replacing hoskins strobe bulbs on the cheap

[peevee]

we had a hoskins style bulb fail. It would not flash on battery power (even with two batteries) and would only flash a few times when the engine first started and then quit. I swapped the connectors at the power supply and verified it was the bulb and not the power supply first.

I dug around here and in a few different threads found the info I needed to replace it, but thought I'd consolidate my experience in one thread.

Here's the type of bulb we have. I think some of the confusion lies in the different types of lights.

the reflector comes off, and the foam that surrounds the bulb is wedged in there pretty good, I had to destroy it to remove it. back of the bulb under all the rubber/foam stuff is a circuit board like this.

 

I purchased two aeroflash 073-0141 bulbs from spruce, about $35 each

once the bulbs arrive you'll see the foam/rubber portion is larger than the one removed, but under all that foam is a circuit board like the one from the old bulb.Cut the foam down to the edge of that board and see if it'll fit, mine wouldn't so I sanded the board down slightly. You can't really go too far on the foam as you'll hit the circuit board. I cut it angled outward a little so the foam was larger than the hole and held the bulb securely, sort of like \_/

 

the wiring from the hoskins bulb is different from the whelen or aeroflash bulbs so you have to reverse the white and red wires on the 3 pin molex connector. We happened to have whelen power supplies, but our molex was wired for the hoskins bulb per the instructions on page 5 of the PDF. If you're putting an aeroflash bulb on a hoskins suplly I assume you would still reverse the leads. The bulbs came with a new 3 pin molex connector, but it wouldn't hurt to have a molex pin tool just in case, so you can remove the pins from the old bulb and use that connector if you want. They're about $7 on amazon.

wiring- page 5.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Remover-Computer-Extractor-Sleeving/dp/B01G46DJVU/ref=sr_1_4?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1496875028&sr=1-4&keywords=molex+pin+tool

I also had to open up the reflector a little bit to fit the bigger bulb. Dremel tool worked well for this.

Put back together everything is perfect, and the new bulb is so much brighter than the old one on the other wing I'll replace it as well so I have all nice, crisp strobes.

 

 

[N201MKTurbo]

2 hours ago, peevee said:

we had a hoskins style bulb fail. It would not flash on battery power (even with two batteries) and would only flash a few times when the engine first started and then quit. I swapped the connectors at the power supply and verified it was the bulb and not the power supply first.

I dug around here and in a few different threads found the info I needed to replace it, but thought I'd consolidate my experience in one thread.

Here's the type of bulb we have. I think some of the confusion lies in the different types of lights.

the reflector comes off, and the foam that surrounds the bulb is wedged in there pretty good, I had to destroy it to remove it. back of the bulb under all the rubber/foam stuff is a circuit board like this.

 

I purchased two aeroflash 073-0141 bulbs from spruce, about $35 each

once the bulbs arrive you'll see the foam/rubber portion is larger than the one removed, but under all that foam is a circuit board like the one from the old bulb.Cut the foam down to the edge of that board and see if it'll fit, mine wouldn't so I sanded the board down slightly. You can't really go too far on the foam as you'll hit the circuit board. I cut it angled outward a little so the foam was larger than the hole and held the bulb securely, sort of like \_/

 

the wiring from the hoskins bulb is different from the whelen or aeroflash bulbs so you have to reverse the white and red wires on the 3 pin molex connector. We happened to have whelen power supplies, but our molex was wired for the hoskins bulb per the instructions on page 5 of the PDF. If you're putting an aeroflash bulb on a hoskins suplly I assume you would still reverse the leads. The bulbs came with a new 3 pin molex connector, but it wouldn't hurt to have a molex pin tool just in case, so you can remove the pins from the old bulb and use that connector if you want. They're about $7 on amazon.

wiring- page 5.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Remover-Computer-Extractor-Sleeving/dp/B01G46DJVU/ref=sr_1_4?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1496875028&sr=1-4&keywords=molex+pin+tool

I also had to open up the reflector a little bit to fit the bigger bulb. Dremel tool worked well for this.

Put back together everything is perfect, and the new bulb is so much brighter than the old one on the other wing I'll replace it as well so I have all nice, crisp strobes.

 

 

I'd give you CB badge if I had one! Way to go!

[MB65E]

Nice work, did you ditch the lense too? Probably blocks a lot of light. 

-Matt

[peevee]

No, left the lense in place. I think you want the protection from a drop of rain working in or something.

[peevee]

looks like I'm not the first to do this, went to do the other tip and the housing and lens were heat damaged and had a similar bulb though a much worse install. Reflector was missing, so that could contribute to it or it could be that the replacement bulb runs hotter since it has more length, or it could have been completely unrelated. Enter at your own risk.

[rbridges]

On 6/8/2017 at 7:52 AM, peevee said:

No, left the lense in place. I think you want the protection from a drop of rain working in or something.

Is the lens supposed to be opaque?

[peevee]

1 hour ago, rbridges said:

Is the lens supposed to be opaque?

no. they're plastic, and old.

[rbridges]

24 minutes ago, peevee said:

no. they're plastic, and old.

My landing light lens did the same thing. Replacing it made a noticeable difference.