OK, here's a real crude sketch I just did showing how I have things wired up.

 

Connect positive from rectifier to 86, split switched negative wire coming from switch (for leds that you want OFF when hand warmers are on) attach this wire to 85. Break the wire for one of the AC leads for the hand warmers and bridge that break by connecting 87 to one end and 87a to the other. Let me know if this makes sense, I'm typing this from my phone so no access to draw a diagram for now

 

cool, thanks! I'm not sure I will do this or not, as I really don't want to be hacking my factory harness up more. I already had to break the AC leads to do what I have already done. Plus I currently have all the wires routed nice & clean and not sure I want to mess with adding more. I think I will see how things go and if I find myself forgetting I can always add a relay in summer. I agree though, this would be the right way to do it.

 

jrhawk! lots of questions even though i have read all 11 pages to this thread. does my brand new ariens 921030 have ac? dc? or both? are the cree led lights you used durable and holding up from use? if they burn out are they then throwaways? the stock light in the dash is 20 watts but ac or dc? even though i viewed the wiring schematic i have difficulty relating to the wiring. i would probably leave the stock light in? and add 2 led lights to the blower. not sure if i would use a switch or not? anyway you can simplify the drawing and use words instead of symbols to make it more understandable for us dummies? this sounds like a summer project for next year!

 

Where in WI are you? Anywhere near Wisconsin Dells?

Yours should have AC powering everything. Your light can run off of 12V AC or 12V DC, but it's getting AC from the stator. My CREE's are holding up good, but I haven't had them long enough to really answer that question. If they go bad, you throw them away. The CREE LED is part of a board which is attached to the aluminum housing. I wouldn't run the stock light AND two 10W LEDS at the same time. You will be overloading what the stator is capable of....especially when you turn on the heated grips (if you have them). I preferred to use a switch, but it's not necessary. If you don't mind the LED's to be on whenever the blower is running then you don't need a switch. As far as describing it with words, it's not that easy to do....lol A wiring diagram is really the only good way to convey what we are doing. Although, I will admit, my diagrams are VERY crude and confusing because I'm just drawing them by hand and have wires crossing all over. Maybe superedge88 can help you with that, as it seems he's more versed in that kind of stuff. In fact, if it wasn't for him being the forum guinea pig by being the first one to put LED's on his old Toro, I don't think I would currently have them on mine.

 

mkd I'm in the same boat. Ive have all the parts needed but I'm just a little leery pulling the trigger. Ive printed all the drawings and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it and makes sense of everything with destroying my new blower too.

Heck I'll pay someone to do it correctly!

 

I'm located in stillwater mn, so if you want help we can work out a day that you can bring the snowblower to me and I can guide the install. Private message me if you want that kind of help. Otherwise I can answer some questions later tonight once I'm on a computer instead of my phone.
mkd - I can simplify some things later tonight if jrhawk hasn't already by that time.

 

jobes! i don't know how many leads or what kind of voltage coming out of the engine? i'm guessing two leads to the stock light and 18 vac based on jrhawk's post about his platinum. i know if i want a switch i need to put it in line and to fuse it an inline fuse close to the source. the bridge rectifier stuff and the smoothing coil are all greek to me. wouldn't be so bad but i'm layed up with gout and the garage isn't heated. right now i can't even use my left wrist because of pain and swelling. vicadon has been my friend for almost a week. trip to the doctor this afternoon to go on preventative medications.

 

mkd Im not the guy to be asking yet. superedge88 or jrhawk are the guys for this.

 

jobes just kicking it around outloud. electrical is like theory to me! i never was good with theory. it be a good summer project for me

 

Well, it's supposed to be in the single digits on Monday (my day off) so I doubt I'll get much done on the install, so I thought I'd post some eye candy of the LED's hooked up to my 18v drill battery. Of course the digital camera compensates for the super bright light, so the wide throw pattern of the lights isn't accurately represented (in person the light pattern shown on the wall is much wider)

 

awesome! How do the plastic bases fit into the housing on the 10W ones? Are they tight or do they fit a bit loose?

<edit>
I just noticed you mentioned they are the blue/brown wires. GOOD! Those should have properly fitting bases and better finish.

