Ceiling lights, flickering like a Disco

Hi Folks,

We have a new 2017 Landmark365, it's about a month old. Recently the 2 of the ceiling light circuits randomly, dim, flicker, like a disco, and sometimes like a scene from the exorcist.

I wish it was consistent, but it's just happening when it feels like it.

All on Shore power, both 30 Amp, and 50 Amp, we use a $300.00 external surge protector. Batteries are New

Thanks in Advance, I'd hate to drive all the way to Indiana to get it repaired at the Factory, so any ideas are welcome!

Paul and Nancy

I also had this happening to a couple of LED lights. It could be caused by a bad chipset in the light itself. Swap the light with a good one and see if the problem follows the light.

rxbristol said:

I also had this happening to a couple of LED lights. It could be caused by a bad chipset in the light itself. Swap the light with a good one and see if the problem follows the light.

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Interesting... I need to look into it. This is happening on complete circuits, not just a single LED. Could one bad LED affect the entire circuit?

If so that would be a ton of swapping and testing to find the offender, wondering if there is another way to isolate this?

Thanks for the info

Paul and Nancy

You could have make up issues with the wiring. If it's all the lights on one switch leg you could have positive and negative swapped

would be a good start to trouble shooting. Doubtful all the drivers are bad on all the lights on a switch leg.

RedmondChuck said:

You could have make up issues with the wiring. If it's all the lights on one switch leg you could have positive and negative swapped

would be a good start to trouble shooting. Doubtful all the drivers are bad on all the lights on a switch leg.

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Thanks, it's a strange one.

Would a polarity issue affect this circuit part of the time, I would think it would be causing trouble all the time?.

In our case it's random, wish it was constant!....LOL

Paul

OSIN said:

Thanks, it's a strange one.

Would a polarity issue affect this circuit part of the time, I would think it would be causing trouble all the time?.

In our case it's random, wish it was constant!....LOL

Paul

Click to expand...

Are all your lights 12v?

Easiest start art would be to check all the connections at the fuse box grounds and positives.

Has it ever happened while running just on battery power? If not, you might have a problem with the Power Converter.

RedmondChuck said:

Are all your lights 12v?

Easiest start art would be to check all the connections at the fuse box grounds and positives.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll check that

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danemayer said:

Has it ever happened while running just on battery power? If not, you might have a problem with the Power Converter.

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Ahh, I'll kill the shore power and see, good idea!

Of course at this moment, they are working fine..LOL

Hi!
We ordered led white lites from China, instead of the ones we purchased at the Tamps RV show. The new White lites all flicker AND interfere with TV reception!
Lesson learned!
Ross

From what I know about electronics. LEDS (Light Emitting DIODES) that have the power polarity reversed simply do not conduct. They do nothing. A diode is like a water check valve - it stops reverse current (except zener diodes). LEDS light when there is a forward current through them.

One of the earliest uses of large scale LED lighting was in traffic stoplights. Their long lifetime versus incandescent bulbs DRAMATICALLY reduced stoplight maintenance labor costs. But a frequent failure I have seen over the years is LEDS in the stoplight array flashing. This usually a defective LED array problem, but might possibly be a bad electronic dimmer/driver, a bad connection in the wiring, or a bad switch.

wdk450 said:

From what I know about electronics. LEDS (Light Emitting DIODES) that have the power polarity reversed simply do not conduct. They do nothing. A diode is like a water check valve - it stops reverse current (except zener diodes). LEDS light when there is a forward current through them.

One of the earliest uses of large scale LED lighting was in traffic stoplights. Their long lifetime versus incandescent bulbs DRAMATICALLY reduced stoplight maintenance labor costs. But a frequent failure I have seen over the years is LEDS in the stoplight array flashing. This usually a defective LED array problem, but might possibly be a bad electronic dimmer/driver, a bad connection in the wiring, or a bad switch.

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Thanks,I'll check that too.

I finally got around to checking these.

I pulled all the lights on the circuit and tested for correct voltage along the way, testing from beginning to end...Now I have a string with no lights, reading 13.4 VDC on Shore Power.

As soon as hook up any of the lights i pulled to the end of the circuit, The lamp starts flickering and drags the voltage to about 9.8 VDC, tried 4 lights and they all did pretty much the same.

Pulled the switch panel and checked for loose connections on the switch, it all looks fine.

Next Step?

Thanks, Paul

Paul:
If you can't find the answer, and your rig is under warranty, maybe it is time to use some of the warranty you paid for in your purchase price.

