Whelen Orion 650, and 500 LED lights

[xcrmckenna]

At annual last week we installed new Whelen led wind tip and tail lights. I ran the wire to the tail to make it flash but didn’t see the reason to run the added wire to synchronize all the lights. But I figured it would make the plane more noticeable. But when we turned everything on they were hard to tell they were not flashing all at the same time.

 

Quite a few members have added them so I don’t have much to add other than I’m really happy with them. I flew over a buddy’s house this weekend and he even noticed how bright the lights were without me telling him I got them.

 

 

 

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[StevenL757]

Agree...one of the best upgrades I did to my Ovation.  Nicely done...you will love them!

Steve

[thinwing]

Looking good...annual all done?

[xcrmckenna]

Looking good...annual all done?

Yep, already have 3.5 hours on her:)


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[bradp]

Great looking installation right there  

My daughter helped me preflight and told me to turn off the lights because they were too bright :-).  Love that upgrade.  Just tonight I was taxiing around a really dark area - no problem the nav lights are so bright they work like taxi lights   

I did find that they will start to go out of phase after a few minutes.  The good - they will turn to pulse lights every once in a while.  The bad - they are really distracting in certain circumstances when they aren’t synced.  The Orion’s (I have the 600s) are so bright that they will throw on and reflect off even a bit of moisture in the air on a clear night.  So you can always see these little halos.  Night landings are somewhat distracting when they are out of sync.  Don’t even think about entering a cloud at night with them on - they are blinding.  

Anyway for those reasons I am running a sync wire when my wing is opened up for another upgrade.  I wouldn’t wish that wire running job on anyone.  It’s pretty awful. 

 

[xcrmckenna]

Great looking installation right there  
My daughter helped me preflight and told me to turn off the lights because they were too bright :-).  Love that upgrade.  Just tonight I was taxiing around a really dark area - no problem the nav lights are so bright they work like taxi lights   
I did find that they will start to go out of phase after a few minutes.  The good - they will turn to pulse lights every once in a while.  The bad - they are really distracting in certain circumstances when they aren’t synced.  The Orion’s (I have the 600s) are so bright that they will throw on and reflect off even a bit of moisture in the air on a clear night.  So you can always see these little halos.  Night landings are somewhat distracting when they are out of sync.  Don’t even think about entering a cloud at night with them on - they are blinding.  
Anyway for those reasons I am running a sync wire when my wing is opened up for another upgrade.  I wouldn’t wish that wire running job on anyone.  It’s pretty awful. 
 

I bought CiES frequency sending units to go with my JPI EDM900 I’ll have to open up the wing again. But as long as it’s not annoying or distracting to me I like the idea of them flashing offset maybe a little more noticeable to traffic. But I’ll head your comment about flying into cloud with them on. They are bright in a hanger during the day. VERY glad I have them! I’m all LED now.


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[sgrooves]

Both of my strobe power supplies have decided to call it quits. Guessing the 650's are still the preferred way to replace the nav/strobes with LED? Looking to make the upgrade at my coming annual. Anyone find any deals other than the 450/per side from aircraft spruce?

[xcrmckenna]

7 hours ago, sgrooves said:

Both of my strobe power supplies have decided to call it quits. Guessing the 650's are still the preferred way to replace the nav/strobes with LED? Looking to make the upgrade at my coming annual. Anyone find any deals other than the 450/per side from aircraft spruce?

I think it’s the best route installing the 650’s. AeroLED has a set but they are more expensive than the Whelen’s. Whelen makes a set of led nav lights. But that doesn’t do any good for the strobes. I still have my strobe power supplies if you are interested in them. 

[Marauder]

17 hours ago, sgrooves said:

Both of my strobe power supplies have decided to call it quits. Guessing the 650's are still the preferred way to replace the nav/strobes with LED? Looking to make the upgrade at my coming annual. Anyone find any deals other than the 450/per side from aircraft spruce?

If you can hold out until Oshkosh, you will find they will be running a show special. I can’t remember the exact discount but it was enough for me to reach into my Cheap Bast$#d wallet and retrieve my dust covered credit card and order them.

[sgrooves]

3 minutes ago, Marauder said:

If you can hold out until Oshkosh, you will find they will be running a show special. I can’t remember the exact discount but it was enough for me to reach into my Cheap Bast$#d wallet and retrieve my dust covered credit card and order them.

Appreciate the insight. The plane will be opened up for annual a month prior to Oshkosh so was hoping to get them installed then. Is the Oshkosh special from Whelen directly? I suppose I may be able to try the good ole credit card price protection if it is is pretty meaningful and advertised.