 

I'll have to check, I haven't opened up the packaging to mess around with the parts yet. I'll let you know

 

super! i have looked at your wiring in your first post. some questions! switch location? ac + wire after fuse and before wave rectifier? smoothing capacitor after dc fuse between + and - wires? don't know if i need it with 2 ea 10 watt led's? how did you connect the capacitor? in your schematic the two lights would be on the right side (dc output) wired in parallel ? i have found this info with schematics helps to clearify. http://www.foreverled.com/questions/how_does_full_wave_led_work.html

 

super! i have looked at your wiring in your first post. some questions! switch location? ac + wire after fuse and before wave rectifier? smoothing capacitor after dc fuse between + and - wires? don't know if i need it with 2 ea 10 watt led's? how did you connect the capacitor? in your schematic the two lights would be on the right side (dc output) wired in parallel ? i have found this info with schematics helps to clearify. LED Technology

switch location should happen between the bridge rectifier and the LED's. Fuse location should go before the bridge recitifier (if you want to protect the bridge rectifier, which you may as well do) The smoothing capacitor goes after the bridge rectifier between the + and - wires. Each LED gets wired up in parallel.

 

superedge88, been following this thread along. I've purchased a set of 1156 LED bulbs for my Briggs snowblower. I understand the need for the bridge rectifier to use the LED's but what confuses me is that I already have a voltage regulator which has taken the AC input from the engine and changed that to 12V DC for the lighting, heated grips etc.
I've measured 12V DC at my bulb sockets and elsewhere so I assumed the LED 1156 bulbs would just work.
Installed them and they don't. What I did find is that if I reverse the polarity of the wiring to the bulb, they light but they also flicker.
I can't for the life of me figure out why they act like this. As far as I understand 12V is 12V.
Maybe the voltage is dirty and the LED's don't like it but that wouldn't explain the need for opposite polarity and the flickering.
Where would I insert the bridge rectifier if I already have 12V coming from the voltage regulator? Am I missing something obvious here?

Thanks for any help you, JRHAWK9 or or anyone else might be able give.

 

Do you have an analog voltage meter handy? Many digital meters will not "range" fast enough to show DC voltage that is pulsing quickly. An analog meter would possibly show if the 12V DC is all over the place (going from say 8volts up to 12volts very quickly) If this is the case a smoothing capacitor should solve the issue.

 

I'll dig up an analog meter to check.
But what is a smoothing capacitor? Any electronics guy I know doesn't claim to know what that is. A common capacitor by nature already performs this function.

Any thoughts on why the need for positive to the barrel of the bulb and negative to the bottom to get it to light!

 

I'll dig up an analog meter to check.
But what is a smoothing capacitor? Any electronics guy I know doesn't claim to know what that is. A common capacitor by nature already performs this function.

Here you go
Let me google that for you
Please forgive me for having a little fun with you on that question
Further more capacitors can be used for other functions. You don't need the capacitor for the application of a battery, or starting an engine. I was simply using semantics to tell you the single function of the capacitor in this situation, so that you didn't try to calculate the capacitor value for anything but smoothing capabilities.

Any thoughts on why the need for positive to the barrel of the bulb and negative to the bottom to get it to light!

In the first post I talked about the fact that LED's are "Light Emitting Diodes" Diodes are polarity specific, so while the incandescent lights that you had in the bulb sockets were not polarity specific the new LED's you have are.

 

Great thread! The lumen difference between LEDs and halogen is night and day literally. I followed Superedge88's instructions and incorporated JRHawk9's capacitor and in-line fuse before and after the rectifier design. I ended up taking the advise here and went safe with 2-9W spot beam LED lights and I am happy with the amount of side light they spill off. The install took about 2-3 hours because I wanted to make the install look as clean as possible soldering all my connections and shrink tubing them as well. I would like to add possibly a third 9W flood light in the center of my console to bring my total up to 27W which is what my original halogen bulb was rated at. Anyone see an issue with that when I have my heated hand grips on, or when I use the electric chute swivel? My guess is as long as it worked with the halogen light is should be fine with the LEDs at the same wattage.

 

Good deal! I hear ya on the clean install. I did the same with mine. All connections are soldered and shrink tubed. I also wrapped the smoothing capacitors in part of a Glad bag to keep moisture out and then wrapped it in duct tape. I used heat shrink tubing on the axial leads too to reduce the possibility of something shorting.

