Ritchia BN-202 compass lights

[Steve Darwin]

The Ritchie BN-202 bulkhead-mounted compass has an upper and a lower led light for card and edge reading. I don't do much nighttime sailing, yet the bulbs rarely last more than two or three seasons. The local Ritchie service agent, as well as the folks at the factory service department say that those bulbs should be expected to last a long time. They have offered no suggestion why mine burn out, but recommended inserting a 1-amp fuse in the wire going to the compass, which shares a circuit with the running (stern and combo bow) lights. I have not yet put a meter on the compass wire to check voltage, but will. Any suggestions as to cause? Cure? Don't want to have to use a flashlight to read the compass! - Steve D.

[Steve Laume]

I can't explain why your bulbs keep burning out. The one on Raven may well be close to 30 years old. I plan to replace it with an LED bulb kit this year. I believe the LED bulbs are a bit more tolerant of voltage input. They also last for a very long time. I also need to rewire it so it is on the the VHF or chart plotter circuit. It is currently wired with my deck level running lights. When I use my mast head tri color light, I have no compass light and I feel your pain in needing a flash light to read the thing.

https://www.ritchienavigation.com/resea ... /lighting/

I have pretty much changed all the bulbs, on Raven, to LEDs, Steve.

[John Stone]

I have the same compass on the Far Reach...with the two LED bulbs. Never had a problem. It’s on its own circuit. There may be an in-line fuse but I don’t remember. I’ll check next time I’m on the boat.

If the bulbs are burning out that suggest a short or some kind of significant voltage spike. Do you have 110v on the bolt? Any change there is contact between the two...a bare wire touching a different circuit somewhere? Or maybe a lose connection? The pigtail on the compass is short and the wires are probably about 20 gauge. It’s stupid that marine manufacturers use such light gauge wire because invariably you will have to tie into a larger diameter wire and the butt connectors don’t support that big of a step-down. Maybe there is a loose connection at one of the connectors creating resistance and heat. If so it’s probably within 24” of the compass.

Not really sure just thinking out loud. I guess I’d try to isolate that circuit and if possible put it on its own breaker to see if it still burns out the bulbs. You can run a separate external duplex wire from the compass to the distribution panel and just test if for a while and see what happens.

Maybe someone can suggest how to use a multimeter to determine if there is excess voltage. Y