LED Lighting Probs

[Sandbachbernie]

I own a 2009 Autotrail Tracker EKS, which has LED strip lighting under both overhead cupboards, in the lounge area. Due to flickering, I have previously had 3 bulbs disabled by a dealer, which was ok for a while, but recently flickering has occurred in two new areas of the same strip (again, three bulbs in each cluster).

As the dealer's charges were quite high, is there a safe and easy DIY way to disable these flickering bulbs, without the need to visit the dealer again?

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[keninpalamos]

Have a look on utube LED flickering lights. Very interesting. By removing your LED bulbs won't help until you take out the whole lot. A simple way seems to be replace one LED in the circuit with a standard tungsten bulb or just add a tungsten bulb. To stop the flickering this light must be drawing power. That's as simple as I can put it. Being quite simple myself :-D What it does is alter the Hz rate so the supply is not the same rate as the Hz rate of the LED.......I think.

[Derek Uzzell]

Bernie

 

Welcome to the Out&AboutLive forums.

 

This seems to be a recognised problem with Labcraft LED lights fitted by Auto-Trail to their motorhomes for a while.

 

If you GOOGLE-search using "auto-trail labcraft light flicker” (omitting the quotes) as the search-term you’ll find previous discussions on several forums about the problem. These are links to a couple of examples

 

http://motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/renewing-auto-trail-habitation-led-lighting-a-cheaper-alternative-part-1.55927/

 

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/forum-printtopic-1-88605-0-0-asc-viewresult-1.html

 

I’m doubtful that trying to work around the problem by disabling the sets of LEDs that begin to flicker would be worthwhile as the fault clearly lies within the unit’s basic design. I expect you could do it (after all your dealer could) but there’s a strong possibility that, if you knock out the two sets of 3 LEDs that are currently flickering, another set (or sets) will start to flicker soon after. And, of course, the more LEDs that are disabled the less effective and attractive the lights will become.

 

The logical solution, I’m afraid, is to replace the present LED strips.

[Sandbachbernie]

Thank you both for your welcome and helpful replies, and it gives me some options as to what to do.

 

It's certainly helpful to know that simply removing/disabling the offending lights won't, in the long term, solve the problem - just put off the inevitable replacement of the whole lot!

 

Once again, my grateful thanks

 

Bernie

 

 

[Guest Joe90]

LEDs are meant to be driven by a constant 12 volt stabilised source..........unless they are described as voltage safe, which should allow for usage in a motorhome environment where voltages can peak around 14.4 volts, in my experience the flickering you describe is down to the fact that the LEDs are being over driven at a higher voltage than designed for which will eventually result in failure.

 

Been there and done it as they say !

 

Some good info here.

 

http://www.bedazzled.uk.com/12v_LED_Bulb_Replacement.htm

[Colin Leake]

This problem is one that all AutoTrails seem to suffer including ours and replacements are not cheap. I can't be bothered as we are intending to change to a PVC shortly but I see that they seem to have at long last addressed the problem and are making a big point about fitting improved lights in their 2015 vans. Might be worth taking the problem up with them direct now they have in effect admitted the problem!

 

It's also interesting they have given it on their old crap drop down entertainment system and replaced it with a drop down Avtex TV and a separate radio. Obviously at last taken the advice I gave them back in 2011. I've had no less than three replacement units all at no cost. It's working at the moment all be it with the system limitations.