I would think you'd be fine, BUT I would find an amp clamp and meter what your current halogen + hand warmers + electric chute pull and then compare it to what your current two LED's + hand warmers + chute pull. If your stock setup pulls more than your LED setup, then you can estimate what adding another one would do. I would want to keep your aftermarket current draw less than or equal to your stock current draw. I did that with my setup and that's how I confirmed running 4 - 10W LED's + my hand warmers drew more current than my halogen + hand warmers. I figured it would seeing my halogen was only a 20W bulb.

I used an amp clamp in addition to a MM to meter the voltage at whatever I was measuring the current draw on, than I was able to figure out how much power the actual component(s) were consuming.

 

Please call it a Filter capacitor.

 

Wow! You guys are a wealth of information and do fantastic work.

I just picked up a 9HP 24" Craftsman that has a stator wire but never originally had a light on it. I'd like to add lights to it based on the information in this thread. I take it my first step will be to measure the amperage at the stator wire to see what I have to work with. I'm quite handy and mechanically inclined but will be honest that I'm a complete newbie to playing with small engines, though I look forward to the challenge and learning. My first question is regarding the stator wire - does it have two wires inside for positive and negative or is it simply a positive and ground gets picked up from the frame? I'm also quite adamant about keeping things looking like the new lights could've easily been factory equipment so the mounting of the switch, bridge rectifier, wiring and lights will need to represent this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Brad

 

Measuring the amperage is definitely a start, but you don't have the wire hooked up to the original light (since there isn't one on your blower) in order to do so. You may be able to look up the exact light kit for your snowblower and simply use that wattage as your bench mark (see the amperage calculator in the first post of this thread) I think that its a pretty good bet that you have at least a 1 amp stator, but better to be safe than sorry. If you indeed to have a 1 amp stator you can simply go with dual 9 watt LED floodlights, or one 18 watt floodlight (assuming your voltage is around 18v-24v) If you are going with a "factory" look then you may want to go with the single light, but be forewarned- You WILL get a shadow from your snow chute when you use a single light. I would recommend using a dual light setup, but that is just my opinion.
As far as installing your bridge rectifier, capacitor and fuse(s) in an inconspicuous location, I would mount things under the main console. You probably just have a single wire headlight circuit, in which case you get one side of the AC circuit from that wire and the other from the frame of the snowblower. Take pictures/videos and ask questions if you need help!

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I definitely want to go with the two light set up but want a clean look. As far as measuring the amperage can I not put a meter on the stator wire to get a reading? I just got the blower home tonight and haven't looked at the stator wire closely which is why I asked the question regarding whether there was on wire or two at that connector...

 

You can only measure amperage if there is something "pulling" amperage through the wire. Since you don't have an original light hooked up you are unable to go off of a measurement, so I would start looking for the exact light kit made for your snowblower to find out the wattage that it is, then extrapolate the amperage using the calculator.
I can't tell you for sure how many wires are at your stator, you'll have to take a look and count them
I am unfamiliar with the craftsman snowblowers or I would be more helpful. Let use know what other questions you have!

 

Upgrading to L.E.D. lights

Couldn't you connect to "both" output posts of the lighting plug connection ?? It appears that one is "jumpered" across to the other at the plug connection. It looks like you could remove the factory jumper, and have two hot leads from which to power the bridge rectifier, as opposed to grounding one of them. Am I seeing this right ?? Or would this yield too high of an output voltage ??

