Landing Light Performance
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- VickersPilot
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Re: Landing Light Performance
Dan, thank you for engaging with the DA62/DA42 community here. We generally operate in an informational vacuum so great to have a supplier participating. Hope it gets you lots of orders for your various products.
- XeVision
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Re: Landing Light Performance
An Interview on “in The Hangar” about Collision avoidance in the air etc.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/D7qMpqw6VFI[/youtube]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/D7qMpqw6VFI[/youtube]
- VickersPilot
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Re: Landing Light Performance
Any update on the 100w LED replacement product? Will it be ready to order by Oshkosh?
- dmloftus
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Re: Landing Light Performance
As an electrical engineer, I've been skeptical of this claim. Who would design a system that degrades by 50% within a few minutes? How could they ever get such a system qualified? Two years ago I had Whelen LED's installed on my DA40 and I have never noticed any dimming on approach. I recently bought myself a light meter from Amazon just to check out these highly questionable claims myself. Measuring at night inside my hangar at a distance of 5 feet in the main beam of the landing and taxi lights, I saw zero dimming of my lights at 0, 5, and 10 minutes. The prior claims seem to be marketing hype. Perhaps there are some thermally-challenged applications where you can get some degradation (and XeVision must have picked the worst to get the numbers they claim), but I see NO degradation on my plane.XeVision wrote: ↑Thu Mar 09, 2023 1:15 am Most (not all) LED Landing or Taxiing lights do this dimming as they warm up, both by themselves as the junction temp goes up so does the internal resistance but they can still thermal runaway and self destruct. Because of this all the manufacturers gradually pull the LED power back for warranty prevention purposes, causing this ~50% over 5-10 minutes dimming.
- VickersPilot
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Re: Landing Light Performance
Agree. I think trying to sell non-LED lights is just silly in 2023. A company who wants to make profit will give the market what they want (LED) and not fight it. It is super important the STC is direct and not owned by DAI or this upgrade will never happen.
A little like Pilatus selling Honeywell avionics, I guarantee they will relaunch with Garmin as soon as the Denali hits the market.
A little like Pilatus selling Honeywell avionics, I guarantee they will relaunch with Garmin as soon as the Denali hits the market.
- XeVision
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Re: Landing Light Performance
Here is the lab documented proof, if you click on this graph in the WAT (Whelen) website (link below) it takes you to all of the individual certified lab reports. The graph and lab reports speak for themselves. I wasn't blowing smoke, We have done similar tests ourselves and verified this data to be reasonably accurate.dmloftus wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 7:52 pmAs an electrical engineer, I've been skeptical of this claim. Who would design a system that degrades by 50% within a few minutes? How could they ever get such a system qualified? Two years ago I had Whelen LED's installed on my DA40 and I have never noticed any dimming on approach. I recently bought myself a light meter from Amazon just to check out these highly questionable claims myself. Measuring at night inside my hangar at a distance of 5 feet in the main beam of the landing and taxi lights, I saw zero dimming of my lights at 0, 5, and 10 minutes. The prior claims seem to be marketing hype. Perhaps there are some thermally-challenged applications where you can get some degradation (and XeVision must have picked the worst to get the numbers they claim), but I see NO degradation on my plane.XeVision wrote: ↑Thu Mar 09, 2023 1:15 am Most (not all) LED Landing or Taxiing lights do this dimming as they warm up, both by themselves as the junction temp goes up so does the internal resistance but they can still thermal runaway and self destruct. Because of this all the manufacturers gradually pull the LED power back for warranty prevention purposes, causing this ~50% over 5-10 minutes dimming.
https://flywat.com/collections/led-airc ... 2%84%A2-g3
click on the "output data" box to see the graph etc. click the graph to see the detailed lab reports.
Enjoy !!
It all depends on the wattage models of LED, for the higher claimed output models listed, it is absolutely true.
These models reach 180 degrees F on the back within 10 minutes, they will thermal run away and self destruct, if the power doesn't get throttled.
BTW, we do sell LED and it doesn't Throttle, doing this is much more complex and expensive compared to the other units currently available.
We as a company don't make false statements that cant be backed up with documented proof. LED is not the Panacea for every application, HID is still superior in some situations. There is even a newer technology than LED, we are working on this too.
Last edited by XeVision on Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:01 pm, edited 4 times in total.
- dmloftus
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Re: Landing Light Performance
Have you seen this phenomenon specifically in Diamonds with Whelens? As a pilot, I'm speaking for my specific aircraft. I've seen no degradation within the timeframe of a normal final approach and I ran the luminance tests myself in the hangar to verify that. As an engineer and an analog semiconductor senior executive that has sold hundreds of millions of units of power supplies for LED lighting, I'm saying any system that does degrade by the amount claimed within a few minutes is a poorly designed system. There are definitely cheap LEDs that degrade much faster than higher quality Cree, Nichia, OSRAM, etc LED's. Designers of high-quality products use better components and design for effective heat dissipation. Imagine if your new 85" LED-backlit TV were to dim by 70% in 10 minutes (and they drive those backlights pretty hard). You'd be returning it to BestBuy very quickly. Has anyone else experienced that level of degradation within a few minutes?
- Colin
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Re: Landing Light Performance
I don't know about LEDs and the rest, but I know that the new ballast jumped the illumination on our DA42. The port light is original, starboard is the new ballast and new bulb. (Ballast might be the wrong term.)
Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
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http://www.flyingsummers.com
N972RD DA42 G1000 2.0 s/n 42.AC100 (sold!)
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http://www.flyingsummers.com
N972RD DA42 G1000 2.0 s/n 42.AC100 (sold!)
N971RD DA40 G1000 s/n 40.508 (traded)
- XeVision
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Re: Landing Light Performance
Ballast is the correct term for the power supply unit.
Glad to see and hear of the improvements.