Two new products

[Dean_aeroleds]

AeroLEDs is introducing two new products this month. Both are now available but have to be ordered by calling in as they haven't been added to the website yet.

The first is called Sunray, which is a narrow beam light designed to fit in the RV wingtip cutout, or other small spaces. It is 2.5" by 2.5" by 1.55" deep, weighs 5oz, draws 0.5A on 12.8V (6.5Watts), can run on 24VDC as well, and generates a 20,000 candela beam of light that is 5 degrees wide (same beam width as a GE4509). It has the same built-in wig-wag and synchronization functions as our other forward lighting products. It can be mounted using a 1/4-20 screw from the side, or two 6-32 screws from the front for panel mounting. Here is a photo:


The second new product is called Suntail, which is a tail mounted position light/strobe that can also be used as a strobe only in the RV wingtip cutout. It fits the standard tail strobe mount, weighs 3 Oz, consumes 16 Watts average with both position and strobe operating, and uses a single wire to synchronize with other AeroLEDs strobe units. Currently we are achieving 350 effective Candela, and expect to exceed the 400 effective candela TSO requirement soon. Due to the longer flash duration (60 msec per flash), even intensity quad flash (Xenon strobes are one strong followed by 3 weak flashes), this strobe is more visible than a standard Xenon unit. Here is a photo:


For additional information, or to place an order, you can call Susan at (208) 850-3294.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC

[SportAvServ]

How about some prices and dimensions?

Thanks

[Mike S]

See if I can make this work

Originally Posted by Dean_aeroleds

AeroLEDs is introducing two new products this month. Both are now available but have to be ordered by calling in as they haven't been added to the website yet.

The first is called Sunray, which is a narrow beam light designed to fit in the RV wingtip cutout, or other small spaces. It is 2.5" by 2.5" by 1.55" deep, weighs 5oz, draws 0.5A on 12.8V (6.5Watts), can run on 24VDC as well, and generates a 20,000 candela beam of light that is 5 degrees wide (same beam width as a GE4509). It has the same built-in wig-wag and synchronization functions as our other forward lighting products. It can be mounted using a 1/4-20 screw from the side, or two 6-32 screws from the front for panel mounting. Here is a photo:



The second new product is called Suntail, which is a tail mounted position light/strobe that can also be used as a strobe only in the RV wingtip cutout. It fits the standard tail strobe mount, weighs 3 Oz, consumes 16 Watts average with both position and strobe operating, and uses a single wire to synchronize with other AeroLEDs strobe units. Currently we are achieving 350 effective Candela, and expect to exceed the 400 effective candela TSO requirement soon. Due to the longer flash duration (60 msec per flash), even intensity quad flash (Xenon strobes are one strong followed by 3 weak flashes), this strobe is more visible than a standard Xenon unit. Here is a photo:



For additional information, or to place an order, you can call Susan at (208) 850-3294.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC

[Dean_aeroleds]

Originally Posted by SportAvServ

How about some prices and dimensions?

Thanks

The dimensions of Sunray were provided in the original posting. Suntail is the same size as the Whelen tail position light (1.7" wide by 2.14" tall) and it mounts to the same two bolt holes as the Whelen unit.

We can offer Suntail with red and green position LEDs so that you can install a Suntail in each of the RV cutouts to provide both position and strobes in the cutouts with a single unit, and then a white position/strobe unit can be used in the tail. Suntail does not require any additional power supplies, it contains everything necessary for operation. This saves quite a bit of weight over a Xenon strobe with it's power brick.

The Sunray MSRP is $249. The Suntail MSRP is $395.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC

[rleffler]

Dean,

The question most of us are eager to have answered is how much RF does the Suntail generate?

The reason for the question is that another vendor brought a product to market with out testing for RF. It turned out while the product did illuminate as advertised, the RF output made it an unusable product in an aircraft.

bob

[Dean_aeroleds]

Originally Posted by rleffler

Dean,

The question most of us are eager to have answered is how much RF does the Suntail generate?

The reason for the question is that another vendor brought a product to market with out testing for RF. It turned out while the product did illuminate as advertised, the RF output made it an unusable product in an aircraft.

bob

Bob,

The circuitry used in Suntail is very similar to that used in our AeroSUN 1600. We haven't done RFI testing on Suntail yet, but we did test the 1600 to DO-160 Category H (external mounting near antennas) and had over 10db of margin at all frequencies. The emissions were very low.

We also have installed our Pulsar EXP on several airplanes including the Kitfox factory LSA, and have not had any RFI issues with that product. Pulsar EXP is very similar to Suntail. There is a slight conducted audio pulse from Pulsar that can be barely heard in some noise canceling headsets that corresponds to the flashes, but that is not RFI, it is audio range conducted emissions that are not very strong, and are a result of the current surges that occur when the LEDs flash.

