What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

ZipTips or AeroSun VXi?

ZipTips

I don't know the AeroSun product.

I got into ZipTips at Gen I, love the look and light produced but mine are NOISY! After three years I finally stopped troubleshooting RFI, performing four upgrades through Gen III and a lot of other work. It's not quiet by any measure, only now quiet enough on one radio that it's not breaking squelch. I will give credit to Damien at Ziptips for sticking with me until I gave up and settled.

RFI is a hard thing to pin down, two installations that look the same can have different success. So when somebody says 'my XXXX isn't noisy' it doesn't mean your XXXX is beyond scrutiny. Pretty simple: if turning on lights makes noise in your headset then something about the lighting has a problem. When the lighting manufacturer blames the radio manufacturer, then you have two problems. (BTW, unless you homebuilt your radio from Army surplus and your trusty soldering iron don't buy into the attempt to blame the radio)

Whichever you decide upon know ahead of time what kind of shielding is built into their power supplies, and transmission lines. And what kind of shielding the manufacturer expects you to have on everything else. Hint: If your product's power supply's case doesn't have a grounding strap point then it probably has poor shielding.

BTW, lots and lots of older GA out there with unshielded wing wiring doing just fine. So going overboard on shielding everything that connects A to B isn't industry standard.

One other aspect to consider is whether the taxi lights are of a fixed angle and what angle that is. I have a -7 and my taxi lights point where my landing lights point. It's a more diffuse light so it's still functional, by they still point most of their effort toward the rooftops, stars and other pilot's eyes when I am on the ground. If you are building tricycle gear then this isn't as big a deal.
 
Last edited:
I vote ZipTips

I have a set of the latest Zip Tips. The fit and finish are great. Plus the winglet looks so freaking cool. The idea of not cutting a hole in the wing for lights is a big plus and not having to run wires to the rudder for the rear position light since everything light wise is in the tips. They are all led and bright af. It appears the landing/ taxi lights are adjustable and the noise has apparently been fixed with the latest module.
 

Attachments

  • 747F77B6-C04C-4FC1-9C11-16CF8824100E.jpg
    747F77B6-C04C-4FC1-9C11-16CF8824100E.jpg
    251.3 KB · Views: 186
  • 930B2B51-D822-4FF7-B475-4B04C68D0045.jpg
    930B2B51-D822-4FF7-B475-4B04C68D0045.jpg
    264.2 KB · Views: 207
  • 96189485-33A7-471B-8D9C-532A9A5DE990.jpg
    96189485-33A7-471B-8D9C-532A9A5DE990.jpg
    269.2 KB · Views: 161
the landing/ taxi lights are adjustable and the noise has apparently been fixed with the latest module.

Yes, the light bar is adjustable. But the taxi lights are close to the same angle as the landing lights. If you need taxi lights on a different angle from landing lights while sitting on a tailwheel then you'll have a little problem.

I also heard that Gen III was supposed to put the noise issue to bed, heard that about Gen II too. I operate the newest available ZipTip light/power module and still have noise. But some others don't. Gen III IS better than Gen II which is better than Gen I, kudos to them for making progress.
 
Last edited:
I've got the AeroSun VX installed in my RV-10 wing tips and they work great, with no noise at all. Since the VXi is entirely new, I suspect you won't find much experience with those. However, a few previous recent posts regarding carbon fiber wing tips have pointed out the potential issues with carbon fiber tips being the likely inability to use wing tip antennas, and perhaps also interference with a magnetometer placement in the wingtip area.

Just something to consider.
 
Ordered Zip Tips Winglet

I just ordered my Zip Tips on Friday. The AeroLED entry made me stop and think a bit though. In the end, the Zip Tips are a mature product with a good reputation with builders as far as I can see from the posts in VAF. They've also had the benefit of several years of maturation.

I wasn't aware that antennas can be installed in the wing tips, so I wanted to keep that option open as well.

AeroLED is a great company with great products, but I'm not an early adopter. I'll let others be the trailblazers on this one.
 
I wasn't aware that antennas can be installed in the wing tips, so I wanted to keep that option open as well.

The wingtips are a natural spot for a horizontally polarized antennae like the Archer (VOR/ILS). The Archer high gain antennae gives a lot of folks good performance, mine is so-so. No problem with ILS but VOR reception is rather poor. I suspect it has to do with the noise of the ZipTip module.

A previous responder posted a pic of the power module/lightbar. Note there is no RF grounded case shielding on power module and missing from the pic is unshielded wire going aft to rear strobes. In my case I got a better result by DIY shielding that aft running strobe wire. I can't help but think that wire's polarity and proximity to the Archer antennae do something less than helpful. If I were to build again with ZipTips I would put the horizontal antennae somewhere else.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top