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Lights going dim.


Timx

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Hi, half of the lights in my boat cabin are only coming on as dim, the other half , to second switch come on fine. They are all LED, but why all of a sudden would one set be dim. Batteries are fine, and all other lights and power are fine, just one set of lights. Could there be a short somewhere, and do I need to get it sorted asap.? I have been getting a static type shock when touching the switch over last couple of days, but that may just be a coincidental. Any ideas what problem may be.? Thanks.

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More likely a high resistance than a short, a short causes heat, blown fuses/tripped circuit breakers or in the worst case a fire. Davids initial advice is good. As it seams those lights are all in parallel try measuring the voltage at one lamp with all that side switched on, then compare it with the other set. My guess is that it will be lower proving a high resistance somewhere. As LEDs normally have electronics built into them it is always possible that either yours were cheapies and don't so  voltage surges has damaged them or they were part of a faulty batch. However a high  resistance is more likely.

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14 minutes ago, Timx said:

The lights are working fine again now, but will get it looked at, worried about it shorting somewhere, maybe it’s moisture after cooking.

 

Once again. Shorting causes blown fuses, tripped circuit breakers, overheated cables or a fire. Dim bulbs indicates a low voltage and apart from truly exceptional circumstances that won't be caused by a short and is far more likely to be a poor connection  or switch causing resistance. I think you can forget about short circuits.

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12 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Once again. Shorting causes blown fuses, tripped circuit breakers, overheated cables or a fire. Dim bulbs indicates a low voltage and apart from truly exceptional circumstances that won't be caused by a short and is far more likely to be a poor connection  or switch causing resistance. I think you can forget about short circuits.

But those bad connections can get hot, I have seen more than one chock block melt when the screws haven't made good contact, probably less likely with LEDs due to the low current

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I agree Brian, but the OP seems fixated on short circuits and appeared not to take onboard the high resistance bit. I certainly needs investigating but fixating on short circuits is not likely to resolve the problem.

 

When I was working in the motor trade almost every customer who had dim or non-working lights declared that they "must have a short" and I can't remember a single case when this was the fault. Usually a bad connection in one form or another.

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1 hour ago, jonathanA said:

I suppose the other obvious thing to do is swap some of the bright and dim lamps. If the dim stay dim when replacing a bright one then it's unlikely to be switch/wiring and Vicki versa ....

 

This would be a good test if the same lights were not sometimes dim and sometimes not with no changes.

 

I'll take odds on pretty light switches only rated for 240V AC being burnt out using 12V DC supply at higher current ...

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