Consequently, I fully expect to pass DO-160 category H for radiated and conducted emissions when we test Suntail. We should be doing that testing in the next couple of months.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC

[Dan Langhout]

Originally Posted by Dean_aeroleds

<snip>
Currently we are achieving 350 effective Candela, and expect to exceed the 400 effective candela TSO requirement soon.
</snip>

So, by "soon" do you mean when production units are shipping or just sometime in the near future? In another thread you mentioned that you were building your first articles now so I assume the production units are still some time away?

Originally Posted by Dean_aeroleds

<snip>
We can offer Suntail with red and green position LEDs so that you can install a Suntail in each of the RV cutouts to provide both position and strobes in the cutouts with a single unit, and then a white position/strobe unit can be used in the tail.
</snip>

I assume from this that the LEDs used for the position function are not also used for the strobe function? Also, the candela requirement for the red and green nav lights is higher than for the tail position light - I believe it is 40 candela (worst case) for the red and green vs. 20 candela (worst case) for the rear position. Do the red and green versions meet the higher requirement and, is the strobe portion still 350 effective (soon to be 400 )?

BTW Dean, this is great stuff! I for one have been eagerly awaiting it.

[Dean_aeroleds]

Originally Posted by Dan Langhout

So, by "soon" do you mean when production units are shipping or just sometime in the near future? In another thread you mentioned that you were building your first articles now so I assume the production units are still some time away?

I assume from this that the LEDs used for the position function are not also used for the strobe function? Also, the candela requirement for the red and green nav lights is higher than for the tail position light - I believe it is 40 candela (worst case) for the red and green vs. 20 candela (worst case) for the rear position. Do the red and green versions meet the higher requirement and, is the strobe portion still 350 effective (soon to be 400 )?

BTW Dean, this is great stuff! I for one have been eagerly awaiting it.

We will be ready to start shipping Suntail in the next two weeks.

Regarding the effective candela and the requirements:

The existing FAA requirement is written around Xenon strobe technology. The effective candela is calculated using the formula Candela = Cd-s/(0.2 + Tf) where Cd-s is the integrated candela-seconds of the flash, and Tf is the flash duration.

Since a Xenon strobe fires for just 100us, the equation for a single flash Xenon strobe is thus Candela = Cd-s/0.2 This means that you need just 80 Cd-s of integrated light energy per flash to meet the spec for a single flash Xenon. Our Suntail produces 175 cd-s of flash energy in its quad flash, but because it flashes for 0.3 seconds of total duration, it is penalized by the equation, giving an effective candela of 350. Twice as much light delivered, and delivered for a longer period so even if you blink you won't miss it, but still not enough according to the formula. This is a classic example of the FAA writing technology specific requirements that don't allow for new technologies. We could operate the Suntail with a double flash, generate only 87.5 Cd-s of light, and still provide 350 effective candela. Is that just as good as the quad flash that delivers more total light? No. Does the requirement account for that? No.

Hopefully someday the FAA will do what the SAE did for ground based warning beacons (see SAE J845 2007) and modify the requirements to account for total flash energy and have a minimum peak requirement.

I assert that our beacon is MORE conspicuous at its current level of performance than a Xenon strobe that produces 400 effective candela, but that is no help when dealing with the FAA who lives with old requirements. Fortunately the experimental community allows us a place to demonstrate the advantages of the new technology.

For the red and green version of Suntail, the red and green LEDs will meet the position requirements. The white position lights exceed 40 cd, and so will the red and green LEDs (there are 6 of them in each beacon).

We do flash the position LEDs with the strobe LEDs. I do not believe that flashing the red and green LEDs pose a problem since:

1. The white LEDs overwhelm the colored LEDs during the flashes.

2. It is allowed to have those colors visible in those quadrants for position recognition.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC

[Dan Blumel]

Originally Posted by Dean_aeroleds

beam of light that is 5 degrees wide (same beam width as a GE4509).

I believe a GE 4509 produces a beam that is 12 degrees wide X 8 degrees tall. Of one thing I am very sure, it (GE 4509) does not produce a round 5 degree beam or even 5 degrees in either axis.

Does that matter to anyone, maybe not but accuracy is important when making comparisions.

[Dean_aeroleds]

Originally Posted by Dan Blumel

I believe a GE 4509 produces a beam that is 12 degrees wide X 8 degrees tall. Of one thing I am very sure, it (GE 4509) does not produce a round 5 degree beam or even 5 degrees in either axis.

Does that matter to anyone, maybe not but accuracy is important when making comparisions.

Dan,

I was talking about the 1/2 intensity angle, not the full beam width, but feel free to nit pick.

Dean