switch panel damage

[Johnboy2004]

hi folks , is it possible to repair switch panels?

an eager friend was helping me to fit the vhf to the panel, when he accidentaly shorted something out,,,, all the fuses in the panel are ok..... but 3 of the switches dont work,,,,,,, the led's used to come on when they were turned on but now they dont....

is it possible to repair the panel , or is it better to buy a new one?
do you know any sites that sell them online?
cheers

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[VicS]

I'm sure a repair will be possible and very very much cheaper than replacing the whole thing but you may have difficulty in exactly matching the switches. In that case you will have to decide if a mis-match is acceptable. Leds should be no problem from one of the electronic component suppliers like Maplin or RS but remember you will need 12 volt ones (or 24v? ).

Don't forget next time to disconnect the power before messing with electrics.

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[discovery2]

If your boat is a Beneteau (as your bio indicates) and has the (small) black rocker switches, I am almost certain that RS or Maplins have matching replacements.

David

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[cliff]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

Any standard LED will do but you must put a resistor in line to limit the voltage across the LED. "12v" and "24v" LED's already have the necessary resistance.
The nice chaps in Maplins will be able to tell you what value of resistor you need for a particular LED / vaoltage combination.

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[snowleopard]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

the simplest cheap LEDs can accept a wide variety of voltages so the resistance you use is not critical. 1K works fine.

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[broadcaster]

Hi,

It would be very unusual to damage 3 switches and LED's by a quick short, on most panels there is a main bus feeding the 12V supply to all the switches. I would check that first to make sure all the switches have a feed going to them.

In order to burn out the 3 switches, they would have all had to be in the on position and all three would have to be shorted from the 12V output before the fuse.

Good luck.

Andy


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[halcyon]

Before you take it all apart, make sure you know that it is faulty.
LED's not working could be a blown earth, and not faulty LED's. There should be a common earth rail, check it's reading neg, if it's faulty it will read 12 volt, also check there is / is not 12 volt feeding the LED's.
If they are the small rocker switches, do they still click ?. When we started useing them in the 1980's I did some tests on them and found I could switch 18 amp without bowing them up. Check that you have a feed to them i.e. 12 volt, and that you have no output when switched on.

Brian

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[Johnboy2004]

hi yeah is the small panel with the black rocker switches...

is it expensive to buy a new panel?

when the short occurred we got a smell of buring.

also the cabin light switch still works but the led to indicate that its on doesent work.

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[ongolo]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

Voltage is not the problem when discussing LED's, standard LED's can handle 20mA this means 470 ohms for 12V and 1K for 24 volt.

Supe bright can handle up to 100mA, but it is bst to operate them at no more than 50mA.

Any LED will blow already with 3V straight applied, that is without a resistor.

Further I do not believe that 3 switches and all LED's are blown. In a case like this, it is usually one single illogical fault that causes it, like a missing negative or supply blown to a busbar.

Unless of course yoyr helper applied high-tension like 380V to a 12V system, in that case, you will need more than just a switch panel. here comes a new radar.

regards ongolo


<hr width=100% size=1>So what......... it floats

 

[Johnboy2004]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

hi can someone tell me what i need to check on the switch panel?

the situation is this, 3 switches work fine with leds lighting,
the fourth switch led light doesent work but the switch works, and the cabin lights that run off this 4th switch work fine.

finally, the last two switches dont work at all, and the leds dont light either.

my friend told me that he shorted accidentally the positive and negitave wires on the last switch...

what do i need to check?


cheers

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[ongolo]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

Hi

Some of the switch panels have each a dedicated fuse (glass fuse?). Check those first. Then find the busbar that supplies the switches and check for the right potential. If for instance a - is missing, the + will be present on the - side of things.

If you dont have a meter, you could build your self a simple test lamp or buy one with a short wire and a clip. A test lamp is often better and quicker for fault finding.

I would make every effort to repair the fault my self, you gain experience in general and get to know your boat better. One day out there you might have a problem and you MUST fixe it as there is nobody else. For instance you have an emergency and your VHF packed up with only a simple fault like a corroded wire.

In general, in electronics and electrics you only get four faults when you ae analyzing it.

At a given time (time is more a factor in electronics digital etc) there is either + or - missing that should be present, or a + or a - is there that should be absent.

And these are all four possibilities. Think about it, take your time an fix it.

Sorry but I am too far away to have a look myself.

regards ongolo

Africa


<hr width=100% size=1>So what......... it floats

 

[Johnboy2004]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

hi thanks for the info, forgive my ignorance but what is a busbar?

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[Gunfleet]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

Hi John - a busbar is a strip which you can attach your circuits to, thereby drawing power to your switch panel. Obviously if you wanted to run all individual individual cables back to the battery or main switch you'd end up with a bit of a wire traffic jam. If this is the level you are starting from it might be a good idea to get hold of 12 volt Bible or one of the other similar DC electric books from your local library and have a spin through it. You don't want the blooming thing catching fire while you're out on the water! Good luck
John

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[Johnboy2004]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

ok so possibly the busbar got destroyed halfways down? when the short hapened?
thats why 3 switches are dead? i suppose it would be possible to rejoin the busbar
by soldering?

cheers

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[Gunfleet]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

It's not possible to solder it. If that's the problem, just buy a new one. They're not dear for what they do, John. Have a look at the website http://www.bluesea.com/dept.asp?d_id=7466&l1=7466 which contains lots of pictures of this sort of stuff.

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[halcyon]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

hi can someone tell me what i need to check on the switch panel?

Please read my post on the 23/05/2004 10:23,



Brian

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[Johnboy2004]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

hi i checked the panel
its a 6 function panel which comprises of two boards with 3 on each,
on the second board i see a track on the board that has burned out.



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[ongolo]

Re: LED\'s forswitch panel damage

No problem, has nothing to do with ignorance, no-one knows it all.

A busbar is an expression for copper rails that carry haevy current where cable would be unwieldy or of required seize not available.

For instance in the old mechanical telephone exchanges, the 52Volt for the equipment was carried in solid copper bars often 80mm x 10mm. These bus bars would lie overhead and all racks (the switching gear) are connected to them.

This terminology has been brought over and sometimes it even refers to a sturdy wire in a switch panel that can be a feeder to fuses/branches/switches.

If there was a massive short, a piece of a busbar (heavy tinned copper bar or wire)may have arked away or depending on the duration the short was applied, a central soldering joint may even have become undone.

What you are looking for is really the two central supply points and the continuation of these supplies to all the switches. Do an inspection first, you might see something.

Note: If you replace LED's, they will let current through only in one direction, if they dont light up, reverse them, but never without a series resistor (in-line resistor)

+ o---[>I-----( 470 ohm )------o - for 12 Volt
Pos . LED Resistor Neg.


Good luck. Hope it helps. Next time I am in trouble, happens all the time. ))

Ongolo

<hr width=100% size=1>So what......... it floats