Blue Tri-led's not lighting up...Why?

winno · Post by **winno** » Thu May 27, 2010 3:46 am

I have 3 Ti amps. They all power up ok and play music but the blue LED's on one of them do not work.
It was intermittent at first but now they won't work at all.

Any idea what the issue could be?

Cheers

Post by **ttocs** » Thu May 27, 2010 4:21 am

they are mounted to the amp on a seperat board and I think I have heard that the screw that grounds them can come loose after time.

yeddy · Post by **yeddy** » Thu May 27, 2010 5:16 am

one of the l.e.d.s probably burnt out due to rubbing the hole. If you jump across them 1 at a time, you will find the one thats burnt out, with the amp powered on of coarse...

Post by **Eric D** » Thu May 27, 2010 5:57 am

They are wired in series, so it may not be so easy to figure out what one is the dead one. Also, if you replace one, you need to replace all three, as you won't find the exact same brightness for the single dead one. Plan on buying all 3 and replacing them. Make sure to get them installed in the right direction.

When the amp is apart, power it on and measure the voltage across the two screws for the LEDs. It should be 20V or something (was 20V on the amp I just fixed with this exact same issue). You should also verify the small resistor on the LED board is good. If that burns, all 3 LEDs might be OK, but no current will get to them.

GX3 · Post by **GX3** » Thu May 27, 2010 8:11 am

Eric D

Cant you use a DMM with a diode setting to test the LEDs??

winno · Post by **winno** » Fri May 28, 2010 1:17 am

Tonight I pulled the top off my other 4 channel Ti and swapped out the little LED boards. The working LED's still worked on both amps which told me straight away that the feed to the board was all good.

Following the advise of you guys, I shorted out one LED at a time and sure enough, D700 (at the top of the triangle) is the issue.

In one way this is a blessing as I wanted to change all three amps' LED's to red some time ago.
Now, as my Clarion HX-D2 head unit uses white lighting, I'm now off to buy 9 white bulbs to match.

But now I need to know the voltage of the little bulbs I need to buy.

How do these sound?

# Lens Size: 3mm Round
# Emission: White Light
# Output: 4000mcd (min), 5000mcd (typical)
# Viewing Angle: 35°
# Lens Type: Water Clear Epoxy
# GaInAln Single Quantum Well
# Forward Current: 20mA
# Forward Voltage: 3.4V (typical), 3.8V (max)
# Reverse Current: 10uA @ Vr = 5V
# Peak Forward Current Duty Cycle 1⁄10 @ 1kHz: 160mA
# Power Dissipation: 85mW
# Low Power Consumption

Cheers

eulogious · Post by **eulogious** » Fri May 28, 2010 2:08 am

The voltage you are looking for is 12v. As long as you are looking at any 12v LED (almost all of them...) you are good to go. The mcd is based of 12v in this case, and the mcd is what you really care about.

Those are pretty bright compared to the replacements. Direct replacements can be found here:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... &x=25&y=24

They are 1000mcd, so about 1/4 as bright as the ones you have listed. But I have been told that the resistor is what controls the brightness, so in theory if they are too bright once you get them installed, just change the resistor to add some more resistance to decrease the brightness.

Hope that helps some! When you do replace them with white LEDs take some pics, I bet it will look good!

winno · Post by **winno** » Fri May 28, 2010 2:20 am

I looked at the ones in your link previously and all values appear the same except for the mcd figure.

My head unit uses white led backlighting, I've changed my dash lighting to white LED's and so the amps, being blue, kinda looked odd.

I have been struggling with lighting ideas for the boot because of how the amps are mounted (behind black perforated steel in a false floor that fits snuggly around each amp). I'm going for a couple of gymble mounted LED globes in the tail gate and because the amp LED's will be so bright, it'll help solve my dilemma.

And yes, will post up some pics when it's done.

Cheers

eulogious · Post by **eulogious** » Fri May 28, 2010 2:24 am

You install sounds cool, you should take pics for sure! Sounds like you got a good handle on it, so let's see some progress and pics!!

I think the rule is: Pics or BAN!!!

valeks1 · Post by **valeks1** » Fri May 28, 2010 8:45 am

To figure out what LED is the dead its very easy. Remove cover power up amplifier and short each LED one by one. When you short bad one other two will light up. You can use any LED with sane parts#. Adjust resistor on board if necessary

jazzcat · Post by **jazzcat** » Sat May 29, 2010 8:24 am

Thanks guys, I had the same issue and didn't realise they were wired in series.. it feels like an old days christmas relived trying to find the broken bulb

winno · Post by **winno** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:01 pm

Mmmmmmm, white looks sooooooooo good!

Post by **ttocs** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:32 pm

pics or ban!

winno · Post by **winno** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 5:47 pm

Ok, ok.
Pics are coming tonight BUT, the false floor is still not covered so it'll look a bit ranga.
Carpet and perf steel guards get done on Sunday.

New dash pods for the Morels are also being carved into shape too...

Damo95 · Post by **Damo95** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:34 pm

who cares winno..

we just wanna see pretty white LED's in the Ti...

winno · Post by **winno** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:57 pm

Ok.
Here's white LED's on my Ti amps. Never mind the pic quality - SE Xperia phone camera

I reckon they look alot classier than blue. For the last few years, the car audio scene here in Australia has gone nuts for blue lighting.

I've decided to go white - white LED dash lighting, white LED head unit lighting, white amp lighting and soon...some subtle under seat/dash lighting in the cabin.

A fairly detailed build blog will be posted up at some stage in the near future.

Post by **ttocs** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 10:38 pm

blue is still my favorit color. You should not need a dome light with all of those though...

Damo95 · Post by **Damo95** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 2:16 pm

in all honesty, i quite like it... i'd prefer white over blue also..

but i believe white was chosen to integrate with the head unit and dash lighting.. which is understandable..

just a tad bright tho!

thedeal7235 · Post by **thedeal7235** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 6:31 pm

I really like the WHITE!! ive replaced my broken blue ti leds w/ blue when burnt out- however im on my second A4 in 8 years and have toyed with red, to match more of the audi interior, however some of my instrement panel is white&red,when i get my 600.2 from gx3 i may have red and white ready and bench to see prior to install- ill take pics and post when i do- luv ur white

winno · Post by **winno** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 1:15 am

Cheers guys.