HELP! TroubleShooting LED SideMarkers

Hey,

WAIT!

Before simply hooking up a 9v battery to the LED leads,
you need to check and see what voltage they'll require.
Depending on what they are, it might be possible
to burn up all the LEDs immediately if you give them too much voltage...

If there's any way to determine the installer of the LEDs (Warwicks are most often Sims LED systems, made more likely by the Status electronics that suggest a British owner at some point (guessing)), contact them and see what, if any, resistors are needed in line with the battery.
They might be built into the system, but then again, they might not, and could possibly have been cut out along with the original battery connection.

Best wishes,
Martin

 

just as a side note, my status B2 takes 3 9v's.... i think they are running in series to power both the LED's and the pre amp. i really should pull a bettery or two and see if they change the operation

im sure status has a simms licence (john entiwstles early modified buzzards had simms LED's same with mark kings basses) so they will probably be the same as warwicks (again john had warwick buzzards too with simms LED's).

still best to send simms a quick email just to be sure. just a quick guess but im thinking with possibly 10 LED's on your neck that 9v may not blow them without any resistors but and its a big but, check first with simms

 

Most of the led's Ive had in various led toys and mini flashlights use 1 or 2 button cells. Each being 3 volt. The batteries used in guitar and bass led systems I'm familair with use one 3 volt button battery. Though a lot of store bought leds like radio sells use 9-12 volts.

Sounds quite reasonable to assume the same battery that powers the one working led is also meant to power the other leds. Chances are they arent lower voltage.

 

Maybe a little info on LEDs and how they work would be helpful.

LEDs are current operated devices; their brightness depends on the current. They can be run at almost any battery voltage with the appropriate current limiting resistor. So, you need to know the recommended battery voltage and resistor. From this, you can calculate the current they were designed for; you can then use a given battery with a resistor that gives you the rated current. Without a current limiting resistor, you can easily blow them out. The 9V vs 18V issue is not an issue - sounds like the current is the issue.

The other issues with LEDs is the "D" part - they behave as diodes, so the battery has to be connected with the correct polarity. If you hook them up backwards, they block the current and no light is emitted.

Hope this helps.

 

No problem - don't know if there is much we can do here.

Did you have a current limiting resistor in line with one of the LED leads? I don't know about your specific construction, but all LEDs require this resistor. Now the bass may already have one or more in there for this purpose, but it may not. You have to limit the LED current - the voltage isn't the big issue. OK, enough on the current. It is possible to fry the LEDs if there is no current limiting, even with a battery.

Tearing out side marker LEDs would, in my view, require taking the fingerboard off, especially if you want new LED markers. The cheaper route would be to drill out the existing LEDs, leave the wiring, and fill the holes. Replacing them sounds like major surgery.

 

On some instruments they don't just send voltage to the LEDs, they strobe them quickly to make the battery last longer. Most LED displays are like that also, as are auto tail lights.

So there might have been some circuitry involved with the original electronics.

But that is just a guess. I don't know anything about the system.

 

The 2 basses I've owned with LED's (Warwick Thumb6 NT and Status Stealth 6) have both had switches (mini toggles) to turn the LED's on and off, and had nothing to do with the 1/4" inst cable jack. Totally seperate circuit from the bass' audio.