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AeroLED noise

Mona44

Member
Hello everyone,

Did our first engine runs today ahead of a planned first flight next week. One snag was low level noise with the Nav/Strobes on (AeroLED). I have an ES-00184 Noise Filter in hand but no wiring directions. I am not using the Van RV14 loom. Does it go in-line to the strobe or Nav 12v lines?

Regards,

Monica
 
I used the AeroLED nav/strobes in my wingtips with no noise in the audio system. I used shielded wire to the lights and grounded the shield at both ends. I also ran a dedicated ground from the lights to the firewall "forest of tabs" grounds on the rear of the firewall. I did not use the noise filter. I would check for grounding problems in both the lights and your headset plugs/system. The filter may work but it seems that ground loops / grounding issues are often the cause.
 
Looks like the ES-00184 is installed between the strobe power wire (Yellow) and gnd (airframe)

Attached schematic (OP-55)
 

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I'm guessing you used the Van's wing wire kit. Don't.

Use a three #20 conductor shielded wire, like this: https://www.steinair.com/product/20-ga-3-conductor-shielded/

Conductors:
- Nav power
- Strobe power
- Strobe sync
- Shield is the common ground.

Ground the shield at your common firewall ground.

I take an extra step of adding a small aluminum backing plate inside the wingtip - so that the wingtip glass is sandwiched between the NAV/Strope and the aluminum backing plate. The backing plate need not be much bigger than the NAV/Strobe mounting bracket. Take the black ground lead from the NAV/Strobe, shorten so that after you attach a ring terminal it will fit under one of the bracket mounting screws. The three conductor shield also attaches via a ring terminal to this same screw.

This should eliminate all NAV/Strobe noise. Filter not required or desired.

Carl
 
I used the Vans wiring in the wing and it works fine with no noise so YMMV. The key to this setup is to not ground the light or the nav/strobe at the wingtip. Connect the nav/strobe ground at the light ground post, then carry that connection to the fuse at the wing root or on to the master ground point.

I grounded at the wing root on the fuse. No noise of any kind from the lights in any configuration.
 
There was also a generation with known problems, if yours are prior to 2018 AeroLed has been swapping them.
 
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