[KSMooniac]

I bought mine at the show from a distributor out of Wichita at 10 or 15% off, and the discount was valid thru August I believe. You might call up and ask if you can get it a little early...

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[rbridges]

33 minutes ago, Marauder said:

If you can hold out until Oshkosh, you will find they will be running a show special. I can’t remember the exact discount but it was enough for me to reach into my Cheap Bast$#d wallet and retrieve my dust covered credit card and order them.

I may check around that time for the tail strobe.

[Marauder]

32 minutes ago, sgrooves said:

Appreciate the insight. The plane will be opened up for annual a month prior to Oshkosh so was hoping to get them installed then. Is the Oshkosh special from Whelen directly? I suppose I may be able to try the good ole credit card price protection if it is is pretty meaningful and advertised.

You will have the plane’s panels open in the wing and if you intend on running the sync wire, it will be the right time. If you aren’t running the sync wire, the most tedious portion of this would be running the strobe line to the rear position/strobe light.

[xcrmckenna]

23 minutes ago, rbridges said:

I may check around that time for the tail strobe.

I really like the tail strobe!

[gsxrpilot]

5 hours ago, sgrooves said:

The plane will be opened up for annual a month prior to Oshkosh so was hoping to get them installed then. 

I get my annual done in August each year. 

1. So I can install all the stuff I got at Oshkosh.
2. Because it's just too damn hot to fly in here in Texas.

[Skates97]

5 hours ago, Marauder said:

If you can hold out until Oshkosh, you will find they will be running a show special. I can’t remember the exact discount but it was enough for me to reach into my Cheap Bast$#d wallet and retrieve my dust covered credit card and order them.

To take advantage of an Oshkosh discount do you have to be there or do they run an online promo code of sorts?

[bradp]

Some places (Bruce's covers) will extend the OSH discount to all comers - online etc.  Whelen has not historically, but sometimes one or two of their distributors will extend a show special to the online crowd.

[Marauder]

5 hours ago, Skates97 said:

To take advantage of an Oshkosh discount do you have to be there or do they run an online promo code of sorts?

Both. If you can't attend in person and it requires an in person presence, I would see if someone could buy on your behalf.

[sgrooves]

Ended up finding a decent deal for a couple of them online. Aircraft Spruce matched the price and I avoided shipping and taxes. The lights all got installed at annual #2. Besides that and the aileron SB, everything is was standard. Got the plane back yesterday. See pics and video below. They did run the sync wires, fabricated the mounts, and repainted the wingtips.

Video: 

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[bradp]

One thing I noted with my 600s is that the engine cluster needles (all of them) wiggle a little when the synchronized lights flash.  No movement on my voltmeter whatsoever so instantaneous/momentary electrical loading seems not to be an issue- I’m thinking they may be sharing a common ground or forming a little ground loop. I reused the existing factory unshielded wire and now I’m wondering if that was a good idea. Anyone have ideas? I’d take the wiggle over the unreliable old strobes...

Thanks -

b 

[kortopates]

15 minutes ago, bradp said:

One thing I noted with my 600s is that the engine cluster needles (all of them) wiggle a little when the synchronized lights flash.  No movement on my voltmeter whatsoever so instantaneous/momentary electrical loading seems not to be an issue- I’m thinking they may be sharing a common ground or forming a little ground loop. I reused the existing factory unshielded wire and now I’m wondering if that was a good idea. Anyone have ideas? I’d take the wiggle over the unreliable old strobes...

Thanks -

b 

I get that as well, but just on the load meter, which shows the amperage draw when they fire. The regulated voltage is quite stable but the amps go up and down. Turning them off amperage is steady. Shielding should only affect noise, which I have none. I have nothing in the panel though that is effected other than the amp fluctuations shown on the load meter.

In my case, I re-used the original shielded wing wire for the wing lights but had to pull a new unshielded sync wire. For the tail I pulled new shielded wires since that was a strobe only before and I would have had to pull more than 1 wire. 

[bradp]

@kortopates same wiring setup pretty much here. Just the momentary current draw but in all my engine cluster needle and noting else in the panel.  Does a little dance.   

[kortopates]

[mention=7862]kortopates[/mention] same wiring setup pretty much here. Just the momentary current draw but in all my engine cluster needle and noting else in the panel.  Does a little dance.   

This is of no help to you, but luckily for me, the EDM 900 is impervious to the fluctuations.


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[Marauder]

I don’t have the sync wires connected but see no fluctuations on mine.


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[PTK]

I have the 650E’s installed and synched. I see no fluctuations anywhere.