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BillSchlatterer

Well Known Member
Sponsor
Found a lot in the archives on stobe wiring but not much on troubleshooting.

I have just fired up a Creativ-Air strobe system with mixed results. Right wing and tail fire great but the left wing strobe does nothing.

First thing will just be to recheck the wiring and make sure I have continuity. Assuming that is good, I was thinking that I would swap positions in the stobe power unit as there is an extra position that I did not use. Next bet would be to swap the stobes themselves from wing to wing but I was wondering if there was anything that could be checked with a regular voltage meter?

I am assuming that it is high voltage at the strobe itself so it's not like you can just turn it on and stick a probe in it,.... or is it? I haven't a clue ??

What should I be looking for ? Creativ-Air site is gone so no luck there.

Any thoughts, suggestions would really be appreciated?

Thanks Bill S
7a almost there
 
Fortunately the strobe system is basically an "off the shelf" set up. CreativeAir didn't make or design it.

I would swap your output (LH and RH) at the power supply. That'll isolate the power supply. If the LH strobe then works, you know its not your wiring, the strobe head or connections. If LH still doesn't work, Then run your continuity check. You can run jumper wires to the wing tip to to isolate you wiring. Swap strobe heads with the RH side. Try the 4th output on the Power supply. Most importantly, make sure you have a solid ground (local near wingtip with no paint)
 
Like the others said, plus make sure you have plenty of voltage. Whelens sometimes won't light on battery, but work fine on alternator voltage.
 
Ground wire

Don't know if this will help, but I fretted over my non working strobe system for several weeks before I found a ground connection loose on one of the wing tip strobe lights.
 
Ours was the connector

that plugged into the power supply. The tail strobe just would not work. We replaced the bulb (not cheap) and thought we tried everything. Finally bought new connector and pins and seated them correctly --- works fine, now.
 
Working through it,..

Thanks, didn't think there was any majic here but I have been really surprised at the obvious things I have missed. This forum always has the answers :)

I am thinking now that I might have not made a good crimp on the connector by the unit. First thing will just be to swap the positions and see if it fires. If not, then I'll start running down the connectors themselves.

Thanks for the replys.

Bill S
7a getting close
 
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