12Volt interior bedroom lights flicker

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Some converters vary their voltage to either avoid overcharging the batteries or to see if they need topping off. This will cause incandescent lights and some LEDs to change brightness.
 
I have found sometimes the led lights need a couple seconds to warm up.
The overhead “puck” led in our bathroom acts up when you first turn it on. I’ve checked connections and all tight,clean.
Going to swap it with different unit to confirm it’s not wiring issue.
 
Lou Schneider said:
Some converters vary their voltage to either avoid overcharging the batteries or to see if they need topping off. This will cause incandescent lights and some LEDs to change brightness.
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Most RVs today come with 3 level charging at least because of coach battery charging. Some can be as high as 14.4V while a fully charged battery after resting and with no charge at all is about 12.6V.
 
Sorry for the late reply ya'll. I tried a bunch of suggested things above, but ended up just being the type of light that was in there. Seems as though in my system, if I put an LED light in (I assume they are led), they flicker, but when I change it out with one of the regular bulbs (the old ones that get hot and use a lot of energy), its fine....
I wonder why my lights cant handle LED...
anyways. Old bulbs it is. Thanks everyone for your assistance.
 
Why would any LED flicker with a steady voltage regardless of brand, age, quality, etc?

My guess is the LED can respond much faster to the voltage changes than the old stock blubs. IOW, the old blubs cover up the real issue of the voltage fluctuations. The problem was just not noticed until the change to LEDs.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
I have a friend that converted to LED ...And had the same issue. He was able to get the seller to replace them with a different brand and they work fine.
It turns out that the manufacturer had a bad batch. Sorry I don't the brand names of either.
 
I don't know what causes the flickering, but I had two reading lamps in my bedroom with LED bulbs. I used one much more than the other. (They were in place for 8 years of full-timing.) They were the kind of bulbs that had multiple "lamps" on them, and eventually the one I used the most started to flicker and drive me crazy. When I looked at it closely, some of the component lights were burned out and others were flickering. When I replaced the flickering one, it stopped flickering and I was amazed at how much brighter it was.

Yes, LED bulbs last a long time, but they do eventually wear out and depending on the bulb, they may dim instead of burning out suddenly because only some of the component lamps are still working. And some may flicker.

I went around to my ceiling lights and traded bulbs in some that are used heavily with some that are hardly ever used. Some had definitely gotten dimmer over time, so I replaced the dimmer ones with new bulbs.
 
Does the switch for the lights that flicker also have a dimmer on it? If so, that’s the problem. If your LEDs are not the “dimmable” type, they will flicker if there is a dimmer in the circuit. Even some dimmable LEDs won’t work with the type of dimmers on the 12-volt circuits. I bypassed the dimmer, then the LEDs worked fine.

Guess how I know this… 😉
 
DonTom said:
Why would any LED flicker with a steady voltage regardless of brand, age, quality, etc?
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As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, most LED lamps are comprised of a number of individual SMT LED's arranged in a matrix. I've had a couple go "disco" myself and it's usually due to marginal design or assembly. What happens is the LED heats up and if it's not adequately heatsinked to the substrate, it will overheat and will either dim or the die bonding wires will fail, sometimes just "touching" so as the LED heats up it can cyclically make/break connection and flicker or flash. Same if it's poorly soldered and the solder joint fractures or crystallizes, thermal expansion/contraction will make/break the connection. I see it mostly in the bulb replacements and not so much fixtures built with LED substrates. The incandescent bulb fixtures weren't made to dissipate much heat as incandescent bulbs didn't care but limited airflow and minimal socket heat sinking can cause LED bulbs to overheat. The bulb itself may only feel "warm" but it's the heat inside the LED itself that must conduct heat out through it's terminals and if it has nowhere to go, then lifespan and reliability is shortened. For the $2 LED bulbs I buy I'm OK with a few years' life, the power reduction alone makes them worth it.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Mark_K5LXP said:
For the $2 LED bulbs I buy I'm OK with a few years' life, the power reduction alone makes them worth it.
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Perhaps that is why it never happened to any of the LED lamps I have owned, other than for other reasons such as the loose fuse socket in my new RV.

I changed most of the lamps in my Y2k RV to LED. But only the ones I use often as each one has its own switch. Never had them flicker at all, but they cost me around twenty bucks each, so they are not the cheap ones. So I guess that makes a difference as we really do get what we pay for.

In my new RV each lamp is made from something like 18 small LEDS each. They do not have individual switches. I can only turn the rear or front lamps all out at once. When they did all flicker because of the bad fuse connection, it was really bad.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
There are two types of LED; regulated and unregulated. The regulated LED's will be rated for a range of voltages like 11 to 25 Volts. Unregulated will usually be cheaper and marked for a single voltage like 12 Volts, and perhaps a close tolerance.
Unregulated also will usually flicker in a dimmer type socket. The reason being they are usually PWM (pulse width modulated) and they react to the alternating inputs as well as electrically noisy inputs.

Ernie
 
I presume the socket is originally for incandescent bulbs. LED's do respond to changes in voltage (average), but respond much faster than incandescent bulbs; thus they may flicker
Ernie
 
"Modulation for Dimming Systems"

Are there RVs with dimming systems for the LED lights?

But AFAIK, the LED lamp itself with not contain PWM. But can be driven with such.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
The "better" LED modules will have self contained "drivers" which amount to AC-DC or DC-DC converters. LED's are current devices so if you're feeding them directly with an unregulated voltage they can end up being way under or way over driven if current isn't managed. Some early LED modules couldn't work with dimmers, whether they were your basic AC triac based or PWM DC, the converters they had would go tilt trying to regulate the current with the widely-varying input. Today I'd say the vast majority are "dimmer compatible" where there's enough sophistication to average or integrate the incoming waveform and translate it to a varying brightness. I can't speak to whether there are dimmers installed by RV OEM's but I know for sure they're available as a replacement assembly you can install and use, which will usually specify their compatibility with driver sourced or bare LED assemblies.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
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