Strobe Lights

Anyone ever use strobes from an automotive catologue?
Whats the difference between auto strobes and aircraft?
Lou

"Lou" wrote in message
oups.com...
Anyone ever use strobes from an automotive catologue?
Whats the difference between auto strobes and aircraft?

Lou...........

I bought mine at http://www.strobesnmore.com/. The only difference I can see
is the price is less than half.

Rich S.

Do they interfere with any radio or intercome systems?

"Lou" wrote in message
oups.com...
Do they interfere with any radio or intercome systems?

Not in the slightest. I had strobes which I built from kits. They were
really whiny.

Rich S.

Anyone ever use strobes from an automotive catologue?

I recently bought and installed a dual head NEOBE strobe system for
my UL. Made by Tomar. You see them in nearly every police and EMS
vehicle. Got the entire system with shielded 15' cables for $100.
Only thing I had to do was build heads for the tubes. Simple and
cheap. A 2.5" PVC pipe cap and a Perko marine fresnel lens.

Whats the difference between auto strobes and aircraft?

Price. Plus, it depends on what kind of auto strobe you're looking
at. If you're looking at the cheap $20 magnetic base type units,
then the BIG difference is wattage or joules. Aviation strobes use
25 joule, double loop U-tubes, while nearly all auto units use a 4
joule horse-shoe U-tube. Obviously, the 25 joule/watt unit is 6
times brighter.

The Tomar NEOBE power supply uses a new method of firing 25-joule
tubes. Instead of dumping several amps of juice all at once into
a xenon tube, NEOBE strobes the strobe by firing lower current
levels thru the tube via 6 rapid pulses over 1/2 second. The
effect is a nearly continous, but pulsed light that appears twice
as bright as regular strobes. Much longer tube life as well.

Instead of the power supply making a rising swept high-pitched whine
in an unsquelched radio, the business card sized Tomar NEOBE unit
(that's right... 2" x 3" x 1.5") makes a continous stream of 12 ticks/
clicks per second. The unit also makes the same sound audibly due
to the charge/discharge of the supply capacitors.

Since the Tomar unit was designed for EMS use, it is shielded to
reduce RFI in the AM police/EMS radio bands, which are not far
away from the aviation spectrum.

However, I found it neccessary to wrap the power lead going to my
Icom A4 radio as many times around and through one of those clamp
on "clam shell" ferrite RFI chokes as possible. You can get them
at Radio Snack or on-line for much cheaper. Putting chokes on the
lamp cables exiting the power unit also helped in being able to
turn radio squelch down to level 3 (of 9) though I normally operate
the radio at level 5.

It basically takes a VERY weak signal at squelch level 2 or 3 to be
able to hear the NEOBE pulses. Anything stronger and the radio is
just as clear of noise as with everything Off.

Get the kit here...
http://strobesforless.com/store/prod...products_id=38




Dean A. Scott, mfa
---------------------------------------
School of Visual Art and Design
southern adventist university
---------------------------------------
http://www.southern.edu/~dascott

Only thing I had to do was build heads for the tubes. Simple and
cheap. A 2.5" PVC pipe cap and a Perko marine fresnel lens.

Sorry... that's a 2" PVC cap. Perko lenses are available here for about
$5 less than at your local marine supply outlet...
http://www.go2marine.com/frameset.js...egoryId/13189/

They fit snuggly in the cap after filing off the threads. Make a base
to hold the flash tube out of rigid plastic 2" in dia. Make a ring out
of 2" OD pcv pipe wide enough so that the lens sandwiches the base on
top of the ring. Secure the lens with silicon caulk, a couple set
screws, or a band of electrical tape.







Dean A. Scott, mfa
---------------------------------------
School of Visual Art and Design
southern adventist university
---------------------------------------
http://www.southern.edu/~dascott

"Dean A. Scott" wrote in message
news:1129955559.683169c993309acafd366a831897c8a6@t eranews...

. . . Aviation strobes use
25 joule, double loop U-tubes, while nearly all auto units use a 4
joule horse-shoe U-tube. Obviously, the 25 joule/watt unit is 6
times brighter.

Dean............

I looked for the tube rating on the 90 watt, 4 strobe Whelan system
advertised at http://www.strobesnmore.com/, but didn't find such a spec.
This is the one I have on my plane. It seems to be as bright as the Whelen
aviation strobe in a friend's RV-4. I see Whelen also makes a 60 watt system
for emergency vehicles.

Are you sure about the 4 joule vs. 25 joule rating? The rating for the
individual strobes tubes I have is given as 32 watts each.

Rich S.

... Aviation strobes use 25 joule, double loop U-tubes...

Are you sure about the 4 joule vs. 25 joule rating? The rating for the
individual strobes tubes I have is given as 32 watts each.

What I'm sure of it that there's a range of tube wattages just like
there are light bulbs. 20-25 watts is the typical low range for the
double loop U's, but obviously they go up to higher wattages, too.
And, yes, I'm sure the ordinary everyday horseshoe U-tubes are 4-5
watts. That's not to say there aren't any industrial sized U's at
higher wattages, just you won't find them in $20 automotive roadside
emergency beacons and most disco strobes.

But DANG! Look at the size of that Whelan power supply! Sure, you
don't get any variable pattern with the tiny little Tomar unit, but
for $98 for a rugged, dual-head kit, that gives the appearance of
twice the brightness of regular, single-shot strobes and far longer
tube life, what's not to like?




Dean A. Scott, mfa
---------------------------------------
School of Visual Art and Design
southern adventist university
---------------------------------------
http://www.southern.edu/~dascott

I looked for the tube rating on the 90 watt, 4 strobe Whelan system
advertised at http://www.strobesnmore.com/, but didn't find such a spec.

The replacment lamps are here... http://strobeguy.safeshopper.com/26/2112.htm?743
32 watts. These double loop tubes are a bit more robust looking than the
25 watt type... as in a larger diameter tube, but not by much.





Dean A. Scott, mfa
---------------------------------------
School of Visual Art and Design
southern adventist university
---------------------------------------
http://www.southern.edu/~dascott

Rich S. wrote:

Are you sure about the 4 joule vs. 25 joule rating? The rating for the
individual strobes tubes I have is given as 32 watts each.

Rich S.


I want to say the automotive strobes for public safety were all 10 joule
type systems, except for the "Piercer" which was a white, PAR 36 strobe
head with a 20 joule flash. The Piercer was popular back in the mid 80's
before it was replaced by newer models.

I concur that the aviation stuff is in the 20-30 joule range from what I
am seeing in the marketing literature and websites out there.

Essentially the aviation stuff is brighter/more intense compared to
automotive. I am curious what the candela of the automotive strobes are
and if they meet spec.

Dave