Intermittent Strobe Flash

Rick A

Rick A

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Rick A
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Recently noticed that the wingtip strobes in the 1982 Mooney only seem to flash sporadically... around 1 flash every 30 seconds or so. Haven't looked into it yet, and figure we'll do so within the next couple of weeks when it's inside the shop for an oil change.

The last strobe maintenance I remember needing was around 1988, and it was pricey.

Any ideas of what would cause this? My uneducated electrical guess is maybe a bad capacitor?
 
I can only guess as I had a similar situation. Turned out to be a loose connector. It was easy to fix the problem but it wasn't easy to find it ... :eek2:
 
Sounds like a breaker, switch or connector that is presenting some resistance, slowing the charging of the capacitors in the powerpack.

Last strobe maintenance in 1988? 38 years ago? How long do you expect stuff to last?
 
Uh… 19 EIGHTY EIGHT?!! Can think of quite a lot that can go wrong in 38 years!!

There’s a big old capacitor, they can fail. Kinda my first thought other than a corroded connection. Just took a big old unit like that out of my 1984 Taylorcraft. If you can’t fix it, and wind up replacing. Prolly gonna need a new weight and balance!
 
Thanks for the insights and suggestions. Yes, I confess... electrical things that work normally and are not heard making noise over the headset, are typically ignored by me, then addressed as needed. Appears I've had a nice run with the strobes!
 
All of the above, plus if it's dirty inside there could be a "leak" across the capacitor that's causing it to charge more slowly. Maybe not just cleaning the contacts, but around all of the circuitry especially the HV cap. Probably a good idea to bleed the voltage off the cap with a high value resistor before playing around with it. Strobe caps are typically 400+ volts. Not a lot of current, just DC, but it'll wake you up.
 
Are the 3 strobes all delayed, slow? I had one wingtip that was intermittent, wasn’t the ‘flasher’ in the wingtip, put a new one in. I sourced some replacement parts and planned to replace the power supply in that wing. Low & behold the strobe on that wing started working, my parts are still in reserve.

If your strobes work but are ‘delayed’ I’d just do the monitor thing. Many seem to go with the high $$ strobe upgrade over fixing the old system. Even when I was short one wingtip strobe, I still had plenty of flash at night.
 
Rick A said:
Any ideas of what would cause this?
Click to expand...
Is this a Whelan system with a remote power supply?
Does each light assy have a Molex connecter similar to the one on the power supply? If so plug light assy directly into power supply and see if flash rate changes.
 
Albany Tom said:
All of the above, plus if it's dirty inside there could be a "leak" across the capacitor that's causing it to charge more slowly. Maybe not just cleaning the contacts, but around all of the circuitry especially the HV cap. Probably a good idea to bleed the voltage off the cap with a high value resistor before playing around with it. Strobe caps are typically 400+ volts. Not a lot of current, just DC, but it'll wake you up.
Click to expand...

Clench your teeth, so you don’t bite your tongue…
 
Got a call this afternoon from my A&P today who following an oil change diagnosed the malfunctioning strobes. Said one power pack is dead, another is weak, and there was a broken wire on the tail (rudder) strobe, but the tail strobe power pack checks out OK.

The OEM brand of Mooney strobe from 1982 is Hoskins, and he warned the power packs are probably still available, but very pricey. I haven't researched the costs of new Hoskins strobe components, or any alternatives (yet). Or contacted my usual top notch "go to" Mooney parts Mooney outfit, Lake Aero Styling.

IMO, at this point I should be considering a retrofit over to LED strobes, and update them into the 21st Century, if feasible. Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated!
 
Groundpounder said:
James Gallagher is your man, he's the LED replacement whisperer. https://www.gallagheraviationllc.com/
Click to expand...

Following your suggestion, I spoke with James and ordered LED's combined with NAV lights all around (3 positions). Easy peezy installation. Yes, he knows his stuff.

James also explained why my ~5 year old Whelen LED landing light is a POS (earlier generation). He claims the new one I just ordered from him is much brighter, almost as bright as an HID. Flew around with a LoPresti Boom Beam HID for many years and loved it, before it died while melting a plastic connector. Replaced it with the LED and considered it to be marginally dangerous as the sole outside light.

I'll know how much brighter the latest generation of LED landing lights really are shortly, and am hopeful it's going to be a significant improvement.
 
I recently bought a LED to replace the boom beam on my Bonanza, and I can't believe how bright it is. You'll be very pleased.
 
Rick A said:
James also explained why my ~5 year old Whelen LED landing light is a POS (earlier generation). He claims the new one I just ordered from him is much brighter, almost as bright as an HID.
Click to expand...

What model?
 
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