Surplus FAA Tower Beacon Warning Light

[@Jimmeh_B]

Most probably, that "magic box" is a (damaged) current driver with a high compliance voltage. If it's got blown capacitors and various other obvious faults, it's highly likely that it is no longer limiting the current to the series LED string which would result in an over voltage condition resulting in the burning LED behaviour you are witnessing. Simply jumping out that second burnt LED and replacing the LED driver with one that has a high enough compliance voltage, would see years more life from that beacon. The trick would be finding a current driver with that kind of compliance voltage. (it's pretty high and not at all common for general LED applications) Alternatively, you could reconfigure the LED string such that only 4 or 5 columns are in series, and run those series strings in parallel driven by an LED driver capable of 4-5 times the current, but 4-5 times lower compliance voltage. (probably much easier to procure) If it were mine, I would rewire the entire LED array as a matrix and create a "running LED" display from it.

[@zaprodk]

I don't believe there is any dead capacitors. What we see in the potting compount is the bubbles reaching the top while it cured.

[@iXenox]

I'd like to add that shorting over dead LEDs will increase the voltage presented to all other LEDs, making them more prone to dying. If they were all in parallel it wouldn't be a problem, but as it is now they all depend on each other to remain within specification. Adding a resistor in place of the LEDs would be more proper, but the value would depend on the LEDs themselves. I'd recommend using a 1MΩ potentiometer (variable resistor, preferably a linear one). If you turn it down more than 90% get a lower value potentiometer and repeat (next size is usually 100kΩ, then 10kΩ, etc.)

[@Jimmeh_B]

@@iXenox If you were talking about a voltage regulated supply, or a battery supply you'd be correct. What I am talking about is a constant current driver. Which is what most LED drivers are.

[@iXenox]

@@Jimmeh_B LEDs also have a max voltage rating (and cause a voltage drop, if that weren't the case they would short circuit the power supply). Also it isn't guaranteed that it is a constant current power supply, as it appears to be quite cheaply made and is not user servicable.

[@Jimmeh_B]

@@iXenox That doesn't mean anything at all. Quite often installations like that are thrown together with pretty botched up components. And yes, LED's have a forward voltage, and yes they will attempt to draw more current as they get hotter, which is why they require current limiting. I don't see what you're trying to get at.

[@2e0txe]

Remove the LED array and repurpose the dome with a Raspberry Pi + Camera for the Allsky Project. Epic timelapses of the night sky for detecting aliens and shooting stars :)

[@__Dallas]

This!

[@patchvonbraun]

I love that idea...

[@wapiti_n_az]

There was some distortion noticeable when he put it in front of his wrenches and when it was on his head. Needs to be a spherical shape.

[@majbew]

This!

[@j0hnf_uk]

Nice idea, and one I had initially until I immediately noticed it's not a dome shape. So, using it with an allsky camera would result in some light distortion, i.e. lensing, due to the flattened top and angular edges.

[@unoriginalpun]

The timing of this video is insane! I JUST went down a rabbit hole of reading about beacon lights like this. Specifically the synchronized ones on top of windmills. Thought it would be right up your alley and the next week you pop up with this thing!

[@cpm1003]

I always wondered if these synchronized beacons could be seen from orbit. There look to be hundreds of them, all flashing together.

[@saveitforparts]

The synced ones are neat! Apparently some are GPS-timed. I noticed a few years back that the tops of some tall buildings in Minneapolis appeared to be synced, which was kind of neat.

[@StubbyPhillips]

@@saveitforparts Some police and emergency vehicle lights are sync'd now. Soon I expect to see turn signals on the silly battery cars flashing in sync.

[@xnizonyt]

​@saveitforparts wind farms use GPS synced lights. Every turbine blinks in sync. The idea is so it appears as one big hazard to pilots.

[@tangopapajuliet9469]

Get used to it. We are connected, have you tried clairvoyance or telepathy with the technology. Get ready the world‘s about to awaken ⚡️💻🧬🧠❤️🐸🍿🧘🌈

[@FireBadge]

In Germany it's 2 o'clock in the night but a new video of you has come out, watch it now

[@JohannesThies32]

Und ich dachte kaum ein Deutscher schaut diesen Kanal...

[@sarts1595]

@@JohannesThies32 gibt schon ein paar

[@7Tny]

@@JohannesThies32 Some more :D

[@themechanik8767]

@@JohannesThies32 Anscheinend schon, bin gerade auch überrascht.

