I got to follow my own trailer in the dark last night, and noticed the high center rear tail light that is composed of about 10 individual LED's in a bar configuration, has a weird blinking thing going on. Was curious of this was normal, if other trailers do this and its a unique safety feature so you don't get rear ended, or if its a wiring flaw. So here goes my description.
When its moving forward with no brakes applied, six of the ten LED's are lit up, where the X's are in the following configuration:
XX OO XX OO XX
In comparison, when the brakes are on, all ten LED's light up and are doubly bright:
XX XX XX XX XX
But when brakes are not being applied the OO lights will put out an intermitent blip of light, like a faint strobe light, in a rhythm. It isn't sporatic enough to make me think its a shorted out wire, it was pretty rhythmic. But it was actually pretty annoying to follow.
So is this supposed to be this way or do I have a short?
Its a 2005 Logan Coach. I bought it used so can't just take it back to dealer, but I will take it somewhere to be looked at if it isn't right.
Posted 2006-04-11 4:33 PM (#40270 - in reply to #40203) Subject: RE: blinking trailer brake light
Member
Posts: 41 Location: Merrillville, Indiana
Yep I had the same thing with our new American Spirit. It went back the the folks at AS and drove them nuts. They couldn't find what caused the problem and it didn't do it when hooked to another truck. Ours would blink when the truck was turned off and all lights where off. (we have an 06 dodge CTD)
The only Thing anyone could come up with was maybe Dodge has some (weak) signal from antilock break system. Still don't really know. They hooked that LED bar light to the running lights. and now it doesn't blink, but it's no longer a break light. We still have the regular tail lights that are also turnsignals and break lights.
let us all know if you find the problem, as I would like to have it solved.
Posted 2006-04-11 5:09 PM (#40274 - in reply to #40203) Subject: RE: blinking trailer brake light
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Posts: 2689
There is another thread on this... somewhere.
I think it came down to the brake controller and there is a diode available to block - whatever it was, a spike or something.
As usual, searching old topics will turn up more answers faster than relying on our collective memories and re-typing (-:
Posted 2006-04-12 11:42 AM (#40323 - in reply to #40321) Subject: RE: blinking trailer brake light
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Posts: 2689
Originally written by hosspuller on 2006-04-12 12:11 PM
Doesn't the Prodigy send a signal to check the status of the brake coils? Could this pulse be causing the LED's to blink?
Yes.
I think it is solved in the other thread (29113, or so).
As I understand it there is a continuity check made at some interval.
It is not of sufficient duration or current to actually apply the brakes, but it CAN blink LEDS - B'cause they're much faster to respond than oldie fashionedy glowing hot filaments, which is why it didn't matter only a few years ago.
Posted 2006-04-12 11:50 AM (#40325 - in reply to #40323) Subject: RE: blinking trailer brake light
Elite Veteran
Posts: 736 Location: Western WA
Originally written by Reg on 2006-04-12 9:42 AM
Originally written by hosspuller on 2006-04-12 12:11 PM
Doesn't the Prodigy send a signal to check the status of the brake coils? Could this pulse be causing the LED's to blink?
Yes.
I think it is solved in the other thread (29113, or so).
As I understand it there is a continuity check made at some interval.
It is not of sufficient duration or current to actually apply the brakes, but it CAN blink LEDS - B'cause they're much faster to respond than oldie fashionedy glowing hot filaments, which is why it didn't matter only a few years ago.
Would someone be kind enough to share the actual link to this other thread? At the risk of being flamed for being lazy, when I search the archives based on the info discussed, I get so many posts it would take me a while to sift through them all to find this exact post.
Posted 2006-04-12 12:32 PM (#40330 - in reply to #40325) Subject: RE: blinking trailer brake light
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Posts: 2689
Originally written by headhunter on 2006-04-12 12:50 PM
Originally written by Reg on 2006-04-12 9:42 AM
Originally written by hosspuller on 2006-04-12 12:11 PM
Doesn't the Prodigy send a signal to check the status of the brake coils? Could this pulse be causing the LED's to blink?
Yes.
I think it is solved in the other thread (29113, or so).
As I understand it there is a continuity check made at some interval.
It is not of sufficient duration or current to actually apply the brakes, but it CAN blink LEDS - B'cause they're much faster to respond than oldie fashionedy glowing hot filaments, which is why it didn't matter only a few years ago.
Would someone be kind enough to share the actual link to this other thread? At the risk of being flamed for being lazy, when I search the archives based on the info discussed, I get so many posts it would take me a while to sift through them all to find this exact post.
Thank you
Sure,
Well, not a link exactly, but this works.
Drag you mouse across what is between these double quote marks "Brake Controller Problem?" According to what you use for an OS and browser copy it to clipboard, probably with a right click and scroll down to copy, or with a control C.
Go to the search facility, check Subject Line, uncheck Body, take the option to "not limit by date range". That found it for me less than a minute ago.
Posted 2006-04-13 5:42 PM (#40389 - in reply to #40203) Subject: RE: blinking trailer brake light
Member
Posts: 11
Location: Fort Lupton, CO
The prodigy sends out a test pulse to see if the trailer is conected. that is how it comes up with the "C" for conected when your trailer is conected. this pulse is on the brake circuit however and should not interfere with your lights. The LED lights are also more sensitive and will pick a very small amount of current that a regular bulb won't even see. I would say you have a small wiring problem and I would start with the ground. A bad ground can cause all kinds of wierd things to happen.
Posted 2006-04-13 7:55 PM (#40398 - in reply to #40389) Subject: RE: blinking trailer brake light
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Posts: 2689
Originally written by Trailers101 on 2006-04-13 6:42 PM
The prodigy sends out a test pulse to see if the trailer is conected. that is how it comes up with the "C" for conected when your trailer is conected. this pulse is on the brake circuit however and should not interfere with your lights. The LED lights are also more sensitive and will pick a very small amount of current that a regular bulb won't even see. I would say you have a small wiring problem and I would start with the ground. A bad ground can cause all kinds of wierd things to happen.
YES - Tekonsha KNOWS about this and has a fix for it.
I havn't seen the schematic, but I surmise that there is some backfeeding from the brake circuit to the stop lights and the isolation diode fixes it by blocking that.
BTW, the Prodigy is NOT a good idea if you have electric over hydraulic brakes, partly because of this watchdog continuity check.
blinking trailer brake light
