Easygoing1
New member
I recently rebuilt this light for a friend of mine and I would like to share what I did in case anyone else out there wants to do the same thing.
First, I have some questions:
1) What is the general purpose of a lighting system like this one?
2) Why does it have settings that relate to the phases of the moon?
3) Does anyone know where to get replacement LEDs for this unit?
The Rebuild:
When I got the unit, one of the power supplies was damaged. When I turned the unit on, it only lit up for about a second then it powered off, or rather one of the power supplies shut down on its own. It turned out that the power wire to the main board was badly burned and the main board itself had some obvious heat damage along the ground path. The best I could figure is that there was some moisture buildup on the inside of the unit, most likely because of fan failure, and the moisture shorted something out on the main board causing the heat on the power wire and the PCB ground trace. The unit still works perfectly.
I decided to replace the two 500-watt power supplies with a single 1,000-watt power supply. This is the unit I went with. I also went with These aviation connectors and this wire to connect the power supply to the unit. I chose a 6 conductor, lower gauge wire because it's easier to work with. I simply dedicated two wires to each voltage (12, 5 and gnd). I was able to jumper the power on pin on the board of the power supply so that it always turns on with the switch and I removed all of the wires from the PSU by simply desoldering them from the main board. A good desoldering station helps with this tremendously but if using a soldering iron, I recommend adding leaded solder to the existing solder as that lead-free stuff can be difficult to work with.
The aviation receptical fit perfectly in one of the existing holes on the unit itself and on the power supply I had to drill a hole for the receptacle. However, I accidentally installed mine too high such that the fan would not fit back into the case, so I just mounted the fan on the outside of the case.
I didn't like the way they distributed power to each of the lighting fixtures where they spliced the wire directly, so instead, I designed a custom printed circuit board to distribute power. However, my first design produced a lot of heat in the PCB because the traces weren't wide enough to handle the current, so I changed the design to a six-layer board, giving each voltage two layers of copper. The new board does not get hot at all.
Here is the circuit board:
The holes align perfectly inside the unit and they are connected to ground so mounting it inside the unit grounds the circuit to the entire housing. I have attached all of the gerber files into a zip file if you are interested in ordering the board for yourself. You can, in fact, upload this zip file directly to JLCPCB.COM since I used their software to create the design. I also have four of these boards since the minimum order quantity is five if anyone is interested in buying one from me.
I cut all of the wires to each lighting unit long enough, of course, to be able to reach the board and I soldered all of the wires onto the board.
I installed fan connector posts to each of the fan connector points on the main board as the factory soldered the fan wire directly to the board. I also replaced all four fans with same-sized fans, but I went with 5 volt fans that are half the width, then wired two fans in series and stacked them in each fan location. I needed to put thin spacers in between each fan to avoid rubbing. This turned out nicely and they are very quiet. The actual output for the fan voltage off the board is 10 volts so the fans won't be overdriven and they only draw 180ma of current per fan. Each pair of fans is driven by a single transistor, which is rated to be able to handle 1.5 amps, so in this setup, each transistor will only sustain .36 amps, which is well within spec.
Finally, the Timekeeper RAM module's internal battery is dead (only rated to last for 10 years) but it is possible to use an external battery so that the unit's settings are retained when powered off. I went with this battery and this battery holder which I will either velcro or hot glue to the main board and solder to the underside of the board directly to the timekeeper. The positive lead of the external battery holder can be soldered to pin 12 of the timekeeper and the ground lead to ground.
I will edit and post more photos within the next couple of days for anyone interested.
The unit works perfectly with the rebuild, but I do have one line of LEDs where the center LED is degraded and causing the three in that series to not light up. I don't know which LEDs to purchase as a viable replacement, so if anyone knows that information, I would be most grateful.
Finally, the unit was missing one of the brackets, so I decided to draw one up in CAD and have four of them 3D printed using nylon. I ordered 4, just in case there was any issues with the size of the bracket, I wanted to have four that are identical. I used the same company to print those as I used to make the PCB. The new ones fit perfectly, and I opted to have them printed in black nylon. I have attached the stl file for anyone interested.