[@hi-yl2tc]

Jup cool das andere deutsche das auch Schauen

[@Stevie762]

Save it for parts!! Ax-man should give you a bundle of shirts. You're giving them guerrilla marketing.

[@suomi35]

So cool to see the magic smoke on your channel!

[@saveitforparts]

It makes a guest appearance occasionally! When I worked with the Osborne 1 computer I kind of expected it, I just didn't expect it to smell so bad 😅

[@stevemichael8275]

Who doesn’t love a tower beacon light. I once claimed a giant tarped pile of sand by the Welland canal. Just so I could ask my cousin in town if he could see the the runway strobe light I brought to the top. Conclusion he could see it. Unfortunately so could everyone else in town.

[@napalmholocaust9093]

For brief power tests with a/c, put a power strip with a switch before the wall plug. You can stand back and nervously flick it from the bench w/o having a handful of plug to watch with one eye and equipment with the other eye. Don't have to look at the swich to use it. I did that for a while, now I have a 250v foot pedal spliced in the middle of a heavy cord.

[@JohnKiniston]

I think with the LEDs being in series that the power supply is specced for the amount of voltage they all use together, by jumpering the blown one you are giving the voltage that LED should draw to all the other LED's in the series which would cause them to burn up from being over volted.

[@nick-leffler]

I agree with this, but with that many LEDs wouldn't the single LED being jumped not make that much of a change in voltage? And they probably went this route that way they could use thinner cable to save money.

[@rogerp5816]

I suspect that the LEDs are in a combination of parallel and series. It looks like the there are four LEDs across each module and I'd suspect that those are in series and then going up and down the groups of four are in parallel. I'd get one module / strip out and power it with a currented variable power supply. With the small size of the wire you can deduce that they are using a fairly high voltage to keep the current draw down. The first step is to get one vertical block of LEDs out of the light so you can understand how they are built and the voltage / current requirements.

[@treahblade]

A single LED pulls very very little power so it being blown and bypassed would not make the current draw so high to burn up the others.

[@ezequieladrianminniti6252]

Yes, each module in series is supposed to cause a voltage drop. I would have tested only one strip with a bench power supply..

[@imark7777777]

And yet there are people that tell you you can fix LED bulbs by just sorting out the LEDs that are blown. Technically it's right but technically it also makes it half the life expectancy of the remaining LEDs each time one is shorted.

[@citricdemon]

you're a personal hero of mine and i can't wait for the day my life gets to be like yours. personally, I'm tormented by the inability to focus my life on work like this. I wish i worked in a lab.

[@scowell]

I believe that these things are not supposed to be 100% duty cycle... it should do a 100hz on for a second, then off for a second... this drastically reduces the LED dissipation. Can you compare the two power supplies' voltages? Perhaps connect a scope and see if they're trying to blink? I would have bought these too... they're cool! Good find.

[@SawdustSoftwareSiliconChippy]

There appears to be 6 segments (heat-sinks) for the entire LED beacon, with 3 LED modules per segment. And wired in series, as you commented. Each module appears to be 4 LEDs by 7, 28 LEDs per module. That comes to (((4 × 7) × 3) × 6) = 378 LEDs. If all the LEDs are in series (@ 2.2v each), that's about 813 volts 😱 However, . . . . As each module is an array of 4 × 7, that's only 28 LED's, at 61 volts per module. Now, if you can prise off the modules, you could cut the tracks joining all the LEDs in series, and parallel each set of 4, resulting in a drive voltage of 9 volts (ballast resistor for each set of 4, required to limit current to ~ 40mA) For a 12v supply and a maximum of 40mA, would require a (12v-8.8v) ÷ 0.04A = 3.2V ÷ 0.04 = 80 ohms For a 12v supply and a maximum of 20mA, would require a (12v-8.8v) ÷ 0.02A = 3.2V ÷ 0.02 = 160 ohms Sure, it's more work to modify the beacon for low voltage, though that would make it easier and safer for you to power and install, and operate. More colse-up images of the circuit-boards, will confirm the particular wiring of the LEDs, and a suitable method of powering them, without loosing any magic smoke.

[@grayrabbit2211]

I want that for my plane! I'm sure the drag would be tremendous, BUT, the visibility to other aircraft would be outstanding!

[@Peter_S_]

Most big LED power supplies operate on constant current so you should be able to jumper over a couple bum modules without issue. Great video as always.

[@Pyrotek28]

You need to add some resistors in line where the blown led's are that are equal or higher resistance than the led's themselves. You most likely burning out cause too much voltage is running through them. Find the resistance of one of the led's and add a resistor in place of the burnt out led's and I'd also add one half the resistance of one of the leds in series befor each led stack. That should prevent further burnouts.

