OEM Cluster Indicator questions - positive / negative

[jus10inbrla]

Few questions regarding battery / alternator, and turn signal.


Is there an internal relay or resistor on the circuit board that would only cause the battery indicator lite to come on when needed, or is it polarity sensitive? what is the parameters for indicator to come on, is there voltage below / above .

same with turn signal. for example under normal circumstances the turn will illuminate when switch is turned for left or right. But with headlights on , they still stay off, until needed / turned on.


Reason i ask is i built new cluster.

The battery light is staying illuminated, after start up. Now, the battery was DEAD, and is on charge now.

The turn signals work fine as long as headlights are off. When headlights are turned on, indicators automaticaly come on.. but if i switch the signal on they will blink.

Im thinking swap polarity to try that. The rest of indicators are ok. Thanks guys!

 

[TonyM]

Are your indicator lights led? You may need resistors on them to drop the voltage. The "batt" light for sure, as for the turn signals I can't say but they're being fed voltage when your lights are on. I dealt with this when I made my own cluster. My speedo has the signal lights built into it, so that wasn't an issue, but had to use a resistor on the alt/batt light other wise it was always on. Same with the park brake light. Here's a pic of mine, very similar to yours

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[jus10inbrla]

The park brake is dim when it is actually now that u say that.. I forgot about that.

and yes they are LED.


ive got some 330k, 1.2 & 1.5 megohm resistors from our sensor cables on pumps. Do yuo know the resistance i need?

 

[TonyM]

I’m pretty sure I used 100k ohm. I’ll have to double check tomorrow, they’re at the shop. I’d try the 330 for the heck of it if that’s what you got.

 

[Erik the Awful]

The alternator light has to have resistance, and as I understand it without the resistance your alternator may not charge.

I cleaned up the cluster out of Roscoe and replaced the bulbs with LEDs, and now I'm trying to build a tester so I can test the moonie gauges in both Roscoe and WCJr. I got it mostly working, but I'm still trying to get all the bulbs to work correctly by switches and rheostats. I'm still not sure how to get the speedometer working - I tried using a pulse-width modulator to emulate a VSS, but it's not working.

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EDIT: I thought about this more today, and the PWM I'm using only has adjustment for the pulse width, and not the frequency. I'm ordering a NE555 pulse generator with the intention of de-soldering the dinky PCB-mounted 10k potentiometer and replacing it with a panel mount 10k pot. I'm also ordering some 1K pots because the two 10k pots on the fuel gauge and temp gauge are pretty much just on/off switches. Hey, it's what I had on hand.

 

[jus10inbrla]

Question. since i have all indicators on one hot, (pin F, circuit 39) could i put the resistor just before it enters cluster, or would it be best to use it just for alt.?

 

[jus10inbrla]

So putting a 330k resistor on wire 25 (pin a) did nothing, since its actually the return / negative

placed it onto 39 (pin f) resistor worked ; but dropped too much voltage . 12v in, 2.2v out. Not enough to illuminate led. Probably gona try some 100k.

@TonyM , did u put resistor on 25 or 39, and does the led still lite up at startup, go out on normal drving.. then illuminTe again when parameters are met to require it? What voltage was required to illuminate led, that will help some too

 

[Donald Mitchell]

You can use this calculator but you need to know the current draw. Amps. https://elecurls.tripod.com/drop-res.htm

 

[jus10inbrla]

You can use this calculator but you need to know the current draw. Amps. https://elecurls.tripod.com/drop-res.htm

I looked on the info page and i dont see the curent listing.

 

[Donald Mitchell]

Its the third box. 1st is voltage in, 2nd voltage out, 3rd is current or amps.