What to do if strobe light is inop

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Diamond_Dan
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by Diamond_Dan »

Rich wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 4:15 pm By the way, I have two A600s and the power supplies. They are left over from converting to the Orions, if anyone needs some parts.
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perossichi
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by perossichi »

This post has me motivated to change out my strobe/position lights in wing tips with leds. Do folks have opinions on Aeroleds pulsar vs others? Rich said something about Orions. Comparison thoughts?
Sold 2002. Powerflo, Hartzell composite two blade, 530W/430, 345 transponder.
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Rich
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by Rich »

perossichi wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 4:38 am This post has me motivated to change out my strobe/position lights in wing tips with leds. Do folks have opinions on Aeroleds pulsar vs others? Rich said something about Orions. Comparison thoughts?
The Orions are Whelen Orion 600. They are a direct replacement for the A600, except that the tube inside the wingtip that also provides grounding for the frames of the lights must be removed/replaced/modified. All in, I believe the conversion cost me ~$2K.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by danno2000 »

My mech says if the bulb is inop, you can just replace the bulb.

So I took the wingtip off and ran into another obstacle - this yellowish plastic that covers just about the entire wingtip opening. Seems to be molded in - started unscrewing the screws thinking that might remove it, but then decided all it would do is dislodge the power supply and I was running out of time.
IMG_0728.jpg
On reflection maybe I'm supposed to unscrew that section so I can move the power supply just enough to reach in there and unplug the light assembly? Still looks like it'd be a tight fit and there's enough stuff in there that I'm not sure how far the power supply will actually move. Definitely can't get in from outside the wing though - the plug isn't accessible.

I'm not missing something obvious with the plastic though, am I? Thanks for helping me through my mechanical challenges!

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dan
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Rich
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by Rich »

danno2000 wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 7:46 pm My mech says if the bulb is inop, you can just replace the bulb.

So I took the wingtip off and ran into another obstacle - this yellowish plastic that covers just about the entire wingtip opening. Seems to be molded in - started unscrewing the screws thinking that might remove it, but then decided all it would do is dislodge the power supply and I was running out of time.

On reflection maybe I'm supposed to unscrew that section so I can move the power supply just enough to reach in there and unplug the light assembly? Still looks like it'd be a tight fit and there's enough stuff in there that I'm not sure how far the power supply will actually move. Definitely can't get in from outside the wing though - the plug isn't accessible.

I'm not missing something obvious with the plastic though, am I? Thanks for helping me through my mechanical challenges!

best,
dan
I don't remember exactly, just that replacing this bulb was absurdly difficult and your picture seems about right. What's worse, I had to replace it twice. Once due to a burned-out bulb and again when I had to replace the entire outer assembly due to a hangar incident by another pilot.
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by Steve »

You can access the wiring in the wingtip from the light assembly hole. It is not necessary to take the wingtip off of the wing at all. My recollection is that the new strobe tube comes with wires only, not a connector, so I just cut the old wires near the bad tube, and spliced the new tube into those. They certainly could have provided a bit more slack. I've subsequently installed the Whelen Orion units, which do require removal of the wingtip to remove the old power supply, and install the new light assemblies. You can be sure that I allowed enough slack in the wiring to allow replacement of the Orion light assembly without taking off the wingtip (although hopefully they will last long enough to avoid that necessity).

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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by Rich »

I like Steve's idea. Just keep in mind these wires carry much higher voltage than the 28V input (could be 550 volts) so make sure of your splice insulation.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by danno2000 »

Steve wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:09 pm You can access the wiring in the wingtip from the light assembly hole. It is not necessary to take the wingtip off of the wing at all. My recollection is that the new strobe tube comes with wires only, not a connector.
What I ended up doing was a hybrid of Steve's suggestion with my original idea. As it turns out, the strobe did come with a connector, and I didn't want to do any more electrical work than absolutely necessary.
Strobe light.jpg
So here's the workflow of what ended up happening:

-- Remove wingtip.
-- Unplug electrical connectors between inboard lights and power supply.
-- Remove glass and metal covers of strobe/position light assembly.
-- Detach strobe/position assembly from wingtip.
-- Detach and remove power supply.

At that point, I had a larger hole, but it was still way too small and far away to get to the strobe connector. So I proceeded:

-- Dislodge metal wire-conduit tube assembly from seating.
-- Carefully push tube/pull strobe-position assembly so that the assembly pushes further out the gap in the outer wing.
-- Eventually push it far enough that the strobe connector is exposed.
-- Unplug dead strobe, plug in live strobe.
-- Reverse everything to reinstall.
Strobe position assembly.jpg
NOTE WELL: The two screws that hold the strobe/position light assembly are different lengths for a very good reason. The aft screw is shorter to provide clearance for the aft position light. If you get the screws reversed, the longer screw touches the base of the position light and shorts the circuit.

Thanks to all for the advice and support and especially Rich for the spare strobe!

best,
dan
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by sluis »

Diamond_Dan wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 4:09 pm
danno2000 wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 2:58 pm Specifically, if the strobe light is inop but the front and back position lights work, can you just replace the strobe portion? Is the strobe a plug-in bulb similar to what you'd find in a car? Or do you have to replace the entire combined assembly even though the front/back position lights work?
To answer your question specifically, the strobe bulb can be replaced a la carte but it takes some disassembly as mentioned here. Keep in mind that the problem can also be the strobe power supply. I have replaced one of each in the past 4 years. A new strobe power supply may get you halfway to a LED upgrade, at least for the parts, so think about that too. The other side is failing now on my '04 and total $$ spent on bulbs and power supplies rebuilding the things would have us at an LED upgrade.

My mechanic taught me to do the wingtip lamp work over my trash barrel which is usually filled with paper towels. May save you a broken lens.

Dan
Dan - my cb pops whenever I turn on the strobes. Have you had any similar symptoms in dealing with the power supplies?

Joel
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Re: What to do if strobe light is inop

Post by Diamond_Dan »

sluis wrote: Tue Mar 29, 2022 3:22 pm
Dan - my cb pops whenever I turn on the strobes. Have you had any similar symptoms in dealing with the power supplies?

Joel
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Hi Joel - I never had a CB trip for the strobe issues. I had a bulb go which suddenly stopped working. When the power supply died, it would intermittently work, or take a long time to "warm up". Similar for the most recent issue, but I went ahead and upgraded to Whelen LEDs instead. For the first incident, my mechanic swapped the bulbs which may be the only way to be sure. I wanted to upgrade after the first problem, but I had a partner at the time who refused. I bought him out last summer.

My guess would be the power supply for a CB trip but it's just a guess.
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