Ovation recog light replacment alternatives

[rogerl]

who owns it

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by rogerl

[LANCECASPER]

Here's one of the many threads that have talked about this:

 

[ArtVandelay]

Recognition lights don’t have a standard that they need to comply with like position, strobes, or landing lights. It’s just another light.
Hangar fairies replaced mine with LED, the mounting was designed as a drop in replacement of old halogen. Less current, brighter and no heat.

If I ever needed to, I could swap back to the old lights in 15 minutes.

[Steve W]

I'm considering trying to design, 3d print and metalize a matching reflector to the original with a wedge base inside it so it could be used with LEDs... I looked at a few LED bulbs that have good patterns that could work with mounting a base, looked at a few commercial LED lights(typically sold as off-road pod lights), but they all ended up really large, so I think the general solution will be to move to something custom. 

Of course I've also been remodeling the bathroom for a year now, and am 3 months in to installing my engine monitor so it's not likely a project that's going to happen soon.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, teejayevans said:

Recognition lights don’t have a standard that they need to comply with like position, strobes, or landing lights. It’s just another light.
Hangar fairies replaced mine with LED, the mounting was designed as a drop in replacement of old halogen. Less current, brighter and no heat.

If I ever needed to, I could swap back to the old lights in 15 minutes.

That’s really cool.  Who is the manufacturer?

Clarence

[StevenL757]

@teejayevans, I think my hangar fairies need to meet your hangar fairies.  Last I checked at Whelen...a couple of weeks ago to be exact...they still have nothing on the drawing board for an “official” replacement for the 70303 recognition light.

I’ve already replaced the wingtip trailing edge white position light with an aftermarket LED light that works extremely well (happy to share if anyone’s interested), so the last non-LED lights I have on the aircraft are these pesky recognition lights.  Curious to know what yours are and how you rigged them up.

 Steve

[ArtVandelay]

9 hours ago, M20Doc said:

That’s really cool.  Who is the manufacturer?
Clarence

It’s an owner produced part. LEDs are:

EverBright 6-Pack Super White 240lums 3th Generation Energy-saving 5050 12-SMD LED Panel Dome Light Auto Car Interior Reading Plate Lamp Roof Ceiling Interior Bulb With T10 / BA9S / Festoon Adapters (DC-12V) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IR3ZXJ0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_e3CSBb365Z478

if 24v, you’ll need a lm7812 voltage regulator to step down to 12v. 

[LANCECASPER]

 

Ok, I can verify that these ones will not fit in the wingtip lens even though Whelen Says they are "Form / Fit / Function replacement to A775".

Still looking for ideas. Once we get this figured out we need to get a group buy on wingtip lenses to replace all of the melted lenses from the projector bulbs.

 

 

 

[LANCECASPER]

17 hours ago, teejayevans said:

It’s an owner produced part. LEDs are:

EverBright 6-Pack Super White 240lums 3th Generation Energy-saving 5050 12-SMD LED Panel Dome Light Auto Car Interior Reading Plate Lamp Roof Ceiling Interior Bulb With T10 / BA9S / Festoon Adapters (DC-12V) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IR3ZXJ0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_e3CSBb365Z478

if 24v, you’ll need a lm7812 voltage regulator to step down to 12v. 

This has 250 lumens, halogen projector bulbs are usually rated in several 1000's of lumens.

1 lumen is about 12 times what 1 candela is. If the Whelen LED above could be used it has 28000 candela.

[ArtVandelay]

This has 250 lumens, halogen projector bulbs are usually rated in several 1000's of lumens.
1 lumen is about 12 times what 1 candela is. If the Whelen LED above could be used it has 28000 candela.

The 10 watt halogen it replaced is 120 lumens, so it’s twice as bright. It is not a projector bulb.

[LANCECASPER]

17 minutes ago, teejayevans said:

The 10 watt halogen it replaced is 120 lumens, so it’s twice as bright. It is not a projector bulb.

1) Yes the factory bulb is a projector bulb. The parabola reflector on the back of the halogen light makes it a projector type bulb. Also if you search "projector" on here you'll see that some have replaced just the bulb on theirs with an equivalent projector bulb without replacing the receptacle.

2) The factory bulb in 14v or 28v is 25 watts not 10. Watts are not candela. While I do not like the factory halogen bulb at all, it is much brighter, by at least a factor of ten, than the 200 lumen LED.

3) 250 lumens night be great for a flashlight, but not for a recognition light on an airplane.

 

 

I think we all want the same thing - a safer cooler bulb that won't melt the lens but still bright enough to make it an effective recognition light that other aircraft can see a long ways out.

[Steve W]

Actually the 25W halogen specs out at about 500 lumens, maybe a little less. Pretty much any modern 5W LED should beat it easily.