In this thread we'll talk about the do's and don'ts of LED headlight upgrades for your snowblower, and post videos and pictures of our successes.
There are many models of snowblowers that have a headlight circuit, In most cases you can find a single wire that registers at anywhere from 12v to 20v AC (with no load) that is located somewhere on the engine, many times under the gas tank. Halogen lights are the typical light that comes with many of our snowblowers. Many of us want much more light than what the halogen bulb can give us, as well as better reliability than a halogen bulb. The search for something brighter and more reliable ends with the LED light. LED's (Light Emitting Diode) are extremely efficient, very bright, and have thousands of hours of reliable use.
Since the lighting circuit is typically AC current at somewhere between 40-60hertz, if you just attach and LED light to the circuit you'll get pulsing light (think on and off 40-60 times a second) This is caused by the nature of an LED, because an LED is polarity sensitive, and has no warm up or cool down time when compared to a halogen bulb filament, the LED will flicker noticeably. The flickering of an LED on AC current is mildly annoying to many people, but VERY annoying when you are attaching it to a moving object like as snowblower. An LED that is in motion when attached to AC current (for reasons I won't even begin to get in to) flickers much more noticeably. To test this for yourself, take a strand of LED christmas lights, plug them in, and then swing them in front of you at arms length, you'll see a strobing or flickering affect.
You can see many LED headlight upgrade videos on youtube like this one, that you can definitely see the flickering or strobing of the LED's. You can see the effect the flicker has on the video camera, you get weird tracks the go from top to bottom of the video frame.
1. EXAMPLE OF IMPROPER LED LIGHT INSTALL- NOTICE THE FLICKERING
Engine alternator powered LED headlight for snowblower - YouTube
2. EXAMPLE OF YET AGAIN AN IMPROPER LED LIGHT INSTALL- NOTICE THE FLICKERING
Yard Machines Snowblower 24" LED light bar - YouTube
This is what it looks like once you add a bridge rectifier, even though you’ll see a tiny bit of flicker in the video, in person there is none, you also can notice that there is no “tracking” effect like in the other videos.

Very bright LED lights on snowblower - YouTube
The problem of light flicker is solved by using a full wave bridge rectifier.

A bridge rectifier takes AC current and changes it into DC current using 4 diodes.

By connecting the positive and negative from your LED light(s) to the DC output of your bridge rectifier, and then connecting your single headlight circuit wire to your one of the AC inputs of the bridge rectifier (it doesn't matter which AC input) and then attaching a wire from the metal of your snowblower to the other AC input you will have light! For safety purposes it is recommended that you place a fuse on the headlight circuit wire before the bridge rectifier which should be about 5 amps rated fast blow, and then a fuse on the positive wiring between your bridge rectifier and your LED light that should be about ~1amp fast blow fuses. These fuse ratings are assuming you are using a headlight circuit that is rated for ~1amp at about 18volts, some headlight circuits are rated for 2, 3 or more amps, so using an amperage calculator like this one can help with both your LED light selection and your fuse selection. Volts/Amps/Watts Converter
Here’sa pic of how I installed my bridge rectifier, I mounted it right next to my keyed switch that is on my handle bar console. I also used heat sink paste to couple the bridge rectifier’s metal casing to the console’s metal. I know this is way overkill, but my bridge rectifier came with the paste, and it was an easy application of some paste. The bridge rectifier I used is rated at 50amps 100volts KBPC5010 Bridge Rectifier | Alltronics

When choosing your LED lighting you typically have spot lights or flood lights available. Spot lights have a more pin point dispersion with very little side spill of light. Flood lights illuminate a wider area, and with the short distances (from LED light to relevant distance in front of your snowblower) you’ll want as wide a dispersion as possible or else you’ll get a tiny area in front of you illuminated. I made sure to get floodlights that were rated for voltage below what my snowblower headlight circuit tests at and above, so being that my snowblower headlight circuit tests at 18volts I picked a set of LED floodlights that were rated for 9-32 volts. I wanted to make sure that I would never be putting the floodlights in danger with whatever voltage the headlight circuit was producing, even a small voltage peak is accounted for. The floodlights I chose are 9 watts each, which is as much as my headlight circuit is rated for.
For those that appreciate a short(ish) video with some basic points noted here is a video. Please excuse the over use of the word “actually” and the lack of editing.
LED lights for your snowblower that don't flicker! - YouTube

 

Couldn't you connect to "both" output posts of the lighting plug connection ?? It appears that one is "jumpered" across to the other at the plug connection. It looks like you could remove the factory jumper, and have two hot leads from which to power the bridge rectifier, as opposed to grounding one of them. Am I seeing this right ?? Or would this yield too high of an output voltage ??

I don't know what you're referring to, is there a previous post I missed that you explained the various wires and what they tested out as on your specific machine? I'm happy to help.