[@Mosfet510]

Looking forward to see what this turns into! 👍

[@thickwristmcfist3399]

Love it, man!! Magic Smoke has left the building!! lolol

[@garyplewa9277]

Yes, the LEDs are in series as it requires less current and thus thinner and cheaper copper wiring. Large screen TV's all have their LEDs wired in series for the same reason. High voltage is much easier to produce from the AC line than high current low voltage DC. The AC component you measured is probably pulsed DC. LEDs can be over-driven to produce more light output, but the duty cycle must be short to keep the average power dissapation below the max for the LEDs. Human eyes don't perceive the pulses, just like they don't perceive the frame rate of a motion picure, but they do perceive the brightness. Cars with LED tail lights are over-driven this way which is why they seem to be pulsing if you sweep your eyes across them when lit. I envy you for having a place like Axeman Surplus near by. If I lived there I would probably be broke and swimming in all of the stuff I bought. The appeal of neat stuff to take apart and tinker with is just too much to resist.

[@terryfromsouthcarolina4601]

The flasher function is blown and letting the LEDs stay on, thus over heating. You might be able to use the module out of an LED strobe or flasher. Who knows but the last time I climbed a tower the bulbs were incandescent bayonet bulbs. LOL! Cheers Terry

[@michaelallen185]

Good lord I love every goofy gadget video you do

[@ShayBlez]

Ive always wanted to see these up close! :D

[@ligius3]

Don't put a scope on the black boxes unless you know what to expect. Even then, at the minimum a resistor divider is needed to bring down the 1000V to at most 250-350V what the scope can stand. Instead of jumping over the module, a random resistor would have been a slightly better choice.

[@nonsequitor]

Given what a blag many "official use" components are nowadays the wiring may well just be whatever they could buy cheapest off Ali Baba. It'll be potted because humidity etc so who can tell anyway 😉. As for series wiring, many LED arrays can be taken out by a single dead LED. It's not great. I can see you've already had good expert answers, and you probably sub already but Big Clive YT is the man for schematics and knowledge on industrial LED shenanigans 😊

[@christopherresmini8254]

Always fun to watch your content.

[@KRich408]

I can't believe the FAA signed off on that design. They have some ridiculous rules for aviation. Maybe parts not on a plane itself are more lax? But for obstacle avoidance you would think they would treat them the same. And yes you can fix one or both depending on how you want to move forward. One could be a donor for a 100% perfect light or 2 with slightly diminished power. Just make sure you understand the power requirements.

[@billyjackswildamerica6326]

Seems like all sky cameras are all the rage right now, good weather proof dome system there.

[@saveitforparts]

That would be pretty cool, I'd actually like to do one of those!

[@patchvonbraun]

Our radome originally had a red beacon on it. It was removed when we painted it a couple of summers ago, and according to both regs and the NAVCAN registration database, it's not required. Now, if our radome were up the hill, it would absolutely require a red beacon. But the rules are about height relative to the nearest airport runway, and distance from that runway. We're *just barely* close enough to the small airport, but because we're in a bit of a valley, the top of our radome isn't actually high enough to require it. Since the beacon that it *DID* have was never formally registered, we opted to quietly not re-install it.

[@RinoaL]

Might be good to take those modules, flip all the even ones upside down, and run them in parallel with one band going around the top and another around the bottom for the other wire. so they can run at 24v or whatever.

[@TradieTrev]

Bet it would of been fun to change that light over! Judging by your power supply voltage I'd ditch it, find out what voltage is needed to drive a single LED array and go from there. Voltage divided by arrays should give you a starting point with a DC bench supply.

[@DoctorWhoofLvFU]

If you really want to mess with something slightly more "open" (and by that i mean not potted), look at Hughey And Phillips. Service manuals are actually available and they still have customer support. I don't work for them, just privately maintain control boxes. The voltages you were seeing look about right, but be warned you can easily reach voltages no standard meter will handle. And another name for the whole beacon on the top of the tower would be the Flashhead.

