View Single Post
Old 08-07-2007, 08:11 PM   #4 (permalink)
QuasiMondo
Wise-ass Latino
 
QuasiMondo's Avatar
 
Location: Pretoria (Tshwane), RSA
Turn signals are controlled by a device called the thermal flasher. A thermal flasher is an electric device that opens and closes a circuit automatically at regular intervals because of alternate heating and cooling of a bimetallic strip that is heated by a resistance element in series with the circuit being controlled.

In other words, strip heats up, makes contact, turns light on. Strip cools down, breaks contact, turns light off. The timing of the interval is dependent on how much current is drawn by the bulbs in the signal indicator. The LED's draw significantly less current than a conventional bulb so that alters the interval, in most cases it makes it flash on and off very slowly, if at all.

The load equalizer fixes this problem by simulating the current draw of conventional bulbs, returning the interval to normal.

Now, on to your question...

Generally speaking, the 7.5 ohm equalizer should produce a slower flash interval than the 5.6 ohm equalizer since it's drawing less current and heating the bimetal strip more slowly.

Best way to figure out how much current each side uses is with Ohm's law (I=(V/R), where I=current, V=voltage, and R=resistance). Adapt this formula to calculate resistance with parallel circuits, and we get . We know the voltage is 12 volts, just grab a multimeter, measure the resistance of your bulbs, plug in the values, and you have your answer.

Sorry that it's long winded, but hope this helps.
__________________
Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer.

-From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator
QuasiMondo is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360