I really can't tell. He claims to have "five stages of filtering" whatever
that means. He also says that the filament never really turns off, so there
is no thermal shock to the filament in the on-mode. But a dimming scheme
such as this is probably using some sort of pulse width modulation in the
"off" mode to dim the filament without heat buildup. I'd call it a dimmer
rather than a flasher -- dim, bright, dim, bright, and so on.

Seems to me that with any form of filtering there is going to be an
unavoidable heat loss in the inductors; that area under the curve is power,
and if the area goes down that power had to go somewhere. If it's not
light, it's heat.

It is an interesting product, but if I had to deal with that gawdawful web
page more than five minutes, I'd download it and read it in the original
html.

If you can get Mike to come on over here and discuss the internal
mechanisms, I'd be interested in finding out if my guess is correct. Of
course, five minutes with the product and an oscilloscope would be all it
would take also.

Jim




"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...

Hey Jim -- If you can stand looking at this horrible website for a
minute, what do you think of the Pulsar?

http://www.avtek2.com/pulsar_info.htm

Mike (the owner) is very active on the Cherokee Pilots Association, and
several folks who have this flashing unit say that their bulbs last
damn-near forever. Does that mean they use ICLs?