LED Remote Dimmer Behaving Strangely

[MidLifeCrisis]

Not sure if this information is useful to anyone - but just incase ..... if you have one of these sort of remote control dimmer boxes (that are all over ebay) controlling your leds .... then read on ....


I discovered today that they operate in, what to me, is an unusual manner.
As you may be aware they pulse the output voltage on/off to control the led brightness (i.e. they blink the led really fast which your eye then perceives as a certain brightness) - but rather than pulse the positive (12v) side, they are pulsing the ground (-ve) side.

So, the upshot of this is that the +ve side of the output is always at 12V - and here is the main point - it is at 12v even when the unit is switched off !!! (i.e. when you have it turned off at the remote)
(In most cases this won't be a big deal but might be worth thinking about depending on how you have yours wired into the van)

[slippy8v]

Have this in mine but have a switch fitted before it so its not live all the time only switched on when the vans being used.

[danmetallic]

Am I missing something? I've put a voltmeter on the + output side and it only registers when switched on via the remote.

[MidLifeCrisis]

Am I missing something? I've put a voltmeter on the + output side and it only registers when switched on via the remote.

Really???
So you are seeing the '+ve' output terminal going to 0 volts (relative to van ground) when the dimmer unit is turned off by the remote (but obviously unit still has 12v and ground connections at the input side)?
I wonder if different units are designed differently (but look the same externally) .... very odd?!?

[danmetallic]

Am I missing something? I've put a voltmeter on the + output side and it only registers when switched on via the remote.

Really???
So you are seeing the '+ve' output terminal going to 0 volts (relative to van ground) when the dimmer unit is turned off by the remote (but obviously unit still has 12v and ground connections at the input side)?
I wonder if different units are designed differently (but look the same externally) .... very odd?!?

Certainly on one of the units I had here. I'd received a faulty one so double checked the replacement that they sent out. Wouldn't surprise me though.