Replacing a Whelen strobe unit

6 posts in this topic

Posted

Just wondering if anyone ever made a modern unit to fire the whelen strobes.  There is a lot of stuff in that whelen power box, and it sucks up a lot of juice.  Must be a better way (besides LEDs)  I would like to keep the wing tip units, but get rid of that power box if possible.  JImChuk

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Posted (edited)

Just wondering if anyone ever made a modern unit to fire the whelen strobes.  There is a lot of stuff in that whelen power box, and it sucks up a lot of juice.  Must be a better way (besides LEDs)  I would like to keep the wing tip units, but get rid of that power box if possible.  JImChuk

Many years ago there was a magazine called Glider Rider. They had plans to build a power supply for the Whelen style coiled strobe lights. My lights were built into baby food jars. We used them even before part 103 existed just to make our ultralights more visible. We built them to save on costs and the power supply box is about as big as the old Whelen units anyway.

If I was going to make one these days I'd probably start with a prefab module such as this: https://www.xenonflashtubes.com/flash-driver-modules/12v-nano-strobe-compact-xenon-flash-warning-light_130.html

Just take the bulb off the board and mount a socket to plug your lights into. The unit in the link mentions the capacitor can be adjusted to fire different sized strobe lights and that will be needed if you have the cork screw style bulbs.

Edited by Cloud Dancer
spelling correction
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Posted

This isn't answering the question, but I have both single and dual wehlan power supply trigger boxes and 4 strobe/position lights (2 red 2 green) that are free for paying the shipping to anyone who is trying to keep their system alive. This isn't an offer to just give them ALL away to one person to just collect them, but I will give what ever someone needs to fix their problem and keep their legacy system alive. 

Chris

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Posted

I have a few sets of them myself.  It's a shame when you look at the cost of these things, but I guess time passes by and technology improves and stuff gets left behind.  The thing is the light out on the wingtip is pretty good, and mainly it's the big power supply for the strobe that is the problem in my opinion, especially if you can go with LED light bulbs for the nav lights.   I have some fire alarm strobes like what you would see in a hospital or other type public building.  They run on 12 volts, as well, but have a smaller strobe light.  They weigh next to nothing though, just a circuit board, and some gizmos soldered into it. Would be nice if I knew if they would trigger the whelen strobes.  I'm very ignorant when it comes to electronics, (some would say "in many other fields as well"  but we wont listen to them at the moment. :lmao: JImChuk

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Posted

Jim, if you haven't, take a look at superbrightled.com.

They have some better stuff

Bob 

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Posted

Jim, if you haven't, take a look at superbrightled.com.

They have some better stuff

Bob 

If the FAA is OK with led lights as strobes I see no reason to continue with Xenon flash tube technology. Led lighting lasts longer, is lighter, less fragile, cheaper, and easier to design driver electronics for.

Remember those cheap cardboard cameras that hit their heyday just before pocket sized cell phones got popular? They used to be a cheap source for flash capacitors for those of us experimenting with high voltage. Probably hard to find them today.

A website with some good information on Xenon flash tubes is here: http://www.bristolwatch.com/ele/index.htm Within that page is a link to a YouTube video on the subject. I have not watched the video but I am a subscriber to his channel. He's got some great videos for electronics.

Here's a great place to find parts for Xenon style lighting: https://www.xenonflashtubes.com/

 

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