Cali Kid Corals

Trying to resurrect a Kessil #2

Wow very interesting even though I don’t understand everything. What would be REALLY cool is if you find an issue or 2 causing more than their fair share of failures and can work with the good folks at Kessil to improve things. They are local and quite approachable. Maybe their new generation of lights already has addressed some of these problems (I hope so, I have 8) but maybe not, you never know until the right person asks the right question.
 
JVU said:
Wow very interesting even though I don’t understand everything. What would be REALLY cool is if you find an issue or 2 causing more than their fair share of failures and can work with the good folks at Kessil to improve things. They are local and quite approachable. Maybe their new generation of lights already has addressed some of these problems (I hope so, I have 8) but maybe not, you never know until the right person asks the right question.
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That would be awesome @JVU !
I took a part 8 of Will’s a360we’s and 7 of them have the exact same issue.

Do you think the folks at Kessil will support repairing our own lights? I’d expect them to have some reservations since they would lose out on repair costs.

In any case, would you be able to get me in touch with someone there?
 
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thesassyindian said:
That would be awesome @JVU !
I took a part 8 of Will’s a360we’s and 7 of them have the exact same issue.

Do you think the folks at Kessil will support repairing our own lights? I’d expect them to have some reservations since they would lose out on repair costs.

In any case, would you be able to get me in touch with someone there?
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I can’t speak to their specific policies on this. But they have been great at supporting their lights in general, much better than the average company out there for sure. Let’s see if we can connect you to someone there.
 
thesassyindian said:
Do you think the folks at Kessil will support repairing our own lights? I’d expect them to have some reservations since they would lose out on repair costs.
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I’m not sure what experience others here have had but I’ve had 3 go bad on me over 8 plus years. One under warranty and the other two well out of warranty. The one under warranty was exchange without hassle. I tried sending in the other two for repairs and both times they just gave me a “discounted upgrade” option without actually looking at the lights for possible repair. I’m not really sure that they actually repair anything there. I’m not bagging on them by any means. I’m very happy with their products and customer support. They’ve been very responsive and helpful every time I’ve contacted them.

All that said, they still might not be very supportive of it. More so for the loss of replacement revenue over repair revenue.

~Charlie
 
Piper said:
I’m not sure what experience others here have had but I’ve had 3 go bad on me over 8 plus years. One under warranty and the other two well out of warranty. The one under warranty was exchange without hassle. I tried sending in the other two for repairs and both times they just gave me a “discounted upgrade” option without actually looking at the lights for possible repair. I’m not really sure that they actually repair anything there. I’m not bagging on them by any means. I’m very happy with their products and customer support. They’ve been very responsive and helpful every time I’ve contacted them.

All that said, they still might not be very supportive of it. More so for the loss of replacement revenue over repair revenue.

~Charlie
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They definitely do repairs sometimes. We toured their facility in 2019 and saw their repair room full of projects in progress.

I also have had good luck with them trying to make things right even for items out of warranty. How many other companies even return your call much less work with you for a product you’ve had for years already?
 
JVU said:
They definitely do repairs sometimes. We toured their facility in 2019 and saw their repair room full of projects in progress.

I also have had good luck with them trying to make things right even for items out of warranty. How many other companies even return your call much less work with you for a product you’ve had for years already?
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yes, I did have them repair two that were out of warranty several years ago. But, after that they said no to the next one....which I completely understand.
 
Yash, I'm a simpleton. so is the problem caused by dust accumulation and not blowing them out regularly? Because that's what Kessil kept telling me and that it was not something specific.
 
Wlachnit said:
Yash, I'm a simpleton. so is the problem caused by dust accumulation and not blowing them out regularly? Because that's what Kessil kept telling me and that it was not something specific.
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Hey Will, I highly doubt it was due to overheating. Looks like a set of inductors (L400, L401 and their equivalents) blow out, possibly due a parameter mismatch (inductance / current rating etc).
I haven't root caused it yet, but that's my best guess at the moment.
 
Wlachnit said:
Did Kessil ever get back to you?
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Hey @Wlachnit !
They did indeed! I was waiting till I make sufficient headway before spamming you :)
They've been welcoming thus far, but the communication loop is a little slow.
Understandable, since to them, I'm just a random miser who is asking them about repairing their LEDs so he won't have to buy new ones. :p

Currently, I'm waiting on the inductance and capacitance values from them.

I'll keep you posted...

IMG_6311 (1).jpg
 
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thesassyindian said:
Hey @Wlachnit !
They did indeed! I was waiting till I make sufficient headway before spamming you :)
They've been welcoming thus far, but the communication loop is a little slow.
Understandable, since to them, I'm just a random miser who is asking them about repairing their LEDs so he won't have to buy new ones. :p

Currently, I'm waiting on the inductance and capacitance values from them.

I'll keep you posted...

View attachment 27306
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This is a "you just went outside of our paygrade and engineering skill and while you are probably right, we don't want to support or endorse this"

Nice! Way to break into the inner workings!
 
thesassyindian said:
In all the lights I've opened, inductors L401, L400 and the ceramic capacitor C403 are blown out.

View attachment 23375

In the section right next to it, which is an identical driver circuit, the corresponding passives, L300, L301 and C303 are intact!

After a gentle persuasion from my soldering tweezers, Voila!

View attachment 23377

Well, kind of :(
Here's the catch. Even though the light now turns on, the LEDs that are powered by that module don't turn on.

Original LED cluster:
View attachment 23378


Notice that rows 5 and 8 are OFF.
View attachment 23376

Now, I just have to figure out the part numbers of those passives and why just those two are blowing out.
Usually, its a case of loop stability in switching regulators.
To object to my own statement above, if that was the case, all 4 driver sections should have exhibited the same behavior.

Time to investigate further!
Stay tuned!
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Could you please tell me the inductance and capacitance values for L400 to L403? Thank you.
 
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