OSIN said:

Hi Folks,

We have a new 2017 Landmark365, it's about a month old. Recently the 2 of the ceiling light circuits randomly, dim, flicker, like a disco, and sometimes like a scene from the exorcist.

I wish it was consistent, but it's just happening when it feels like it.

All on Shore power, both 30 Amp, and 50 Amp, we use a $300.00 external surge protector. Batteries are New

Thanks in Advance, I'd hate to drive all the way to Indiana to get it repaired at the Factory, so any ideas are welcome!

Paul and Nancy

Click to expand...

Just curious. Didn't your Landmark already come with a built in surge protector?

Locate the 120V AC circuit breaker for the Power Converter and next time you have flickering lights, you're testing and have odd symptoms, shut off the Power Converter and see what happens.

If it still flickers with Power Converter switched OFF at the breaker panel, then I would start looking for the ground connection for your string of lights. It probably goes back to the ground bus in the fuse box.

If the flicker problem goes away when the Power Converter is OFF, you probably need a new Power Converter.

wdk450 said:

Paul:
If you can't find the answer, and your rig is under warranty, maybe it is time to use some of the warranty you paid for in your purchase price.

Click to expand...

I might call for help if I can't sort it out myself. I don't trust many dealers, but if you know a good guy near Las Vegas let me know.

Paul

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budman229 said:

Just curious. Didn't your Landmark already come with a built in surge protector?

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I don't believe so?

My last basic surge protector was toasted by the Camping World pedestal in South Dakota, so I'm using the expensive Camco external model. we'll see how good this one is

danemayer said:

Locate the 120V AC circuit breaker for the Power Converter and next time you have flickering lights, you're testing and have odd symptoms, shut off the Power Converter and see what happens.

If it still flickers with Power Converter switched OFF at the breaker panel, then I would start looking for the ground connection for your string of lights. It probably goes back to the ground bus in the fuse box.

If the flicker problem goes away when the Power Converter is OFF, you probably need a new Power Converter.

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Thanks.

This morning i killed shore power, left one light attached, and put on batteries alone.

Once off charging, the batteries went from 12.7VDC to 12.4 VDC in minutes, with nothing but the lights....Not good... they are brand new Batteries though cheapo exide

On Batteries at the lights we still a 9.4 VDC (something dragging down (2) circuits), better but still getting flicker, but the lamps were as dim as I've seen before.

Next I'm checking grounds, and looking at the converter and Batteries.

New Rigs, gotta love them.

Paul

OSIN said:

Thanks.

This morning i killed shore power, left one light attached, and put on batteries alone.

Once off charging, the batteries went from 12.7VDC to 12.4 VDC in minutes, with nothing but the lights....Not good... they are brand new Batteries though cheapo exide

On Batteries at the lights we still a 9.4 VDC (something dragging down (2) circuits), better but still getting flicker, but the lamps were as dim as I've seen before.

Next I'm checking grounds, and looking at the converter and Batteries.

New Rigs, gotta love them.

Paul

Click to expand...

Tell me about it! I've run out of warm weather to complete my debugging. Might drop it off at a shop to work on a few things

OSIN said:

I might call for help if I can't sort it out myself. I don't trust many dealers, but if you know a good guy near Las Vegas let me know.

Paul

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I don't believe so?

My last basic surge protector was toasted by the Camping World pedestal in South Dakota, so I'm using the expensive Camco external model. we'll see how good this one is

Click to expand...

I think you do. Our 2017 Newport has one. Its located behind the center panel in the basement.

Paul

Paul:
Your report of low voltage at the lights with more than 1 fully charged 12 volt lead acid battery (you did use the term "BATTERIES"), says to me that you have a poor connection somewhere in the current path to the lights. This could be on either the positive wiring or on the grounded negative wiring. A quick beginning step to see if the low voltage is the true cause of your flickering lights is to run some temporary wiring directly from the battery to the lights and see how they work. Next try the lights with the old positive wiring and the temporary negative wire to see if the original negative wiring is bad. If you find you can trust the original negative wiring, then you have to trace out the positive wiring junction by junction until you find the bad connection - the place where the voltage with the lights on jumps from 12 volts to 9 volts. A hypodermic needle attached to your DVM lead is an easy way to pierce wire insulation and take readings along the wiring. This individual wire tracing can be miserable and another reason to give the job to a professional.

2 fully charged lead acid batteries have a LOT of amperage capacity (think of the emergency welding repairs back country 4 wheelers do with 2 lead acid batteries) and any fault that causes them to discharge rapidly should be generating a LOT of heat. Your light circuit SHOULD be limited to about 15 amps by the fusepanel, though.

Good luck!!!