Mike Sims
First, I have some questions:
1) What is the general purpose of a lighting system like this one?
2) Why does it have settings that relate to the phases of the moon?
3) Does anyone know where to get replacement LEDs for this unit?
The Rebuild:
When I got the unit, one of the power supplies was damaged. When I turned the unit on, it only lit up for about a second then it powered off, or rather one of the power supplies shut down on its own. It turned out that the power wire to the main board was badly burned and the main board itself had some obvious heat damage along the ground path. The best I could figure is that there was some moisture buildup on the inside of the unit, most likely because of fan failure, and the moisture shorted something out on the main board causing the heat on the power wire and the PCB ground trace. The unit still works perfectly.
I decided to replace the two 500-watt power supplies with a single 1,000-watt power supply. This is the unit I went with. I also went with These aviation connectors and this wire to connect the power supply to the unit. I chose a 6 conductor, lower gauge wire because it's easier to work with. I simply dedicated two wires to each voltage (12, 5 and gnd). I was able to jumper the power on pin on the board of the power supply so that it always turns on with the switch and I removed all of the wires from the PSU by simply desoldering them from the main board. A good desoldering station helps with this tremendously but if using a soldering iron, I recommend adding leaded solder to the existing solder as that lead-free stuff can be difficult to work with.
The aviation receptical fit perfectly in one of the existing holes on the unit itself and on the power supply I had to drill a hole for the receptacle. However, I accidentally installed mine too high such that the fan would not fit back into the case, so I just mounted the fan on the outside of the case.
I didn't like the way they distributed power to each of the lighting fixtures where they spliced the wire directly, so instead, I designed a custom printed circuit board to distribute power. However, my first design produced a lot of heat in the PCB because the traces weren't wide enough to handle the current, so I changed the design to a six-layer board, giving each voltage two layers of copper. The new board does not get hot at all.
Here is the circuit board:
The holes align perfectly inside the unit and they are connected to ground so mounting it inside the unit grounds the circuit to the entire housing. I have attached all of the gerber files into a zip file if you are interested in ordering the board for yourself. You can, in fact, upload this zip file directly to JLCPCB.COM since I used their software to create the design. I also have four of these boards since the minimum order quantity is five if anyone is interested in buying one from me.
I cut all of the wires to each lighting unit long enough, of course, to be able to reach the board and I soldered all of the wires onto the board.
I installed fan connector posts to each of the fan connector points on the main board as the factory soldered the fan wire directly to the board. I also replaced all four fans with same-sized fans, but I went with 5 volt fans that are half the width, then wired two fans in series and stacked them in each fan location. I needed to put thin spacers in between each fan to avoid rubbing. This turned out nicely and they are very quiet. The actual output for the fan voltage off the board is 10 volts so the fans won't be overdriven and they only draw 180ma of current per fan. Each pair of fans is driven by a single transistor, which is rated to be able to handle 1.5 amps, so in this setup, each transistor will only sustain .36 amps, which is well within spec.
Finally, the Timekeeper RAM module's internal battery is dead (only rated to last for 10 years) but it is possible to use an external battery so that the unit's settings are retained when powered off. I went with this battery and this battery holder which I will either velcro or hot glue to the main board and solder to the underside of the board directly to the timekeeper. The positive lead of the external battery holder can be soldered to pin 12 of the timekeeper and the ground lead to ground.
I will edit and post more photos within the next couple of days for anyone interested.
The unit works perfectly with the rebuild, but I do have one line of LEDs where the center LED is degraded and causing the three in that series to not light up. I don't know which LEDs to purchase as a viable replacement, so if anyone knows that information, I would be most grateful.
Finally, the unit was missing one of the brackets, so I decided to draw one up in CAD and have four of them 3D printed using nylon. I ordered 4, just in case there was any issues with the size of the bracket, I wanted to have four that are identical. I used the same company to print those as I used to make the PCB. The new ones fit perfectly, and I opted to have them printed in black nylon. I have attached the stl file for anyone interested.
Mike Sims
Last edited:
