Gear Down Light too dim with Nav Light ON

[M20S Driver]

My gear down light (green light on annunciator) is too dim when I turn the Nav light on. it is nice and bright with Nav Light OFF.

I read the Maint Manual and could not find any adjustment to change it.  There  a resistor (R15) in the Annunciator that dims it and not sure if it is adjustabe?

Any help would be appreciated

 

Dimmed Driver 

[N201MKTurbo]

If you jumper the resistor it won't dim. You could put a smaller resistor in so it dims less. Just make sure you get enough wattage rating for the resistor. Tell me the voltage drop on the resistor or the wattage of the bulb and I'll spec a resistor for you.

[N201MKTurbo]

Ok with the 470 ohm resistor you get .68w to the bulb. The bulb is 1.15w with no resistor. If you changed the resistor to 200ohm 1/4 watt the bulb would use 0.9w.

Are you sure you want it brighter on a dark night?

[ArtVandelay]

My light is white, I wonder if you just can change the lightbulb to a plain white or higher wattage?

[M20S Driver]

Ok with the 470 ohm resistor you get .68w to the bulb. The bulb is 1.15w with no resistor. If you changed the resistor to 200ohm 1/4 watt the bulb would use 0.9w.

Are you sure you want it brighter on a dark night?

 

I can hardly see it during the day.    I turn off the Nav light to make it bright just to be sure.  Of course there is the floor gear indicator and Gear unsafe light and a few other ways to confirm.

I wonder how the grounding would effect this?  If the connection is poor, it may act like a resistor...  I could not find where the ground wire would connect on the Annunciator box.

 

Driver

[M20S Driver]

My light is white, I wonder if you just can change the lightbulb to a plain white or higher wattage?

 

My guess is the glass on the annunciator makes it green since the part number for the bulbs are the same.

[M20S Driver]

Ok with the 470 ohm resistor you get .68w to the bulb. The bulb is 1.15w with no resistor. If you changed the resistor to 200ohm 1/4 watt the bulb would use 0.9w.

Are you sure you want it brighter on a dark night?

 

Do you know where R15 is located?  Is it a part of the annunciator board/box?

[triple8s]

The first time this happened to me I was like "wth!" but very quickly realized that the indicator in the floor tells the tale. No switches or anything the indicator tells mechanically what is going on with the gear, I now look there first, when doing the gumps cause the fuel selector is right there next to it. Gas, check the selector, undercarriage, look at the floor indicator which is right by the fuel selector, then mixture,check, prop, full forward......easy peasy.

[Bravoman]

The first time this happened to me I was like "wth!" but very quickly realized that the indicator in the floor tells the tale. No switches or anything the indicator tells mechanically what is going on with the gear, I now look there first, when doing the gumps cause the fuel selector is right there next to it. Gas, check the selector, undercarriage, look at the floor indicator which is right by the fuel selector, then mixture,check, prop, full forward......easy peasy.

Same procedure for me. I can barely see the gear down light on the panel as well. I look at the light as part of the checklist but rely on the floor indicator.

[Shadrach]

Interesting example of over engineering a solution. The older birds have a knurled ring around the green and red lenses that opens and closes an iris. You can set the desired dimness of each at any time.

[kevinw]

I thought this was odd as well when I first started flying my Mooney. I thought there was a problem until I flipped the nav light off. This setup suggests leaving the nav lights off during daytime flight. Not sure that's a good idea...

[M20S Driver]

When I start my decent for landing, I go Nav Off and Taxi and Landing light ON... Not optimal but better than looking down to check the gear on short final.

[Hank]

I always back up the light on the panel (checked once or twice while touching the switch) with the mechanical indicator on the floor somewhere along final. Takes but a second to check, and it can't be wrong, it's painted on the mechanism.

[shorrick mk2]

If you press the "dimmer" red button (right of the annunciator panel) the gear indicator will cycle back to bright even with the nav lights on. It was part of my "gotcha list" during conversion training.

[kevinw]

If you press the "dimmer" red button (right of the annunciator panel) the gear indicator will cycle back to bright even with the nav lights on. It was part of my "gotcha list" during conversion training.

I was told this once before and it didn't work for me. Perhaps something is wrong with the wiring in mine but I'll try again. I'd sure like to be able to run the nav lights with a clearly visible gear indicator. Mine is very dim with nav lights on.

[M20S Driver]

Ok with the 470 ohm resistor you get .68w to the bulb. The bulb is 1.15w with no resistor. If you changed the resistor to 200ohm 1/4 watt the bulb would use 0.9w.

Are you sure you want it brighter on a dark night?

 

Take a look at the data sheet attached.  The lamp currently specified is CM7327 but CM7376 is the same package but significantly higher MSCP at an additional 25 mili-amps...  I wonder if this may be bright enough?

CM7327 data sheet.pdf

[M20S Driver]

Take a look at the data sheet attached.  The lamp currently specified is CM7327 but CM7376 is the same package but significantly higher MSCP at an additional 25 mili-amps...  I wonder if this may be bright enough?

 

CM7376 lamp did not help.  I removed the green filter from the face-plate and the gear down light is now visible in the daylight with Nav Light ON.

[N201MKTurbo]

Why do you run your nav lights during the day?

 

I run my strobes during the day. Do you think the nav lights make you that much more visible?

 

I'm red and green color deficient so I wouldn't notice anyway.

[ArtVandelay]

CM7376 lamp did not help. I removed the green filter from the face-plate and the gear down light is now visible in the daylight with Nav Light ON.

PO did that, I was always confused between the annunciator light and the green floor indicator. In my case, sometimes the floor indicator light is on, sometimes it's off.

[M20S Driver]

Why do you run your nav lights during the day?

 

I run my strobes during the day. Do you think the nav lights make you that much more visible?

 

I'm red and green color deficient so I wouldn't notice anyway.

 

 

Not much more visible, but more visible...  It also is helpful on hazy days... I fly with Nav Light and strobes on and turn on the taxi and landing lights below 3000 feet.

 

The SF Bay Area traffic is very congested so I take anything that may help.

[M20S Driver]

I can see the Gear Down light in the daylight with the Nav "ON" after I removed the dark green filter from the annunciator panel.  I just moved it a side to put it back on if I ever decide to sell the plane.  

I wonder if Mooney fixed this issue with the new planes in the production...