LED Lighting?

[ckizer]

Now that I've got my 2012 taotao powermax 150 running great I'm going to change as much of the lighting to LED as possible. I want to start with the rear blinkers and brake light.

On the blinker what size is the light bulb socket? Is there a drop in LED replacement or perhaps a kit? Or should I expect to have to open it up and bust out a solder iron? (I know I'll have to for the brake light).

Can anyone point me to a tutorial or at least something about LED blinker sockets (if they exist)? I'd like the LED light to not just be loose inside of the blinker housing…

[blueboy5000]

There are direct fit bulbs.

scooterelements.com has them. Talk to Walter, he's a good dude.

[qwertydude]

Just watch out. These scooter's electrical systems are made to consume a certain amount of wattage. Switching to all led's without a balancing increase in load, which people usually switch to a higher wattage headlight do, can sometimes result in a burned out regulator.

The regulators work to dump excess power to ground, if the power isn't used by the running lights it gets shorted to ground, this will heat up the regulator and can cause it to burn out.

It often happens to people who burn out a headlight and keep riding it, not realizing the headlight is out then after a while realizing the battery isn't charging, replace the battery, then kill it, then finally diagnose the regulator burned out.

[watcher64]

on the taotao I do believe they are BA20(maybe BA15) bases , there are LED bulbs all over ebay that fit ... but just be sure to not overload or underload the regulator ...

[inuyasha]

Hi
You will can find something that fits the demands of the electrical system and your desired style here
http://www.partsforscooters.com/Street-Scooter-Parts/Street-Scooter-Performance-Lighting
Hope this helps
Take care and ride safely
Yours Hank

[blueboy5000]

Just watch out. These scooter's electrical systems are made to consume a certain amount of wattage. Switching to all led's without a balancing increase in load, which people usually switch to a higher wattage headlight do, can sometimes result in a burned out regulator.

The regulators work to dump excess power to ground, if the power isn't used by the running lights it gets shorted to ground, this will heat up the regulator and can cause it to burn out.

It often happens to people who burn out a headlight and keep riding it, not realizing the headlight is out then after a while realizing the battery isn't charging, replace the battery, then kill it, then finally diagnose the regulator burned out.

Yes this is true. But most leds use very little current. If you swap your incandescent bulbs with LEDS you should have no problems as they will almost certainly be less current.

But be wary of adding ANY additional lights if you intend to keep your stock lights. These bikes really don't like additional draw, and can easily smoke VRRs

[ckizer]

Thanks for the help guys. I'm not worried about going over on the electrical system. I'm an electrical engineer but don't have any understanding about cars/scooter systems. The same Lumens (light output) of an LED bulb vs what was in there before uses far less wattage.

The LED you mentioned is for the primary headlight or the little turn signals?

[spandi]

You can direct fit led bulbs into standard sockets. (if I remember the led equivalent of a 20 watt signal bulb runs on about 1/5 of a watt.)

http://www.superbrightleds.com/

[ckizer]

Do you know what the headlight bulb size is? I guess I can take it apart again, was just hoping to find the size and order the LED headlight bulbs replacement.

http://www.taotao.us/default/cache/file/92274DCB-026F-4B3A-80978ED6EC457F45.jpg

There is two light in a vertical fashion. The bottom one appears to stay on whenever I ride the scooter. The top one comes on when I turn my headlights on. Do people put bright bulbs in the bottom one at all?

[spandi]

As far as I know you cannot use an led for the main headlight.

[blueboy5000]

Leds suck for headlights. Not bright enough.

[prodigit]

LEDs are not focused for headlights.
For blinkers, it might be led lights make the blinker blink too fast.

I only use LEDs for tail and brake light, and parking light.

If you can focus the beam, a 5Watt LED is a very powerful headlight!
If you don't believe me, just look at a modern cellphone. They have 1 Watt leds in them, and looking at the light for even 3 seconds could give you an after image for several minutes.
And that's only 1 Watt.

The problems with LED Lights is that they are not focused, causing all riders ahead of you to be blinded,while too little light hits the road, where you actually need it.

A 3 Watt LED is comparable to a 25-35W incandescent light, if you could focus the beam.

[spandi]

You can get a replacement relay (made for LEDs) that will slow down the rate the signal light flashes.


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=LED+relay+flasher&rt=nc

[watcher64]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CREE-LED-SMD-Motor-bike-Moped-Scooter-ATV-Headlight-Bulb-Car-Fog-Light-DRL-BA20D-/261265866374?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts_13&hash=item3cd4a8be86