Strobe / LED Swap

-8A with 930+ hrs. About to bite the bullet and swap my trouble-prone strobes with LEDs after a blown 10-amp fuse event of unknown origin. Trying to figure out the better option.

Paul Dye chose replacements from Team Aerodynamix. Vans offers AeroLED replacements. Cost is comparable at around $1200 - so not a trivial investment. Both eliminate the fuselage-mounted power supply and use 12V direct inputs.

Anyone have an opinion?

Rolling my own LED Nav/Stobe/Position lights but this is what I am using for strobes. Under $40 each and has good reviews: https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...MI5p3esfz11gIVGp7ACh2vdg3WEAYYCCABEgI_tfD_BwE
[/url]mstrb-child-store-360-2 by David C, on Flickr[/IMG]

9GT said:

Rolling my own LED Nav/Stobe/Position lights but this is what I am using for strobes. Under $40 each and has good reviews: https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...MI5p3esfz11gIVGp7ACh2vdg3WEAYYCCABEgI_tfD_BwE

[/url]mstrb-child-store-360-2 by David C, on Flickr[/IMG]

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Have you start using it or planning on it. If already using, how bright are they and any RF noise noticed?

Bavafa said:

Have you start using it or planning on it. If already using, how bright are they and any RF noise noticed?

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I have not tried them out yet. Ordered them today with a 15% off promo code "GHOST17". Promo ends on 10/19/17. I read some reviews online that they are exceptionally bright and induced no noise in the aircraft radios. On my RV-10 I rolled my own LED tail position light using a CREE star. I did not use shielded wire to power it and I also used a cheap power supply puck mounted in the fiberglass bottom of the rudder,,,,,,it induced noise in the headset when it was on only with the engine was running! I replaced the wiring with two wire shielded, replaced the power supply with something of better quality. I even wrapped the power supply puck in some adhesive backed foil I had left over from the cowling heat reflector to help shield that. Don't know which "fix" did it but the noise was gone and the single CREE star mounted in the modified halogen bulb tail position light housing was bright enough to melt an eyeball! I will use shielded wire to wire these in using ground block for grounding,,,not the air frame.

Warning hijack ahead

Ok we have had this discusion before, but i dont remember the final outcome.

Do lights on experiemntals need to meet the cerified aircraft standards?

Do we have to be careful what we install and use?

PilotjohnS said:

Ok we have had this discusion before, but i dont remember the final outcome.

Do lights on experiemntals need to meet the cerified aircraft standards?

Do we have to be careful what we install and use?

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The key word is "experimental". You can use whatever you want for lighting for day VFR use on EXP aircraft. A candle and reflector would work for a landing light since no landing light is required unless your aircraft is used commercially,,,,and EXP aircraft can not. As far as Anti-collision and navigation lighting goes, if you want to be "legal" for night operations the lighting must meet these guidelines: https://www.whelen.com/pb/Aviation/System Requirements/Anit-Collision Systems.pdf I have yet to meet up with anyone from the FAA who carries light testing equipment for ramp checks. Just about everything out there LED is going to be better and brighter than the old TSO'd incandescent Whelen A600's. I see no where in the FAR's where an EXP aircraft must use TSO'd lighting, just that the lighting needs to meet the requirements for night time flight. Use good judgement and go for it!

I had only a single tail-top strobe for anti-collision.

I have LED bulbs in my grimes Navs on wingtips and tail. They had a little noise, I used toroid magnet clamps on the positive lead near the bulb. My PAR100EX intercom squelch is set easily to not hear strobe noise, which took just a bit more squelch to not hear the LED nav light bulbs. I still receive at a normal distance, only about 1/3 scale squelch is used.

I added the same red $40 MSTRB as above to the belly. Zero noise. None. Huge light output. Better to the eye than a strobe under a red lens cover. Most "hidden" LED strobes like it have a inline flasher body as large as the strobe. This tiny one does not. It is awesome. I will fit one under my vertical stab to replace the whelen stobe when I feel like a little glass work to match up the smaller LED and pull the strobe power supply. PSA has a $90 LED almost the same size as the single Whelen, btw.

I took a handheld scanner, adjusted squelch on VHF and UHF just under open and sought out noise from the above LED connected to just a small battery before installing and in place installed.

Can anyone explain what they do to make a bright, silent, strobing LED for $40?

I have a tail unit from FlyLEDS. I?ve been happy and will eventually install the wingtip version too. They?re much less expensive, a VAF advertiser and there are several positive reviews here on VAF. Here?s a link:http://flyleds.com

Ducksworth

Is there a rectangular LED option at these lower prices to replace the Team Aerodynamix version? I purchased one of these for my last RV but it seems that the prices have dropped a lot on other replacements since then. I have looked through the search and Googled it but not come up with one that looks like what I was hoping for (easy to do, less costly).

Thanks.
John
RV-8

Strobe / Beacon upgrade PIREP Superbright LEDs

I have competed an upgrade of my strobes and added red beacon as well and would say I am very satisfied.

Both are turned on/off with what used to be the power to my Whelen shock box to an 8 terminal strip. I used the white version to replace the strobe flash tubes by modifying the fairly standard Whelen nav/strobe combination to accept the form factor. Then added red beacons a 360 deg on the bottom of the fuselage and a 180 deg on the top to avoid too much flash in the cockpit at night.

By connecting all 4 sync wires (yellow) together with strobes on one momentary push button and beacons on another you can pick different flash patterns for each “zone” so that they flash alternate to each other (i.e. strobe and beacon out of phase). The push buttons are discreetly mounted on the rear bulkhead as one only needs to access them for set up, theoretically once. In fact, one could dispense with the momentary PB and simply ground the blue terminals manually for set up and be done.

I took my lovely bride for a night flight to see the Christmas lights and was very pleased with the results with virtually no cockpit back reflection in the cockpit only a little on the trailing edge of the wings, which actually made visual verification of flaps easier!