How to install LED Strobes?

[Davarron]

2 hours ago, Bryan said:

I did this upgrade a year ago and ordered the part numbers @LANCECASPER has listed.  The pictures do not match what you get.  Aircraft Spruce will ensure you get the Red and Green (correctly) if you order them that way as he has them listed.  My 231 did not have a sync wire but I purchased 50' of the yellow unshielded wire with my order.  My A&P had no problem running the sync wire after I pulled the inspection panels and belly off for him.  The only issue was threading the wire into the wire guides up near the wingtip but once we got it down the wing, everything else was super easy.  Like others have said, added 6lbs of useful load.

What gauge wire was the sync wire that you purchased? 

[Jim Peace]

Question.  I am planning on only changing half of my oil this fall and the rest in January.  Is there a way I can only change the quarts that I put in first.  In other words I would like to leave the makeup oil in the plane and just change out the original quarts I put in during the last oil change.

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Davarron said:

What gauge wire was the sync wire that you purchased? 

I ordered 20 gauge:  11-06258 (yellow) to match the sync wires on the fixtures.

[StevenL757]

3 minutes ago, Bryan said:

I ordered 20 gauge:  11-06258 (yellow) to match the sync wires on the fixtures.

Correct.  The pigtails on the lights themselves use 20ga, so that's a good call.

[Niko182]

18 hours ago, Jim Peace said:

Changing out one lamp at a time to LED?

Wow is this the CB club or what....this is the craziest thing I have heard.  You already have the plane apart and are in the light changing mode.  How many times do you want to visit this problem?  Yourself or the mechanic is there with all the tools ready to go...just do them all for crying out loud and be done with it forever....

I would love to see the guy who is selling a plane with partial lamps changed.  What else did he go CB on?  I would run away....

 

1 hour ago, Jim Peace said:

Question.  I am planning on only changing half of my oil this fall and the rest in January.  Is there a way I can only change the quarts that I put in first.  In other words I would like to leave the makeup oil in the plane and just change out the original quarts I put in during the last oil change.

I have some awesome new for you. Plane is not for sale. nothing for you to worry about. I came here to ask a simple question. Not for your condescending attitude. I got my answer, and I ordered the second NAV / Strobe. That same argument can be used against switching all 3 tires because 1 has a flat spot. it doesn't make sense. I thought each wing had 1 power supply. I didn't have the knowledge that 1 power supply powers both wings. I switched out landing lights to LED's at a different time, and nothing happened. There is nothing wrong with me slowly switching out lights to LED's over time as the original lights burn out. In less than 6 months they'll all be LED's. There's a difference between managing your cash and being a cheap bastard. I aspire to be as talented as you one day.

[Marauder]

I have some awesome new for you. Plane is not for sale. nothing for you to worry about. I came here to ask a simple question. Not for your condescending attitude. I got my answer, and I ordered the second NAV / Strobe. That same argument can be used against switching all 3 tires because 1 has a flat spot. it doesn't make sense. I thought each wing had 1 power supply. I didn't have the knowledge that 1 power supply powers both wings. I switched out landing lights to LED's at a different time, and nothing happened. There is nothing wrong with me slowly switching out lights to LED's over time as the original lights burn out. In less than 6 months they'll all be LED's. There's a difference between managing your cash and being a cheap bastard. I aspire to be as talented as you one day.

If you have the Whelen strobes, you should have two power supplies. Not sure about the Hoskins.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[LANCECASPER]

30 minutes ago, Niko182 said:

 

I have some awesome new for you. Plane is not for sale. nothing for you to worry about. I came here to ask a simple question. Not for your condescending attitude. I got my answer, and I ordered the second NAV / Strobe. That same argument can be used against switching all 3 tires because 1 has a flat spot. it doesn't make sense. I thought each wing had 1 power supply. I didn't have the knowledge that 1 power supply powers both wings. I switched out landing lights to LED's at a different time, and nothing happened. There is nothing wrong with me slowly switching out lights to LED's over time as the original lights burn out. In less than 6 months they'll all be LED's. There's a difference between managing your cash and being a cheap bastard. I aspire to be as talented as you one day.

