12V AC?

[redbarron55]

Charging the discharged battery may help.
Usually there is a big (sometimes blue) filter capacitor you can replace in the charger.
If the charger is for only batteries and not for sensitive electronics you might never notice the ripple. The LEDs react to the voltage very quickly whereas the filaments of a regular bulb do not.

[frankcfx]

Could be that the rectifier diode(s) or capacitor in the converter is bad. There is usually an unfiltered 12VDC and an unfiltered out put also.

[Thinh]

12VAC????
As my understanding, LED is actually a diode. i.e they are polarized and allow the electrical current to flow ONE WAY ONLY. Either these LEDs are ON or OFF if wrong polarized. That means your LEDs flickering are not a result of...12VAC, It could be FAULTY GROUND as someone suggested or ELSE. If I were you, I would have more closely inspection of circuitry in your trailer,,,Just a share...

[Ironhinge]

I don’t know if I would say to actually do this but... theoretically if you reverse the polarity of one of the led lights it should let you know if the converter is putting out 12vac. if it lights up and flashes like the others the diodes in the converter are probably bad, if it does nothing or burns out the pulse is not from the current alternating

[Darwin Maring]

The really good LED lights have circuitry inside that allows them to be plugged in either way. Maybe a really cheep one from China will work.

[frankcfx]

The RV power converters/chargers I have seen only have half wave rectification. This in itself gives a very crude dc output. As one mentioned the battery is often used to smooth out the rippling DC. As another wrote a bad filter Capacitor will not smooth out the rippling DC. If the light circuit is directly at the converter the chance is greater for ripple in the dc line if the battery is what is used to smooth out the rippling DC. The further from the converter the less the ripple. The fact that the touch circuit does not work leads me to believe that AC is getting into the circuit. Incidentally I have never seen a DC touch lamp. If a single led glows no matter which way the the led is put to the circuit than it seems to me that there is AC on the line. If you must use something to charge your batteries use a car charger until you get the converter fixed

[redbarron55]

Most I am familiar with are full wave bridge rectifiers or at least full wave. If you are seeing half cycle on a scope I would suggest an open diode.
Today many are better technology and lighter and more efficient.
Old converters could be anything, but I doubt single wave since the filters would be more expensive than the other diode. The tapped transformer more than the next two diodes as well.
When I posted I had a senior moment and forgot that the new technology is switching power supplies that do away with a lot of the weight and cost of the old time converters.
The Progressive Dynamics is most likely one of these since it is very light for the power output.



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[Jay H]

Just before I was about to leave for a big cross country tour last summer I ran into voltage issues with my original Allanson Converter in my Boler. I posted that I was getting a strobing from my LED lights that I installed and that according to my measurements, I was getting 12v AC from the converter when I was expecting 12v DC.
A couple of weeks ago I pulled my converter and took it to a colleague who is an electrician. His report was identical to mine. It produces AC. In fact upon inspection of the interior of the converter there is a label that marks the 120 V AC input and another label that identifies the 12V AC output.
I guess that is the definitive answer to my question.