Navigation lights panel indication

[halcyon]

Problem is low current due to Led's,

There are a number of ways we had tried out over the years, but all systems are based on current flow, be it reistance or Hall effect sensors or Hall effect switches.

Resistance uses volt drop across a resistance, fitting led's the volt drop is that low the circuit will not be able to measure it. Fitting a bigger sense resistor would help, but you are then dropping voltage to LED bulb, experiment is the only option, depending on bulb design it may work.
Reed switches are used, these rely on magnetic field produced by coil of wire around switch, dropping current means the current is to low to close reed switch. Only answer is to a lot more coils of wire, probably many many of them.
Hall effect sensors again use magnetic field around the cable, again with Hall effect sensors the current may be to low for the circuit to sense ( system gain ). Option is to adust gain is poss or add more turns through the sensor head.
Hall effect switches as above, the magnetic field may be to low to operate the switching circuit, answer as above.

You are looking at around 200ma current draw, we can measure that with Hall effect, bit of a pain as no current and normal are close and thus getting a reliable display. We don't do them as nobody has asked me to supply one for many years.

Brian

 

[prv]

Personally I think you are probably being facetious.

Of course. But apparently silly suggestions that have nothing to do with the already-identified problem are welcome in this thread.

Pete

 

[pandos]

Of course. But apparently silly suggestions that have nothing to do with the already-identified problem are welcome in this thread.

Pete

Except my suggestion,which you deemed silly was made in good faith yours plainly is not. Enough said in that regard.

If the lack of sensing due to low current will not work, could the panel be rewired so that the panel light is in series with the main lamp. Just like Christmas lights...

I do hope this suggestion is not too silly.

 

[Daydream believer]

Perhaps he should try rubbing cheese on the back of the panel. I suggest Sainsburys Basics stilton, there's no need to go too fancy.

Pete

Not a good idea, because the mice then tend to start chewing through the wires ?

 

[Daydream believer]

Except my suggestion,which you deemed silly was made in good faith yours plainly is not. Enough said in that regard.

If the lack of sensing due to low current will not work, could the panel be rewired so that the panel light is in series with the main lamp. Just like Christmas lights...

Christmas lights????
Have you never sat on the dining room floor swearing at a sixty foot long string of p..xy lights at 01-00 hours on 25 December, desperate to go to bed, whilst twiddling bulbs, trying to find the faulty one, for hours, because the wife simply INSISTS that the kids MUST have lights on the tree; when they wake up in 3 hours time; to create havoc round the house; whilst you try to look happy at the thought of 24 hours with the mother in law et alia. ?
No way would I have such a thing on my boat.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Yeah, my indicator LEDs light but are now much dimmer since I installed a LED tricolour at the masthead - you can see the indicator LEDs at night, but not during the day, which results in me often leaving the lights on.

I have a PROS by Ditel switch bank similar to this, but with glass fuses.

Presumably the indicator LED is dim because less current is flowing through it. Can you see yours as lit if you switch all the lights out?

I'm guessing the flash when you switch yours on is because there's a capacitor or something in your model of LED masthead light, and that's the initial flow of current flowing through it.

I'm guessing the fix is a resistor somewhere.

In my very scant knowledge of electricity I seem to remember that a resistor consumes current, thus negating the effect of changing to LEDS?

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

Yeah, my indicator LEDs light but are now much dimmer since I installed a LED tricolour at the masthead - you can see the indicator LEDs at night, but not during the day, which results in me often leaving the lights on.

I have a PROS by Ditel switch bank similar to this, but with glass fuses.

Presumably the indicator LED is dim because less current is flowing through it. Can you see yours as lit if you switch all the lights out?

I'm guessing the flash when you switch yours on is because there's a capacitor or something in your model of LED masthead light, and that's the initial flow of current flowing through it.

I'm guessing the fix is a resistor somewhere.

LED's have an extremely high inrush current which will cause the flash. fitting a resistor will limit the current even more. No quick fix with the sort of panel involved.
One possibility may be to wire the panel LED in Parallel with the nav. lights, having removed the reed switch. I am not familiar with the panel but might just be a solution!

 

[pandos]

Christmas lights????
Have you never sat on the dining room floor swearing at a sixty foot long string of p..xy lights at 01-00 hours on 25 December, desperate to go to bed, whilst twiddling bulbs, trying to find the faulty one, for hours, because the wife simply INSISTS that the kids MUST have lights on the tree; when they wake up in 3 hours time; to create havoc round the house; whilst you try to look happy at the thought of 24 hours with the mother in law et alia. ?
No way would I have such a thing on my boat.

Yes I was conscious of the fact that the 12v bulbs were strung in lots of 20 so they could operate at about 240v. And that if one was out, the circuit was broken causing all to be out...

This is what the Op wants to achieve. The nav lamps will not work if the current is off or the circuit is broken by a duff bulb. In series the indicator led fail if the circuit including the main lamp is not complete.

In the past this would have been difficult due to the current requiref for the old bulbs, but with LEDs it should not be too problematic. To add a low voltage led capable of carrying the current of the main led.

It is a bad solution because it introduces another point of failure but it also would achieve what the OP wants which is an easy way to see if the lamp is switched on.

Of course he could bring the mother in law and wife along to tell him if he left the nav lights switched on.

(Edited to make more sense and remove typos.)

 

[starfire]

Christmas lights????
Have you never sat on the dining room floor swearing at a sixty foot long string of p..xy lights at 01-00 hours on 25 December, desperate to go to bed, whilst twiddling bulbs, trying to find the faulty one, for hours, because the wife simply INSISTS that the kids MUST have lights on the tree; when they wake up in 3 hours time; to create havoc round the house; whilst you try to look happy at the thought of 24 hours with the mother in law et alia. ?
No way would I have such a thing on my boat.

YES! along with all those elderly relatives who heard you were handy with that 'leccy' stuff.
I used to dread the run up to Christmas......

 

[catlotion]

I have an older Bavaria of 1993 vintage and when I replaced mine to LED my panel just flashes constantly. I just learned to live with it.

Mine does the same on my Cruiser 30. I think it's a useful feature to remind me to switch navigation lights off ?

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

Strange one but hopefully somebody knows the answer....

Since changing all my nav light bulbs to LEDs, my navigation light panel indicator lights have stopped working. They flash once when I flick the lights on but dont stay on. If I change the bulbs back to normal bulbs then the panel indicator lights work again.

Anybody else have this issue?

See my edited post 27