I have an LED attached to the orange wire on my Jusnes Modified electric fan controller so i know when my efan comes on......now when i am driving, the air that is blowing across the fan causes it to turn......and while it is free spining, it puts a slight electric charge onto the orange wire causeing my LED to ever so lightly light up......

my question is, how would i go about making it only light up when the controller puts power to the fan?

 

um..not a guru but what if you hooked the LED to like the power box thingy..so actually when its turned on..its gettin power to the LED..

i think heck i dunno

 

it is hooked up to the orange wire from the controller to the fan motor.......it doesn't have power from the controller on it until it reaches the temp setting......when the fan is turning from the wind blowing across it, it is creating a small amount of electricity to travel back through the wire from the fan motor.....

 

After you spliced the orange wire, but before the LED, maybe put a few resistors, just enough to negate the charge from the air spinning, but when the power turn on there's enough juice to light up the LED

 

the LED is a 12v LED.......i would think that adding resistors would cause it to not have enough power.......

 

it will still get all 12volts, just it wont get as much current... which wont matter much, since they do not require a whole lot anyways

 

I don't have a controller on mine so I don't know how yours is wired. Mine just uses a fixed temperature thermoswitch and a relay to switch the high current wiring going to the fan.

If I had this problem on mine, I would just change the source of the LED's power. Instead of powering the LED from the switched fan circuit, I would power it from the 2 wires that power the relay coil (pins 86 and 85). That would isolate the LED from the fan circuit.

Assuming that your installation also uses a standalone Bosch pattern relay, you should be able to power the LED from the wires using those same pin numbers. If the controller doesn't use an external relay, you could add one.

 

Well, that will work but some real value comes from knowing that the fan circuit itself is actually drawing power.

Personally, I'd be fine with it working like you have it now. The slight glow from the motor generating power as it turns confirms that the fans power and ground are actually still connected to the orange wire and the vehicle ground.

To me, that faint glow is a recurring diagnostic that the system is properly wired. I'd leave it alone.

 

good reasoning! will it burn out the LED faster with it doing that?

 

lol leds last forever (almost)

 

Actually they don't last forever -- quite. Especially white ones. But in most applications YOU won't last as long as the LED, lol..

But it's a little voltage compared to when the fan is on and will not damage the LED at all, I don't believe.

 

The fan is generating power. Due to the residual magnetism in the fan motor and the windmilling blade. You get a very small voltage.

If you were to pull the relay you would get the same effect, as long as the led is still wired the same.

 

i think its 14 years of CONTINUOUS use lol... so basically yes forever...i remember bill had/has the same issue with his LED, might want to see if hes remedied it or not

 

last time i talked to him about it, his still was doing it.........i guess like John said.......it is assuring to know that everything is still wired and working properly....

 

Too bad it doesn't spin faster, it would be a like a windmill supplementing the alternator!

 

^yea no kidding! lol......

 

Yes mine did the same thing, I had no issues with it really just got used to it. You could do as Bob said and wire it into the switch side of the relay. Its not going to hurt anything the way it is though.

 

Mine does it to, I love it b/c like Griggs said, it lets you know that your fan is working properly and is grounded. It's just a reminder for me.

 

yea but the problem is getting to the switch side of the relay.......i think i can deal with it....at least i will know that the fan is still wired.....