My HL Leo2A6's tail lights are dead

[atcttge]

TBH, when I got the tank out of the box for the first time, I didn't notice from Day 1 if the tail lights were working.

I've opened up the tank and the wires for the tail lights are all ok. The bulbs don't look like they've exploded due to short or excess voltage.

The worst part: I can't recall where the lead is connected to the main board.

Any ideas how to fix the dead tail lights?

[PainlessWolf]

Good afternoon,
They are either wired in with the front headlights or plugged into a two pin port on the card. I'm not sure about all of the new things on HL's boards but I know that some taillights, especially those that use the two pin plug only come on when the tank is reversing. Good luck!
regards,
Painless

[MichaelC]

Couple of my HL tanks tail-light stopped working after a while due to bad soldering. Try wiggling them around a little and see if it comes back on. Very rarely does the LED burnt out an it is mostly bad/loose wiring/solder.

[wibblywobbly]

You wouldn't be able to tell if the leds were blown from looking at them, so easiest way to check is like has been said, check the plugs. Then check solder joints on the leds, then check that the circuit is complete as the leds are linked to each other. If one joint is dodgy none of them will work. If they are ok, get a multimeter and check the voltage is getting to the led pins. If it is, the leds are blown. One cause of this is if the two bare legs touched each other, I have had this on pre-owned tanks that I have bought, the HL assemblers don't always keep bare wires etc insulated or clear of each other.
I even had this experience a couple of days ago with someones aftermarket hull mounted mg, it didn't work. We checked the wiring loom, and ended up cutting into it to prove that the current was getting to the led, which it was.

[atcttge]

Thanks guys. I checked the LEDs and their terminals. None were blown (I remember blowing up LEDs years ago), and none of their terminals were sticking to each other. I've plugged the two-pin lead to various 2-pin ports on the board (e.g., smoker, the 2-pin port beside the smoker, etc) and still don't get it to light up. The 2-pin port beside the smoker port says "LED." Some pix on the net say this is the tail light port. I plugged it in there, turned on the tank, and reversed, but the tail lights are still dead.

[atcttge]

Looks like I'll have to do a completely new taillight assembly as all the taillight LEDs are dead. And since I'm not so good at electronics, I'm gonna need your help guys.

1) I'm looking to buy 5mm flat top red LEDs. I've noticed on eBay that the flat tops are rated 12V up, while the round heads have 6V. I have not seen 6V flat tops. Why?

2) Can I used 12V 5mm flat top red LEDs for the taillights?

3) How should I wire these? In series? Parallel? What resistors should I use and where to solder these?

4) How will I connect this to the powersupply and make it work so that the two of the lights only work when I reverse the tank, while the other two only light up when the tank stops?

Thanks in advance.

[MichaelC]

Hmmm..... I did find this one on eBay which looks like it is rated at 3v and flattop. You should be able to run this with the HL board no problem:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100pcs-5mm-RED- ... 2573&rt=nc

12v will probably be too low or not light up at all. I think the output from the MFU is somewhere between 3-5v.

It should be wired parallel as there is 4 of them. I think the existing wiring is 2 parallel wired serial toghether.

If you see the diagram below there should be existing wiring and connector going into the lower right plug.

[atcttge]

Thanks MichaelC! I've asked around and I was told that the four LEDs at the rear may not actually be lights on the real tank, but rather retroreflectors. I've yet to wait for a confirmation on that. If those are reflectors, then I'm going to fill in those holes where the LEDs used to be and add some 3M reflectorized stickers instead. I'll then replace the sticker tail lights with 3mm red LEDs instead.

[atcttge]

I've asked around and I was told that the four LEDs at the rear may not actually be lights on the real tank, but rather retroreflectors.

I got confirmation that the tail lights in the HL Leo2A6 are actually reflectors so I've gone covering those up with styrene already and will stick 3M reflector paper/sticker instead. The two dry transfers that serve as the yellow and red taillights I'll replace with 3mm LEDs (yellow and red) so I'm gonna need help on how to wire those to the HL 2.4Ghz board (as soon as I get those LEDs).