Help needed with TrailTech 10W HID

[AndyP]

Hi all,

I've a problem with my 10W HID system. It is a system sold by a bike shop called 'The Rush' in the UK, basically a trailtech 10w HID housing/ballast/bulb with a custom voltage controller/switch added in.

A month or so ago it failed totally, I took it apart to find a broken wire was the cause. I resoldered the wiring and all was fine for 4 or 5 rides.

Now the light runs for about 5 min, the turns itself off, even on a freshly charged battery. It started doing this in the middle of a ridewhen it had been on for an hour or so. It will turn straight back on again when the switch is pressed, but again only runs for 5 mins before turning itself off again.

any ideas what may be the cause? Would a problem with the ballast cause this or does the ballast just control start up?

any help would be much appreciated.

 

[wildwood]

were abouts did you have to re-solder the wire? inside the light unit or battery?

 

[EFMax]

I have a Trail Tech 30w HID and if my experiences are anything to go by, then from what you have said, the problem could be in one of two places..

1: If you have their supplied Li-ion battery, there may be issues with the PCB within the batteries.

2: The switch itself.

I have had issues with both and I soon found out that the PCB is not needed, as the switch will take care of the under discharge and the Smart Charger will take care of over discharge.

I have seriously mod'd mine and have upped the battery capacity and ditched the PCB.. The switch they swapped..

As a side note, make sure that you have made the light unit water tight as this can let in mositure and that can be a real problem..

Here is their contact stuff..
Telephone Number: (44) 01642 370444

Fax Number: (44) 01642 370100

Sales: [email protected] (speak to Roy)

 

[wildwood]

I wouldnt advise removing the protection circuit. Its there for a reason

 

[EFMax]

I wouldnt advise removing the protection circuit. Its there for a reason

Normally I would totally agree with you, but its doubled up here on these lights so there is a duplication as the light switch has some fancy electronics in it that do precisely the same job and I found on both my PCB's that there were issues that actually stopped the light from working correctly..

I have taken my PCB off in July 08, run the lights most days for at least 60-75mins and recharge... have had zero issues in this space of time and the batteries always recharge to 12.78v and then cut off charging.. When switched on, the switch has a 4 stage monitor that shows when the batteries are at 12v, 11v, 10v and cut off when they reach below 9.5v.. it appears to work fine and I have only ever once let it cut off point, just to see that the cut off works, which is does.

 

[AndyP]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated

Q "were abouts did you have to re-solder the wire? inside the light unit or battery?"

A the broken wire was between the bulb holder and the ballast. I re-soldered the connection by adding in a short length of new wire.

The battery is not the trailtech unit, it is a 14.8v 4.4Ah Li Ion unit sourced by the shop that made the light units up. the battery seems OK, it is giving about 16.8v on a multimeter after charging.

the switch is also not the standard trailtech item I think. It is a square plastic unit in line with the cable, and has a blue LED. The led is lit when the light is on and flashes if there is a problem with the battery voltage.

as the battery has protected PCB built in, would it be worth cutting out the switch and directly connecting the ballast to the battery. The unit was originally supplied like this, the switch was a later upgrade by the shop. (The light was brighter before the switch was added, but the bulb fogged quite quickly on the top half)

Re waterproofing. the unit has a rubber seal around the bulb, but the seal at the cable entry to the light unit has lost the rubber grommit. the ballast is all sealed up though and the is plenty of heatshrink over the section I re-soldered

 

[AndyP]

D'oh, just checked and it is the trailtech switch unit after all, not a different type.

Can I just cut the switch out and hardwire battery to the ballast. The battery has some PCB type thing under the heatshrink so has a protection circuit right?

 

[EFMax]

On mine, which was a complete Trail tech unit, I choose to dismantle the spare and broken battery after it was replaced.. I found that the PCB did have issues on mine and I did run it with out the switch first, then back to front with out the PCB.. but I kinda of figured that this was not safe or smart.

With the PCB in place, then you can by pass the switch.. but the switch offers some useful protection. Assuming your switch is the same or similar to mine, then when switched on the blue led comes on and also the green one. When the voltage drops below 11v the yellow led comes on and when it gets to around 8.5v the red led comes on, flashes for a short while and the shuts the whole thing down.

Its this shut down process that is important and if you by-pass this, then you risk damage to the batteries.

Are the shop not able to sort this out for you as the batteries and the charger are genetic stuff with Trail Tech logos on them, but the light unit seeks to be unique to them.. I would also call Trail tech in the UK, they are quite friendly.

 

[AndyP]

my switch only has one blue LED and a single button, no other colours have ever lit up and there is no low battery warning. The light just switches off. the switch is translucent plastic and can just about see the circuit board inside. It is the switch shown in photo on this page

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1332

I've cut the switch out and there is still the same problem with directly connected battery and ballast :-(

is it possible that the bulb is dead, but runs for a short time rather than simply refusing to start up?

 

[EFMax]

That switch is the same as mine.

Blue led = on
Green led = 11v - 13v
Yellow led = 10v - 11v
Red led = below 10v
Flashing red led = below 9.5v

Approx arround 9.25v - 9.50v the unit will cut off.

If your's is different then it is probably due to the different models that we have.

I still suggest that you call Trail Tech.. if by passing the switch is still an issue, it could be due to something internal - in my case it was because of water impregnation (which was totally my fault).

Once flashing red light is reached, the unit appears to prevent you from switching back on until charge is at least 9.5v plus.