Strobe wiring interference

[npereira]

Hi,

Looking for information. I have purchased a quadcity challenger II and did my first flight/ check ride on Monday.

I noticed that when the wing tip tribes are on, I get a clicking sound in my icom A-200 panel mount radio.

The instructor stated it’s because the installer did not use shielded wires.

So my question is, there is a connection in the bulkhead/gap cover, could I redo that connection and use shielded wires from there all the way to the switch in the cockpit? Will that make a difference?

If so, what type/gauge of wire should I use for this?


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[CarlOrton]

While not directly answering your question, another approach would be to remote-mount the strobe power. For some odd reason (can't recall), when I built my Sonex, I invested in two of these:

http://www.strobesnmore.com/Nova-Quickstrobe-Strobe-Power-Supply.html

One for each wingtip. They're only 1.5" x 4", so I just mounted them to the spar just inside the fiberglass wingtip and ran regular unshielded wires out to each. They drive a standard flashtube strobe. You can't program them, but I believe the default is 4 quick pulses, a second or two of pause, then the next 4 pulse burst. No RF interference.

If you want to rewire, the offending circuit is that from the strobe powersupply out to each strobe.

[martymayes]

The wires from the strobe power supply to the light are the only ones that need to be shielded. What Carl said, if you mount the power supply out in the wing tip but that's not helping much right now.
Check the installation carefully, they may have used shielded wire and simply forgot to ground the shield or the shield ground connection has failed, etc. The company that makes the strobe probably sells a shielded wire kit to go with it.

[npereira]

What I have is led lights. I don’t know the model. Perhaps I should look to see the model and see if there is any power supply(I never seen one). Possibly it’s wired to the switch and the light unit itself has a built in capacitor discharge circuit.

I’ll have to check and come back with more information.

Thanks


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[martymayes]

If it's LED lights than the source of EMF could be something totally different, including the lights themselves.

[vaflier]

I wonder if adding some toroids to the wires At the lights would help solve the problem.

[npereira]

I know for a fact that it’s the wing tip strobes cause if I turn off he clipping goes away.

I’m going for a flight tomorrow after work so will look at the wiring. Perhaps it’s zip tied to the radio antenna or something


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[flyrgreen]

npereira-- Your 1st two actions are what has been said here: see if wires are actually shielded but shield is not connected; see if strobe wires are running right along with the radio antennae cable. If so, separate them by at least 1 foot. It's OK for those two wires to cross at 90 degrees with no separation.

[martymayes]

I know for a fact that it’s the wing tip strobes cause if I turn off he clipping goes away.

What I meant was it could be any component in the strobe light system. For conventional strobe systems high energy EMF sources are somewhat limited and easy to isolate. That doesn't apply to LED strobes.