Dan Langhout
Well Known Member
Through an odd set of circumstances, I ended up with two of the new all LED rear position/strobe lights intended to replace the ubiquitous Whelen A500 used on the rudder fairing of our RVs - a PosiStrobeXP from Aveo Engineering and a Suntail from AeroLEDs. Since I have both of these units, I thought I would do a little direct comparison of them for your enjoyment. You can get information on both of these lights from their websites:
http://www.aveoaviationlights.com/
and
http://www.aeroleds.com/
Suntail on the left, PosiStrobe on the right.
A few disclaimers: I don’t claim that my testing methods are particularly valid. I don’t have a certified and calibrated lab so my results are probably worth what you paid for them. For background on my test setup, methodologies, and my obsession with this topic, see THIS thread. The only thing I can say is that I am testing both units the same way with the same test setup. Also, I have no affiliation with either of these two companies - I'm just an RV-7 builder who wants to use LED lights on his plane!
Basically, all I am trying to do with the tests is to get a warm fuzzy that these lights are probably compliant with the FARs and are quiet enough electrically to use on our planes. I do not expect to measure the light output to the nearest 0.25 candela! To give me that warm fuzzy, I am looking for something north of 20 candela on axis for the position light component and at least 500-600 peak candela on axis for the anti-collision. If you go look at the FAR for the anti-collision lights, it requires a minimum of 400 effective candela for the worst case coverage angles. But if you go dig through the math of how the effective intensity is calculated, it’s obvious that your peak intensity must be significantly higher. 500-600 seems to be a reasonable minimum.
So what were my results? Here are the light intensity measurements all taken on axis at a distance of 12”:
PosiStrobeXP
Position Light Only: 29fc ~= 29cd
Strobe Only: N/A
Strobe + Position Light: 265fc peak ~= 265cd peak
Suntail
Position Light Only: 30fc ~= 30cd
Strobe Only: 596fc peak ~= 596cd peak
Strobe + Position Light: 625fc peak ~= 625cd peak
Note: The PosiStrobeXP runs the position light anytime the strobe is on so I was unable to get a “strobe only” measurement for it.
The electrical noise test is a little more subjective. I used my Icom A24 handheld radio for these tests rather than digging out my Icom A210 and antenna like I did the last time around.
Results:
The PosiStrobeXP does generate some noise that is picked up on the A24. It appeared quiet at a distance of about 3.5 feet but you could “hear” the strobe as you got the antenna closer until it essentially blanked out the reception with the antenna next to the light or the wires feeding it.
The Suntail was absolutely dead quiet everywhere as far as I could tell. I could even lay the A24 antenna on the light or the wires feeding it and there was no noise at all.
FWIW
http://www.aveoaviationlights.com/
and
http://www.aeroleds.com/
Suntail on the left, PosiStrobe on the right.
A few disclaimers: I don’t claim that my testing methods are particularly valid. I don’t have a certified and calibrated lab so my results are probably worth what you paid for them. For background on my test setup, methodologies, and my obsession with this topic, see THIS thread. The only thing I can say is that I am testing both units the same way with the same test setup. Also, I have no affiliation with either of these two companies - I'm just an RV-7 builder who wants to use LED lights on his plane!
Basically, all I am trying to do with the tests is to get a warm fuzzy that these lights are probably compliant with the FARs and are quiet enough electrically to use on our planes. I do not expect to measure the light output to the nearest 0.25 candela! To give me that warm fuzzy, I am looking for something north of 20 candela on axis for the position light component and at least 500-600 peak candela on axis for the anti-collision. If you go look at the FAR for the anti-collision lights, it requires a minimum of 400 effective candela for the worst case coverage angles. But if you go dig through the math of how the effective intensity is calculated, it’s obvious that your peak intensity must be significantly higher. 500-600 seems to be a reasonable minimum.
So what were my results? Here are the light intensity measurements all taken on axis at a distance of 12”:
PosiStrobeXP
Position Light Only: 29fc ~= 29cd
Strobe Only: N/A
Strobe + Position Light: 265fc peak ~= 265cd peak
Suntail
Position Light Only: 30fc ~= 30cd
Strobe Only: 596fc peak ~= 596cd peak
Strobe + Position Light: 625fc peak ~= 625cd peak
Note: The PosiStrobeXP runs the position light anytime the strobe is on so I was unable to get a “strobe only” measurement for it.
The electrical noise test is a little more subjective. I used my Icom A24 handheld radio for these tests rather than digging out my Icom A210 and antenna like I did the last time around.
Results:
The PosiStrobeXP does generate some noise that is picked up on the A24. It appeared quiet at a distance of about 3.5 feet but you could “hear” the strobe as you got the antenna closer until it essentially blanked out the reception with the antenna next to the light or the wires feeding it.
The Suntail was absolutely dead quiet everywhere as far as I could tell. I could even lay the A24 antenna on the light or the wires feeding it and there was no noise at all.
FWIW
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