[@markwilliams5654]

Or a cake stand you could have English cream tea 😂

[@carlg5838]

The LED packages in these beacons are not common - their resin housing with molded-in lens is similar to a Piranha-style LED (originally developed for automotive brake lights), but these have 6 pins instead of 4. In the early 2000s when these were made, some high output lights would use multitudes of fractional Watt LEDs with through-hole leads soldered to standard circuit boards. The copper pads on the back side would be as large as possible, to help transfer heat away from the LED. A further step was to sandwich a soft thermal pad between the clipped pins on the board and a large aluminum heatsink. The thermally conductive rubber or silicone pad would prevent the pin ends from touching the metal heatsink and shorting out. It looks like there are large white pads between the boards and their heatsinks on these, so I would not be surprised if Dialight used this technique to help ensure these beacons would last for years with minimal dimming or failure of the LEDs. I would at least remove a board completely, to understand better how the individual LEDs are actually wired on each PC board, and if the extra pins on the 6 pin LEDs are connected to other pins in parallel (the 4 pin Piranha LED packages had 2 pins in parallel on each side). This increased the amount of connecting copper, improving heat transfer from the LED die to oversize copper pads on the circuit board. Or there might be 2 pins per LED, but 3 separate red LEDs side by side inside the same package in this case. If so, they would likely be connected in series via PCB traces, and each board would effectively have 3 times as many LEDs as they appear to have from a package count. The whole concept of conducting some waste heat through the leads of through-hole LEDs is outdated now, because it didn't scale to the 1Watt and higher LED packages which were beginning to be used for high Wattage LED fixtures. Nor could through-hole LED packages work with the metal core PC boards that enabled the new surface mount power LEDs to conduct heat far more efficiently to a heatsink. But 25 years ago, these square resin packages with extra or thicker leads were still considered an advance in LED technology. And marketed specifically for applications where high reliability and long useful life were important, like the transportation sector. The odds are good that the driver boxes were at least partly responsible for the failures, given their age. But I've also seen LED boards like this with individual LEDs that failed (short or open) from transient voltage spikes that either came through the power supply, or were induced directly to the LED boards during a nearby lightning strike. You'll find better transient voltage protection on all but the cheapest LED power supplies today for this reason.

[@Stories_on_the_go]

Totally agree! Repurpose the glass/acrylic cover and recreate the robot's head as in the original Lost in Space. The rest should get filed under 'R' for Rubbish.

[@mannhimself]

Dialight is pretty much standard for aircraft hazards we had an install earlier this year replacing the old xeon strobe boxes that were long overdue (half of them didnt work even after servicing). The top becon that goes on top of our TV antenna was suprisenly light. During the sales pitch last year the install vendor described this as a first gen model.

[@sarkybugger5009]

My guess would be that the current limiting in the PSU is faulty, which is why they lit up very bright, then instantly faded as the first LED started to break down. Rinse and repeat every time you jumper out the failing LED. I'd be inclined to pull one of the lamp segments, and figure out its power requirements individually. It might be easier to run it off 12V DC, or a similar PSU.

[@arjovenzia]

My thoughts exactly. It seems frankly negligent to wire them in series, for what is supposed to be a safety device. If it were Mine, and I really wanted it running, I would rewire each LED module to its own PSU. napkin math says its a 48v string (6 rows, 4 columns, 2v per red led). either a box of constant current supplies from ali express, or a LM317 style CC regulator running off a 48v supply. Id personally go the lm317, they are cheap, and the wiring would be very simple, just common all the -ve, and 'dead bug' the regulator circuit (its 2 components). a working beacon light would surely be the price of admission for a lighthouse visit ;-) Best of luck!

[@gaspumprepairservice7009]

When “testing”, run a standard incandescent bulb in series with one side of power input. It should shunt the level to pop the bulb, if too much current is drawn, protecting the Device Under Test (DUT). Also, keep one hand in your pocket while power is applied. You know, in case it bites. ✌️

[@alzeNL]

In school for electronics, one of the first things we built was an LED flasher - you could a massive LED Flasher on epic scale :D

[@Time_For_Safety]

Awesome video! Just to let you know that fire extinguisher you shown is recalled. If you want more info on that let me know!

[@charleslesther3043]

Yeah you’re gonna want to put a scope on those black boxes…I’ve seen some pretty niche frequencies/voltages/modulations in some specialized lighting stuff (like 400Hz 20VAC in some old EL wire)

[@BloodAsp]

That would be expected for EL wire though. What you would want to do is have a look at the data sheet for the LED's, then extrapolate from the pcb they are on.

[@garethmilne6887]

If you have a Variac run it through a 100w lightbulb then a bridge rectifier. Then off to the LED array. Slowly increase the Variac and you should be able to start testing the lights that way and get an idea of current draw etc

[@seananderson5850]

The US still maintains light houses around critical seaways. If you own a lighthouse, I'm sure there are laws about broadcasting lights from it to not confuse the ships.

