there is no dedicated connector for the running lights. The 12v connector activates the running lights AND supplies power to the brake circuit. You must have power to the 12v terminal for the running and brake lights to function. If you turn off the running lights by killing power to the 12v terminal, the brake light will not work.

1.jpeg (41.6 KiB) Viewed 369 times

Is this a stupid design or what? Why not a dedicated circuit each for tail/stop/turn?
Maybe the beancounters wanted to save a few pennies? Not likely. Looks more like plain incompetence to me.


There is a 'clip' that can manually be moved to position 2 that will kill the running lights and leave the brake light function but it can't be 'switched' remotely. I'm not about to remove both flasher lenses and move a clip each time I want to turn my running lights on or off. Serious design oversight.

2.jpeg (27.73 KiB) Viewed 369 times

Mark Atkins @ Weiser Technik won't admit a design flaw and is adamantly sticking to his guns by insisting that nobody should ever want to turn off their running lights, instead of admitting that there was a total fuck-up on the engineers' part during the design and development stages.

I was quite put off by Mark's condescending attitude that seemed to imply that there was something wrong with me for wanting to have control over my running lights. These running lights are so bright that I would want to occasionally turn them off for stealth reasons, or just not to attract attention from (or just plain annoy) people in certain situations.

This is a classic case of what happens when people who do not actually ride motorcycles design a product for use on motorcycles.

[Rob Frankham]

Hi Rob-
From Weiser instructions: "the Weiser LED lights supplied are compatible with the 21w turn signal bulbs they are replacing and will not cause a bulb failure fault."

That's interesting... I don't see how it can work unless the 'relay' unit is actually drawing a similar current to the original incandescent bulbs. The flash frequency of mechanical indicator relays is dependant on the current drawn by the bulb. I would have to be convinced. I wonder if that great heat sink mounted on the board is actually cooling a current dump circuit...

Anyway, as you say, the design isn't very good and it's not really releveant here in the UK so I'm not about to buy one and experiment...

Rob