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[terry1956]

Hi chaps. I need some help.I need to wire up 15 led diodes that come on and off with a switch on the transmitter. I have watched a few videos and after that I purchased a remote switch off eBay that connected to the receiver the main battery and of course the led lights. All went well until I turned the led lights (diodes) on. With the lights on nothing else worked. Turn the lights off and the rudder moved prop turned etc. so here is my question. Is the problem due to the lights pulling too much power, I did not know you had to wire a transistor in line at the time. Or is it that I need a larger remote switch, the one I purchased was rated at 3amps. To be honest I just don’t know what the problem is. Can anyone please help. Thanks.

[Steve Dean]

Hi there. You do not state how you have wired up the LEDs. Each LED needs a current limiting resistor. It does not matter which side of the LED the resistor is placed. The remote switch if it is rated at 3A can easily handle 15 LED's. Can you please provide more information, i.e. make of RC remote switch and how you have connected everything and it will then be very easy to help you.
Steve.

[terry1956]

Hi, in answer. At first I did not know that you needed a resistor at all. Let me explain the problem in more detail. The model is an old Engel nautilus which included around 15 led lights. These lights are wired in series in three sets of 5. I have no idea of their rating but they are 10mm in diameter and wired for poss and neg only. So at first I just wired the three sets in series and added the remote switch( I have no idea of it’s make has it is just a cheap item off Amazon) the switch is connected to the receiver on a spare channel and the main power for the lights is the models main 12v battery. The receiver also gets its power from the main 12v battery going through an Engel designed magnetic switch which supplies 5 amps to the receiver. As stated all the systems work. But not when the lights are on. I am sorry but this is all the information I have.

[Geoff]

Hmm, this does seem odd. I would typically have thought that this is symptomatic of current draw from the battery reducing the voltage to the extent the BEC (Battery elimination circuit) voltage to the receiver drops below a critical value and everything shuts down as intended so you don't loose control. However if your main battery is 12 volts I would have thought this unlikely unless the main battery has died - if you have a volt meter put it across the battery terminals and measure the voltage with no load then switch things on and see what the voltage does. If it drops a lot then the battery may be dead.


I would suggest you replace the switch with a servo and see if all works okay and if good this would point to a fault with the switcher unit in some way. Is the connector to the receiver the right way round? Do you have another channel you can use just in case one of the channels is faulty?


Good luck and hope this may assist


Geoff

[JimG]

Just as a quick test disconnect the LEDs from the switch output while leaving the switch connected and see if the other channels are now working.If so then there must be something about the way the switch output works. Do both leads from the LED string go to the switch or is it only switching one lead and the other goes straight to the battery?  \There may be some form of feedback between the switch and receiver grounds affecting the servo signals. A circuit diagram would help in diagnosing problems.
Jim

[terry1956]

Thanks chaps, I will have a play around tomorrow and get back