[@OakWoodlands]

Happy Halloween thanks for the video

[@Ziraya0]

It'd be great if you could dig one of those PCBs out so we can figure out the array structure

[@zaprodk]

You jumper out the weakest LED and then the next weak one shows up. LOL. The power supplt is a constant current driver so it shouldn't matter how many LEDs are in series, as long as you are inside the compliant voltage (there might be some under/over voltage lockout). I'm an EE BTW. I would replace the LEDs and keep the lenses etc.

[@Wanton110]

First thought was to empty the housing and put one of those LED fan projector things in it.. Second idea, pull all the LEDs off the heat sinks and replace them with peltier thermo electric pads, put the dome back on and see if it would generate electricity from sun exposure

[@michaelterrell]

The module is sealed because of moistuture The fact that it id FAA certified, means you won't find repair information. It is cocsdered as a component, and not intended t be repaired i the field. If it was built in 2005,it likely saw over ten years of contnious service. Older beacons lasted a lot less time. Those could be relamped, and if flasjing thee controler module replaced. Towers get hit by lihjtning quite often. I've worked on several towers, and desogned a remote moniter for one tower to endure that all lights were working. It sent a signal on 7GHZ to another towwer sight where the display was right by the Master Monitor in the site's control room. It monitored the current to the entire tower lighting system. It sent a 1024 Hz on an audio chanel. It was on, unless al thee lights were on, If the beacon wasn't flashing, or a side marker wasn't orking,it stayed o. Of everything was OK< a LED at Master control would go out when the lights were all on. The FCC & the FAA accepted the design. By law, you had three days to effect full repairs to towr lighting. A radio station in Lake County Florida had the wiring between the transmitter and beacons fauk frim lightning strikes. The engineer had to locate the damage and replace bad wires while watching out for alligaots, since the towerr is in a large marsh. I could see that tower from my ouse, and saw it struck by lightning, many times. The transmitter would drop out for several seconds each time, so you could bot see and hear each strike. Diialight is a long time lightig manufacturer, no 'a cheap piece of junk'. Those beacons exceeded their design life, or the factory would have relaced them with new equip,ent under warranty. They, and Chicago Miniture built most dial lamps and oter specialty buls for generations. Dialigh manufactures all types of LED, these days. I have reels of surface mount LEDs they made. You need to stop daming things you know nothing about.

[@innercityprepper]

You finally found a meshtastic solar enclosure! :D

[@astrogerard]

Big Clive should help in this case. Would be a nice video to watch.

[@alphanaut14]

That was my thought, but it would cost thousands to ship that thing to his Island.

[@binky_bun]

I'd reuild one with WS2812 addressable LED strips that way you could run all sorts of RGB animations and effects on it. Take the good diffusers from both and use them to replace the burned ones on the one you're going to rebuild

[@KevinPalivec]

all I see is an awesome skycamera housing!!! Forget the LEDs!!! =)

[@andy1845c]

Not gunna lie. I have always wanted one of these..

[@itmaybeokay]

You could use a constant current power supply set to something like (20ma x Number of leds) - which is honestly probably what that was in there - but that would need to be like 700+ volts… I would say, easiest way to run the leds would be to rewire it so each board is in parallel. If I’m counting correctly there are 24 LEDs per board - red LEDs usually have a Vf (forward voltage drop) around 2v - so like, a 48v power supply rated for probably 10amps would run all the boards. I’d add like a 120ohm resistor in series with each board, quarter watt should be fine. Test on one board and if it works, hook up more. De soldering one led from the charred board and using a cheap m-tester would give you a more accurate Vf. As for the blinking - literally the output of an arduino running the default code to a sufficient mosfet should do it - though you’re probably better off running each board through its own mosfet. If you’re feeling enterprising you could even pwm them to adjust brightness. Srsly feel free to message me if you have any questions. Good luck and happy hacking.

[@fullraph]

@6:45, that box is outputting at a modified frequency which is making the meter all trippy. Also I don't think bridging a single LED would bring the voltage high enough to start popping the other ones around. My guess is this thing is probably just old and degraded after spending nearly 20 years outside in all sort of temperatures and the electronic components of the LED modules are failing.

[@illa-noisemusic1081]

Each cob section should be 1.5 or 3 volt each, depending on the resistance. They are pretty much junk unless you can find the exact cob replacement. When you jumped it they all got too much voltage. They will just burn out the next one in series until its all smoke. Add a 6 volt resister in the jumper and see it its more stable.

