Will increased wattage change blinker rate?

[stopintime]

The smaller DP turn signals have no reflector and produce a modest light output with their stock 10 watt amber bulb.

I bought 23 watt replacement bulbs and wonder if they will change/reduce the blinking rate - which I wouldn't like....

Do you know?

[suzyj]

It depends - with newer bikes, the flashing is done digitally in the gauges - the chip that drives the lamps has a simple threshold for current, below which it blinks at double rate.

Older bikes have flasher cans, where the flash rate varies proportionally to the current, so higher wattage globes will cause it to flash slower.

With 23W globes on new monsters, I'd be worried about damaging the driver, as ISTR the driver is only good for 2A...

Cheers,

Suzy

[Buckethead]

Dunno.

It'll have AN EFFECT, I can definitely tell you that.

Power (watts) = Current (I) x Voltage (E). I still remember that from school because it's PIE. Mmm... pie... 

Since your power is going up (10w -> 23w), and your voltage is staying the same (12v), those bulbs must be running a lot of current, which would cause the flasher relay can to trip more frequently (I think...).

But suzyj's comment about the driver rating is obviously key. Brighter blinkers do you no good if they melt your wiring harness after three flashes.

[Raux]

Apparently this is my issue.

I am running the 23w and although it blinks at the same rate if they stay on a long time (ie at a stop light) they slowly fade and then go out, leaving a fast blinking indicator on the dash (showing a light is out)

I am going to purchase LEDs since I have the same concern about the smaller 10w.

[CDawg]

You may need resistors to prevent double blinking if you replace all four with LEDs.
(assuming you have an older Monster)

[Monster750ie]

FYI if you do need resistors buy em from RadioShack 2 packs are $1.29 I used them for years on older hondas. I buy the 1w resisters for marker light conversions.

[Speeddog]

'07 S2R800 does indeed have the blinker 'relay' in the instrument cluster, so killing it wouldn't be pretty.

[stopintime]

I have tried really hard to get an answer from Ducati, but have just been kicked from one customer service person to the next - and back...  They still say they will have an answer.

So, I decided to give it a go.

Obviously the bulbs produce heat, but the blinking rate is normal and the instrument cluster doesn't get hot. I've had them on for more than a minute and that has been ok. The solid state relay is supposed to protect itself (AFAIK), but has had no reason to do so, yet. I'm not worried about the wires or harness.

[suzyj]

More info (late I know, but I've got things apart in front of me today).

The driver for your indicators in your gauges is an Infineon (AKA Siemens) BTS711 quad high-side MOSFET driver.  Each indicator bulb is driven from an independent channel (so Ducati could program it to do a disco dance if they were of a mind).

Here's a data sheet: 

Each channel is rated for 1.9A nominal, and 4A maximum.  1.9A translates to 23W at 12V, so your 23W globes are well within spec, especially given that they aren't on all the time.

The chip is pretty hard to kill.  Even if you short the outputs out completely it'll just sense the overload and switch off.  Ditto for overtemp.

On a related note, if you're running LED indicators and don't want to use resistors, it's easy to disable the status output of the chip by cutting off pins 4 and 8.  That disables the "blown bulb" diagnostic which is causing your LEDs to flash at double rate.

[stopintime]

I've been told it's a STMicroElectronic (Italian?) VND05B....

Similar specs, so I guess your advice still applies.
However - with two bulbs - does that change your numbers?

Only problem I've had is a small burn mark on one lens - the bulb was touching - I pushed it back, but don't know yet if it will stay off the lens.

Clearly the 23 w are brighter, but without a reflector they are still not impressive. I think a lot of the light output gets drowned inside this black anodized housing. Next winter I'll make reflectors to put in them.