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Ztron nav light reviews?

Ztron Labs update?

For a product group with such attractive pricing I would expect to see a lot of praise and/or complaints by now. Is anybody actually flying with the landing lights and nav/strobes that can comment on product quality, noise output and light output.

Thanks
Paul
 
Ztron lights

Thanks for the info Al. I'll call you for a more in depth discussion, also interested in more feedback. These things are less than 1/2 the price of other LED lights. How are they working out.

Thanks
Paul
 
ground radio checks

not flying but I have done radio checks on ground with ztron nav/strobe. no noise in the headset from lights.
 
I recall reading somewhere that the owner/creator of the Ztron product line used to work at Dynon and other than that there is no connection.
 
His LinkedIn data says he left Dynon in 2011 but this interview was posted Sept 2012. Looks like their still kinda chummy to me.

Not that there is anything wrong with that....Might just add some credibility to Ztron.

That interview also gives some hints on how Dynon may have entered into the RF business.
 
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I have been flying with them for 1.5 years and 400hrs as of today using the nav/strobe units and have been working great. I originally did not like the flash pattern. It was real square wave looking...for a lack of better term....the off duration was the same time as the on duration. Changing the pattern flashes and speed with the availible options still yeilded a weird looking flash to me. They agreed to re-program the rom to a custom flash pattern for a fee. I have no idea if that was incorporated into the next line of units or if mine are the only ones like that. The actual funtion of the units has been great.
 
The guy did say he was at "Dynon and Ztron" (0:36 into the video), and Dynon and Ztron have the same address.
 
Well, after getting a few questions answered via email yesterday, I went ahead and ordered the wingtip and tail lights. Will post more info when they arrive and I've had a chance to check them out.

I Looked seriously at a few other options. As much as I wanted to home brew my own LED nav lights, I've just got too much stuff going on to justify it. I looked at all of the commercial options I could find, plus the Killacycle LEDs with some strobesnmore.com automotive strobes. Even that option approached the cost of the Ztron units, and when you consider that you'd still have to come up with a tail mounted position/strobe... probably more expensive.

Ztron says they've tested their lights and found them to comply with all the requirements in sections 1385, 1387, 1389, 1391, 1393, 1395, 1397 and 1401 when properly mounted. That's what sold me.
 
ztron - quiet

I flew with ztron lights for the first flight last week. wired per plans. they were quiet in the headset and worked properly. I'm sold.
 
My set arrived today. Quality and construction look good. I'd love to see the tail light in a more protective package, but some aluminum and Proseal will fix it up. The wingtip nav/strobes are all linear -- should be very quiet. The tail strobe uses a switch mode power supply, so I'll run shielded wire for that one. I tried out the tail unit on my bench power supply first. It's not bad, looks like it should be plenty bright enough.

The wingtip units, though, are another story. I'll have to send the Ztron guys a bill for refinishing my floor after the light from those scorched off the finish. :) Let's just say the best way of testing these is while looking at them from the back.

I was also happy to see Faston tabs for all three connections on the wingtip lights. Their web site shows the sync wire soldered to the light, but it's a tab on the ones I received. That will make the wiring a little simpler.
 
I like my ztron's lights, not flying yet though. I worked with Warren at ztron and have the prototype wingtip lights on my airplane. I mounted them on the vans spring system so I could adjust them, one for taxi and one straight ahead. I have a taildragger. He contacted me and said if I wanted too I could send them back and he would put the new heat sinks on them for me. That was nice, I appreciated that. I haven't done that yet but probably will.
So about the tail light strobe, what I did was modify a regular strobe bezel, like one you would get from a vans tail light and bonded the ztron light into it. Then, mounted it as I would a normal tail light, using the gasket I did bond the two nuts into the rudder so I would not have them trying to spin, so they are just blind nuts now. I polished the bezel so now it looks good and has more strength too. Oh and I used a little blue loctite on final installation of the screws.

Bird
 
Looking for info -

It looks like Ztron has been out of business for quite some time.
The airplane I am working on has one of their nav./strobe units on the rudder.

Does anyone have a copy of any documentation they used to provide regarding wiring and programming?

Because they are out of business I may just replace it but I would first like to figure out if it is even functional.
 
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