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gyoung
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 211
Location: Republic of Texas
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 Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject: Gear Indicator lights |
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I need some help finding suitable gear indicator lights for a certified aircraft, my Navion. I'm doing some cleanup and want to cut a new panel with the gear lights repositioned. The current lights would work except they are circa 1959 and the lenses are disintegrating. They are press-to-test with a sort of mushroom shaped lense. I've gotten a couple replacement lenses from my avionics shop junk drawer but would rather source new lights (or lenses if they are still made) rather than depend on the "luck of the drawer" when they break again. Anything with Mil, PMA or mfg blessing would make it a logbook entry per my IA but I'm not adverse to doing a 337 to get LED's or something more modern and aestetically pleasing than MS25041 (ugly and expensive). Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Greg Young
[quote][b]
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nuckollsr(at)cox.net
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:14 am Post subject: Gear Indicator Lights |
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| Quote: | >Time: 04:36:32 PM PST US
>From: Greg Young <gyoung(at)cs-sol.com>
>Subject: Gear Indicator lights
>
> I need some help finding suitable gear indicator lights for a certified ai
>rcraft, my Navion. I'm doing some cleanup and want to cut a new panel with
>the gear lights repositioned. The current lights would work except they are
> circa 1959 and the lenses are disintegrating. They are press-to-test with
>a sort of mushroom shaped lense. I've gotten a couple replacement lenses fr
>om my avionics shop junk drawer but would rather source new lights (or lens
>es if they are still made) rather than depend on the "luck of the drawer" w
>hen they break again. Anything with Mil, PMA or mfg blessing would make it
>a logbook entry per my IA but I'm not adverse to doing a 337 to get LED's o
>r something more modern and aestetically pleasing than MS25041 (ugly and ex
>pensive). Any help would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>Greg Young
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Greg. How many and what colors? How are they labeled. I'm
sure that by now, your adventures into the catalogs have
shown that the choices are limited and getting more expensive
all the time. Incandescent lamp fixtures rugged enough to
meet most folks design goals are becoming more rare and
the prices are not attractive.
Consider fabricating a landing gear indicator assembly
using LEDs. Let's talk about your design requirements
and then sort through some ideas. Obviously, you can
replace the existing lamps with brand new, similar
fixtures . . . but perhaps there's a way to use a collection
of much less expensive hardware to produce a new approach
with LEDs . . .
Of course, you may wind up spending more $time$ in
design and fabrication than the simple replacement of
existing fixtures would cost . . . but perhaps you
have an interest in advancing the best-we-know-how-to-do.
Bob . . .
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gyoung
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 211
Location: Republic of Texas
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:22 pm Post subject: Gear Indicator Lights |
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| Quote: | >>Time: 04:36:32 PM PST US
>>From: Greg Young <gyoung(at)cs-sol.com>
>>Subject: Gear Indicator lights
>>
>> I need some help finding suitable gear indicator lights for a
>>certified ai rcraft, my Navion. I'm doing some cleanup and
want to cut
>>a new panel with the gear lights repositioned. The current lights
>>would work except they are
>> circa 1959 and the lenses are disintegrating. They are
press-to-test
>>with a sort of mushroom shaped lens. I've gotten a couple
replacement
>>lenses from my avionics shop junk drawer but would rather
source new
>>lights (or lenses if they are still made) rather than
depend on the
>>"luck of the drawer" when they break again. Anything with
Mil, PMA or
>>mfg blessing would make it a logbook entry per my IA but I'm not
>>adverse to doing a 337 to get LED's or something more modern and
>>aesthetically pleasing than MS25041 (ugly and expensive).
Any help would be appreciated.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Greg Young
Greg. How many and what colors? How are they labeled. I'm
sure that by now, your adventures into the catalogs have
shown that the choices are limited and getting more expensive
all the time. Incandescent lamp fixtures rugged enough to
meet most folks design goals are becoming more rare and
the prices are not attractive.
