Whelen A650 vs OR650 strobes

[Heflin]

I can't find info on how bright the new style Orion LED nav/ strobe lights are. I have an older set of A650's with a 4 way strobe pack. If I run wings and tail off of the strobe pack I can only get 12 Jules out of each strobe. If I run just the wing tips and have them alternating, I can get 25 Jules per strobe. I know the newer style strobe packs can turn out 40 Jules.

Have any of you tried the new Orion series? From what I understand, no strobe pack is needed.

[GAHorn]

Joules are a measure of electrical energy...not brilliance. Whelen advertises the Orions as being brighter than those which meet FARs,...presumeably even their own.

Here's their sheet on it:

Orion_600.pdf

[Heflin]

Thanks, George!

I didn't understand what joules was. Maybe candela is what I'm looking for?

[Heflin]

I've done some homework for those that are interested.

My Whelen installation and service manual states that with the old style strobe pack, if you run the A610 flash tube ( the one installed with the legacy A650 4" wingtip nav/strobe light) off of the older style HDA-DF A413A power supply, you get a minimum of 100 effective candles out of any plug or combination of plugs. This includes two wingtip and a tail strobe, or two of each flashing simultaneously. This power supply will supply 12 joules to each simultaneously clawing light and 25 to each alternatly flashing light in this setup.

If you use this same power supply and run two flash tubes in alternate mode, you get a minimum of 400 effective candles per strobe because the power supply is putting out 25 joules to each light. The manual says 20 joules is needed to get 400 candles.

The newer style HDA-CF power supply is capable of supplying 21 joules to three lights, or a whopping 45 joules to two alternately flashing A610 flash tubes.

The new LED Orion 600 (4" light base that fits the stock wingtip) has a maximum of 350 candles according to this Whelen link. http://www.whelen.com/pb/Aviation/Produ ... Series.pdf Compare that to a maximum of approximately 650 candles that the 6" long Orion 650 puts out. The 6" lights don't fit our stock wing tips.

Aeroled Pulsar NS LED 4" strobes produce a maximum of about 500 candles depending on the angle they are viewed from, according to this test. http://teamaerodynamix.com/products/art ... nYours.pdf

As for LED tail strobes, the Whelen OR500 puts out about 500 candles and I haven't found what the Aeroled Suntail puts out.

Now compare amp draw from the above, for just the strobes. The HDA-DF and HDA-CF power supplies use 7 amps each. The amps pulled by the LED strobes are OR650 (3 amps pulse/ .7 amps avg) and Aeroled Pulsar NS/Suntail (2.25 amps). So the difference in amperage used by each strobe system is pretty close. Of course, the big difference is the incandescent position light bulb pulling 2 amps each (6 amps running red/green/white on tips and tail) vs about .3 amps each light (OR650) and .4 amps each (Pulsar) when using LED's.

If you were starting out buying a strobe system from scratch, you're gonna spend about the same money to rig the wing tips and tail with each system. The good news about the LED setup is that there is no external flasher box needed, and you don't have to run the heavy duty cables to each light. Might save a little money on installation costs.

However, if you were considering switching from the A650 wingtip setup to either of the two LED wingtip systems above, I think the noticeable difference in brightness would be minimal. In the case of the OR650 system, it looks like you might lose a little brightness if you were just running two wingtip lights.

Switching incandescent position bulbs to LED in the old style lights would save power, but we already know that and have discussed it in other threads.