Rf board in pool light

Thread Starter

bonkdlab

Joined Jul 5, 2019
4
Good afternoon,

I have owned an led pool light bulb for about a year now. It has a remote control that allows you to select which mode it is in. At the time, it was a cheaper alternative to getting a standard light bulb or a new fixture. In the beginning, the bulb worked as advertised, but eventually the remote function stopped working. I can cycle through some of the modes by manually switching on and off the power, but not all. I decided to take it out and see what was going on. I found the rf receiver, and managed to find this data online, which shows a picture. http://www.radiumcorp.com/edata/RX306P.pdf

Looking at mine, I noticed that a resistor (R2 at the right edge in the center) was missing. Could this be the problem? I can’t make out what the number is on the datasheet to replace it.
 

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Thread Starter

bonkdlab

Joined Jul 5, 2019
4
Really? Why would their picture show one there?

Any idea as to how to proceed? Have multimeter, never worked on an rf board.
 

narkeleptk

Joined Mar 11, 2019
558
The difference in picture could just be different revisions. No surprise there.
like @AlbertHall mentioned it does not look to of had a component there on yours. Usually when a small smd resistor or cap falls off you will see a square shape on the pad and in the case of capacitors many times you will see a pinkish color.
I can't tell what r2 is in picture but it looks the same as r1. 101 maybe?

Have you checked the remote to see if its sending signal? I would first think of the remote to be at fault.
 
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Thread Starter

bonkdlab

Joined Jul 5, 2019
4
I did take a look at the remote and didn’t see anything obvious. Tested batteries. There is a light that turns on when any button is pressed, and that works, but i don’t have any sort of rf detector. Any way to check with a multimeter?
 

narkeleptk

Joined Mar 11, 2019
558
Lights on the remote will work even when its not sending signal. Is there a light inside the fixture itself that lights or is it completely oblivious to the remote being pressed? I'm not sure of your location but many auto part stores in the US will have rf detectors on the counter or near a rack with automotive keyless entry remotes. I have only dealt with RF in automotive applications so yours may be a bit different but from my experiences its most always the transmitter at fault.
 

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,153
You could put together and RF signal indicator to see whether the transmitter was actually transmitting. The meter can be a DVM set to the most sensitive voltage range.
upload_2019-7-7_13-56-58.png
 

Thread Starter

bonkdlab

Joined Jul 5, 2019
4
Thanks for the tips! I got an rf detector and can confirm that the remote is transmitting. I don’t see any light to indicate the board is receiving. I did notice that the led panel has some non-working or dim leds. It has red, blue, and green ones, but the ones not working seem to be red. I’ll upload a picture of the main board the rf receiver is attached to.
 
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