Power on Board Sport Spot Troubleshoot

[SimulatedZero]

I have a very old (10+ years) spot light that is branded Power on Board Sport Spot. I have not been able to find all that much information on the internets, granted, I didn't really look all that hard. The problem I have is it won't turn on/ charge. I plug it into the wall and the charging light comes on but that's it. I have a couple questions here, A. Is it worthy to try and fix it? B. Would there be any decent, budget minded, upgrades for the battery (lead acid)? C. Would there be any decent bulb upgrades (incandescent)? D. What kind of lumens/lux should I expect?

I hail from the LED side of lights, so my concepts on lights in general will probably be a bit different than what you guys are used to. I would like around 100,000 lux with a nice fat spot (I know, depends on the reflector) so that probably means 1500 lumens minimum, 3000 ideal. Don't really know how easy that is to obtain in a spot light, from the little I've read it looks like you guys have that down pat so hopefully no worries. Also, I am looking forward to doing some basic mod work on this thing and for just the experience if nothing else. So feel free to bounce some cheap and easy ideas off me.

Cheers from the LED side of life

[ma_sha1]

Most likely the lead acid battery is dead. Check the voltage.

There are direct replacement lifeP04 packs, google it up with your lead acid info. Might need a new charger for the lifepo4 pack too.

[FRITZHID]

Lipo packs are available, tho the voltage rating may be higher the the stock SLA, thus overdriving it if its in Incan... personally, i'd upgrade it to a HID with the Lipo option... even 35w HID would be an improvement over Incan, in color, runtime and CP. not to mention it's not a hard mod.
with the Lipo option, 99% sure you'll have to upgrade the charger.
a good lipo and charger pack can be gotten from Lips here on CPF and is a safe unit for the SLA/LIPO swap option.
a 35w HID package is around $30 on that bid to own site, just make sure you get the slim ballast and the right bulb type. these kits come it packs of 2, so you'll have a spare ballast and bulb for it as well.
after upgrade, it should be in the 3000lm area with about 90m run time, if not longer.
if your really feeling brave, you could go with the 55w package and jump up to around 5800lms, and 1 hr runtime, but idk if the internals of a POB can fit and allow cooling for something that big or not.

[SimulatedZero]

The battery is reading 12.2 volts resting and sags down to 11.9 under the load of the little back up light on the spot light. The thing that concerns me is that nothing occurs at all when I pull the trigger. I figured that I would get a little bit of something out of the light, or at least the LED's on the side lighting up to let know it's on. I wonder if there is something wrong with the trigger, or is normal for a battery in that condition?

[FRITZHID]

well, if the little backup light doesent draw enough amps, it won't show what a true load sag would be.
if it isn't the batt, perhaps the trigger or small control board inside has gone bad, as well as making sure all the connections are solid.

[SimulatedZero]

Ok, so to get inside the light I had to remove the reflector and bulb assembly and the battery behind it. From there I am looking at the switch and circuit. I had to do a little remodeling and removed a kind of plastic shield between the switch and reflector housing with my pocket knife to properly see everything. I am not entirely sure how to test the circuit to see if everything is working, but, everything looks and feels like is connected. No loose wires and no loose soldering points.

That being said, I hooked the reflector assembly back up and left the battery hooked up but outside of the light. I took a base reading (still 12.2v) and used the auxiliary light and the Voltage dropped to 11.7v this time. I turned off the aux light and kept reading while I pulled the trigger a few times and nothing happened. The battery didn't drop a tenth of a volt. So I don't think that power is getting connected at the switch. Would it be a good idea to bypass the switch assembly and direct connect the bulb to the battery? And how would I go about testing the switch circuit?

Keep in mind I can not open the housing into its two halves because the screws are rusted and stripped so I have no way to get them out at the moment. And sorry about being so delayed in responding, I didn't think you would respond so quickly so I wasn't paying close attention.

[FRITZHID]

well, i guess at this point, i'd test the bulb and batt combo, connect the batt to the bulb directly using wire (not from the light itself) and make sure the bulb is functioning. if it does light, then i'd install the batt back into the light, and use a multi meter to check the connections where the lamp connects. if that tests ok, then i'm dumbfounded, if it fails, then i'd say 95% sure its the switch thats failed.

[SimulatedZero]

Ok, how do I hook up the bulb to the battery? I know it seems like a stupid question, but I am quite obviously doing something wrong here. I tried hooking up the wires from the battery into the slots the normal wires go in, but nadda. So I took the bulb out and tried connecting the negative to the base the bulb is attached to and the positive to the lead wire heading into the bulb. Again, nothing. I hit it with the DMM just to triple check and I am getting some kind of reading (though at some point I think I may have been just connecting either side of the lead wire).

I guess the bulb is dead, even though the filament is fine. I just want to make sure I don't make a complete fool of my self by saying "Yep, it's dead" when it isn't.

