There are any number of folks who can look at strobe light problems, call tech support & maybe get them fixed or maybe not. Anyone know of a firm (or person) within a reasonable distance of Indiana that can walk in, look at a system, know exactly what is wrong, order the part & a few days later have the system working?
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Strobe Lights
- Thread starter BobOnTheJob
- Start date
Strobes... the scourge of modern radio engineering... I despise strobes. They are a huge PITA for many engineers nationwide. Tower guys hate to mess with them. Manufactures rarely have real fixes for their problems. It seems the only people that like them are the FAA and of course the manufactures that get to sell inflated parts for strobe systems. I'd rather have red lights and paint ANY DAY.
Bob-what's the problem? I had a system in San Diego that worked well. The only issues I ever had came about five years after they were installed, and the fix was to replace all the big caps in the controller boxes.
Bob, I'm in Louisville. Want me to look at it for you?
What is wrong with them?
What is wrong with them?
Amen to that! They sell you this bill of goods that you'll save money by not having to paint the tower & the electric bill will drop...true points...until the things malfunction & it costs several times the cost of a relamp to fix them. I'm trying to talk this client into paintingequiping with red lights...thing is, he's LMAing it & it's not his choice, but he gets to pay for the repairs. I equally despise the things & have since my first experience with them 29 years ago.OKCRadioGuy said:
PM me. Not sure what course the LMA owner wants to take but I would like to discuss the issue with you off board. Give me an email in the PM if you would.Bengalsfan said:
I work with strobes everyday on emergency vehicles. Very basic components: strobetube, power supply, and the wire running between them. A strobe is a strobe, right? Assuming you have power into the power supply here are the problems I have found:
Of course the strobe power supply or individual strobe tubes may have taken a crap. Is the power supply "singing" like it is charging and discharging?
Corrosion! get a little corrosion on the contacts and zap- a high voltage arc over that just makes the problem worse until it fails totally. check all connections, at least at ground level until you're ready to send someone aloft. then arm them with emery paper and grease to protect the connections.
If the entire system is dead I have found that some power supplies will shut down completely, not just the bad line, to protect itself if there is a bad tube or shorted line upstream. start by unplugging all and plugging in a known good strobe tube, if available, into the power supplies various outlets to test each one. or just start plugging the lines back in one at a time, again if possible, and see if various sets of lights come on. BEWARE during this test, high voltage on the trigger wire!!
Good luck tracking down the problem.
Of course the strobe power supply or individual strobe tubes may have taken a crap. Is the power supply "singing" like it is charging and discharging?
Corrosion! get a little corrosion on the contacts and zap- a high voltage arc over that just makes the problem worse until it fails totally. check all connections, at least at ground level until you're ready to send someone aloft. then arm them with emery paper and grease to protect the connections.
If the entire system is dead I have found that some power supplies will shut down completely, not just the bad line, to protect itself if there is a bad tube or shorted line upstream. start by unplugging all and plugging in a known good strobe tube, if available, into the power supplies various outlets to test each one. or just start plugging the lines back in one at a time, again if possible, and see if various sets of lights come on. BEWARE during this test, high voltage on the trigger wire!!
Good luck tracking down the problem.
Nostalgia said:
Sometimes. but it gets complicated when the power supply is 500 feet away from the discharge tube. Or if you have a 1500 foot TV tower with four tubes on them.
I find them marginally less expensiver than paint over the years, but PMI is essential. Best maintenance was when Bill Sommers had Middle Tennessee Electric and was first the Egg guy and later purchased Flash Tech. His fixers understood the systems, and had the parts to make them work. Every few years, have them replace the strobe tubes and the big power resistors which keep the flasheads warm (and dry) and they pretty much just sit there and run. Do a shoddy install, and then run them to failure, and they will cost you a modest fortune one expensive chunk at a time. Just like the equipment at the bottom of the tower.
N
necrat123
Guest
So with the variying power supplies, etc. , how are they kept to flash in time with each other? It's a question I've always wondered, is there like a "pulser" or something that sends a reference to the supply to allow the bulbs to flash in series.
Both my towers are red lit with P&S, so I just have standard flashers all wired in master-slave configuration.
Both my towers are red lit with P&S, so I just have standard flashers all wired in master-slave configuration.
R
RolfTaylor
Guest
Cowboy could set you straight and he's not too far.
Contact me off line and I can give you his email address.
Rolf
Contact me off line and I can give you his email address.
Rolf
Necrat said:
As long as your trigger fires at the same time, the flashtubes will light at the same time.
How come nobody in this thread has mentioned the use of pulsed white LEDs as an alternative to Xenon tubes? I'm pretty sure that the FAA has approved the use of the flashing LED technology and I think some towers are using it. I believe that KFI's new tower is one of them. (I think KFI also uses blinking RED LEDs.) I'm not saying that flashing white LED beacons are more or less reliable than Xenon tubes, but the LEDs _OUGHT_ to be more reliable once the problem areas have been identified and addressed.
Well, LEDs would make sense as high-output types have become cheap and common in the last 10 years.
As far as strobes go, I've had to deal with strobe guns in printing, as they are used to view stop-action handling of paper in
in presslines, high-speed imaging, etc.
There's really only 3 failures.
The switching oscillator power supply, the tube itself, or the trigger circuit.
Or random bad connections, acts of God, abuse, etc.
I have a strobe photoflash from 1960 (Graflex) that uses 2 225 volt battery bricks in an RC circuit that doesn't need to whine or sing, and
was always ready to flash almost as fast as you could advance the film (no motors in them days).
The original tube hasn't died yet, and because there's no switcher to heat up and suffer parts failure, it would probably work today if
I put new batteries in it , which I think are available.
As far as strobes go, I've had to deal with strobe guns in printing, as they are used to view stop-action handling of paper in
in presslines, high-speed imaging, etc.
There's really only 3 failures.
The switching oscillator power supply, the tube itself, or the trigger circuit.
Or random bad connections, acts of God, abuse, etc.
I have a strobe photoflash from 1960 (Graflex) that uses 2 225 volt battery bricks in an RC circuit that doesn't need to whine or sing, and
was always ready to flash almost as fast as you could advance the film (no motors in them days).
The original tube hasn't died yet, and because there's no switcher to heat up and suffer parts failure, it would probably work today if
I put new batteries in it , which I think are available.
N
necrat123
Guest
Bengalsfan said:
What drives the trigger? I guess my question is not being understood. Is there some sort of sync generator that fires the triggers in each power supply to make them flash in unison?
Necrat said:
I have seen 555 chips used as a trigger. And the 555 timer triggered three power supplies. The output of those HV power supplies were then sent to the flash tubes to trigger the flash.
There is a seperate trigger line to each flashhead which delivers a pulse to each simultaneously. Each flashhead has a trigger transformer, which steps the pulse up to several thousand volts, enough to make the flashtube ionize and conduct. Once it conducts, the stored high voltage discharges through the tube making a bright flash. Some systems store the energy in capacitor banks in the controller at the tower base, some store it in individual capacitors in each flashhead.
Additionally, when there is a 'night' mode, the brightness is reduced, and the flash is actually a string of flashes several millisecnds apart, to make the light appear to stay on longer. This because at night when flying you often don't have as good spatial reference, and a single flash can be very disorienting.
Additionally, when there is a 'night' mode, the brightness is reduced, and the flash is actually a string of flashes several millisecnds apart, to make the light appear to stay on longer. This because at night when flying you often don't have as good spatial reference, and a single flash can be very disorienting.
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