Weber 9057 Grill Light: LED Conversion.


 
G

Gary - bassguitarist1985

TVWBB Fan
Hey all! I scored an NOS open box grill light off ebay!

There is one more on there linked below at the time of writing this post. Grab them while you can!!!!

www.ebay.com

Weber Grill. Grill Out Light. Fits Genesis Gas Grills | eBay

<p>Weber Grill. Grill Out Light. Fits Genesis Gas Grills. Condition is "New".</p><br><p>About this item</p><br><p>2 battery-operated lights built into the handle</p><p>Retrofits Spirit 500; Genesis 1000 through 5500 series; Genesis Silver A, B, C</p><p>Stays cool to the touch</p><p>Requires six...
www.ebay.com

Thanks to Bruce and others for blazing the trail. I ordered the LED conversion lights, and some AA to C battery sleeves since C batteries are bit of a dinosaur these days. Plus I always seem to have a plethora of AA's lying around the house.


AA to C Type Battery Sleeve
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BOX86HU/?tag=tvwb-20


Lights:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076JBZK4T/?tag=tvwb-20


I do plan on disassembling the light to swap the wires inside so that there is no need to flip the batteries. Ill be taking detailed pictures of how to do this. I got plenty of soldering tools, but to do such a simple mod you dont need anything but a standard solder gun.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas ☃️🎄

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Edited: Section for LED Conversion Procedure and to modify wiring for batteries to be installed as shown on the device without having to install backwards to work with LEDs. May edit for further clarity at a later date.

***Installing the batteries backwards for LEDS has yielded no ill effects to the device, but to modify for "correct" orientation please do the following mods. This mod can be done with a soldering iron and some small 18AWG wire lengths. You will need to perform these steps for each light/battery bank

1. REMOVE THE BATTERIES!

2. There are two spring clips with wired attached by screws that go to the positive lead of each battery bank. Remove these screws/wires.

20210111_151720.jpg

3. There is a thin bare metal wire that sits in a channel traveling to the end cap of the battery banks. This wire terminates to the spring located here under the metal contactor. This wire will need to be cut.

20210111_141830.jpg

4. Connect the ring terminals removed from the positive battery leads and connect them to the cut wire leading to the negative side of the battery bank. Best if you solder these two points together. The side that is scratched out in red is not connected to anything.

20210111_151857.jpg



5. Finally, using a short jumper wire. connect the positive lead with the spring clip over to the contactor with the spring underneath it. You cut the wire going to that spring in step 3, so its connected to nothing until this step.

20210111_152438.jpg


***This mod will make the tip connector of the LEDS as battery positive + and the switch setup will turn on/off the lights on the negative lead which is the barrel connector of the LEDs. This will then allow you to install the batteries as intended and not backwards.

Ed Pinnell had a great idea for a tilt switch mod. I may wind up doing it in the future. Ill table it for now but may come back to it at a later date.

Cheers
 
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Gary, please do a detailed HOW TO on the rewiring process. I have contemplated it, but I couldn't get my head around what wires were going where and why. I have a feeling it is simply a matter of cutting and splicing or soldering a couple wires and done. The problem for me is which wires. Also, the C cell to AA conversion will lower the time between battery changes. But, it will also minimize the dissapointment when you go out to turn on your light and realize that you forgot to turn them off last time you used it.
 
Gary, what if a guy went with these AAA to C cell adapters. It would effectively give you 12V of power per light which is still within the LED light range and if I am right, would create much more light per bulb..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OUM1GTI/?tag=tvwb-20

EDIT: I take that back, those are wired in parallel, so they would increase capacity but not voltage. I wonder how 4 aaa batteries would last compared to one C cell?
 
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I would like to learn more.

Thanks for posting about the light on eBay. At $55 delivered I will leave it for someone else since I have one already.
 
Bruce said:
Gary, what if a guy went with these AAA to C cell adapters. It would effectively give you 12V of power per light which is still within the LED light range and if I am right, would create much more light per bulb..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OUM1GTI/?tag=tvwb-20

EDIT: I take that back, those are wired in parallel, so they would increase capacity but not voltage. I wonder how 4 aaa batteries would last compared to one C cell?
Click to expand...
The battery types, capacity and typical current draw table are below. The C battery has more capacity overall, and four AAA is only 4000mAh vs the 6000mAh.

The LED light claim to have a 3 watt output with a 200 lumen rating. Given the wide voltage range (4-12vdc) its hard to determine exact current draw. I went with 6volts and 3 watts, so assuming each led bulb draws 500mA. The incandescent bulbs are rated about that too. The upside is more lumens and higher color temp. The higher the volts the lower the amperage draw.

I will do pictures and video. I paid $47 for the light. Pricey yes but with it being NLA i doubt it would be any lower now.

