Cabin lights

[brendanwalls]

I just bought a pair of 4w l.e.d. Bulbs thinking plenty of light without draining my batteries. They don’t work. Any ideas?

[ranger58sb]

Try turning them over in the socket, maybe. LEDs are usually polarity sensitive...

-Chris

[bensolomon]

Make sure they are 12volt and not 24 volt.

[brendanwalls]

Thanks. When you say turning them over in the socket do you mean switching the wires?

[DreadPirateRob]

Originally Posted by brendanwalls

Thanks. When you say turning them over in the socket do you mean switching the wires?

Yup, that's what he means, if they're wired in. Polarity is important with LEDs.

Beyond that - the usual troubleshooting steps.

Use another device or meter to make certain that there's actually power on the wires you're working with.

Meter the voltage and double check it against the light in your hand. Make certain that the light you're holding is the one you ordered - you may have specified 12v DC and gotten the 120v AC version! Check the packaging/labels/etc.

Check the light itself by connecting straight to the battery or to a known good source. If it's not lighting up, start looking for extra switches/fuses/etc. that need checked.

Call the company you bought it from! Unless it was a $12 special from Wish or AliExpress... I'm often surprised by how helpful companies are. More than once I've almost accidentally found myself on the phone with the engineer who designed something when I tried to call for a general tech support question.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by brendanwalls

Thanks. When you say turning them over in the socket do you mean switching the wires?

I guess maybe. If something like G4s or other one-direction "bulbs." OTOH, if they're something like T10s, you can literally rotate the things...

-Chris

[brendanwalls]

You are the opposite of a dread pirate, Bob! More like a longed-for lifeboat. Thanks everyone for giving a layman full instructions of a fix for this frustration