[ArtVandelay]

Remember the recognition lights are supplementary lights, the strobes are primary for collision avoidance.
With 2 taxi lights, 2 landing lights, strobes, position lights and plus I wigwag the recognition lights...if you can’t see me it’s not because of the lack Lumens.

[Steve W]

I don't have a cut down reflector to compare, but here is the original projector bulb. The central spot on the projector bulb is about 11x brighter. But the LED is effective for far more than the tiny hotspot on the projector bulb, camera settings and post-processing were the same. With the normal Whelen reflector I'd expect the central spot brightness to be very close to the $20 off-road LED light(at 6W). I would go out to the plane to compare but I don't want to have to take the covers off so I don't melt them.

If anyone wants to fly over my house we can see which one carries farther, but we'd have to wait for summer so the fog clears.

[ArtVandelay]

Actually the 25W halogen specs out at about 500 lumens, maybe a little less. Pretty much any modern 5W LED should beat it easily.

They look like standard bipin halogen bulbs, that are 240 Lumens

 

Maybe 24 voltage lights are different? I thought I read they had a resistor to reduce the voltage?

 

BTW, mine are mod works version for the J if it matters.

[Txbyker]

6 minutes ago, teejayevans said:

Remember the recognition lights are supplementary lights, the strobes are primary for collision avoidance.
With 2 taxi lights, 2 landing lights, strobes, position lights and plus I wigwag the recognition lights...if you can’t see me it’s not because of the lack Lumens.

Thats nice.  I have seen the alternating (wigwag) lights.  Can I ask how that is accomplished?

Russ

[Steve W]

1 minute ago, teejayevans said:

They look like standard bipin halogen bulbs, that are 240 Lumens


Maybe 24 voltage lights are different? I thought I read they had a resistor to reduce the voltage?

I'm giving the halogen the benefit of the doubt, I've seen numbers as high as 500, and as you say as low as 240.

Yes, all our recognition lights are 14V with a dropping resistor for those with 28V planes...(Sigh)

[ArtVandelay]

Thats nice.  I have seen the alternating (wigwag) lights.  Can I ask how that is accomplished?
Russ

Preciseflight.com , pulselite.

[Bryan]

I spoke with AVEO engineering at the Summit this weekend and they are working on a replacement for the Recog lights in our birds.  They will have a sync wire to connect two (or more) of them and will Pulse in different patters like wig-wag.  The only question I had was "when," and could not get them to give me a date.

I, too, am interested in a replacement - really more to wig-wag them and not melt the tips.

[jetdriven]

22 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

Owner produced parts in 21.303 can be used if the approved part is no longer available, which is not the case here. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2002-title14-vol1/pdf/CFR-2002-title14-vol1-sec21-303.pdf

Where does it say that ?

[LANCECASPER]

21 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

Where does it say that ?

You are right- I was reading another thread yesterday which said that and that’s not true. 

[StevenL757]

On 10/1/2018 at 11:52 AM, LANCECASPER said:

This has 250 lumens, halogen projector bulbs are usually rated in several 1000's of lumens.

1 lumen is about 12 times what 1 candela is. If the Whelen LED above could be used it has 28000 candela.

Yea, good call.  That part number/picture above is exactly what I’ve been looking at for some time now as a replacement for our 70303.  I may order one and see if I can get it to work with the flimsy housing, and failing that, may try @teejayevans solution.  I like the look of the finished product.  Looks like he put some time and thought into that job.  I’d love to see how bright both light assemblies are.

[Awful_Charlie]

I'm one of those that replaced burned out bulbs with the original bulb, for which the reflector has to be cut down. The bulbs cost peanuts, and after cutting them down you will have to unsolder the leads from the donor and solder them onto the new.

Bulb is eg https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sylvania-ERR-25W-14V-Halogen-Projection-Lamp-Projector-Light-Bulb/111761125608?hash=item1a057b70e8:g:P4MAAOSwZVlXoR02  You can check this by removing the solver foil label on the back of the bulb.

This exchange won't do anything for the lens melting issue, but my SOP is to turn them on with the strobes on entering the runway, and off on exiting the runway, and I've not had a lens issue yet

[ArtVandelay]

Just a follow up, mine were 20W bulbs, the brightness seems the same, the LED is whiter in color, pictures don’t capture the true brightness but:

[Cody Stallings]

On 9/30/2018 at 1:18 PM, teejayevans said:

Recognition lights don’t have a standard that they need to comply with like position, strobes, or landing lights. It’s just another light.
Hangar fairies replaced mine with LED, the mounting was designed as a drop in replacement of old halogen. Less current, brighter and no heat.

If I ever needed to, I could swap back to the old lights in 15 minutes.

Who is the manufacturer of your Nav/Strobe?