>There was an article in kitplanes a few months back about how to build
>your own strobes with stuff you can buy at radio shack. It was the issue
>with the Lancair on the cover, I can get the date if anyone is
>interested. The article raved about how easy they were to see.
I've seen many articles over the years on do-it-yourself strobes.
Please understand that the maximum light output that can be
expected from any strobe, amateur built or otherwise is a function
of the energy storage capacitor and the voltage to which it is
charged between flashes. The formula is:
Energy (joules) = Voltage Squared * Capacitance (farads)/2
If you have a 100 microFarad capacitor charged to 300 volts
the potential energy is 4.5 joules. Note that I use the
work "potential" . . . the REAL light output is a further
function of flash tube efficiency and series resistances
in the flash tube current path that throw away some of the
energy stored as heat instead of light.
Most of the "do-it-yourself" articles I've seen are really
puny in the stored energy and light output department.
Another issue arrises with the strobe tubes recommended in the
articles:
They're generally designed for photoflash applications . . . this
might be 4 to 40 joule flashes . . . perhaps a few thousand
flashes for the lifetime of the camera. Now bang this critter at
a full 10+ joules (the smallest of commercial strobes found on
most aircraft) at 1 flash per second and you get 3,600 flashes
per flight hour. Tests I've run on many off-the-shelf photoflash
tubes show the device is down to 50% of original light output
in 5-20 hours.
If you'd like to match current certified aircraft strobe
requirements, it's tougher yet.
I'm thinking about doing an article on building your own
power supply for off the shelf aircraft tubes and fixtures.
You'd save perhaps 25% on the overall cost of the system
and spend quite a few hours doing it. I've watched the
strobe light market for years with an eye toward competing
and I can tell you, it's NOT an attractive market. That's
why you'll probably never see a strobe system offered from
the 'Connection. At current prices from 'certified' suppliers,
I can't justify it. I know they SEEM expensive but try
to duplicate the performance for less money with a new
design and the catalog prices get pretty attractive.
Bob . . .
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