Bulb failure sensor systems.

Bulb failure sensor systems.

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steve-V8s

Original Poster:

2,901 posts

248 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
quotequote all
What do the typical bulb failure sensor systems look for on a can bus car ? I get the impression that they will report a failure even if the lamps are off so presumably they poll the lamp to see if it offers the appropriate resistance. The resistance however would plainly be considerably different when the filament is cold. Does it look for a load applicable to the specific bulb or just “a load”

Would like to fit an LED replacement reversing lamp but don't like the cost of the “CAN Enabled” ones which are presumably an LED with an added load resistor.

steve-V8s

Original Poster:

2,901 posts

248 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
quotequote all
A resistor which presents the same load as the lamp would probably keep the system happy but a resistor capable of 21 W is going to be physically much bigger than the lamp and will produce 21watts of heat that will need dissipating somewhere. The CAN enabled ones plainly don’t have a large enough resistor for it to be a simple as that.