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lights too dim on AudioArts R5 board?

Info-warrior said:
Earlier, someone mentioned the possibility that the bulbs may have been replaced with ones of the wrong voltage-higher voltage bulbs would indeed glow more dimly). You've noticed that there are some bulbs that appear brighter. Would your manager allow you to swap the bulbs from the brighter buttons into the dimmer ones? This should help rule out the bulbs themselves as the cause of your trouble. You should be able to do this without having to take the board off-line.

Maybe not likely, but heat can cause some plastics to darken, check the bulb covers for discoloration or cloudiness.
Click to expand...
You know, the more I look into this, the more I'm wondering whether it's a question of the bulbs as you speculated. I just removed the covers from two of the yellow "Off" buttons along the bottom of the board. One would think they'd all be identical--they're the same type of button. However, one of the LED bulbs (as I look at it without the cover) is clearly, discernibly dimmer than the other one.

I guess the next question is--how do I know what bulbs to replace these dim ones with, specifications-wise.....and how would I replace them. LOL. I may have to take a class in electrical engineering....
 
Well, I got a reply from a consultant audio engineer we sometimes deal with around here. He says these lights are LED's which work by gallium arsenide gas, and as they age the intensity dims somewhat over the design life--which is 15 years of continuous operation. I'm guessing that this is the issue rather than voltage, since the LED intensities are all over the place on the board.

So I guess we'll just have to either replace the bulbs or the board :) Anyway, thanks everyone for helping me troubleshoot this!
 
Several years ago I went on a quest to replace all the incandescent bulbs in my equipment with LEDs. We've all got better things to do than replace burned out bulbs, right?? Unfortunately I discovered that after a couple of years some LEDs were noticeably dimmer. Some colors dimmed faster than others and white LEDs dimmed especially fast. LEDs from different manufacturers made a difference too. Just replace 'em all and chalk it up to experience.
 
The "lifetime" of LED obstruction & beacons take this gradual dimming into account.
The 50,000 hours on the LED lights you buy at Home Depot do not.
 
Canadave, sorry it took me a while to notice this thread. You probably are, as you surmise, dealing with a dimming-over-life issue with the LEDs. You might give our support guys a call -- we probably still have those in stock if you want to change them out. 252-638-7000.

Scott
 
Oh, and one more thing. The bottom contact on those little LEDs is a blob of solder. Over time, that little solder blob can either flatten out, oxidize, or both. That can cause the LED to dim a bit. You might try pulling the LEDs out and either cleaning off that solder blob or just heating it and adding a little (very little!) solder to round it up a bit.

Scott
 
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