jkk912

Got a 2012 f150 stx supercab with 5.0. Wanting to put LED bulbs in the tail lights. SuperbrightLEDs.com brings up Canbus bulbs. Im clueless as to what to what this is, can anyone shed some light on it? Do i need to purchase canbus bulbs or just regular?

230748

You'll want to install Load Resistors on any LED's you install that BLINK (blinkers, brake lights). Reason for this is, the truck sees that the amperage is lower then it's expecting, and thinks "well crap you have a bulb out, let's throw a dash light on OR... the relay will flash faster due to less amperage"

So the load resistor puts just that, a LOAD on the line. They are cheap and again, only needed really on things that BLINK.

You should check out our ClaraLux line of replacement LED bulbs. Top quality products and we have every size available and various lumen options. And our customer service/return policy is top notch.

jkk912

So a load resistor with whatever style bulb is needed for the particular application is all that's needed?

When looking for bulbs on another website it recommended canbus bulbs for vehicles that have that system and says not to use those bulbs on vehicles without it. However I wasn't sure if my truck would fall into that category or not and didn't want to risk damage to the electrical system due my ignorance.

M3TOSVT

Regular LED bulbs will work with a resistor wired in parallel with it. Or you can turn off the Hyperflash option via programming.

230748

CANBus adapters are essentially the same thing... a big load resistor. It's just a marketing term "CANBus Adapter"

We call them "CANBus Anti Flicker Adapters" to kind of meet both the marketing term AND what they do.

So anytime we say CANBus Anti Flicker we are referring to the bigger resistors used for headlight kits, and that's pretty standard in the industry.

SMALLER bulbs, like blinkers/etc... we state "Load Resistors" which is a smaller resistor. I'd never call them CANBus resistors, even though they kind of do the same thing... but it's just marketing terms.

Both systems do the same thing, one just has bigger resistors is all.

CANBUS is a standardized system used in vehicles so that all electrical/computer components can talk to each other across all vehicles. It's been the standard for a long time. HOW the term got adopted into lighting i don't really know but lighting suppliers, like me, have learned to listen for any of those terms

CANBUS
Resistor
Anti-Flicker
Load
Capacitor
etc...

All you need to understand is LED bulbs pull LESS power and some vehicle computers think a bulb is out so you need a device to fix that.

On our site for example we sell Load Resistors under our Replacement Bulb area and "CANBus Anti-Flicker Adapters" under our headlights. You would mix the two (don't use our CANbus adpaters with a pair of blinker led bulbs, although it would work, the connetors don't fit)

Some bulbs say "built in load resistors" which is a load of garbage. Resistors take up space/get hot. Never use those types of products. Same for headlight bulbs, anything that says you don't need a resistor is lying and just wants your money. No manufacturer can claim you WON'T need a resistor, because there are too many unknowns.

Check out this wiki link for info on CAN/CANBUS/ODB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus#Automotive

So your truck would require load resistors on the blinkers as I said. You can work with FORSCAN and reprogram your trucks computers (basically telling it to ignore bulb out warnings). But you'll need the programming cable/software/laptop.

All of the bulbs we sell are compatible with all makes/models and if need be, we sell the load resistors if you need them (we always recommend them for things that "blink")

Diode Dynamics

iTrader: (1)

Here's two videos our team put together explaining Resistors & Hyperflash, and how to install resistors:


This one is a bit older, but still useful:



Nick C.