I am a newbie to auto electrics. I am replacing my instrument cluster lights with LEDs and figured I may as well replace the instrument voltage regulator at the same time. I have a new Dennis Carpenter solid state ICVR. I read on the forum that it is worth bench testing it before installing it, since some of the "made in China" ones don't work correctly out of the box. I plan to use a 12 volt truck battery and hook it up as per the sketch, hoping for a solid 5V reading. Is this the correct way to test it? Comments appreciated.

 

Yes that is the correct method.

It will not out put a steady 5V. It is a thermal switching type regulator, and will bounce around from 3-7 v to average 5 v.

 

Thank you. I thought it looked like the old type with the bi-metal strip, but it was advertised as solid state, so I will look for the voltage swing. I guess I could bend a tab or two back and have a peek inside, who knows these days what one will find. I will use a test light as well to detect the pulses, since my tester is digital.

 

Got me curious so I opened it up. Solid state apparently. The black is a poured material, epoxy maybe.

 

Yes, the solid-state ones look just like the originals on the outside. Or fairly close to them.
Yes a modern IC type will put out a steady voltage.
And yes, it’s a great idea to test them!
Because yes, many of them are crap.

The ones we sell for Early Broncos come from several sources, but also have a little adjuster on them. Luckily…
So when they arrive and we test them and they put out too little or too much voltage, we can adjust them to put out a steady 5v.

Doesn’t look like yours has an adjustment on it, so hopefully they work right out of the box.
Did you get a chance to test it yet?

 

Paul's question: "Did you get a chance to test it yet?"

Yes, 4.96 Volts which is close enough to use I guess, since there is no adjustment. I will test the one I that's in there now to compare.

Is there a resistor encased in the black filler, or is the black filler a resistive material? I suspect the former, but as I said this is all new stuff to me.

 

I would suspect that it’s just simple potting material and that the resistor is inside. Luckily this is very low current flow, because resistors can build a lot of heat. And anybody with a Ford Dura, spark, ignition, module meltdown, can certainly see what happens to potting material when it overheats! :-)