[@goldmax1412]

This transparent hermetic dome could, in theory, be adapted as a submarine with remote control and a camera inside.

[@TheWelder7018]

As the great Photonicinduction would say... "I popped it" lol

[@coryengel]

To use in a lighthouse it would need circuitry to gradually ramp the V up and down at the proper rates to simulate an incandescent lamp.

[@JamesHalfHorse]

That's a pretty simple one compared to some I have seen in the broadcast magazines. Different blink pattern/angle during the day than at night to not annoy people as much with light pollution and some IR strobes for pilots who fly with night vision, etc. Fascinating rabbit hole to go down when I was looking into them. There is also a requirement to monitor them that I don't see here so I am not sure if these are tower lights or maybe for a different structures lower to the ground or in places they can be visually monitor like airports. LEDs you can't use an amp meter on it to detect when a bulb goes out and set off an alarm like I do with my incandescent beacons. Like the Xeons there are more brains involved for all that to work correctly. The advantage of LEDs obviously less power than incandescents (and xeons I think) and supposed to be more maintenance free than incandescents and xeons but when they are on a 500ft lightning rod is different than on paper. A tower with incandescents gets hit I might lose a flasher module in the home made with off the shelf parts (a couple relays, 120 volt flasher module, amp monitor thats about it) controller at the bottom. Usually only need to climb for changing bulbs every few years or birds/lightning damaged power cables. The tower with the xeons I end up having to replace stuff or get on the phone with someone to diagnose because there is just a lot more going on there electronics wise. I suspect LEDs are worse in that regard.. The stuff those things go through up there on the tower is insane which is why so heavy but probably a lot lighter than the glass beacons. I will try to lift one I have on the ground and see if you are curious but big enough I doubt I can. I would take out one array and put it on a variable DC power supply and ramp it up slow on voltage and current so you can find out what each array runs at then modify it to suit your own needs. A little microcontroller fun maybe as simple as tinkering with esp32/wled and you might be able to control each section and make your own effects. They can be at pretty high voltages when in a series so be careful. Or just use the modules for other things. LED brake light upgrade maybe.

[@saveitforparts]

It's fun to see people with real-world experience commenting on this!

[@JamesHalfHorse]

@@saveitforparts I engineer for a small chain of radio stations. Can't afford the latest and greatest. We only have incandescent beacons on most towers and one Xenon system. I would like to see an LED system but there is not enough budget to send me to the trade shoes and stuff the industry puts on. The amp meter on a tower the other day alerted me a beacon burned out. Had to let the FAA know and a guy climb up and change it. A helicopter just crashed into a tower in Houston and there is some controversy over the tower lights. It's a big deal. Neat job at times. have a big 4cx20,000 vacuum tube on my display shelf at the office the size of your head. If you listen to FM radio over the years chances are one just like it made the power for it. The transmitters are massive dangerous beasts but totally cool. One of these days I am going to see if the network that uses the same sat equipment Peter Fairlie does out at one of my towers will let me set up a call to him just to do it one sat terminal to another. I could probably get their engineer in on it. I sent him both of your channels to watch when I saw him a few months ago.

[@jhonbus]

Unfortunately I expect shipping to the Isle of Man would cost at least 10x what you paid for the things otherwise it'd be fun to see Big Clive take a look at one of these!

[@bacare1971]

It's supposed to get a flashing power supply, notice how all the lights on a tower flash at the same time. Also Im going to guess it works better at 240 volts to be compatible with the old incandescent circuts.

[@UncleBildo]

new tail lights for your rig!

[@Drenov]

It's very likely the 2nd PSU module has a fault and that's killing the LEDs. LEDs aren't like light bulbs, they can last decades. You can work our the DC voltage it needs by measuring the voltage drop across each stage and multiplying it up. It looked like 3 diodes per stage and 6 modules per vertical strip, and 16 strips... An individual LED needs 1v2 - 3v6 depending on the type, so 3v6-10v8 across a module. 21v6-64v8 across a strip, and 345v6-1036v8 for the whole array. You need to current limit it to stop it running away, which is possibly where the PSU module is faulty, not providing a stable DC supply and not limiting the current. You could rewire the strips in parallel and run it from a safer voltage?

[@WagonLoads]

If you put both of them on top of your ray dome, you could make it look like a giant Dalek.

