another led question

[varmint]

No switches, I think. Shop eBay for a nice waterproof rocker switch, rated at 20A, you can get them for 4-5 bucks. I used ones with LED indicators, since I couldn't tell if my rear lights were accidently on during the day. The fronts, you can tell, but I used the same switches... 'cause I had 'em.

 

[CCWKen]

Make special consideration of where you mount LED lighted switches. Some are quite bright and if you actually use your tractor at night, the lighted switch can be very irritating and reduce your ability to see what's in front of you. It's just like driving your car on a dark highway at night with your dash light brightness all the way up.

Personally, I would rather have a buzzer warning if lights are left on with ignition off.

 

[Paystar]

Well I just had an interesting time. I put the one 80W LED square flood facing backwards on it's own switch, worked fine.
It and the two forward facing 70W spot's are replacing the 35W halogen work lights my Kubota dealer installed. All I did was cut the wires at the ROPS bar.

Anyway, bolted the two forward facing ones on. One works and the other blew the 20A fuse. Didn't have any more 20's so put a 30A. Blew it. So disconnected them and tried just that one light. Blew fuse. OK...bad light.
I tried 3 more, all blew the fuse.
Tested them all with an electrical engineer friend's meter. Checked voltage, current draw, start up draw, continuity, grounds. All good. All lights including the one that works measured out at 3.6 to 3.7 amp draw each.
Keep in mind I only have one red positive feed and one black ground. Hooked same feed to one light at a time individually. Lights are all on the same ROPS bar.

Took them off and the one that works, works on both sides. Other 4 blow the fuse. We have no explanation at all as they all measure out the same.

So I got a 180W 21 inch light bar, put it on and it works perfect, LOL. Very strange.

 

[George2615]

Well I just had an interesting time. I put the one 80W LED square flood facing backwards on it's own switch, worked fine.
It and the two forward facing 70W spot's are replacing the 35W halogen work lights my Kubota dealer installed. All I did was cut the wires at the ROPS bar.

Anyway, bolted the two forward facing ones on. One works and the other blew the 20A fuse. Didn't have any more 20's so put a 30A. Blew it. So disconnected them and tried just that one light. Blew fuse. OK...bad light.
I tried 3 more, all blew the fuse.
Tested them all with an electrical engineer friend's meter. Checked voltage, current draw, start up draw, continuity, grounds. All good. All lights including the one that works measured out at 3.6 to 3.7 amp draw each.
Keep in mind I only have one red positive feed and one black ground. Hooked same feed to one light at a time individually. Lights are all on the same ROPS bar.

Took them off and the one that works, works on both sides. Other 4 blow the fuse. We have no explanation at all as they all measure out the same.

So I got a 180W 21 inch light bar, put it on and it works perfect, LOL. Very strange.

I recently bought a 120W 22" LED light bar. Took it out of the box and tested it on a battery. Red to + and black to -. The light lit up fine so I mounted it on the tractor and wired it up to a 20A fused switch. Turned on the switch and immediately blew the fuse. Changed it out and tried again, blew second fuse.
Removed the light and tested with an ohm meter. I found the red wire was a dead short to the metal frame of the light which is why the fuse blew on the tractor. Before sending it back I took the light apart to check it. The 22" long circuit board was mounted to the light frame with 5 screws. Apparently during manufacture when they drilled the mounting screw holes through the top of the board one of the holes was drilled through a battery plus trace on the bottom of the board. So, when that screw was installed it made a dead short to the light frame. Rather than send it back and wait 2 weeks for another light (that may come the same way) I insulated that plus trace with tape and remounted the board with 4 instead on 5 screws. Rechecked with the meter and all was good so I put it back on the tractor and now it works fine. I'm sure there may be hundreds of these defective lights that were sold but with a little time I was able to fix mine.

 

[Paystar]

That's what I thought too and would make perfect sense, but for some reason on the bench with the meter going from red to both the mount and the light housing it showed no problem?
Gotta be something we were missing.

 

[k0ua]

I recently bought a 120W 22" LED light bar. Took it out of the box and tested it on a battery. Red to + and black to -. The light lit up fine so I mounted it on the tractor and wired it up to a 20A fused switch. Turned on the switch and immediately blew the fuse. Changed it out and tried again, blew second fuse.
Removed the light and tested with an ohm meter. I found the red wire was a dead short to the metal frame of the light which is why the fuse blew on the tractor. Before sending it back I took the light apart to check it. The 22" long circuit board was mounted to the light frame with 5 screws. Apparently during manufacture when they drilled the mounting screw holes through the top of the board one of the holes was drilled through a battery plus trace on the bottom of the board. So, when that screw was installed it made a dead short to the light frame. Rather than send it back and wait 2 weeks for another light (that may come the same way) I insulated that plus trace with tape and remounted the board with 4 instead on 5 screws. Rechecked with the meter and all was good so I put it back on the tractor and now it works fine. I'm sure there may be hundreds of these defective lights that were sold but with a little time I was able to fix mine.

Nothing wrong with tracking down the problem and fixing it.:thumbsup:

 

[George2615]

That's what I thought too and would make perfect sense, but for some reason on the bench with the meter going from red to both the mount and the light housing it showed no problem?
Gotta be something we were missing.

Have you tried connecting Red and Black leads directly to a battery (not mounting the light) to see if it lights or just sparks like its shorted.

 

[k0ua]

Any chance that mounting and bench testing are two different things? like for instance housing of LED shorted to +. No problem when bench testing but since ROPS is grounded, this would blow fuse immediately. Another scenario is due to mounting some stress is place on the circuit board causing short circuit. All just speculation, but they are possibilities.

 

[Threepoint]

That's what I thought too and would make perfect sense, but for some reason on the bench with the meter going from red to both the mount and the light housing it showed no problem?
Gotta be something we were missing.

Frustrating for sure. I'm gonna guess tractor gremlins. Be alert for tiny giggles coming from the wiring harness each time a fuse blows. :laughing:

 

[Paystar]

I'm still betting on it being the lights shorting inside somehow. Any way, the nightmare is over. Light bar works perfect.
Just have to aim tonight.