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Combination Strobe /tail light

O

Oldgeezer

Active Member
Question for those who have installed Van's combination strobe/tail white light.
In addition to the strobe wires from the power supply, did you have to run an additional wire from the main buss to the white light and if so what size wire did you use?
Thanks
Oldgeezer
RV9A wiring
 
Yes, you do.

The nav/position light needs its own power and ground wires. I used a short ground lead, grounded locally at the first adel clamp inside the fuse.

Wire from the switch----not buss----was #18, IIRC.
 
What Mike said. But I ran all ground wires I could to the ground buss on the firewall. There is a reason for it. IIRC it's something about ground loops (the 'lectrical kind). Had it explained to me once but can't recall the details.
 
Not necessary to carry grounds from lights, strobe ps, or pumps back to ground buss on the firewall as these devices are not sensitive to ground loops. Just ground them locally on the airframe with small screws or bolts.
 
Something doesn't seem right

I also have the combination white light and strobe for my 9A. If I remember correctly when I last looked at it I saw three wires coming from the light to the plug end. Doesn't the strobe require three wires and then two (source and ground) for the position light. Thats five. I count three on the light, something seems amiss. What is it that I'm not understanding.
 
Check again. You may have ordered or been sent the wrong light assembly. There needs to be the three wires for the strobe and two for the position light. It has been a while for me but I'm pretty sure that's the way it was.
 
bsacks05 said:
Check again. You may have ordered or been sent the wrong light assembly. There needs to be the three wires for the strobe and two for the position light. It has been a while for me but I'm pretty sure that's the way it was.
Click to expand...

Yep, just checked a couple minutes ago.
 
A related question ... has anybody used the single tail strobe offered by Aeroflash (strobe + small power supply) 156-0029 ? If I read it right, it's just a strobe, i.e. no position light.
 
Mike S said:
Yes, you do.

The nav/position light needs its own power and ground wires. I used a short ground lead, grounded locally at the first adel clamp inside the fuse.

Wire from the switch----not buss----was #18, IIRC.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I haven't purchased the combo light yet, but figured there had to be a regular white light in there also and that a run of #18 wire should handle the load ok. Anyone know the amperage of the white light?
Oldgeezer
 
I'm good

Mike,

I found the box I have it stashed in and looked again. It has three for the plug to the strobe box and two single lines for the tail light. Thanks for keeping me straight.
 
tail white light

Does anyone know the amperage rating of the white light in the strobe/tail combo light. I'm trying to size the wire I need for the white light approx a 20 ft run.
Thanks
Oldgeezer
 
The Whelen combined navlight/strobe combo that comes with Vans System 6 lighting system is a model A500A-V-14 (for mounting at rear of aircraft). Whelen specifies 18 guage wire for this navlight. The strobe light uses triple core shielded 18 guage (supplied with the System 6 package).
 
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... and the power supply?

Does anyone have any suggestion where to mount the power supply for the tail/strobe? I have 3 separate power supplies: 1 for ea. wing and tail.
 
Power Supplies

Clayton,

No suggestion, sorry, but I'm curious which power supplies you're using and which bulbs/flashers?

Thanks,

George
 
3 power packs

I'm doing the same. One power supply in each wingtip and one in the tail.
I am using the Nova Quickstrobe individual power supplies for $40 each. My goal was to avoid having the strobe power running through the plane causing radio interference, etc. It'll also make my wing wiring attach points easier to run.
 
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grjtucson said:
Clayton,

No suggestion, sorry, but I'm curious which power supplies you're using and which bulbs/flashers?

Thanks,

George
Click to expand...

I bit the bullet and went all Whelen NAV/Strobe combos and power supplies.

http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin...9427296-206-273&browse=lighting&product=sys-1
SYSTEM 2, OPTION B

I wanted a strobe in the tail so I added an extra A490-TS-CF Power supply. I realized it might be a bit uncommon if not rare, when I had to coach the nice girl at Van's on adding the PS. I also threw in a Strobe Installation Package (LN HT-10-1), and added 2 extra Male and 2 extra Female Molex connectors. 10' of the gray shielded cable is plenty, if your mounting the PS's on the wing end rib - even with some service loop.

I wanted 3 Pwr Supplies so I could mount them closer to their light. I don't know if my fears were true, but I'd heard you should eliminate the long high voltage wiring runs - the thinking being the closer you have the PS to the light, the less chance you have with radio noise and NAV reception problems. I know that there are electrical gurus here who would know how to avoid all the gotchas of potential radio/nav problems with a single PS - but I'm not one of them.

I do know that the boxes weigh in at 1.7lbs ea. and I have perfectly clear radio xmit/rcv with NAV/Strobes ON. I'll check the NAV reception function in the next few weeks.:D
 
nav/strobe lights

the position lights are 26 watts (which is about 2 amps). i used #18 (well, on one wing i ran out of 18, so used 16 -- then i found more 18, but wasn't about to re-run the wire.) i grounded the lights locally. for the strobe power supply, i also used #16, but in this case i didn't ground locally -- i twisted a pair of #16's to run back to the firewall. i know the strobe power supply is not sensitive to ground loops (as deene said), but i was concerned about the discharge causing spikes on the power line to the supply, which is a fairly long run and close to other wires in the bundle, and i didn't want it to induce spikes into other wires so i twisted it with the ground wire. don't know if it's overkill or not, but it was just one more #16 wire to run.

not flying yet, but close to hanging engine.
wiring done except trim & flaps, and kn-64 i just added to panel.
(and fwf stuff, of course).
 
KE Strobes combo Tail strobe/white LED tail light.

I got my tail light today from KE Strobes. It's a very nice unit. The LEDs are plenty bright enough, and with the built-in strobe tube and the Nova Quickstrobe individual power supply, it's a nice little package.



 
Craig (or anyone else)-

These Nova Quickstrobes are only putting out 12.4W. It seems like most of the other packs put out about 60W. I'm guessing that the discrepency is that while the Quickstrobe only powers one strobe tube, the multistrobe paks have to 4 or 5 strobes (at about 12-15W each)? Is my guess correct?

Is there any FAA standard for what wattage the strobes have to be?

Thanks.



craigvince said:
I got my tail light today from KE Strobes. It's a very nice unit. The LEDs are plenty bright enough, and with the built-in strobe tube and the Nova Quickstrobe individual power supply, it's a nice little package.



Click to expand...
 
You're right

A 60-watt power supply with 4 outlets would distribute 15 watts to each. This was the rationale I used to decide that 12 watts was sufficient for me. There are power supplies that put out more, though.
 
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