Electrical Question

[34ford]

I have a bulb shown below to go in the head lights on my car. It is a single filament bulb. The problem is I want to run park lights too and this is a single filament bulb. I have a wire for the left turn and right turn signals and one wire for the park lights. If I remember right you can hook the turn signal and park wires together and put a diode or diodes in line so the turn signals can work without feeding back thru the wiring and causing both bulbs to flash. But as I try and think this thru if the park lights are already on and I hit the turn single will it not blink since the park light is already on. If anyone has any ideals I would appreciate them or if you know of a two filament in a small bulb that would solve the problem all together.

Thanks,

Bob

[OldSub]

I have a bulb shown below to go in the head lights on my car. It is a single filament bulb. The problem is I want to run park lights too and this is a single filament bulb. I have a wire for the left turn and right turn signals and one wire for the park lights. If I remember right you can hook the turn signal and park wires together and put a diode or diodes in line so the turn signals can work without feeding back thru the wiring and causing both bulbs to flash. But as I try and think this thru if the park lights are already on and I hit the turn single will it not blink since the park light is already on. If anyone has any ideals I would appreciate them or if you know of a two filament in a small bulb that would solve the problem all together.

Thanks,

Bob

Diodes could prevent the signal that flashes one bulb from flashing the other.  But once you have turned on the bulb with your parking light circuit, its not going to flash because it is already on.

Could you put a resistor in the circuit to reduce the brightness of the parking lights so the turnsignal would increase the brightness?

Connect the resistor to the parking light wire, and the diodes to the resister and then the bulbs.

I think dual filament bulbs would be easier.

[Ralph]

if you know of a two filament in a small bulb that would solve the problem all together.

I think Ron francis sells a dual filament bulb about a half inch round.
Ralph

[MrMopar64]

I have a bulb shown below to go in the head lights on my car. It is a single filament bulb. The problem is I want to run park lights too and this is a single filament bulb. I have a wire for the left turn and right turn signals and one wire for the park lights. If I remember right you can hook the turn signal and park wires together and put a diode or diodes in line so the turn signals can work without feeding back thru the wiring and causing both bulbs to flash. But as I try and think this thru if the park lights are already on and I hit the turn single will it not blink since the park light is already on. If anyone has any ideals I would appreciate them or if you know of a two filament in a small bulb that would solve the problem all together.

Thanks,

Bob

You could put in a couple relays for each side that your parking ligths go through the NC side and then power the relay from the flasher so when you turn on the blinker it will engerize the relay and open it to brake the parking light path and the light will flash........
Here is a rough drawing and I do mean rough
If you need more info just let me know

MM64  

www.rgkustoms.com

[Bruce Dorsi]

I have a bulb shown below to go in the head lights on my car. It is a single filament bulb.
.... If anyone has any ideals I would appreciate them or if you know of a two filament in a small bulb that would solve the problem all together.

--------------------------------

Do you know what bulb number you have now, Bob?    

Does the existing bulb fit into a  socket?  ....To utilize a dual-filament bulb, if available, you will have to change the socket, as well.

[58 Yeoman]

Generous Motors used a similar system with its' side marker lights. The side lights were single filiament and would light with the headlights, but when you turned on your signal, it would flash alternately with the front/rear signal light. It would alternately lose its' ground when the other light was on, but also required the other bulb to operate. Check out a wiring diagram for the gm....maybe it will give you ideas.

IMHO, turn signal lights that are mounted in headlights would be hard to see when your headlights are on; the headlight beam would wash out the smaller signal flash.

[enjenjo]

IMHO, turn signal lights that are mounted in headlights would be hard to see when your headlights are on; the headlight beam would wash out the smaller signal flash.

I thought so too, until I tried it, and even with the brights on the turn siginal shows up fine. So I have done it on several cars.

[34ford]

IMHO, turn signal lights that are mounted in headlights would be hard to see when your headlights are on; the headlight beam would wash out the smaller signal flash.

Phil,

Sounds like it might work but I'm sure it's no easy task wiring. I have a picture of the headlight on and the turn signal on so I will post it so you can see.

Bruce, I'll look at the bulb number. It is a single filament socket with only 2 wires so I would have to change the socket but have yet to find a small one that has a dual filament.  On my last car I molded in a side marker lense on the back side of fender and put 2 bulbs in it. So on this one I didn't want to mess with that and just put them in the headlight.

Thanks guys

bob

[purplepickup]

Bob, maybe there is something here that will work.  They list the bulb #'s that fit each socket http://www.colehersee.com/pdf/master_cat/s_lamp.PDF

[enjenjo]

You can do it with two diodes, and a resistor.Use one wire, with a resistor and a diode to power it as a running light, and a second wire with just a diode to power it as a turn signal, with the two wires connected together between the diodes and the light. For a running light, it would be seeing about 8 volts, and with the turn signal on it would intermitantly get 12 volts.As to the value of the resistor, and wattage of the diodes, you're on your own

[34ford]

George,
Thanks for the link. One of them might work, have to call the company and chat with them.

Enjenjo,  

Thanks also. I have a friend who is an electrical person that works at a place where they make different electronic equipment so I will pose the question to him and come up with the right parts so others can use this solution.

Bob

[Skip]

You don't need diodes at all.

Hook the signal wire to one lead and the parking light feed to the other lead.

If the lights are on, the bulb will extinguish when the flasher is activated (ground goes away) and will come back when the flasher goes off.  (The light goes out when the dash indicator goes on and visa versa.)

If the lights aren't on, the signal wire sees the other parking lights as a path to ground ('cause they're all tied together) so it works as if there were a hard-wired ground.  (The light blinks on when the dash indicator blinks on._

If you ever waytched a tail light with a bad ground whilst following someone, you'll see how simple it really is.

[34ford]

Thanks for the tip Skip. The problem I'm facing is I have a sequencer box for the rear taillights which are 3 led cards on each side. The box is electronic and it is sensitive about grounds. I had the Lambert black box to work with the taillights and the guy I bought the sequencer from said it would not work with his product (it would short it out) so I bought one of the electronic flashers and plugged in the panel and all works well. I'm a little leary about hooking them up the way you mentioned with the electronics of the box and causing it to short out something.

The supplier of the sequencer said if I did the diodes they would tend to get really hot. I'm not a electrical engineer so I can't say if it right or not and I figured they work with the electronics all the time and would know what they do.

So for now I'm still in the thinking stage as to weather I need park lights hooked up and still looking for a small 2 filiment bulb or led card. Know there are small led cards in yellow just haven't had the time to chase one down.

Bob

[Bruce Dorsi]

-IF-  I understand Skip's post correctly, he suggests hooking the turn-signal wire to one side of the bulb filament, and the parking light feed to the the other side of the filament.

It appears your socket assy only has one lead coming from it, and the ground is to the headlight bucket.

I may be mistaken, but I think to utilize Skip's method your socket would need to be insulated from the mounting bracket, and another lead soldered to the shell of the socket.

Someone please correct me if my thinking is screwed up!

[Bruce Dorsi]

It appears your socket assy only has one lead coming from it, and the ground is to the headlight bucket.

Nevermind! --- My mistake!  :oops:  

I just noticed the light-colored lead coming out.  ....I only saw the black lead the first 5 times I looked at the pic.