Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor

   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor
  • Thread Starter
#81  
Ran into a similar issue when I replaced the incandescent lamps in my travel trailer lights with LED's. My weather radio was essentially useless. I figured it out by process of elimination because the radio worked fine during the day but was junk after dark when I had lights on. Happened to walk out of the trailer when the radio was on and the interference went away when I turned off the light!

Yeah and that shows you how severe the issue really is with those lights. The fact that you were knocking out FM weather stations high up at 162 MHz is pretty bad. Glad you found out what was happening.
 
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor
  • Thread Starter
#82  
So in between chores I went down into the bat cave to do some more experimenting. The first thing I wanted to do was try out an idea posted by Mr Fuddy1952. I swept frequencies from near DC up to 200 MHz and it made zero difference whether the diode was in circuit or not. I used a 1N4007 along with a new, low ESR 22 uF electrolytic cap. The cap did help down below around 30 MHz by 10-15 dB but made things worse above around 150 MHz. So I would call this one as no surprise but a noble try. TU for the suggestion.

The next thing I did was to try a couple different LED light fixtures I had since I am still waiting for the filters to arrive. I thought it might be interesting to see what the RFI profile of my square 16-LED fixture looked like as compared to 3 other models I had. The results were VERY interesting and indicated that in fact all of these different models use different SMPS and thus will have different RF profiles.

First up was a smaller, 9-LED round light fixture I had. It was just as nasty as my 16-LED square "baseline" unit.

Next came a small RED cased 18-LED bar type light fixture. I bought a pair of them to install on my Toro Z-turn because it does not have any lights at all and I like mowing when things cool off in the evening. This LED light fixture in the lab was amazingly quiet ! It was overall very impressive. A quick sanity check was required to see if lab results matched real world installations so I jerry-rigged the light to the tractor and sure enough I was able to hear all my AM & FM stations. I was impressed.

Next came a large 78-LED light bar I was planning on putting onto the tractor. I was expecting this thing to scream louder than a teenager grounded for life ! It surprisingly was very impressive and showed only several bands where the level of RFI was higher than the ambient noise levels. I took this one too and installed it on the tractor and sure enough I was able to hear all of my FM stations although some of the weaker ones were mixed with the RFI from the lights. On AM where the lab tests showed the highest levels of RFI on the tractor the radio proved this true. Strong AM stations were aok but weak ones became hard to hear. So this light bar will need some filtering but NOTHING like the brute-force filter the initial LED fixture would require.

Below should be an image showing the RED "Toro" LED fixture and the long 78-LED fixture I will end up using.

led-lights.jpg
 
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor #83  
It should be pointed out also, that many radios have a pretty junky front end, so it's just not the fault of the lights or whatever is causing the interferance.
 
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor #84  
What I don't understand is the...Note that NH sells these EXACT lights as aftermarket add-ons...part.
Seems to me New Holland would have all manner of he[[ doing this.
The average person isn't a technician or engineer.
What happens when a customer buys that tractor new, has dealer install those lights. Then the radio doesn't work properly.
If I installed them, had problems, they're going back. I can't picture having to design a filter for them.
My guess is there are halogen lights that serve the purpose without static.
 
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor
  • Thread Starter
#85  
What I don't understand is the...Note that NH sells these EXACT lights as aftermarket add-ons...part.
Seems to me New Holland would have all manner of he[[ doing this.
The average person isn't a technician or engineer.
What happens when a customer buys that tractor new, has dealer install those lights. Then the radio doesn't work properly.
If I installed them, had problems, they're going back. I can't picture having to design a filter for them.
My guess is there are halogen lights that serve the purpose without static.

I agree. I shared my findings with my dealership and they were very thankful and said the information would be passed on. I feel good knowing that I brought some awareness to them about a subject that I doubt they had much experience with.

Also the thing that makes this more complicated is that as far as I know the radio that I had installed is not one that NH normally provides or has available. As stated earlier it is very possible that even these very noisy lights with a different radio would yield entirely different results. Again, EMC must be treated at the system level not an individual or component level matter.
 
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor #86  
3 different LED bars and 3 totally different results. From pretty good (clean) to ultra nasty... yep, a crap shoot. " Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get" A very smart man said that. :)
 
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor #87  
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor #88  
Gee, I must be lucky.
My CUT is heavily LED decorated, 12 LED front 'bar', 2 rear LED work lights and 32" LED strip at rear roof level.
I always have my radio on while on snow duties and am rather far from the transmitter as well.
Also being rather frugal my LED's are offshore or liquidation buys.
My inside cab light is also a 12" led strip attached with sticky tape.(works great)

I like my front 'bar' as the center 4 are spots with the outer 4's are floods and as such driving forward is brighter than daylight plus I can be seen by traffic.
Heck if I could remember where I got that front 'bar' I'd mount one on the rear for snow blowing.
For blowing I mounted a back up camera system with the camera up under my roof overhang so there is never any snow on it.

Now my radio sports a 2 ft whip antenna (spring base) that is roof mounted so if I had EMI or RFI problems I'd sure know it.

All this because my CUT's alternator is minimal.
 
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor
  • Thread Starter
#89  
Gee, I must be lucky.
My CUT is heavily LED decorated, 12 LED front 'bar', 2 rear LED work lights and 32" LED strip at rear roof level.
I always have my radio on while on snow duties and am rather far from the transmitter as well.
Also being rather frugal my LED's are offshore or liquidation buys.
My inside cab light is also a 12" led strip attached with sticky tape.(works great)

I like my front 'bar' as the center 4 are spots with the outer 4's are floods and as such driving forward is brighter than daylight plus I can be seen by traffic.
Heck if I could remember where I got that front 'bar' I'd mount one on the rear for snow blowing.
For blowing I mounted a back up camera system with the camera up under my roof overhang so there is never any snow on it.

Now my radio sports a 2 ft whip antenna (spring base) that is roof mounted so if I had EMI or RFI problems I'd sure know it.

All this because my CUT's alternator is minimal.

That is really cool that you are able to run so many and not have issues. It supports what I mentioned very early on.....just because one person has an issue with some lights does not some else with a different tractor etc will also have any issues. It takes two to tango.

I need to rip out my "hokey" little horizontal antenna with exactly what you have. The antenna needs to be vertical and I want it to be between 20" to 24" long. The spring at the base is also exactly what I want as well for when I smack into branches etc. I point that out in my YouTube video review of the tractor.

Any chance when you get some time grab 2-3 nice close-ups of the antenna and esp ant base w/spring and how and where it is mounted. It will definitely be on my to do list. Also just out of curiosity what brand and model radio do you have? Does it have a weather band?

Thanks for sharing this info !
 
   / Beware of possible issues when installing some LED lights on your tractor #90  
He may also have a better radio. Most people only listen to one station. How about a tight band pass filter?
 
 
 
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