Switchback LED Issue (Front Headlights)
 

(My gut told me this was an electronics issue, but after stepping back I probably should have put this in Cosmetic Mods)

Hey all-

I recently put in switchbacks in my boomerangs, along with blacking out the chrome inside the headlamp, and while the process was straight forward I came across an interesting issue with the boards.

At first, it appeared that just the passenger side turn (yellow) LEDs had a problem. They were significantly darker than the driver's side. Switching controllers didn't change the issue, pointing to a problem with the boards, and @Diode Dynamics agreed and were kind enough to send a replacement kit.

I've got time set aside this weekend to take the headlights back off, crack them open, and replace the boards, but I noticed today that now the driver side turn LEDs had the same problem all of a sudden! I could understand something happening to one board, maybe during the resealing process in the oven, but two? And the second taking over a week to show?

I have no problem opening them up and swapping boards, but at this point I'm now concerned that some other issue might be contributing to this and that the same thing will happen again with the replacements. Has anyone else ever experienced something like this on their switchbacks? Is there maybe something I overlooked in the process? Maybe it is the boards, and the pair were bound to fail due to something beyond my control, but I really don't want to open these headlights a 3rd time if I don't have to.

The only things I can think to do right now to try and prevent this happening again is to be even more meticulous with the wire routing inside the headlight, and to possibly cover the solder points on the boards with an electrical sealant to keep their integrity.

To answer the obvious, yes they were bench tested before install and I confirmed that both yellow LEDs on both boards for each side did in fact work before install. I tested just before and just after sealing each headlight back up, and everything appeared fine (although inside away from direct sunlight may have made it look better than it was). Both sides have the white DRLs working just fine, both in high power and dimmed mode. It seems isolated to the yellow LEDs only.

Here's a video showing the difference:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNW4euUcA4Q"]Switchback Turn Brightness Discrepancy[/ame]

Swapped out the boards today, and I'm still baffled. While there's no damage visible to the boards themselves or the wiring, it's definitely the amber LEDs that have issues. The whites still illuminate at 100%, but the amber LEDs are noticeably dimmer. One is at about 50%, the other two maybe 25%, and one doesn't illuminate at all.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...pspxn8v19q.jpg

Rather than continue to rack my brain on "what if's", I'm going to leave well enough alone and move on not knowing what really happened. Despite that, it still concerns me that it happened not long after I started using them, and makes me a little on edge with the new ones.

The new ones are working 100% right now. I'm crossing my fingers it's a coincidence that two boards experienced the identical failure at almost the same time.

those things suck they burn out easily replaced 2 of them said fuck it went back to stock,
there is not enough heat dissipation for the amber led they used so they slowly burn out

This doesn't make sense to me considering the white LEDs have the same setup, but are constantly on and didn't burn out. If anything, they'd be the ones to fail in that scenario.

the amber leds they use run really really hot, just keeping the amber ones on for longer than a minute would burn them out,

What symptoms did you have exactly that led to that?