Flickering LED's Adria Twin

[Motorhomer14]

Hello All, I have a friend who is seeing flickering LED's when they start up the Diesel heater on their new Adria Twin. I expect this is transient voltages getting on to the 12v line when the heater motor starts or stops. I thought all new LED strips had suppression supply lines or suppression devices fitted into the electronic supply box, this one being the EBL-211. Anyone had this issue. I was wondering if the suppression has failed or if it's more common problem than I thought and there is some work around.

 

[Raul]

The LED’s are fed from 12v supply, no drivers needed like 230v supply. Flicker is voltage sag when the diesel kicks in, and creates like a ripple effect. If this happens when the fan spins, it’s the heater. It has two or one magnet on the motor to count rpm. It may be the pcb, fan itself, dry solder, bad connection-s’. They should not share same circuit, lights should be separated from diesel feed with appropriate size wire, and battery should smooth out any ripple. If battery can’t smooth the ripple, it may be weak, on its way or undercharged. Test with a good battery, check wiring fuses and any connections.

 

[Motorhomer14]

Battery is new and this was also doing this on EHU. On Oscilloscope its showing a 1v ripple voltage when diesel heater is staring up. I expect this is a dip in voltage supply due to massive pull on heater ignitor. I was thinking of adding a capacitor on the LED supply line. The ripple is showing on all supplies but only visible on LEDs as they are more sensitive to voltage change

 

[Richard n Ann]

Battery is new and this was also doing this on EHU. On Oscilloscope its showing a 1v ripple voltage when diesel heater is staring up. I expect this is a dip in voltage supply due to massive pull on heater ignitor. I was thinking of adding a capacitor on the LED supply line. The ripple is showing on all supplies but only visible on LEDs as they are more sensitive to voltage change

You need to put a smoothing circuit on the LED power supply input. An inline inductor or low value resistor and then a big capacitor

 

[Motorhomer14]

You need to put a smoothing circuit on the LED power supply input. An inline inductor or low value resistor and then a big capacitor

I was thinking this, not sure about inductor, circuit already has dimmer circuit so was thinking a cap would be enough only to just keep the drop in the voltage line. Will have a go some point. Was just wondering if anyone else seen similar issue and tried to solve the problem. It is only on start up and only a ripple drop in voltage no major spikes so should not cause any damage to circuits. I expect if I saw high spikes an inductor would be important

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[Richard n Ann]

I was thinking this, not sure about inductor, circuit already has dimmer circuit so was thinking a cap would be enough only to just keep the drop in the voltage line. Will have a go some point. Was just wondering if anyone else seen similar issue and tried to solve the problem. It is only on start up and only a ripple drop in voltage no major spikes so should not cause any damage to circuits. I expect if I saw high spikes an inductor would be important

Try it by all means but the capacitor terminal voltage will probably just ripple up and down the same. The leisure battery is a big capacitor anyway.

The inductor will separate the + supply with the LED supply and enable the big capacitor to hold the voltage more stable on the LED side.

I did it once years ago, no capacitor would stop a mains hum I had on a sound IC. I had a think and fitted a 1 ohm resistor in-line and it cured it completely.

Edit might have been 10 ohm, can't remember.

 

[Motorhomer14]

Try it by all means but the capacitor terminal voltage will probably just ripple up and down the same. The leisure battery is a big capacitor anyway.

The inductor will separate the + supply with the LED supply and enable the big capacitor to hold the voltage more stable on the LED side.

I did it once years ago, no capacitor would stop a mains hum I had on a sound IC. I had a think and fitted a 1 ohm resistor in-line and it cured it completely.

Edit might have been 10 ohm, can't remember.

OK might as well try it, can't harm. You are right the battery is a large capacitive source so I expect pulling load to drop the battery level will also drop the capacitor level. Suppose it will depend on the capacitor discharge time. I was thinking like on DC power supply we fit caps to smooth out any ripple.

 

[Richard n Ann]

OK might as well try it, can't harm. You are right the battery is a large capacitive source so I expect pulling load to drop the battery level will also drop the capacitor level. Suppose it will depend on the capacitor discharge time. I was thinking like on DC power supply we fit caps to smooth out any ripple.

They never get rid of all of it though on their own.. Well praps with no load

 

[Richard n Ann]

What frequency is the ripple?