Consider fabricating a landing gear indicator assembly
using LEDs. Let's talk about your design requirements
and then sort through some ideas. Obviously, you can
replace the existing lamps with brand new, similar
fixtures . . . but perhaps there's a way to use a collection
of much less expensive hardware to produce a new approach
with LEDs . . .
Of course, you may wind up spending more $time$ in
design and fabrication than the simple replacement of
existing fixtures would cost . . . but perhaps you
have an interest in advancing the best-we-know-how-to-do.
Bob . . .
|
Of course, there's a concern of spending more time than I really should but
I do like to make incremental improvements when I can. I view them as an
investment and it's also rewarding. But then it doesn't take much to feel
good on a 55 year old aircraft. I just replaced about 10 feet of lamp cord -
yup, 2-wire molded lamp cord - that had been spliced into my tip tank
senders. Sigh...
The gear indicators are 3 greens for the gear down and safe and a single
amber unsafe light. The current system also has a toggle switch with a wire
wound resistor across it for dimming. The lamp holders are all a
press-to-test type and my IA tells me I'll need to have a test feature if
the individual lights don't have it. I like the idea of the simple
bright/dim toggle. It's hard to mis-position it by accident. I seldom dim it
now because the lights are waaaay out of my scan (far right subpanel) but I
plan to move them front and center. While I'm at it I've also got a single
red Hydraulic System On light that I'll move too and match its style with
the gear lights.
I've been experimenting with LEDs for a disappearing annunciator panel for
my RV so I've got some limited experience with them. I'm still
electron-challenged so any circuit I work up for test and dimming will be
less than elegant. My bigger concern is sifting through the hundreds of LEDs
offered. Mentally I've been viewing this as a one-for-one light replacement
and haven't really focused on alternatives like annunciators with dynamic
colors and legends. I'm not sure how far I can push the FSDO on something
like the gear system but I'm going to get a pre-approval on the 337 before I
do anything so there's no harm in asking. I'm open to suggestions.
Regards,
Greg
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nuckollsr(at)cox.net
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:20 am Post subject: Gear Indicator Lights |
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| Quote: | > Greg. How many and what colors? How are they labeled. I'm
> sure that by now, your adventures into the catalogs have
> shown that the choices are limited and getting more expensive
> all the time. Incandescent lamp fixtures rugged enough to
> meet most folks design goals are becoming more rare and
> the prices are not attractive.
>
> Consider fabricating a landing gear indicator assembly
> using LEDs. Let's talk about your design requirements
> and then sort through some ideas. Obviously, you can
> replace the existing lamps with brand new, similar
> fixtures . . . but perhaps there's a way to use a collection
> of much less expensive hardware to produce a new approach
> with LEDs . . .
>
> Of course, you may wind up spending more $time$ in
> design and fabrication than the simple replacement of
> existing fixtures would cost . . . but perhaps you
> have an interest in advancing the best-we-know-how-to-do.
>
> Bob . . .
>
Of course, there's a concern of spending more time than I really should but
I do like to make incremental improvements when I can. I view them as an
investment and it's also rewarding. But then it doesn't take much to feel
good on a 55 year old aircraft. I just replaced about 10 feet of lamp cord -
yup, 2-wire molded lamp cord - that had been spliced into my tip tank
senders. Sigh...
The gear indicators are 3 greens for the gear down and safe and a single
amber unsafe light. The current system also has a toggle switch with a wire
wound resistor across it for dimming. The lamp holders are all a
press-to-test type and my IA tells me I'll need to have a test feature if
the individual lights don't have it. I like the idea of the simple
bright/dim toggle. It's hard to mis-position it by accident. I seldom dim it
now because the lights are waaaay out of my scan (far right subpanel) but I
plan to move them front and center. While I'm at it I've also got a single
red Hydraulic System On light that I'll move too and match its style with
the gear lights.
I've been experimenting with LEDs for a disappearing annunciator panel for
my RV so I've got some limited experience with them. I'm still
electron-challenged so any circuit I work up for test and dimming will be
less than elegant. My bigger concern is sifting through the hundreds of LEDs
offered. Mentally I've been viewing this as a one-for-one light replacement
and haven't really focused on alternatives like annunciators with dynamic
colors and legends. I'm not sure how far I can push the FSDO on something
like the gear system but I'm going to get a pre-approval on the 337 before I
do anything so there's no harm in asking. I'm open to suggestions.
|
I'm aware of no really "handy" replacements for incandescent
lamps with LEDs. The lamp fixtures are designed to be serviced
with new bulbs. Make a 'replacement' from an LED and you now
have excess parts that keep costs up and reliability down.
I've been working with some LED mounts, an office laminator,
AutoCAD and Photoshop to craft some fabrication techniques
for LED indicators/annunicators. One reasonably attractive
technique is illustrated at:
http://www.aeroelectric.com/Pictures/Lighting/Annunciator_1.jpg
The lamps are high intensity devices I buy in bags off
Ebay. I can get red, green and amber lamps. The placard
is drawn in autocad, ported to photoshop for contrast
control and printed on a laserjet. The paper graphic
is hot laminated and then stuck to the panel with double
sided adhesive.
I don't include PTT functions with LEDs . . . it made
sense for incandescent lamps when back in WWII, one
NEEDED to know if a lamp was not lit because it wasn't
getting power or because it was burned out. LEDs have
the same or greater longevity as prop bolts so the
PTT feature purely for the sake of testing a lamp is
no longer a useful feature.
With respect to your OBAM project, your horizons are
not blocked. With respect to your TC project, you're
sitting in the bottom of a barrel with numerous people
holding out their hands for your $time$ to induce them
to give you permission to upgrade your aircraft.
In this case, I'd recommend you purchase the outrageously
priced PTT lamp fixtures and truck on. The satisfaction
of a "victory" in the battle to make your TC airplane better
will be short lived.
Bob . . .
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blackoaks(at)gmail.com
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:45 am Post subject: Gear Indicator Lights |
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On 9/18/06, Robert L. Nuckolls, III <nuckollsr(at)cox.net (nuckollsr(at)cox.net)> wrote:
Bob, Many times you post links to great pictures, in many cases they seem to be part of another article, is there a simple way to get from the picture to the related article?
Thanks for all your teaching efforts, I know they are a great help to many of us.
--
John McMahon
Lancair Super ES, N9637M [quote][b]
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nuckollsr(at)cox.net
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:22 am Post subject: Gear Indicator Lights |
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At 09:44 AM 9/18/2006 -0700, you wrote:
| Quote: | On 9/18/06, Robert L. Nuckolls, III
<<mailto:nuckollsr(at)cox.net>nuckollsr(at)cox.net> wrote:
>
><<mailto:nuckollsr(at)cox.net>nuckollsr(at)cox.net>
> I've been working with some LED mounts, an office laminator,
> AutoCAD and Photoshop to craft some fabrication techniques
> for LED indicators/annunicators. One reasonably attractive
> technique is illustrated at:
>
><http://www.aeroelectric.com/Pictures/Lighting/Annunciator_1.jpg>http://www.aeroelectric.com/Pictures/Lighting/Annunciator_1.jpg
Bob, Many times you post links to great pictures, in many cases they seem
to be part of another article, is there a simple way to get from the
picture to the related article?
Thanks for all your teaching efforts, I know they are a great help to many
of us.
|
Any complete articles are posted to my website. However,
some photos may be excerpts from work done for clients
or even tid-bits of useful visuals I've encountered in
my travels. If you have a question about any specific
photo, please ask. The one I posted above is an exemplar
arrangement for a new product that's been prototyped and
being beta-tested right now. It will show up on my
website catalog shortly.
Bob . . .
---------------------------------------------------------
< What is so wonderful about scientific truth...is that >
< the authority which determines whether there can be >
< debate or not does not reside in some fraternity of >
< scientists; nor is it divine. The authority rests >
< with experiment. >
< --Lawrence M. Krauss >
---------------------------------------------------------
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