[@uuid.uuid4]

Step one to getting this led array going is to figure out how it’s wired. All series is possible but it could have a combination of series and parallel. Then figure out what the forward voltage of one of the LEDs is - you can use the diode function of your multimeter to give you an idea of how much voltage it takes to make the led pass any appreciable amount of current. once you know the forward voltage, multiply by the number of led modules in series to get a lower bound on the voltage required to light the array. As other commenters have mentioned the power supply is likely built to provide enough current at the voltage required by the whole array, if not otherwise limited, the LEDs will allow a huge current if pushed much past their forward voltage. If you can pull an LED module out and hook it up to a bench power supply with a current limit - you can back into a current (20mA to start) that causes them to shine bright enough for your application. Then what’s left is to make a current limited supply capable of delivering enough voltage to push that many LEDs at the current you want - each module wired in parallel will increase the current required linearly. Seems like the power supply at your unit is passing too much current through the LEDs and burning them out. Let’s say you have 4 3.5V LEDs wired in 2 parallel groups in series (2P2S). You’d need a power supply that will current limit at 40mA capable of a bit more than 7 volts. Rather than jumping the LEDs you might replace them with resistors that will drop the same amount of voltage as an LED at the current you want. So if each LED has a forward voltage of 4V and operates at 20ma you’d want to replace them with resistors of 4V/.02A = 200 Ohms and you’d want them to have a power rating that can handle a bit more than 4V * .02A = .08W. Seems like that power supply isn’t limiting current though - so be careful!

[@spookysammy7245]

That acrylic top would work great as a pie cover if anything else

[@javierenruta]

Try adding some resistors in the place of burned leds, to avoid raising the voltage on the other leds. Also, each led should use a small amount of voltage, if you can try to calculate the voltage based on the number of leds and the output voltage of the power source, you can reuse them alone.

[@brianbarker2551]

Gut it and hook it up as the warning light on the outhouse thing you made a while ago. Bigger is better.

[@planespeaking]

Perhaps make a voltage/current limiting device (see uncle Doug) channel. It's basically a large rheostat connected to an incandescent light bulb. That why should there be any kind over over current then the lightbulb blows. He explains it better than me.

[@nathansmith1085]

That is obviously a taillight blinker for the space shuttle. That way then an UFO or aircraft was behind it, it would signal which way it was going to turn. I worked on several aircraft in Area 53 and they had the same signaling system.

[@nathansmith1085]

On a side note. I absolutely hate whenever I have to work on something that is 480V. I've had equipment arc across terminal whenever my meter leads were a pretty good distance away. Scary stuff!

[@AddieDirectsTV]

7:36 they should have been wired so they’re fault tolerant. One of our towers had half of a beacon fail, but the other half was still working.

[@landgrenade]

Might be wrong but the reason it may be wired in series is because a lot of times, they have a remote monitor that will let the tower owner/operator know that there was a loss of voltage in the circuit. My obstruction lights that I'm in control of all have it but they aren't built exactly like this 😅

[@rexflex3388]

Well that was cool. Thanks.

[@GreyBeardTrains]

Hope you can come up with another power supply. Maybe one you can adjust the voltage

[@djksfhakhaks]

By jumpering over that bank of LEDs, the voltage is more for the other ones. Try replacing the two banks or move the transformer over to the other one!

[@zaprodk]

It's a constant /current/ supply. It doesn't matter.

[@Trent28888]

Btw try 1 LED strip on 12V and see how ya go as from what I can see it looks like 3 LEDs in parallel and then they have 6 lots in series and the red LED's are about 2V each so each module should be 12V

[@Aeduo]

I suppose the series strip miiiight make sense more for immediately detecting an issue rather than it just becoming dimmer over time as LEDs fail, and the assumption may be that there'll be multiple units where they are providing redundancy.

[@csongorvarga]

Maybe you can hook up one column of LEDs to a DC power source. I am not sure if you have an adjustable power supply. If you can make one column light up, you can re-view all the columns to be series and run it from a different DC power supply. And with a lower voltage/current will last a long time.

[@paulsengupta971]

Maybe swap some working LED units between beacons. Try and work out the voltage which it should be working on.

[@JaredKaragen]

Each LED "consumes" about 3v, so with removing the whole string on one board, you increased the voltage across the rest of them by that amount split up. Probably why it fried. You can add up quantity of LEDs, and calculate what voltage they should be driven at. Switch the good power supply to the other unit that looks like it has good LEDs.

[@robotparadise]

Dig enormous trench ... attract zombies with FAA Beacon ... celebrate with tinned peaches **scribbles in note book**

[@RNMSC]

Just remember that the tinned Apricots go into the trench for the Zombies to celebrate on. They will never know the disaster that befalls them.

