Fred
Thanks for your comments about the LED nav light installation.
Regarding access panels, I did not need them for my installation. The
whole assembly comes off easily. You take the light covers off (4
screws), then the reflector (another 4 screws), and you will you have
everything in your hands. None of these parts are permanently bonded to
the aircraft.
Although I like CreativAir's design, I would have liked to see more
performance data of their product. Their documentation says the light
output exceeds the FAA spec by 10%. Presumably that was measured
without the plastic light covers. Since the plastic covers do absorb
and distort the radiation, the 10% margin was a bit too close. Most
importantly, LEDs lose illuminance with age. Their lifetime is defined
not by mean-time-before-failure, but by the time it takes to lose 50%
illumination. This aging process is accelerated by higher junction
temperatures. Since Creativ's design does not employ a heatsink, I
suspect the aging process may be faster than normal. Instead of
focusing on lower current draw, I wanted to focus on greater
illumination. The current draw in my design is 4 times greater than
CreativAir, so it is not surprising that it delivers 4x time more
illumination. However, LED performance doesn't scale that way. You
can't supply 4x current into any LED and expect 4x illumination. The
ultimate performance is limited by thermal considerations more than
anything else.
--- Fred Klein <fklein@orcasonline.com> wrote:
> <fklein@orcasonline.com>
>
> Andrew...looks like an outstanding installation. I take my hat off to
>
> your effort at designing your own lighting circuit, and thanks much
> for
> the detailed description w/ pixs.
>
> As you know, I plan to utilise the combination LED position lights,
> strobe, and landing lights available thru CreativAir
> (http://www.creativair.com/). A good picture of this set up with
> access
> panels on the Europa is available at Jeff Behrness website for A055,
> at www.N55XS.com/ (go to photos and narrative of May 10, 2004).
>
> For those interested, I posted some pixs of the polycarbonate light
> covers on the matronics photoshare back in Nov., 2004.
>
> You appear to have completed your installation without the access
> panel
> on the underside of the wing ala Jeff Behrne's installation.
>
> Fred
>
> On Thursday, February 23, 2006, at 08:41 PM, Andrew Sarangan wrote:
>
> > <asarangan@yahoo.com>
> >
> > Folks
> >
> > I designed and built a nav light system using the Luxeon LEDs
> > (brightest LEDs in the industry). The performance was quite
> stunning;
> > about 300-500% higher than the FAA specs at only 2 Amps current
> draw.
> > It is bright enough to almost function as landing lights. It weighs
> a
> > little over 3oz for each side.
> >
> > See complete details of the installation at:
> >
> > http://www.sarangan.org/aviation/europa/wing/Wing-tip-Lights.pdf
> >
> > Let me know what you think.
> >
> >
> >
> > Andrew Sarangan
> > http://www.sarangan.org
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> > believed to be clean.
> >
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Andrew Sarangan
http://www.sarangan.org
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