LED problems

[Snowboy]

Hooked up my whelen TIR3 LEDS to my switch box only to find out that the switches blink and anything else I hook up to the switch box blinks like the LEDS that are hooked up to them. Just not as severe as the leds themself.

Switch panel look like this. (http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/grassmn2/album?.dir=/a36d&.src=ph&.tok=phHz69BBvpEHMvkV)

Could it be that all the grounds are looped together? I don’t want to have to run 6 wires from my battery.

What did I do wrong here?

Dave.

[snonut12]

Do you have CB or scanner in your truck? Make sure that the antenna cable connector is well tightened to the radio itself. These stuff can cause crazy stuff. One guy who is a fire chief has a fire radio in his truck on top of the switches. After he got new strobes installed, the first time he use the mic, it actually turned the strobes on without having to flip the switch on! Crazy. :scramble

[Robh]

Do you have some sort of flasher in your circuit????

[wyldman]

Sounds like maybe it's (the LED's) backfeeding current into the switch box.An inline diode should solve the problem.I'm curious as to why though.Have you called Whelen ?

[snonut12]

Not meaning to sound dumb, but could it be possible that you wired the flasher between the battery and the switch? It should be wired between the switch and LEDs.

[snonut12]

Scratch that last post ... it would not be possible for it to be wired between the battery and switch box. I was thinking a bit differently.

If it is not a radio issue, then I'd check on the flasher. What flasher brand/model do you have? Is this a positive or negative grounding unit?

[Snowboy]

Thanks guys.

I do not have a CB radio in my truck and these were not run off the truck battery, they were run off a multi volt adapter that plugs in to the wall. That shouldn’t make a difference I don’t think.

No flasher was hooked up to the switches just the TIRs and a set off trucklite led reverse lights. The TIR3's have a self contained flasher a seprate one is not required.

Chris- what you mentioned is exactly what it sounds like its doing back feeding but why would it do that? I shouldn’t have to install a diode. What’s an inline diode look like and where can u get them? Radio shack any particular one. They are pretty clue less at my radio shack.



Dave.

[wyldman]

Try using a 12 volt battery to power them.Maybe the wall wart adapter your using is producing some funky current.

If not,call Whelen and see what they recommend,no sense wasting anymore time.

[Snowboy]

My next step was to try it on the truck and see what goes down, next step call Whelen.

Thanks Chris.

[Robh]

Im with wyldman on this one. A wall wort prob isnt the best thing to run these off of. You either maxed out the cap of the adapter and when the leds kick on then it maxes out the adapter and every thing tries to shut down till it cycles off. Try a real 12 volt source and check the grounds at the leds themselves. The only other thing it maybe adapter can sometimes put out ac voltage due to the fact they arent filterd the best. Keep us informed...Rob

[CPSS]

Sounds like a bad ground to me. Make sure the LEDs all have a good ground to the body, and be sure the switch box is grounded for the indicator lights to work properly. Simple fix.

[Pelican]

I've got a strobe light I can't get to run right off an ac adapter, no way, no how, but it works fine off the truck current. Something happens when you try to use inexpensive transformers with transistorized circuits, don't know what, but that's been my experience.

[Robh]

Wall worts ( IE transformers) are rated on what current (in amps) they can handle. If you over load the transformer it will try and shut down till the over load clears. In this case the led's kick on the transformer shuts down for a split sec till it sences the load has cleared. Onece that happens it tires to kick on till it overloads again from the leds tring to kick on. It turns into a cycle. The leds will store a little bit of voltage so even after the transformer shuts down it usually will finish its cycle. Im not really sure if this is what is happing but it kind of sounds that way....Rob

[Snowboy]

Thanks for the help.


I rigged up the LEDS the way I set them up on the transformer and they don’t back feed. So guess it had something to do with its AC DC part.

The switch box I will mount in the truck won’t be grounded but the circuits will be grounded. I will run all the ground wires inside the truck and use some of the Grote grease and ground it to the frame under the dash.

Dave