Using or plan to use Van's frugal dimmer?

[Brantel]

Be carefull if your have yet to use or will be using Van's frugal dimmer kit....

I have four of these and found this little surprise when I powered one of them up with my small power supply:

This instantly cooked the adjustment pot sending much smoke into the air and heated up everything really quick before I could get the power off.

If I had been using a real battery for testing, wires would have been cooked.

Van's already sent a replacement but be carefull about this one!

Yes, I should have seen this short but I did not inspect them that close before installing....

PS: Since I was testing with a small PS, I did not have the fuse in the circuit. This might have stopped some of the damage but who knows. My PS is limited to 600mA and it still cooked the pot and heated up fast. Not sure even a 1 amp fuse would have blown....

 

[IowaRV9Dreamer]

part number of vans dimmer regulator?

Hi Brian - can you read & post the part number on the regulator (black 3 terminal device) on the Vans dimmer? That is assuming it isn't too fried to read

Thanks,

dave

 

[OneCharlieKilo]

gave up on mine and went with something else

I put one of those inexpensive boards from Van's in during construction but it didn't survive even basic op testing. Had to repair solder joints to get it working in the first place and then vibrations from moving the fuselage WA to CA via U-Haul truck left the board non-functional again not too long after that. So I went with one of the dimmer knobs with integrated voltage regulator from Perihelion Design and have been very happy with it - much smaller package than the one from Van's, very easy to use, smaller installation footprint, and cost isn't all that much higher. The one at this link is what I used:

http://www.periheliondesign.com/egpavr.htm

This photo gives an idea of the installation footprint and connections for this product. The dimmer switch and voltage regulator is the panel installed switch with attached heat sink next to the Bowden cable on left side of the picture:

A couple other pictures of this area of the panel and some words on the light dimmer setup are on my web site at:

http://rv6aproject.ckhand.com/panelAndElectrical/electrical/electricalPg2.htm

Chris

 

[Brantel]

Hi Brian - can you read & post the part number on the regulator (black 3 terminal device) on the Vans dimmer? That is assuming it isn't too fried to read

Thanks,

dave

Sorry this is late... It is a good old LM317 variable regulator....Millions in use around the world. Very simple. The stuff to make what Van's gives you in this package add up to more than the cost of Van's unit. That is unless you have a ton of stuff around to fab them up.