---------------------------------------------------------- AeroElectric-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Tue 07/05/05: 11 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 1. 05:21 AM - Re: Dimmers & LED Indicators (Mark Banus) 2. 05:42 AM - Re: Dimmers & LED Indicators (John Schroeder) 3. 07:56 AM - Re: Dimmers & LED Indicators (Eric M. Jones) 4. 01:06 PM - What happens if Master contactor fails? (Matthew Brandes) 5. 02:07 PM - Re: What happens if Master contactor fails? (chad-c_sip@stanfordalumni.org) 6. 02:35 PM - Re: Dimmers & LED indicators (Carlos Trigo) 7. 03:20 PM - Oshkosh forum (Tom Barter) 8. 05:40 PM - Re: Oshkosh forum (Robert L. Nuckolls, III) 9. 06:47 PM - Re: Split Pin Connectors? (Jim Bean) 10. 07:50 PM - Re: Re: Dimmers & LED indicators (John Schroeder) 11. 09:47 PM - Garmin 196 interferes with com radio (Cameron Kurth) ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 05:21:49 AM PST US From: "Mark Banus" Subject: AeroElectric-List: Re: Dimmers & LED Indicators --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Mark Banus" I found that this work well for LEDs and Switch lights. http://www.periheliondesign.com/Vregflyer.htm Mark Banus ________________________________ Message 2 _____________________________________ Time: 05:42:08 AM PST US Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Dimmers & LED Indicators From: "John Schroeder" --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "John Schroeder" Bob - Check the installation instructions of the RC Allen indicators. I believe the LEDs on these are not dimmed by a dimmer. Rather, they have to have a connection to full buss voltage for dimming. As you can figure, this gives you only one position for the dim. I didn't believe it and called RC Allen. They confirmed it. WE thern wired it to the panel light switch that also controls the power to the panel lights dimmer. I installed a B&C dimmer and it works for dimming the LED's on the Garmin 340 Audio Panel. With the pot fully counterclockwise, these LED's are off. With it fully clockwise, the LED's are bright. If you want it the other way around, you might call B&C and ask if you can switch the leads from the pot to the dimmer. We had the 340 LED's hooked to a 4 channel Pulse Width Modulated dimmer and that made the LED's flicker. So we switched them to the B&C dimmer. Turns out that the 340 has its own peculiar LED biasing system and needs a straight voltage variation for dimming.We have both dimmers installed. The PWM is a Flight Data Systems product and was specially designed for LED dimming. http://www.fdatasystems.com/ It is the LC-40 and sells for $89 I have no clue about the pillar point switch/controller. Hope this helps, John Schroeder On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 18:59:28 -0500, r falstad wrote: > --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "r falstad" > > Folks, > > I'm installing B&C's DIM 15-14 Dimmer Assembly, Pillar Point Fuel Pump > Switch/Controller and Ray Allen RP3 LED position indicator for elevator > trim in my GlaStar. > > The Pillar Point installation instructions say to wire the lighting > control wire into a dimmer. I tried it with the DIM 15-14 and it didn't > have any effect on the LED light intensity. > > I also have the same question about the Ray Allen LED trim indicator. > > Any suggestions on how to dim the LEDs in these two indicators? It also > strikes me that there is a complication. As I turn my dimmer pot > clockwise, the resistance goes down, the voltage goes up and the lights > get brighter. I'm going to want the LEDs at their maximum brightness > during the day so I can see them in sunlight. I don't want my panel > lights at full bright during the day but if I use the same dimmer for > panel lights as I do for the LED indicators, my indicators will be dim > during the day and I'll have to turn the voltage up to see them. > > Is there another dimmer module or a simple ol' pot that will work in > this application? (If I need another dimmer/pot, I'd like to use one to > control both the fuel pump controller and the trim indicator to save > panel space.) > > Best regards, > > Bob > > -- ________________________________ Message 3 _____________________________________ Time: 07:56:27 AM PST US From: "Eric M. Jones" Subject: AeroElectric-List: Re: Dimmers & LED Indicators --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Eric M. Jones" > Check out June and July 2001, at this link: >http://www.rst-engr.com/kitplanes/ Jim Weir should have added some caveats to this--like a filter capacitor is needed in the output stage to drive LEDs. Otherwise--welcome to the disco party fella, and it's in your own cockpit. Chew on some hard candy in front of your monitor to find out why. The stroboscopic effect induced by vibration OR pulse-width modulation is a visual distraction and is to be avoided unless the frequency is out of the range of visual and vibration effects (depends on the application). Since microprocessor LED displays usually operate in the MHz, this is rarely a problem. But if you chose to roll your own and pulse-width modulate the LEDs at up to many many kilohertz....The sad part is that they may look okay on the workbench. LEDs are capable of being strobes very fast, and circuitry built for incandescent lamps may not work well. Usually a capacitor on the output will fix the problem. The Urban Legend that LEDs need pulse-width modulation needs squashing. LEDs work just fine by varying the power to them in a purely DC fashion. The difference is in the control circuitry. A pulse-width dimmer can be built that dissipates almost no heat, and thus is extremely efficient. On the other hand, it has more parts and produces some electromagnetic interference (EMI) and strobe effects. Remember to use LEDs in series to lower the required current, since the current determines how beefy the power supply needs to be. For example: LEDs have a small forward voltage (that's the voltage when they begin to light)...so you can divide you battery voltage by the LED's forwad voltage to determine the number you can put in series. (More or less.) I sell a little EGPAVR (Extremely General Purpose Adjustable Voltage Regulator) dimmer for LEDs and lamps that is about as small and light as one can design. Everyone else sells some thing similar, but bigger and heavier and more expensive. Eric M. Jones (Glastar 5540) www.PerihelionDesign.com 113 Brentwood Drive Southbridge MA 01550-2705 (508) 764-2072 "Nothing is too wonderful to be true." James Clerk Maxwell, discoverer of electromagnetism "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful." Mae West, discoverer of personal magnetism ________________________________ Message 4 _____________________________________ Time: 01:06:38 PM PST US From: "Matthew Brandes" Subject: AeroElectric-List: What happens if Master contactor fails? --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Matthew Brandes" It is amazing how much you learn and understand an airplanes electrical system when you actually start wiring one. Anyway... the question at hand... what happens (if anything) if the master contactor fails? The alternator is connected to the battery via this contactor... so if this thing gives up the ghost... do bad things happen? Matthew Brandes, Van's RV-9A (Wiring) #90569 http://www.n523rv.com EAA Chapter 1329 President EAA Chapter 868 Web Editor ________________________________ Message 5 _____________________________________ Time: 02:07:54 PM PST US From: chad-c_sip@stanfordalumni.org Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: What happens if Master contactor fails? Z-USANET-MsgId: XID420JgeVgM0172X30 --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: chad-c_sip@stanfordalumni.org If you wire your plane as per one of the "Z" figures in Bob's book that shouldn't be a problem. Bob always routes a secondary path for the electrons to get to the essential bus through a diode that bypasses the contactor. I'm assuming you're thinking of a mode of failure that the contactor breaks open and stays that way. With the E-bus diode you'll have a seondary path to the e-bus only. If your contactor fails closed, well that's not a problem in flight really I would't think. Chad Chad Sipperley Lancair IVP-turbine (under construction) Phoenix, AZ ------ Original Message ------ From: "Matthew Brandes" Subject: AeroElectric-List: What happens if Master contactor fails? > --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Matthew Brandes" > > It is amazing how much you learn and understand an airplanes electrical > system when you actually start wiring one. > > Anyway... the question at hand... what happens (if anything) if the master > contactor fails? The alternator is connected to the battery via this > contactor... so if this thing gives up the ghost... do bad things happen? > > Matthew Brandes, > Van's RV-9A (Wiring) > #90569 > http://www.n523rv.com > > EAA Chapter 1329 President > EAA Chapter 868 Web Editor > > > > > > > ________________________________ Message 6 _____________________________________ Time: 02:35:32 PM PST US Received-SPF: softfail (mta8: domain of transitioning trigo@mail.telepac.pt does not designate 85.138.30.109 as permitted sender) receiver=mta8; client_ip=85.138.30.109; envelope-from=trigo@mail.telepac.pt; From: "Carlos Trigo" Subject: AeroElectric-List: Re: Dimmers & LED indicators --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Carlos Trigo" Eric Does your EGPAVR also dim the indicators from RAC? Carlos ________________________________ Message 7 _____________________________________ Time: 03:20:51 PM PST US From: "Tom Barter" Subject: AeroElectric-List: Oshkosh forum --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Tom Barter" Bob, After checking the forums list for EAA Oshkosh, I noticed that your name is no longer listed. Is this an oversight, or will you not be giving a presentation? I hope will still be there, as I really enjoyed visiting with you last year. Tom Barter Kesley, IA Avid Magnum Working on electrical systems ________________________________ Message 8 _____________________________________ Time: 05:40:15 PM PST US From: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Oshkosh forum --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" At 05:19 PM 7/5/2005 -0500, you wrote: >--> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Tom Barter" > > >Bob, > >After checking the forums list for EAA Oshkosh, I noticed that your name is >no longer listed. Is this an oversight, or will you not be giving a >presentation? I hope will still be there, as I really enjoyed visiting with >you last year. > > >Tom Barter We were planning to be at OSH again this year but a number of inter-related requirements for attending just didn't come together. I had to beg off the Saturday forum for 2005. We'll try again next year. Bob . . . ________________________________ Message 9 _____________________________________ Time: 06:47:10 PM PST US From: Jim Bean Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Split Pin Connectors? --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: Jim Bean This probably has nothing to do with the posters "split pins". As a young engineer many years ago I honchoed the install of an expensive RADAR prototype in a destroyer. The cables were made up by the Boston navy yard. Whoever inserted the pins into the connectors apparently used a very sharp screwdriver to push them in. All of barrels of the pins were split and expanded resulting in a massive short. Really let the blue smoke out. Jim Bean ________________________________ Message 10 ____________________________________ Time: 07:50:37 PM PST US Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Re: Dimmers & LED indicators From: "John Schroeder" --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "John Schroeder" Carlos - Not according to the tech @ Ray Allen. Let me know if this is not so. Thanks, John On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 22:34:41 +0100, Carlos Trigo wrote: > --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Carlos Trigo" > > > Eric > > Does your EGPAVR also dim the indicators from RAC? > > Carlos > > -- ________________________________ Message 11 ____________________________________ Time: 09:47:34 PM PST US From: Cameron Kurth Subject: AeroElectric-List: Garmin 196 interferes with com radio --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: Cameron Kurth I have a Garmin 196 that is wired into the plane's power buss. I get interference at a small range of frequencies on my com radio from the Garmin (just happens to be Detroit approach). If I pull the fuse to the Garmin so it runs off the battery the interference goes away. It's a similar interference that the Dynon D10's had when they first came out. So, what kind of filter should I use? Will the Radio Shack 270-055 work in this situation? I called Garmin about it. They said that the 196 was a handheld so it has to meet the same specs as a toaster. They were very nice about it but quite clear that it's only a handheld so it was not designed for airplane use and I'm on my own. Thanks Cam