[FRITZHID]

well, i'm not sure what bulb type the POB uses, but there should be 2 or 3 flat blade terminals on it, if 2, then one connects to the other through the filament, if 3 then there are 2 filaments and 1 is ground, and the other 2 are connected individually to each filament. (my guess would be the bulb is dead)
the next step would be to reconnect the batt and test at the leads for the bulb in the lamp itself and see if you get power when you pull the trigger. if u do, then get a new bulb. if not, then you may have bad bulb and switch.


BTW, just because you can't see the break in the filament, doesent mean there isn't one.

[SimulatedZero]

Ok, then. And to think of all the trouble I could have saved myself by doing this to begin with. It is definitely the bulb. I get a full 12.2v at the leads when I pull the trigger. So, I guess the question now is what do I want to put in the reflector to replace the blown bulb?

You guys mentioned a basic 35 watt HID earlier. I have a few beefs with HID's. Number one is the soft start, is there anyway around this? I would very much prefer to have full light the moment I pull the trigger, or at least with in a second or two. My other beef is that I have heard a few things about UV levels and Rayleigh scattering being a issue with real high powered lights. I'm not sure what level of light you have to be at to have that be a real factor. I would rather not have to wear UV glasses to use this thing. Are there any good incan bulbs that would be an easy fix? Also, how well would the battery hold up to the HID load? It's a 12v 3Ah lead acid battery.

[SimulatedZero]

Double posted for some reason.

[FRITZHID]

IMHO i'd go with HID, the delay be damn'd... the benefits far outweigh the drawback.
HIDs produce roughly 3x more light then halogen per watt. SO... if the stock bulb is 100w or less, the 35w HID is going to blow it away, not just because of the lumens output, but because the point light source is much smaller then the halogen filament.
the UV output is not as bad as some would say, infact, i'd say that 80% or more is absorbed by the outer tube of the HID bulb itself and the lens of the light as well. i've worked with a few HID systems, and have yet to get UV burned by any of them. i'm not say'n it's safe to stare into the arc tube with no protection, but i woulden't make it a major concern in a spotlight your using.
runtime would also increase quite a bit (i'd think, depending on what stock wattage bulb is in there) with the HID system. the initial start up draw is higher but thats only for a fraction of a second on most systems. you may even be able to find a "fast start" HID kit, like the stanley HID has, that outputs almost 80% of its total power right at trigger pull.
from what i understand the POB is actually an ideal HID host. (i've not exp'd one personally)
the HIDs i build triumph over the stock Halogen version... the stock 100/130w halogen had a max runtime of 20 mins on LOW while dimming all the while, whereas the HID runs at full tilt for an hour. you can see my build here. HID's also run cooler then halogens of equal power since they make light with an electric spark rather then heating up a wire.
but if your just looking for a replacement bulb, i'd think that any auto supply store would have one in stock. and possibly in other wattage's then what's stock.

[SimulatedZero]

Nice, I like that Hand Sun. It would probably make my millennium to get a cloud bounce. So, what size HID bulb would be a good place to start? There is a 9006 size 35w HID kit on buy.com for 41.18 shipped. It's two HID bulbs so I guess I would have to find something else to convert to HID as well . Not really sure if you have a better place to buy from or any tips in general.

That bulb looks awfully large relative to the reflector I have. It's maybe 6 inches in diameter, but, then again I prefer larger spots of light over more focused ones.

[FRITZHID]

well, 1st off, confirm the bulb type in the POB. most spotlights are H-3 or H-4 type, but others are used. thats what will determine what kit you would want to order. 2nd, what color temp you would like. the higher the # the bluer the beam will be, personally, i suggest something in the 4300-5000K range, it's not yellowish like a halogen, it's a nice clean white color, yet not blue like alot of the HID auto refits you see around town. 3rd, you want to make sure you order a "slim line" ballast, its smaller then the standard ballasts and will fit much easier. 4th, pick a wattage! with only having a 3Ah batt, i suggest the 35w. that should give you atleast 1/2hr runtime with no dimming (unlike the halogen). if you arn't worried about runtime and just want to WoW with your light, you can always go up to the 55w.... or 75w if your feeling crazy!!!! but then you'll be wanting to look into a LiPo option so it will last more then 5 mins. lol

[SimulatedZero]

Currently it's a 100w H3 bulb. I will run a 35w HID to start out with. I think the trick here is going to be finding one that I won't have to pay out the nose for. 60 dollars is a fair amount of money on my budget, that's just the nature of the beast. Hopefully some good deals will be on CPFMP, if not this may take a while... I think tomorrow I will run out and grab an incan bulb just so I have a working spot light until I do the HID mod. If I understand this all I need is a HID bulb that fits, a slim ballast, and that's it for this particular mod. Sounds fairly simple. If everything works out well, the next post involving this light will probably be documenting my first HID mod.