I don't think it does. My M20M had a power supply for each wing and one in the tail.

[kortopates]

28 minutes ago, Marauder said:

 

If you have the Whelen strobes, you should have two power supplies. Not sure about the Hoskins.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

Actually I would expect 3 power supplies - don't you have a strobe (without position light) on the rudder too? 

Over 15 years of ownership and I have never had a strobe die on me. (of course I never will now either having switched to Orions). Not everyone is so lucky but that's why I could easily see it taking decades before all three get replaced if that is the criteria. Anyway don't take my suggestions as criticisms because they are meant to be helpful. I still do maintain, the very first conversation on a maintenance project should be with your supervising A&P or maintenance provider - they're the one that signing it off - not the internet. 

Edited September 10, 2018 by kortopates

[Marauder]

Actually I would expect 3 power supplies - don't you have a strobe (without position light) on the rudder too? 
Over 15 years of ownership and I have never had a strobe die on me. (of course I never will now either having switched to Orions). Not everyone is so lucky but that's why I could easily see it taking decades before all three get replaced if that is the criteria. Anyway don't take my suggestions as criticisms because they are meant to be helpful. I still do maintain, the very first conversation on a maintenance project should be with your supervising A&P or maintenance provider - they're the one that signing it off - not the internet. 

Vintage Mooneys only had a solid white light in the back powered by the Nav switch. No power supply and no strobe combo. They may have the coffee grinder on the belly.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[Guest]

I don’t see why a different approach to upgrades illicits the responses that it does around here.  If the OP wanted fix his old reliable strobe lights he’d be called out as a CB.  If you choose to do LED upgrades slowly you’re a CB.

Some days people amaze me!

Clarence

 

 

[kortopates]

4 minutes ago, Marauder said:

 

Vintage Mooneys only had a solid white light in the back powered by the Nav switch. No power supply and no strobe combo. They may have the coffee grinder on the belly.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

Sorry Chris, I should have quoted the post you were responding too rather than piggy back onto your comment. The modern Mooney's wing tips changed the standard collision lighting for a while and they dropped the coffer grinder in favor of 3 strobes. I piggy backed on yours since the OP Eagle, being an earlier longbody, should have 3 strobes and 3 power supplies.

[Marauder]

Sorry Chris, I should have quoted the post you were responding too rather than piggy back onto your comment. The modern Mooney's wing tips changed the standard collision lighting for a while and they dropped the coffer grinder in favor of 3 strobes. I piggy backed on yours since the OP Eagle, being an earlier longbody, should have 3 strobes and 3 power supplies.

Yeah, this thread is becoming an Abbott & Costello routine. I was just referring to his wing tip strobe power supplies. And then when you mentioned 3 power supplies, I forgot “who is on first”.

[Jim Peace]

3 hours ago, Niko182 said:

 

I have some awesome new for you. Plane is not for sale. nothing for you to worry about. I came here to ask a simple question. Not for your condescending attitude. I got my answer, and I ordered the second NAV / Strobe. That same argument can be used against switching all 3 tires because 1 has a flat spot. it doesn't make sense. I thought each wing had 1 power supply. I didn't have the knowledge that 1 power supply powers both wings. I switched out landing lights to LED's at a different time, and nothing happened. There is nothing wrong with me slowly switching out lights to LED's over time as the original lights burn out. In less than 6 months they'll all be LED's. There's a difference between managing your cash and being a cheap bastard. I aspire to be as talented as you one day.

Sorry, I see you are in SoCal,,,this NJ guy must tread lightly,,,,I don't want Pelosi coming after me......LOL

I am telling you the truth, this type of flying is not safer than driving, so many people make this mistake in thinking.  These are dangerous toys, flying lawn mowers with wings.  do it right or don't be involved.  GA already has a poor reputation.  

 

 

 

[Bryan]

3 hours ago, kortopates said:

Over 15 years of ownership and I have never had a strobe die on me.

My luck, after replacing all my lights on the 231 (last year) with the LEDs - sold it, my 252 Encore (factory strobe) went out on me last week.  Luckily, a $70 replacement (bulb) was the culprit, otherwise I would have replaced the entire set on this bird with the LEDs.