[@JaysElectronicTinkerShack]

nice find pull out the led arrays get a crap ton of led strips replace with those use rgb ones u can have mutli effects if u used in addressable ones couple of ardunis and open source led software boom u have 2 nice units for the garden

[@WagonLoads]

Count the LEDs in each panel and multiply by 1.2 volts. 100 LEDs in series = 120 volts Try rewire the series strings to match the voltage output of a PC power supply.. SupplyOutput / 1.2 = (Number Of LEDs in series)

[@MrRoboticBrain]

I guess the "all or nothing" behavior actually is a feature. In aviation you definitely do not want "partial failure" states, because they tend to cause more problems than you'd think! Same goes for the potted black box. You don't want anyone fuzzing with equipment like that.

[@WitoldWitkowski]

If it's an LED string, count the LEDs, multiply by 3V, and then you know the approx supply voltage. That's what I learned from BigClive at least

[@carlg5838]

That's not a universal rule of thumb to apply, for a few reasons. While it's close enough for the majority of LED products today, especially the consumer and household lighting devices with white LEDs that Bigclive often takes apart. But these beacons use monochrome RED LEDs, which will only have a forward voltage of around 2 Volts (average, can be slightly more or less). Also, some LED packages are constructed with multiple LED chips wired in series inside the package, as a means of boosting its light output. 3 in series is common in those. So if a high intensity red LED was made that way, its forward voltage at the terminals would measure at around 6 Volts rather than 2 Volts.

[@zaprodk]

Red LEDs will be around 2V per junction, not 3.

[@sullysullivan1282]

video suggestion: _what is McMaster?_ Highlight the CAD drawing they have for Swedish fiah because lmao

[@thesebi]

How did you bridge the defective LED? Maybe it's a constant current driver and it blows the other LEDs if there is less power draw.... maybe bridge with resistors? And the already smoking ones as well...

[@clifffiftytwo]

I think the answer lies in disassembly. Could you remove one of the columns of LEDs? Then separate one of the modules from the column. Is there a visible IC or semiconductor (MOSFET?) on the module? A part number leads to data sheet which describes what voltage / current the module expects. Example circuit schematic. You may be way ahead of me here but that’s my approach

[@Deathloec]

I'm sure you can repurpose it into a fancy decorate lamp that might accent the mono rail at sand land.

[@SuperCritical374]

Lots of potting can be mechanically removed by scraping and prying. Give it a try.

[@chris-tal]

This company also sells lightpipes, I've used theirs in a project. Funny, I thought they are just a generic plastics factory until I saw this. The bridging of one LED can overdrive others. The power module could fail in many ways I guess. I suspect the module to be a blinker (it's stated on a sticker) and the precision timer has failed. I guess it's designed and tuned (to the max current of the LED in pulsed mode) in a way that it's not supposed to handle for continued operation. It might be designed to be overdriven (calculated for maximizing it's lifetime) by a fast PWM signal (to keep it cooler and save some power) for a split of a second for a slow flash/blink. So now it's going full on or a PWM signal is generated all the time (according to meter readings or could be just ripple), but it alone is not enough to spare the LEDs (blinker circuit output stuck on).

[@AvisPraeda777]

The "Power Wires" Box looks like it is made from plastic like all the hobbyists use. BUT IT'S METAL?!

[@TSGEnt]

If you have a variable voltage supply you might use it, replacing the original power supply.

[@Staravora]

If these are being produced as part of some govt contract then that would explain the shoddy build quality It happens all the time in the military because they pay big bucks to the exclusive equipment suppliers who cut corners ensuring they will need to buy more when they inevitably break and so to prevent that there's constant maintenance being done but in the case of this one, it looks like the maintenance guy gave up

[@garagemancave666]

Salvage some of those led's for a super bright flashlight for sand land!

[@L-Office]

For a sec, I thought he got his hands on a Infrared Missile Jammer like the ALQ-144. But I think it's just a matter of time before he does :D

[@Gymnos2]

I wouldn't put too much effort into salvaging it. Maybe keep the housing since its waterproof and the heat sink material may be useful for other projects.

[@AddieDirectsTV]

That’s WAY larger than the one we have in the engineering shop. Oh wait…ours is just a side marker not a flasher.

[@graywolf2694]

Really jealous about axeman ngl

[@wooopdiwoowoo2247]

i would love these (working of course bro)

[@compirate]

Get addressable leds and light them a column or two at a time and make a big rotating beacon! Power should be less cause you're not lighting it all at once.