More research to do. Should have the light and parts by end of week. :)



Battery Type​
Capacity (mAh)​
Typical Drain (mA)​
D​
13000​
200​
C​
6000​
100​
AA​
2400​
50​
AAA​
1000​
10​
N​
650​
10​
9 Volt​
500​
15​
6 Volt Lantern​
11000​
300​
 
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Update:

All components should be in by this Thursday. Did some researching and found that most P13.5 bulbs are rated about 850mA at 4.5V to 750mA at 6VDC. What I don't know yet is if the 6 C batteries are wired in parallel (two sets of 3 batteries wired together for 4.5VDC nominal) or in series for 9.6VDC total.

Most CREE LED modules that fit into this form factor that fits the light socket have a wide operating voltage, for example the CREE XPG2 5W chip which I think is what is used in the LEDS I got will have an amp draw of 440mA @4.5VDC, or 200mA @9.6VDC PER BULB.

Those types of current draw numbers would certainly make the C to AA adapters practical with the increased efficiency in current draw. If someone put Duracell C batteries in there, those would last a ton of hours to the point Id be more worried about battery leakage due to age, not them going dead, or as engineers and battery geeks like me say, batteries, aka voltaic cells do not "die," they go to equilibrium.

Yeah, I'm excited to convert and over engineer the crap out of a decades old grill light. My wife still loves me though haha!
 
The batteries in the light are end to end, so I would say that is Series....Right? ❓
Oh, and not sure, but I think three batteries on the left in series for the left bulb and three batteries in the right for the right bulb.
But, heck, I don't know for sure...I tried to figure out the wiring a couple times already and sprained my brain in the process.
 
Gary - bassguitarist1985 said:
Update:

All components should be in by this Thursday. Did some researching and found that most P13.5 bulbs are rated about 850mA at 4.5V to 750mA at 6VDC. What I don't know yet is if the 6 C batteries are wired in parallel (two sets of 3 batteries wired together for 4.5VDC nominal) or in series for 9.6VDC total.

Most CREE LED modules that fit into this form factor that fits the light socket have a wide operating voltage, for example the CREE XPG2 5W chip which I think is what is used in the LEDS I got will have an amp draw of 440mA @4.5VDC, or 200mA @9.6VDC PER BULB.

Those types of current draw numbers would certainly make the C to AA adapters practical with the increased efficiency in current draw. If someone put Duracell C batteries in there, those would last a ton of hours to the point Id be more worried about battery leakage due to age, not them going dead, or as engineers and battery geeks like me say, batteries, aka voltaic cells do not "die," they go to equilibrium.

Yeah, I'm excited to convert and over engineer the crap out of a decades old grill light. My wife still loves me though haha!
Click to expand...
There are two independent lights with each individual light having 3 'C' batteries in series. One of the poles is common to both lamps (I think it's the negative pole but I'm too lazy to look).

EDIT: Negative with respect to the original lamps, positive in this context (LED lamps). In my view, there is nothing wrong with inserting the batteries backwards, although it may not work so well with the small positive button on AA batteries, and it might even have a positive (bad pun, sorry!) aspect...you can readily see when your alkaline batteries start leaking (they all do, even the good ones) and change them out.

EDIT2: This is wrong, in the original context the lamps are positive common. LEDs are wired negative common. See the pics following this post.
 
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Got up off my arse and found the pics. Hope this helps.
 

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Ed, has that light been rewired to accomodate the reverse polarity on the LED bulbs?
 
Yes.

EDIT: Bruce, if I say any more, it will only be more confusing. Red is (+) and Black is (-). Incandescent lamps are not polarity conscious...they will work either way. LEDs are polarity conscious and will only work one way.
 
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Right. I get the polarity thing with LEDs. So, I will have to pull my light apart and compare it to yours and figure out how to rewire it.
 
LOL, I guess we could call it OCD or something like that.

t0sG1c6.jpg
 
It's a bit more (actually, a LOT more) complicated to change the polarity. The metal tab that forms the positive contact would need to be cut, then anchored somehow, and then re-wired to the center pin on the LED. You are better off leaving it as it is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But hey, life is a learning experience, right?
 
Oh, OK. I will take that advice. So is the polarity in your pictured light corrected for the LED's or not?
 
Yes. Positive (+) is the center pin on the LED, the outer shell is negative (-).
 
Bruce said:
LOL, I guess we could call it OCD or something like that.

t0sG1c6.jpg
Click to expand...
You and me both! :)


The negative side of the batteries is normally flat with a spring and the positive has a raised dent on the batteries with the contactor being slightly raised. Flipping the batteries backwards while may work, may not always have the best connection. This is from experience with other devices, but maybe this one is more flexible. All assumptions till my light comes in tomorrow.

That makes more sense Ed each light has its own independent battery bank, but are they separately wired to each light or interconnected by the switch essentially putting the two banks of batteries in parallel.. So we are looking at 18,000 mAh for a 4.5VDC light at 850mA of draw when running C batteries. That would give you about 21 hours of run time. Cut that draw in half with an LED would nearly double that run time.

The switch, how many wires does it have? That will tell me. If its two wires, thats a single pole switch and contradicts the two separate battery banks. It would need to have 4 wire two pole to have 3 C batteries for each light.

Will report on the original configuration once I have it tomorrow.
 
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