I had an issue with the ATC led not lighting at all, but everything behaving as it should apart from that and concluded that the LED was blown, or at least the green part of it was. Research on forums such as this one suggest they tend to fail from corrosion and water ingress.
With the LED removed from the caravan (and the open end of the connector taped over to keep it clean and dry) the ATC still went through its initiation test when plugged in and was apparently working,
Having repaired the LED assembly (being the sort of practical guy who thinks he can fix anything, usually successfully) I now have system that lights the red light as soon as it is plugged in and doesnt do the setup test anymore (which it did before I repaired the LED).
I have left it plugged into the car for well over 12 hours, as per instructions to "clear the memory if full" and find it the same this morning.
Getting more technical:
Cutting into the failed led unit after removing it showed that it is just a bi colour two leg led which is green with the current going one way and red with the current going the other. Testing with my meter lit the red but reversing didn't light the green (so the green was blown). There were no resistors in series to this plain LED so the current limiting resistors must be inside the control box surely? I identified several bi colour two leg leds and spec sheets were all very similar so (as per posts about repairing these things in other forums and here), I agreed with the idea that any led will work, or a pair with one connected one way and one the other.
Anyway I fitted a two leds in opposite orientations and put these in the housing. My assembly I just tested and it lights red one way and green the other with no shorts. There are only two pins....
However it would appear that connecting this has either confused or blown something in the ATC controller. But I dont see how that happened...and it sounds expensive. And after I just saved £30 fixing that led assembly
Vehicle supply under volts? Well I tried it with engine running and not running and the vehicle battery turns its starter well enough...
Power must be on the necessary pins or it wouldn't light anything..
I was careful to get the LEDS the right way round as I established that the RED+ was on the brown wire on the LED assembly as it was.
The Red led comes on without any hesitation, as soon as the unit is connected. Nothing moves.
Ive backed up and pulled a bit to be sure its not the hitch/brake movement in the wrong place.
Next stage seems to be drive it about with the red led on and the system inactive and see if it goes green? Its a bit of hassle to do that when not actually going on a trip...but I don't understand why that might work...
I also don't understand how leaving it connected for ages without driving it would fix the memory issue, unless it is constantly wringing zero errors or something and takes that long to fill the memory. Seems daft though not to have a way to clear the memory with an instant reset of some sort.
I'm left wondering if I have missed something obvious. Hand brake is off...mains disconnected, 12v on on the caravan - and as I said it was previously doing the initialization.
:dry:
With the LED removed from the caravan (and the open end of the connector taped over to keep it clean and dry) the ATC still went through its initiation test when plugged in and was apparently working,
Having repaired the LED assembly (being the sort of practical guy who thinks he can fix anything, usually successfully) I now have system that lights the red light as soon as it is plugged in and doesnt do the setup test anymore (which it did before I repaired the LED).
I have left it plugged into the car for well over 12 hours, as per instructions to "clear the memory if full" and find it the same this morning.
Getting more technical:
Cutting into the failed led unit after removing it showed that it is just a bi colour two leg led which is green with the current going one way and red with the current going the other. Testing with my meter lit the red but reversing didn't light the green (so the green was blown). There were no resistors in series to this plain LED so the current limiting resistors must be inside the control box surely? I identified several bi colour two leg leds and spec sheets were all very similar so (as per posts about repairing these things in other forums and here), I agreed with the idea that any led will work, or a pair with one connected one way and one the other.
Anyway I fitted a two leds in opposite orientations and put these in the housing. My assembly I just tested and it lights red one way and green the other with no shorts. There are only two pins....
However it would appear that connecting this has either confused or blown something in the ATC controller. But I dont see how that happened...and it sounds expensive. And after I just saved £30 fixing that led assembly
Vehicle supply under volts? Well I tried it with engine running and not running and the vehicle battery turns its starter well enough...
Power must be on the necessary pins or it wouldn't light anything..
I was careful to get the LEDS the right way round as I established that the RED+ was on the brown wire on the LED assembly as it was.
The Red led comes on without any hesitation, as soon as the unit is connected. Nothing moves.
Ive backed up and pulled a bit to be sure its not the hitch/brake movement in the wrong place.
Next stage seems to be drive it about with the red led on and the system inactive and see if it goes green? Its a bit of hassle to do that when not actually going on a trip...but I don't understand why that might work...
I also don't understand how leaving it connected for ages without driving it would fix the memory issue, unless it is constantly wringing zero errors or something and takes that long to fill the memory. Seems daft though not to have a way to clear the memory with an instant reset of some sort.
I'm left wondering if I have missed something obvious. Hand brake is off...mains disconnected, 12v on on the caravan - and as I said it was previously doing the initialization.
:dry: