Dash inverter was smoking and melted

[04cobra23]

The light strip above the switches stopped working so I pulled the dash out and noticed the little black inverter box was smoking and the yellow wire (-) was melted at the box. This wire is also attached to the top of the bilge pump switch. So my question is can I buy another one of those boxes or how do I bypass it?

Thank you!

 

[Mike Blake]

There is a place right down by you. They have them and maybe will give you a discount as they advertise on this sight.

Call them http://www.tecnografic.com/

 

[04cobra23]

Thank you. I see they do dash reproduction. Hopefully they can help me with the light issue. I saw FP sells the replacement inverter but it doesn't look like the one I have.

 

[PlayDate]

I had the same problem 5 years ago on my boat. The factory material was: Aqua Electroluminescent (EL) Tape Strip. This stuff is powered by 110 volts and the inverter is required for it to work. To make it simpler, I removed the EL Tape Strips and Inverter and in its place used 12 volt led strips ($20) behind the panel. Once I started down that road, I replaced all the gauge bulbs with LEDs as well. The gauge bulbs came from superbrightleds.com and the blue 12v led strip came from solidapollo.com. They don't seem to sell the blue in 1' lengths anymore but there are plenty of other sources.

The leds are brighter than the EL tape/standard bulbs and you can use a dimmer.

 

[Sublimetime]

12 volt led strips in a variety of lengths available at auto zone and pep boys

 

[ZZ13]

I bought replacement inverter and EL wire from glowhut.com. Total of everything was like $20. Somewhere here I started a thread about it.

Found it: Anyone replaced their helm dimmer?
http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php?t=70831

 

[1956olds]

zz what part was the dimmer switch,mine is broken and i want tgo replace it and some of the backlights are not working either.

 

[04cobra23]

Do I need the inverter?

 

[ZZ13]

zz what part was the dimmer switch,mine is broken and i want tgo replace it and some of the backlights are not working either.

Mine had a separate dimmer module and rocker switch. I removed my dimmer module, so I don't use the dimmer switch anymore. Blue Seas sells a dimmer module. I can look up the dimmer switch part number when I get back to the boat tonight.

 

[PlayDate]

Do I need the inverter?

Only if you want the text above/below your rocker switches to be lit.

 

[ZZ13]

Only if you want the text above/below your rocker switches to be lit.

And you only need the dimmer module if you want to control the brightness of all the backlighting (gauges and panel lettering). I never dimmed mine, so when I accidentally burned out my dimmer module, I just bypassed it rather than spend the money to replace it.

 

[1956olds]

I find that dimming the dash lights while coming in and up the river helps me see better,less windshield glare,i even flip the compass cover on..There are plenty of lights along the shore and inland within sight to obscure the channel buoys lighted or not.

 

[04cobra23]

Would auto zone have the inverter with the light strip?

 

[04cobra23]

This is the inverter correct? The one I have seen on searayparts has a plug on one end.

 

[ZZ13]

This is the inverter correct? The one I have seen on searayparts has a plug on one end.

Looks like it. The inverted takes 12v DC in and converts it to low power 110v AC out used by the EL wire. On my boat the 12v in is a yellow wire to - and a blue wire to +. Then there were two wires out that went to the EL wire. As I mentioned I replaced both the inverter and EL wire with parts from glowhut. They have a nice and easy plug connection for the EL wire connection and you can select the wire length you need to within a foot. I needed just under 3 feet of EL wire.

 

[Sublimetime]

04 cobra 23 The led lights at auto zone are 12 volt light strips so you don't need the transformer with them.