Question about light inside de cockpit

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astaib
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by astaib »

Some news about all my 3 light issue.
Flood was solved already (broken wire)

Now I solved the flap lights issue (they were off when the instrument dimmer was off): it was a broken glass fuse of 1,5A inside the dimming module.

I only have now to solve the issue with the placards lights.
I already checked the tension and the 28 is arriving to the inverter, the cables after the inverter are not shorten, so I think that the inverter itself is guilty.
Do you know if this inverter still exists?
Picture below.
013EFDF4-9D40-48BF-9BB8-53D182F5A7AA.jpeg
Thanks!

Arnaud.
Arnaud
DA40 Star 180 / 40.026 / 2001
Wingtip, landing and taxing LED (Whelen)
Skitube
GNS430 NON-WAAS
Steam gauges
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Steve
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by Steve »

Arnaud:

You can still get them from Diamond (at least you could about a year ago). I needed one, and ordered it from Premier in Ft. Lauderdale (they are my usual parts source for Diamond-specific parts). It was quite expensive at $250 plus shipping.

If you have access to a 28 volt bench supply, or even a 24 volt battery, I would hook it up and measure the output voltage (should be 160-185 volts RMS without the load of the panel). You could have a bad panel and you would want to know this before spending to replace a good inverter...

After I ordered it, I thought it might be cheaper to source from the manufacturer, Quantaflex. Quantaflex was acquired by MKS:

https://www.quantaflex.com

I had some nice conversations with their chief engineer (hoping they still had some in stock). They didn't, but he agreed to make a couple for me. So I have a spare I could send you for my cost (I think it was about $100 per unit + shipping). Of course, your A&P would have to determine airworthiness, since it doesn't come with an 8130-3. I would consider it a standard electronic component, and I do have the Production Test Report, which shows all the specs for each unit when it was tested.
IMG_4652.jpg
PM me if you are interested.

Steve
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astaib
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by astaib »

Hi Steve,

I spoke yesteday to Rich, the VP of MKS. Because I decided to call them to have techniclal information prior asking Diamond.

He told me to perform the following test in order to determine if the inverter is the guilty "The test load for this inverter is 15.1 kΩ in parallel with 0.1138 µF.This should give you an output of 160 VAC, 1000 Hz. If it doesn’t give an output under this load, then the inverter is bad. "

He also told me that he has one inverter in stock (thanks to your request lately I suppose!) and the price is 85 dollars + transport.
I will let you know if I my unit is bad or not.
Thank you for the proposition.

Regarding the 3 light panels, have you any information? Like manufacturer, technical datasheet or what technology it is, etc...
As I said, my issue is not "permanent", sometimes it works, and when it works, the 3 panels are lighting, this is why I'm not convinced that the panels are faulty.

Arnaud.
Arnaud
DA40 Star 180 / 40.026 / 2001
Wingtip, landing and taxing LED (Whelen)
Skitube
GNS430 NON-WAAS
Steam gauges
Non certified ADS-b
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Steve
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by Steve »

Yes, Rich is the person I talked to - I didn't remember his name. I have no information at all concerning the EL panel...

Steve
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Rich
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by Rich »

I've determined I likely also have a bad breaker/switch lighting inverter. In addition to acquiring a replacement I have to figure out where the heck it is. :scratch:
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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astaib
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by astaib »

Hi Rich,

The problem that I had on mine solved by itself.
I removed the inverter to test it on a bench according to what the manufacturer told me (test was successful).
Then I installed it back in the plane, plugged it to the placards, and instead of plugging the energy source of the plane, I used an external power supply in 28v, with a resistor of the appropriate value. The placards were now lighting, I thought that the resistor in the plane was guilty (as everything was working separately). But I made a last trial by reconnecting also the energy source on the plane, and the placards were also lighting?!
I don’t know what happened, but now it is working...

I will see if it last long or not.

Btw, I was not able to locate the resistor behind the dashboard that is supposed to be before the inverter.

Arnaud.
Arnaud
DA40 Star 180 / 40.026 / 2001
Wingtip, landing and taxing LED (Whelen)
Skitube
GNS430 NON-WAAS
Steam gauges
Non certified ADS-b
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Rich
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by Rich »

The old unplug and reconnect :D If I can get access to mine I'll certainly try that first. The thing is undoubtedly located on the base of the instrument compartment somewhere below all the instruments, wiring and pitot-static tubing :tap:

That resistor might not be there. There are two diagrams. The one for the panel like mine is different to account for the separate circuit breaker sections. But another difference is it does not show the resistor in the circuit. So it was eliminated anywhere along the line.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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astaib
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by astaib »

If the « thing » that you are looking for is the inverter, is it easy to locate and access on the left side behind the dashboard. You are right it is at the base.

Arnaud.
Arnaud
DA40 Star 180 / 40.026 / 2001
Wingtip, landing and taxing LED (Whelen)
Skitube
GNS430 NON-WAAS
Steam gauges
Non certified ADS-b
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astaib
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by astaib »

F4E83649-9FF9-46EA-ACC2-4D5F6A875A95.jpeg
CF382A5A-4EC8-49B0-BFB8-0664AE013406.jpeg
A96CAA54-2CEC-4FA3-9970-D6C64CE62B41.jpeg
Arnaud
DA40 Star 180 / 40.026 / 2001
Wingtip, landing and taxing LED (Whelen)
Skitube
GNS430 NON-WAAS
Steam gauges
Non certified ADS-b
User avatar
Rich
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Re: Question about light inside de cockpit

Post by Rich »

astaib wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 7:47 pm If the « thing » that you are looking for is the inverter, is it easy to locate and access on the left side behind the dashboard. You are right it is at the base.

Arnaud.
Thanks. In my plane that area is almost completely out of sight beneath the mechanical AI, the turn coordinator, crammed-in wiring and pneumatic tubing. All this is squished downtogether because of the compact nature of the "small" panel. I'm not looking forward to it.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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