12v Flouro to LED conversion
Submitted: Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 at 14:49
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tuck 01
G'day all, long time since I've posted here. I'm seeking advice from 12v electrical people. I am an electrical dunce.
My caravan has an external Camec flouro light fitting with a "squarish" tube. It has ceased to function. A new tube does not help. In the light fitting, there is a circuit board doover with a number of "things" (round bits, square bits, flat bits etc) soldered to it. There is power going into this circuit board but nothing coming out of it. I've been advised I cannot get a replacement circuit board but need to get a whole new light fitting. This is on order.
However, I know I can get an LED replacement for the flouro tube, which plugs into the flouro tube fitting. I suspect the LED fitting does not require all the stuff on the circuit board for the flouro. Therefore, I wonder if I just bridged over or bypassed the circuit board to get 12v live and the earth to the fitting that either the flouro tube or the LED plugs into, will this give me the flouro to LED conversion?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Cheers
Jeff
Incidentally, the new light fitting I have on order is $72, vs $52 for the LED fitting.
Reply By: Robin Miller - Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 at 15:01
Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 at 15:01
Hi Jeff
Presume you are talking about the LED replacement tubes that have 100+ leds inside them.
The little electronics board (called an inverter) is not required to drive an LED fluro replacement designed to run off 12V - because the LED replacements have an inverter inside them.
Hence you can bridge 12v across to the LED fluro replacement.
AnswerID:
465662
Follow Up By: tuck 01 - Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 at 15:05
Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 at 15:05
Thanks Robin.
Yes, that is the LED replacement I was talking about, so my logic appears to be correct.
Cheers
Jeff
FollowupID:
739681
Follow Up By: Robin Miller - Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 at 15:11
Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 at 15:11
Good !
As a side note I have designed some commercial systems like that but for my own use I just run multiple sections of white LEDs in series and feed them thru a resistor.
I do this because its cuts out radio interference from the little
inverters.
FollowupID:
739682
Reply By: glids - Thursday, Sep 22, 2011 at 10:46
Thursday, Sep 22, 2011 at 10:46
Check out the following link, it should give you a lead to solving this problem, and is far cheaper - and gives more light than the fluoro ever did. (Cut and paste the link)
http://
forum.australia4wd.com/index.php?/topic/20600-led-lighting-for-caravans-or-4wd/
Since posting that thread, I have slightly modified the lights by adding a resistor in series with the LED panels. This slightly reduces the voltage to the LEDs and makes them last longer. I used a 3.9 ohm x 1 Watt resistor (Jaycar, Altronics or similar supplier) - make sure it is a 1 watt resistor, most common is 1/4 watt and that is no good.
The photo of the square fluoro on the above link will give show how to wire it up, but instead of a 2-section terminal strip, I used a 3-section terminal strip as follows:
+12V into first terminal .......................... O-------O ... 3.9 ohm resistor...
other end of resistor to second terminal... O-------O ... +ve side of both LEDs
0V (earth) into third terminal................... O-------O ... -ve side of both LEDs
Hope this helps,
glids
AnswerID:
465724