Tweet
When you drive a vehicle with non-cancelling turn signals, it's very easy to forget and leave them on for long periods, much to the uncertainty of following traffic. When I wired in my 905 turn signal switch, I bought a unit from Turn-Alarm (www.turn-alarm.com) which worked well for several years.
After rewiring my truck with a modern fusebox and wiring harness, I had to get another beeping flasher, as the new box used (2) two-prong 552 flashers.
I decided to make my own unit, as I had a spare 12V piezo buzzer lying around.
Pic #1 shows the buzzer (MC PA-100, ~$5), and a Tridon 552 thermal flasher. I was initally concerned that current leakage thru the heater element in the flasher would trigger the buzzer, so I compared the Tridon with another brand with an insulated element- no problems. The buzzer uses 28 Milliamps to sound. However, I did find that plugging the completed unit into my upper flasher caused it to sound continually, along with interrupted beeping during turns. The lower position worked only during turns. Both postions have current present at the "L" prong, and ground on the "X" prong. A weak current will flow to ground even when the directional switch is off at both flasher locations- which activates the buzzer on the upper position, but not the lower- go figure! This particular fuse box has reverse current flow thru the flashers (hot should be "X", "L" is for load), which would kill an electronic flasher. (To be continued..)
After rewiring my truck with a modern fusebox and wiring harness, I had to get another beeping flasher, as the new box used (2) two-prong 552 flashers.
I decided to make my own unit, as I had a spare 12V piezo buzzer lying around.
Pic #1 shows the buzzer (MC PA-100, ~$5), and a Tridon 552 thermal flasher. I was initally concerned that current leakage thru the heater element in the flasher would trigger the buzzer, so I compared the Tridon with another brand with an insulated element- no problems. The buzzer uses 28 Milliamps to sound. However, I did find that plugging the completed unit into my upper flasher caused it to sound continually, along with interrupted beeping during turns. The lower position worked only during turns. Both postions have current present at the "L" prong, and ground on the "X" prong. A weak current will flow to ground even when the directional switch is off at both flasher locations- which activates the buzzer on the upper position, but not the lower- go figure! This particular fuse box has reverse current flow thru the flashers (hot should be "X", "L" is for load), which would kill an electronic flasher. (To be continued..)
Comment