DC Panel LED Circuit Breaker Backlight

[FrankT]

A have a Hunter 410 and on the DC side of the electrical panel the circuit breakers are backlit with an LED when the circuit is energized. On my panel the LED's are on a circuit board strip and one of the 10 LED's will no longer light.

The circuit board is seeing 12 V and after the resistor to each LED I'm reading ~2 V on those that do light and ~ 1.5 V on the LED that does not light. I've done continuity checks and resistor checks on both the good and bad LED circuits and the only difference I see is the voltage difference. Even with a new LED purchased from Radio Shack I cannot get the failed LED circuit to light while the same purchased LED will light when placed on any other circuit.

I reviewed the prior posts ie the EL strip but this set up ( with the circuit board strip) appears to be different.

Attached are a couple photos.

Anyone have any ideas? Any ideas on the manufacture of the panel?

Thanks

 

[weinie]

Did you have the new LED reversed? They are polarity sensitive. Wrong polarity and they can blow.

 

[FrankT]

Thanks for the thought however polarity was fine and the new LED would light when paced in other positions.

 

[bobbyfingers2001]

Thanks for the thought however polarity was fine and the new LED would light when paced in other positions.

Replace the transistor (resistor) it is either leaking (too much voltage) or shorted internally and not letting the proper voltage through.

 

[weinie]

Replace the transistor (resistor) it is either leaking (too much voltage) or shorted internally and not letting the proper voltage through.

or the circuit board solder is cracked perhaps. Just hard wire new wire leads with a new resistor and new LED.

 

[FrankT]

Ok thanks for both suggestions. I'll give it a try.

 

[Sailgunner]

Let me know what you find out. Mine are blown from a lightening strike and the manufacturer of the boards has no interest in assisting with replacement. Even Phil has tried to get help but to no avail. I hope Hunter is not buying from these guys any longer.

 

[Forrest15112]

Frank, forgive me if I'm suggesting the obvious. Diodes are heat sensitive and can be damaged by soldering without using a heatsink. You can test it with the diode function of a digital multimeter. If it's a standard led, it should light when the leads are connected to the diode ( positive to anode and neg to cathode). You should have no problem testing the resistor as well. It looks pretty simple and i've found that stubborn problems usually turn out to be caused by the most obvious thing that can cause it, sometimes overlooked or assumed, like a new diode. Good luck.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Test the voltage across the diode leads. You should get a fractional voltage like 0.25 ish volts. Depends on what the diode is rated at. The resistor drops the 12 volts down to acceptable levels for the designed amps. The Radio shack spec sheet with the new diodes will have the max V and A for that diode.
Now if you take a low voltage diode and resistor pair and try to use the resistor for a "high" voltage diode it will only light dimly. so try your experimenting in a dim room.
if you take a hig voltage diode resistor pair and try to use the resistor for a low voltage diode it gets REALLY bright and then nothing (even though the magic blue smoke did not escape)
The math is thus
14.4 volts supply (more if you equalize the batts with leds on)
xxx amps needed to max out the diode
V=I*R --->R=V/I or 14.4/xxx is the minimum resistance needed for the resistor
probably somewhere between 144 to 1440 ohms

I use a 0-10k pot and bread board to find the actual brightness I'm looking for. then measure the pot resistance and find a resistor set to match.

 

[Bill Roosa]

That would be measure across the diode leads with the circuit energized.

 

[FrankT]

Thanks for all the input and suggestions. I'll be testing over the the next couple weeks as time permits. Not a pressing issue simply bothersome.

As an aside there was a previous post on this site that indicated Paneltronics was the mfg of the panels for Hunter. I was at the Miami boat show this past week and stopped by the Paneltronics booth. The individual indicated they made Hunter panels for a very brief period of time and while they've had a number of inquiries from Hunter owners they are rarely Paneltronic panels. He indicated every one of their panels has a sticker on the inside with their name and if you send them a photo of the panel they can tell. Simply FYI.

Frank

 

[Sailgunner]

Thanks for all the input and suggestions. I'll be testing over the the next couple weeks as time permits. Not a pressing issue simply bothersome.

As an aside there was a previous post on this site that indicated Paneltronics was the mfg of the panels for Hunter. I was at the Miami boat show this past week and stopped by the Paneltronics booth. The individual indicated they made Hunter panels for a very brief period of time and while they've had a number of inquiries from Hunter owners they are rarely Paneltronic panels. He indicated every one of their panels has a sticker on the inside with their name and if you send them a photo of the panel they can tell. Simply FYI.

Frank

Did just that, took a picture and sent it to them, twice. They still never responded back.