Cabanaboy Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 When I turned on Nav Lights rocker switch taxiing on ground the Gear down annunciator light goes off ! M20J 1992 What in the world could be causing that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squeaky.stow Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 Annunciator lights dim automatically when the Nav lights are switched on. Check it inside a dark hangar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottknoll Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 In our Ovation the gear down annunciator dims so much that during the day, it looks like it’s out. I was in the pattern and thought I didn’t have the gear down annunciator until I realized the nav lights were on . Turned them off and I could see the gear down annunciator again. I think it’s normal, at least in ours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottknoll Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 Annunciator lights dim automatically when the Nav lights are switched on. Check it inside a dark hangar. Are “all” annunciator lights supposed to dim? I think in mine, only the gear down dims. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be all annunciator light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtVandelay Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 There is 4 wires connected to the nav lights switch..1 is a connection that dims the gear down light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squeaky.stow Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 Sorry. You are correct. Just the gear light dims. A least in my K. I guess Mooney’s logic is that the gear light is a “normally on” light for landing whereas the others are normally off, so if the light up, they want to make sure you don’t miss them. Just my uneducated guess. Personally, I am not a fan of that dim gear light. I would like to add a nice bright green light right next to the gear handle. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cabanaboy Posted July 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 I'll check in in dark conditions, i was wondering that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squeaky.stow Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 My Mooney was the first airplane I encountered with this “feature”. In other airplanes I always flew with Nav lights on out of habit and the theory that anything that increases your visibility is a good thing, but it drove me nuts that I had to squint and shade the annunciator panel with my hand to get a secondary confirmation that the gear was down. (First confirmation being the floor indicator) I had momentary heart palpitations more than once when I would glance at the panel on short final and think I had forgotten to lower the gear because the light was so dim. Now I fly with the Nav lights off in daylight which raises the risk that I will forget to turn them on during transition from day to night. To me that is a lower threat than forgetting the gear, but I would have preferred that Mooney left the choice of dim or bright gear lights up to me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko182 Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 Part of the reason I removed the annunciator panel and made a custom one was because I couldnt see the gear down light. No regrets. I was charged 4 hours of labour and the cost of the lights to make that charge during avionics install. Well worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squeaky.stow Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 1 hour ago, Niko182 said: Part of the reason I removed the annunciator panel and made a custom one was because I couldnt see the gear down light. No regrets. I was charged 4 hours of labour and the cost of the lights to make that charge during avionics install. Well worth it. Got a picture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko182 Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PT20J Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 A curious thing about the gear down annunciator light is that it is normally grounded through the nav light bulbs, the filaments of these bulbs in parallel having a low resistance to ground when off and the annunciator current being too low to illuminate the nav lights. When the nav lights are on, a diode causes the gear down annunciator to ground through a resistor reducing the current and thus dimming it. I'm curious if anyone has noticed any changes in behavior of the gear down annunciator light after changing to LED nav lights. Skip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtVandelay Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 1 hour ago, Niko182 said: Part of the reason I removed the annunciator panel and made a custom one was because I couldnt see the gear down light. No regrets. I was charged 4 hours of labour and the cost of the lights to make that charge during avionics install. Well worth it. Ditto...with the JPI 900 and G5s, no longer had the Vac annunciations or the fuel low annunciations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtVandelay Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 3 minutes ago, PT20J said: I'm curious if anyone has noticed any changes in behavior of the gear down annunciator light after changing to LED nav lights. Skip The LEDs would be dimly lit with nav lights off, for a while I thought I had a short somewhere. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawnd Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 3 hours ago, Scottknoll said: Are “all” annunciator lights supposed to dim? I think in mine, only the gear down dims. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be all annunciator light. Aha! I have this as a squawk to look into. I am also going to check this weekend if its a function of nav lights being on. Here I was thinking electrical problem! (and yes, I should have ready that portion of the POH more carefully) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyking1 Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 My gear down light is dim with the nav lights off. Any ideas? Mooney screaming eagle. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carusoam Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 ‘94 Annunciators and newer are pretty complex devices... the wiring diagram in the MM looks complicated... +1 for having lights on all the time... -1 for not being able to see the green gear down light on short final... when nav lights are on... and it’s daylight out... and the annunciator panel is far enough to the right.... Best regards, -a- 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtVandelay Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 My gear down light is dim with the nav lights off. Any ideas? Mooney screaming eagle. Thanks Is it green? My planes PO removed the green plastic insert, I assume to make it brighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PT20J Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 1 hour ago, skyking1 said: My gear down light is dim with the nav lights off. Any ideas? Mooney screaming eagle. Thanks If it gets dimmer with the nav lights on, then something is either obstructing the lens or the bulb isn't getting enough current. This would be something amiss inside the annunciator panel. If it doesn't get dimmer when you turn on the nav lights, then there is likely a bad diode inside the annunciator, or a broken gear down return wire between the annunciator panel and the nav light bus, or all nav lights are burned out. Skip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N231BN Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 My gear down light is dim with the nav lights off. Any ideas? Mooney screaming eagle. Thanks Do you have LED nav lights? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrynimmo Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 19 hours ago, PT20J said: A curious thing about the gear down annunciator light is that it is normally grounded through the nav light bulbs, the filaments of these bulbs in parallel having a low resistance to ground when off and the annunciator current being too low to illuminate the nav lights. When the nav lights are on, a diode causes the gear down annunciator to ground through a resistor reducing the current and thus dimming it. I'm curious if anyone has noticed any changes in behavior of the gear down annunciator light after changing to LED nav lights. Skip Skip, when I originally installed the led nav lights on my J, my “gear safe” light became dim all the time. The grounding backfeed through the un-powered LEds was not sufficient to give the daytime brightness required. as someone on Mooneyspace recommended, I installed a grounding relay...now it work perfect like original function 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N231BN Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 You can also run the wire through a mini toggle switch and then to ground. This way you can run your LED's 24/7 and not have a dim gear down annunciator in daylight. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyking1 Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 Thanks for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kortopates Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 Thankfully I didn't notice any change in my Gear down light after installed Orion LED all around. Same brightness as best as I could tell. Mooney is not the only airplane that dim's the gear down light when Nav lights are on. Piper does the same, at least in the same time period as Mooney. I learned long before Mooney's that Nav lights are for night time only. If they didn't dim with Nav lights on you would have a very bright Gear down light distracting you on the annunciator at night. My strobes are on day and night, along with flashing recognition lights, but I see no reason to run nav lights during the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kortopates Posted July 19, 2020 Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 8 hours ago, larrynimmo said: as someone on Mooneyspace recommended, I installed a grounding relay...now it work perfect like original function Can you provide more details on your solution. I have subsequently learned I don't yet have the dimming problem with my Orions LEDs because I still have 2 incandescent rear wing tip bulbs to provide the ground path - but will when I replace those with LED, assuming I do that which I was thinking of doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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