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Point me in the right direction

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bbradburry(at)bellsouth.n
Guest

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 7:01 pm Post subject: Point me in the right direction

My strobes will not fire when they are plugged into the plane electrical

system.  They will fire if 12V from a power supply is hooked up to them.



The schematic is basically: battery, to master solenoid, to fuse, to switch,

to strobe power supply.



Sometimes it will fire once and stop and sometimes it will fire 6-7 times

and stop.



I have continuity with the ground pin on the Molex power supply connector to

aircraft ground.



With the master on, I have 12V at the fuse, I have 12V incoming to the

switch.



With the master on and the strobe switch off, I have .65V after the switch.



With the strobe switch on I have 12V after the switch.



With the strobe switch on I have sometimes 12V, sometimes 10V, and sometimes

8V at the power pin in the connector going to the strobe power supply.



At first I thought the switch was bad then that I have a loose connection

somewhere after the switch.  It doesn't seem reasonable that all this could

have happened at the same time.  The strobes were fine till I was not able

to visit the plane for about 6 months.  The problem happened when I returned

and tried to power them up.



I suppose the Molex connector pins could be loose but that doesn't explain

the low voltage.



I plan to move the wire from the strobe switch to the position light switch

tomorrow to see if that helps.  None of the other light switches have

voltage after them with the switch off.



Any suggestions?



Bill B

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BGray(at)glasair.org
Guest

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 8:17 pm Post subject: Point me in the right direction

Check the wire crimps on the molex connectors. Sounds like something is

not airtight and corroded over time.



Bruce

WWW.Glasair.org 



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skywagon

Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Posts: 184

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:00 am Post subject: Point me in the right direction

Bill,

That sounds like a marginal current flow path....meaning you can't pass 

enough reliable current to setup the strobe's needs to fire correctly.



A continuity tester will sometimes lie to you as it needs very little 

current to show a good path.  You could have a wire with all the strands 

broken except for one and the tester will indicate it is a good path.  Look 

to for a poor/cold solder joint, wrong, corroded, contaminated or damaged 

pin in a connector and it could be that you have a wire break inside of the 

insulated covering.  I have found this fault a time or two where a perfectly 

good wire is broken inside; maybe during manufacture or packaging 

mishandling, etc.  Anyway, it sounds like a defective current path...

Dave



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bbradburry(at)bellsouth.n
Guest

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:51 pm Post subject: Point me in the right direction

Dave,



You are correct!  I just don't know where the problem was.  I replaced all

the wires and connectors today and the strobes worked!



Thanks to everybody for your consideration.



Bill B



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john.maccallum(at)bigpond
Guest

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:01 am Post subject: Point me in the right direction

Yep sounds like the previously diagnosed resistance joint in a connector not

letting

Enough current flow for the strobe to charge and trigger.



Cheers



John MacCallum



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