Disabling the Gear Down light "dim" M20J

[DC_Brasil]

Hello everyone, 

I was wondering if anyone here has disabled the Gear Down light dimming that happens when you turn on the Nav lights. From what I understand, it should be a simple procedure of disconnecting a wire from the switch and/or the annunciator panel. However, the switch is easier to access and see behind.

Personally, I feel annoyed but how dimming it is during daytime and for consistency of operation, I always fly with nav lights on.

Has anyone done that? Pictures?

[Ragsf15e]

1 hour ago, DC_Brasil said:

Hello everyone, 

I was wondering if anyone here has disabled the Gear Down light dimming that happens when you turn on the Nav lights. From what I understand, it should be a simple procedure of disconnecting a wire from the switch and/or the annunciator panel. However, the switch is easier to access and see behind.

Personally, I feel annoyed but how dimming it is during daytime and for consistency of operation, I always fly with nav lights on.

Has anyone done that? Pictures?

Probably not the answer you want, but I would think changing the bulb to an LED would defeat the current dimming circuit.  

[PT20J]

Assuming you have the wingtips with a white nav light in each, there will be three wires on the Nav Light breaker switch. One wire goes to the left wingtip, one wire goes to the right wingtip, and the third wire goes to the annunciator panel. Disconnect all three wires and reconnect one at a time to see which one causes the dimming. Then reconnect the two that go to the nav lights and connect the wire that goes to the annunciator panel to ground.

[kortopates]

Probably not the answer you want, but I would think changing the bulb to an LED would defeat the current dimming circuit.  

Actually that permanently dim’s the light.

Both Piper and Mooney Nav lights work the same way dimming the gear down light at night when you flip on the Nav lights. If you defeat it you’ll miss the dimming at night - or the next owner will.
The Uavonixs ads-b installation creates the same issue requiring Nav lights to be on permanently.


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[Ragsf15e]

36 minutes ago, kortopates said:

Actually that permanently dim’s the light.

Both Piper and Mooney Nav lights work the same way dimming the gear down light at night when you flip on the Nav lights. If you defeat it you’ll miss the dimming at night - or the next owner will.
The Uavonixs ads-b installation creates the same issue requiring Nav lights to be on permanently.


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I think that’s what he wants, not dimmed with the nav lights on?  The led in the gear down light wouldn’t dim with a normal dimmer circuit, but a regular bulb could quickly restore the system to normal.  At least that’s what I was thinking.

[kortopates]

I think that’s what he wants, not dimmed with the nav lights on?  The led in the gear down light wouldn’t dim with a normal dimmer circuit, but a regular bulb could quickly restore the system to normal.  At least that’s what I was thinking.

Yes, we’re saying the same thing- he wants not dimmed when nav lights on. But if you add a LED nav lights, it doesn’t disable the dimming circuit. You get always dimmed Gear light.


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[PT20J]

The gear down light ground return can take two paths. The first is through a resistor in the annunciator panel that limits current and results in a dimmed light. The second is through the nav lights. When the nav lights are off, the cold filaments provide a low resistance path to ground through a diode shunting the resistor and causing the gear down light to be bright. When the nav lights are on, the voltage on the nav lights reverse biases the diode and current flows through the dimming resistor.

Edited 17 hours ago by PT20J
Corrected description to include the diode.

[atpdave]

I snipped this from the schematic diagram that I think is for your serial number. Note that the wire from the switch to the annunciator is marked as 22 AWG and the ones to the nav lights are 20 AWG so you should be able to make out the difference in size if you can't read the wire markings and *** if *** the correct wire sizes were installed. When you disconnect the correct wire (JK-WE06A22) from the switch and ground it, the GEAR DOWN annunciation will brighten. If you disconnect and ground the wrong one, nothing will happen except you made more work for yourself reconnecting it.

Edit: You could retain dimming control by wiring through a toggle switch.

[Ragsf15e]

2 hours ago, kortopates said:

Yes, we’re saying the same thing- he wants not dimmed when nav lights on. But if you add a LED nav lights, it doesn’t disable the dimming circuit. You get always dimmed Gear light.


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Oh yeah, I meant put in an led to the gear down light, not the nav lights.

[Scottknoll]

I had the avionics shop put in a switch. Not sure how they wired it, but in “night” the gear down annunciation is dimmed. Day is bright. I wanted independent from nav lights, so I can run nav lights during the day. The LEDs are bright enough to see in daylight.

[MikeOH]

7 hours ago, PT20J said:

The gear down light ground return can take two paths. The first is through a resistor in the annunciator panel that limits current and results in a dimmed light. The second is through the nav lights. When the nav lights are off, the cold filaments provide a low resistance path to ground through a diode shunting the resistor and causing the gear down light to be bright. When the nav lights are on, the voltage on the nav lights reverse biases the diode and current flows through the dimming resistor.

Thanks for the revised description!  I spent like 10 minutes before deciding it wouldn't work!