 

Thanks. I don't see one that is readily apparent, but that doesn't mean I didn't overlook something. Both leads coming from the stator are testing as "hot" with a simple lightbulb tester. I'll have to do some more digging. I'll let ya know my findings as I sort this out. Have a great week !!

 

I just wondering if some regular LED can be used as a headlight? Like this one Amazon.com : Lighting EVER 12 Watt Dimmable PAR38 LED Bulb, UL Approved, Recessed Lighting, Track Lighting, Accent Lighting : Led Household Light Bulbs : Home Improvement
or this one
http://www.lightingever.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/LED-Halogen-Spotlight-2.jpg
Or if there is someway that can make some regular household LED bulbs used as headlights?

 

I just wondering if some regular LED can be used as a headlight? Like this one Amazon.com : Lighting EVER 12 Watt Dimmable PAR38 LED Bulb, UL Approved, Recessed Lighting, Track Lighting, Accent Lighting : Led Household Light Bulbs : Home Improvement
or this one
http://www.lightingever.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/LED-Halogen-Spotlight-2.jpg
Or if there is someway that can make some regular household LED bulbs used as headlights?

Lights made to run off of 120v AC would be more difficult to make work.

 

How can I calculate the size of the smoothing capacitor required?

Im about to add LEDs to my 926LE, thats the only question I have left. It has an 18W AC output (I already have the bridge rectifier). Im going to add 1 or 2 10W LEDs.

Thanks.

-Chris

 

jrhawk has had good luck with using two 2200mfd 50v capacitors. As far as calculating your own capacitor value, there are a ton of links by doing a Google search, the math is beyond me though.

 

superedge, have you had the chance to install your LED's on your Honda yet?

 

I noticed all the Led talk on conversions for snow blowers. Interestingly enough I have gone through a lot of this but not with snow blowers, but my camper instead. I wanted LED lights but had issues with when I was on power grid the inverter would pulse the leds. I finally found a cheap and simple solution. ( this solution also solved the lights not dimming when a high powered dc device like water pump kicked in)

Although the camper does not have ac like the stator puts out on the snowblowers. These boards I use already have built in rectifiers.

MR16 300mA 3W Power Connector (12V) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

They are constant current driven boards. Which Led's technically are rated by current not voltage and its always better to use a current driver on them.

Of course that board is only rated to run a 3w bulb. But you can find them online in different configurations.


These here I have used. You can string in series 3 3w bulbs to make 9w.
http://dx.com/p/9w-3-led-power-drivers-for-mr16-lamp-light-12v-5-pack-66274

Ive never tried the following but from the picture I can see the bridge rectifier diodes below the cap. This one can run 5 to 12 - 1w led's

edit: ( actually this one probably wouldn't work well as most white led's run around 3v. so having 5 leds would put you at the 15v mark)

http://dx.com/p/mr16-low-voltage-5-12-x-1w-leds-driver-power-207555

With the big swing on the 12v ac they might need to be modified to add a larger smoothing capacitor but otherwise should work fine.

 

I had suggested a 100 Mfd Filter capacitor at 50 Volt.
You boys are now playing with a capacitor 220 times more powerful. Before you play with that. Put it in a vise. I suggest you charge it up with a battery charger then put a screw driver across it. That will demonstrate the "Can't hurt anything, or anyone" error here. That is nearing what they call a taser when it discharges suddenly like in your hand. That size capacitor is expensive and 200 times overkill. Also a 9 volt battery can put your heart into failure in some extreme cases my training said.
I'm legally forced to say something on safety issues.

 

I had suggested a 100 Mfd Filter capacitor at 50 Volt.
You boys are now playing with a capacitor 220 times more powerful. Before you play with that. Put it in a vise. I suggest you charge it up with a battery charger then put a screw driver across it. That will demonstrate the "Can't hurt anything, or anyone" error here. That is nearing what they call a taser when it discharges suddenly like in your hand. That size capacitor is expensive and 200 times overkill. Also a 9 volt battery can put your heart into failure in some extreme cases my training said.
I'm legally forced to say something on safety issues.

I only mentioned the 2200mfd as someone else used one. I am a electric idiot and was looking for someone that has done a LED upgrade to lead me to a vendor and say purchase this and this, ie LED upgrade for dummies

I remember as kids putting the 9volt batteries on our tongues because well just because we where kids