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Brantel
Joined: 23 Aug 2008
Posts: 53
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 Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 5:17 am Post subject: Inexpensive HID light data point - Bonus Wig-Wag too!!! |
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I bought a pair of 35W HID lights from Ebay to replace the bulbs in my 55w Duckworks kit that was a set of fog lights converted to use with their brackets. I got the 6000K H3 bulbs because I wanted white white light. The 55w halogens always looked very warm in color. The HID kit was advertised as a "Digital" ballast kit. After looking at a million sites selling these things it seems that almost all of them are clones of one another and or made by the same shop in China. The kit I bought was ~$37 delivered for the pair. I did open the ballast after I received them and they do appear to be mostly electronic but there was a small transformer in there. The inside was sprayed/potted with a rubber coating so it was hard to tell what was really in there.
Anyway....I mounted the ballast to the back of the Duckworks bracket using the mounting bracket that came with the kit. I did modify the bracket somewhat to cut off extra that was not needed. The wiring was simple as pie.
After mounting everything and turning them on, I can honestly say that these things are at least three times brighter than the 55w halogens. Here is a comparison, the left side is the HID, the right is the 55w halogen:
Here they are straight on with the beam:
Same shot with the old 55w:
I had to leave the airport before it got dark so I did not get any other pics.
One thing...I tried to wig-wag these after they warmed up but that was a no go!!! They will not wig-wag with the NAPA flasher relay!!! Maybe they would with one of the solid state wig-waggers but they won't with the NAPA relay. It just buzzed and sounded like it was going to fry itself so I stopped trying after a second or two.
I have always been afraid to try and regain my night currency (never had it in a TW airplane) with those dim 55w halogens. Maybe now I can give it a whirl.
Just ordered one of these http://www.soundoffsignal.com/warnamber/flashers/Headlight/ETHFSS-SP.htm . Since it is totally solid state, maybe it will work. It also has a few different flash speeds to pick from.
Here is an iPhone Video of my new inexpensive HID's wig-wagging with the new flashed I installed. Works better than great!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY7UcK6XD2s
To finish the story on my inexpensive HID lights, after flying with them for some time I did notice that they reflected a ton of high frequency noise back onto the power lines. This is clearly evident when listening to the background noise on any non-active com channel with the squelch in test mode or open.
This noise also caused my Dynon's DSAB bus to drop out...really bad in Wig-Wag mode...
The HIDs initially give a pretty good "bezerp" when they ignite and then they settle into just plain old static. The noise threshold is obvioulsy increased quite a bit.
The Wig-Wag mode only exacerbates this issue. If they are warm, the Wig-Wag does not bezerp each time they come on, they ignite instantly with no "bezerp" but the noise floor is still elevated.
Those that know a little about radio will understand that just because you can squelch out background noise, it is not desirable to just mask the issue since an increased or high noise threshold can cause your AGC circuit in the radio to automatically reduce the sensitivity of the receiver resulting in poor performance.
That being said, Here was the fix:
I installed a Ferrite Core as close to the HID ballast as possible. I wrapped the power and ground wires thru the core three times each. Ferrite cores act as a choke to high frequencies basically blocking them at the source before they can do any harm.
I also installed a .1uF capacitor across the power and ground wires right behind the ferrite core. This capacitor functions as a decoupling capacitor and will shunt any high frequencies that get past the ferrite core to ground before they can travel back up the power wire.
The ferrite core I used is similar to this one:
The results are complete elimination of the noise reflected back onto the aircraft's systems. No noticable noise floor increase, no Dynon DSAB dropouts!!! Could not even tell I had switched them on and the Wig-Wag only results in some very slight clicks over the intercom.
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Last edited by Brantel on Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mauledriver(at)nc.rr.com
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 7:36 am Post subject: Inexpensive HID light data point |
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Thanks for the detail write-up. I bought and installed by Duckworks
lights over 2 years ago and just getting ready to fly with them. I've
already killed a deer on our grass strip so I'm really looking forward
to lighting the place up compared to the single incandescent bulb on the
Maule.
Night TW - If you can, treat yourself to some night landings on grass.
Slightly uphill if possible. So Sweet!
do not archive
Bill "waiting for painting temps this weekend, at last" Watson
On 2/14/2011 8:17 AM, Brantel wrote:
| Quote: |
I bought a pair of 35W HID lights from Ebay to replace the bulbs in my 55w Duckworks kit that was a set of fog lights converted to use with their brackets. I got the 6000K H3 bulbs because I wanted white white light.
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| Quote: | After mounting everything and turning them on, I can honestly say that these things are at least three times brighter than the 55w halogens.
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| | - The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List |
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