I am secretly waiting on the new 252 Wingtip lights + molded tips to get approved.

[LANCECASPER]

17 hours ago, Jim Peace said:

Sorry, I see you are in SoCal,,,this NJ guy must tread lightly,,,,I don't want Pelosi coming after me......LOL

I am telling you the truth, this type of flying is not safer than driving, so many people make this mistake in thinking.  These are dangerous toys, flying lawn mowers with wings.  do it right or don't be involved.  GA already has a poor reputation.  

The only type of flying that is safer than driving is if you compare miles flown on commercial carriers to miles driven in personal automobiles. This subject has been beaten to death, but every time someone says that flying GA is safer than driving, it is a lot more fun and satisfying, but sadly it's not even close to as safe.

https://books.google.com/books?id=VT7C_Y4Wm54C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

starting on page 16

[Eraaen]

On ‎2018‎/‎09‎/‎10 at 3:33 PM, Bryan said:

I ordered 20 gauge:  11-06258 (yellow) to match the sync wires on the fixtures.

Bryan, in a earlier quote you said this was "unshielded"  is that correct?  wouldn't it need to be a shielded line in order to prevent pulse interference with the radios?  Maybe its so low power as a sync wire it doesn't

[Emmet]

On 9/10/2018 at 4:10 AM, LANCECASPER said:

The three of them will run you $1197.84 and will add 6.3 pounds to your useful load. I did mine last year.

 

How do you get the 7% dicount?

[Niko182]

I just found out I have a single power supply running all the cables from the back of the plane. Can i cut the power supply out and use the existing cables so I don't need to run new cables through the wings or is this practically going to be starting from scratch?

[Niko182]

47 minutes ago, Eraaen said:

Bryan, in a earlier quote you said this was "unshielded"  is that correct?  wouldn't it need to be a shielded line in order to prevent pulse interference with the radios?  Maybe its so low power as a sync wire it doesn't

I dont believe this is the case because the wire runs a constantly. the pulse action is only running through the strobes themselves.

[LANCECASPER]

1 hour ago, Emmet said:

How do you get the 7% dicount?

I have an account through Aircraft Spruce and can order for any Mooneyspacers and have them drop-shipped to you.

[MARZ]

I bought the Whelen 650 /500 My plane has no stobes other than the ones on the belly - one coffee grinder replacement,  and another anti collision which I will remove once the wing and rear lights are in place.  

So I'll be stripping out the interior and pulling a single 4 strand through the wings with the existing wiring.  I checked and the grommet in the wings will accommodate the new wire.  I purchased shielded though the guys at whelen said it wasn't required.  

The tail may be a different animal, there's two separate wires each through their own gnats ass grommet, two before and two after the empennage hinge .

[Bryan]

I did the unshielded but had no issues with my radios. It wouldn’t hurt to order the shielded wire.

[jetdriven]

 You don’t need shielded although I did pull shielded to the tail because it runs in the main avionics wire bundle for several feet. Plus it’s what I had on hand. 

Edited September 20, 2018 by jetdriven

[Supercop0184]

Ok slightly different question but on topic. 

 

I have ONE anti collision strobe in the belly (at one time or another it was a coffee grinder) and regular position lights in the wings and one white position only in the tail. It seems to me that the Orion 650 has the front red or green light, as well as the white light towards the back. So on the left side you get 90 degrees of red, 90 degrees of solid white, and 180 degrees of flashing light when activated. Same for the right side and green. Wouldn’t this do away with the need for not only the belly light but the tail light as well?

[gsxrpilot]

17 minutes ago, Supercop0184 said:

I have ONE anti collision strobe in the belly (at one time or another it was a coffee grinder) and regular position lights in the wings and one white position only in the tail. It seems to me that the Orion 650 has the front red or green light, as well as the white light towards the back. So on the left side you get 90 degrees of red, 90 degrees of solid white, and 180 degrees of flashing light when activated. Same for the right side and green. Wouldn’t this do away with the need for not only the belly light but the tail light as well?

I think you can do away with the belly light, but I think you still need the white one on the tail.  I think. Someone more knowledgeable than I will be along directly...