LED Position Lights

[Stabird]

I am interested in installing the new LED position lights in the RV9A I am helping build. I would like to hear if there is any advantage with LED's over the standard bulb type lights and general feedback on their performance.

Starbird

[Brian Denk]

Let's see...

Less expensive (last time I checked)
Last forever
lower power consumption
Ranks very high on the cool factor scale.
Is yet another quantum leap away from the certified quagmire.
Are PLENTY bright.
You get to assemble (solder) them yourself if you wish as a neat diversion away from just pulling wire and crimping connectors for weeks on end.

[RV_7A]

Am I seeing things or Starbird did you make a mistake on your ID spelling?

[the_other_dougreeves]

Originally Posted by Stabird

I am interested in installing the new LED position lights in the RV9A I am helping build. I would like to hear if there is any advantage with LED's over the standard bulb type lights and general feedback on their performance.

Starbird

I'd heartily recommend them. They are available from several vendors, or you can BYOS (bring your own solder). I can't speak to the former, but as for the later:

You will need a driver (basically a constant-current power supply) and LEDs. I'd recommend the Luxeon I or III LEDs or the new Luxeon K2. The Luxeon III is a 3rd gen Luxeon and provides lots of benefits. I don't know much about the K2, but it is supposed to provide beter thermal management / heatsinking.

A good driver is the "power puck" which looks a lot like a hockey puck with a bracket. Other good ones are the "buck puck" and "buck toot" - All of these are made by LuxDrive. You'll need to size the driver to the number of LEDs and input voltage. Since you want to keep the wires from the driver to led short, I'd mount the drivers in the wingtips. They're very light and small. The Buck Puck does have a 5V sense trigger that would allow you to use LED strobes or lots of wig-wag types of patterns for recognition lights.

A variety of optics are available, or you can use them without optics. The "lambertian" LED is essentially a flood. There are oval-pattern optics that are cheap and would focus the light in the horizontal plane. Check the FARs and other threads for the requirements of light output and pattern.

A properly driven Lux III will give you about 100 lumens; the Lux I will be about 60. As for how many / what LED config you need to get the required outputs, I don't know. Many others have surely tried and have published data on this.

Another application could be recognition lights for the wingtips. You could certainly use 2 or 4 Lux III for recognition lights that would provide visibility without sucking down the 8 amps you'd loose with 2 x 55W lights.

There are several good sources out there, but ledsupply.com has some variety and is a good place to get started.

[thallock]

The Whelen catalog has the best diagram that shows how much light is needed in what directions for nav lights.

http://www.whelen.com/aviation/aviationcat.htm


Tracy.