| Author | Message | ||
     Dan Blumel Unregistered guest |
XeVision super bright Xenon Metal Halide Landing & Taxi Lights for experimental aircraft. Light so bright and white you'd swear it's daylight, ½ million candle power(3200 lumens), 5X brighter than a standard 100 watt incandescent sealed beam,3X brighter than modern Halogen lamps. Less than ½ the amp draw and ½ the radiated heat of Standard or Halogen lamps. Available 14 or 28 Volts. We offer landing & taxi retrofit kits for direct replacement or complete lighting systems for new aircraft installation, 5 reflector shapes/sizes available. Many installation locations possible now with varied reflector/housing shapes, extremely small form factor, and lower lamp housing temperatures, especially suited for tight spaces in composite aircraft. High Intensity Discharge (H.I.D.) lighting is the most significant breakthrough in aviation lighting since the development of modern sealed beam lamps. We offer "Certified" quality at a very competitive price with a 5 year warranty,over 3,000 hour typical lamp life. Make your next night landing a XeVision (pronounced zee-vision) "daylight" landing. XeVision by Aero Visions International, Inc., Worldwide distribution by Reliable sales, Ogden Utah. For more information, visit our web site at www.xevision.com Contacts: www.xevision.com or call RELIABLE SALES toll free 877-735-4374. | ||
| Eric Holmberg New member Username: Erich Post Number: 45 Registered: 05-2002 |
Before anyone in the group plunks down the $550 for a single-bulb unit from this guy, make sure you check out Sylvania's web site. The X1010 kit includes two light assemblies and inverters and retails for $399 (direct from Sylvania's Speed shop) or at your local auto parts store. The Advance here matched the $389 price I found online elsewhere. Here's the Sylvania link: http://www.sylvania.com/xenarc/x1010.htm Go here for the lighting output and comparison: http://www.sylvania.com/xenarc/prodinfo.htm -Eric | ||
| Dan Blumel Unregistered guest |
There are a few issues which Eric failed to address in making the comparison, they are as follows: We are aviators and builders and as such we are always making improvements and offering products exclusively developed for the needs of aviation. We are not in the automotive market. We even provide products which are being used by the defense department in aviation applications (I am not free to discuss any details). The first major difference between our products and Sylvania are the reflector/housings. Ours are SPOT lights, a requirement for an effective landing light. Sylvania offers automotive FLOOD lights designed for driving. The needs and design goals are very much different. Our landing lights project an aviation appropriate narrow beam. We also use only 4,200 Kelvin color temperature bulbs which produce 3,200 lumens. They are marketing 5,400 K bulbs which produce 2,600 lumens by their own admission. Also these bulbs produce a more blueish light which is being marketed to the "kids" because of the trendy appearance. The bluer light is "way cool" looking but not in actual performance. The big stadiums use very large whiter color temperature lamps to light the fields and play pro night games (daylight like performance). Our round Reflectors are available for and sized as direct replacement and retrofit for standard sealed beam lamps typically used in all certified and many Experimental aircraft. We are currently in development of an 80% higher output model (std. model 42 watts), requiring only 50% more power about 60 watts(not available or legal for automotive use). We are also developing a retractable unit. Our "skunk works" is developing other "top secret" exclusive features which will revolutionize the capabilities and applications of HID lighting in aviation. One last issue is the cable length between the lamp and ballast/power supply. Ours can be over 10 feet long. This provides remote installation location flexibility for the power supply. Our standard cable is 40 inches. Systems available in 12/14V and 24/28V. Finaly EXPRESS aircraft has selected us as their supplier of landing lights after looking at other options. www.xevision.com | ||
| Dan Blumel Unregistered guest |
I forgot to mention our 3,000 hour/5 year warranty. www.xevision.com | ||
| Gary Markwardt Unregistered guest |
Dan: Okay. But, $550 for one light is a bit spendy, particularly when an Express has two! | ||
| Dan Blumel Unregistered guest |
I admit, our product cannot be afforded by all. I wish it could be cheaper but we do need to make a reasonable profit to stay in the business. However, we as pilots often don't mind spending alot more money for other "fluff" items which will never possibly save your life or your plane. Both landing and in flight collision avoidance. No one says you need 2. Try one then decide if you really want or need 2. Most small airplanes have only one. | ||
| Allyn Roe Unregistered guest |
Express has an XeVision XV-23 to install in one of the demonstrators, this unit should swap out and fit in the leading edge. We powered it up on the bench and one word can describe it; BRIGHT! In addition, and a benifit over the Sylvania's, this unit only draws 2.5 amps compared to Sylvania's 15. According to Sylvania's site their lights must be mounted in open air, on the outside of a car, and will burn up if enclosed. Obviously this will not work because of the requirements of the Express; it will also melt your lens because of the heat output. When we get the unit installed we will post pictures on the Express website. LoPresti Speed Merchants sells a similar unit for $948? All "true" HID products tend to be spendy, even for auto applications, however it is a great alternative to what we currently have. Allyn Roe Express Aircraft Co. allyn@express-aircraft.com | ||
| Roy Howard Davis New member Username: Royhdavis Post Number: 3 Registered: 01-2003 |
Can any of these HID lights be used with a Pulselite to alternately flash the lights? In SoCal we have lots of haze and lots of air traffic and the flashing landing lights are a lot more visible during the day than the strobes. | ||
| Eric Holmberg New member Username: Erich Post Number: 46 Registered: 05-2002 |
Hi Roy, You can do it, but it's not recommended since each time you pulse the light, it has to go through a 25kV startup cycle. This reduces the life of the bulb and is also hard on the electronics and may cause the 25kV generation section to overheat. This startup cycle also requires a large amount of current (15 A on the Sylvania X1010 for startup vs 3.5A steady state). I'm sure Dan Blumel will be able to give us some more information in regards to his units, as aviation units may have additional heat sinks in them to allow pulsing. As for heat, the bulbs dissipate 35 Watts of power compared to 35 to 55 Watts for typical incandescent bulbs. What this means is that the HID bulbs will generate the same or less amount of heat as any other bulb. The difference is that the heat may be more concentrated, so if you have a dirty lens, there is the chance that it will heat up faster. The inner lens can’t get dirty since the leading edge lens protects it. The leading edge lens is mounted in free air, so you will get cooling that way. Let me finish the engine overhaul and I can install the lights in my wing and run them for an hour and let you know if it gets too hot. For a general background note to everyone, the HID (high intensity discharge) lights are like your camera flash and require a very large voltage to get them started. Once going, the voltage is low (around 75 volts) and the efficiency is very good. The switching frequency is normally in the 400 Hz range. -Eric | ||
| Dan Blumel Unregistered guest |
The problem is not heat or the ability of our power supply units to have frequent starts. The limiting factor is they are ARC lamps and as such have electrodes. Starting is what erodes them. Our units are designed for 20,000+ cycles. This number of cycles will be used up quickly if pulsed compared to normal use. We are developing a high tech alternative as we speak, to acomplish the same effect as a standard Landing light pulsing system without the cycling problem. It will be a few months before the prototype testing is complete and we are ready to release production units. We will keep you posted as we get closer. With the extreem brightness of our standard system, very little improvement in recognition is actually developed by pulsing. This is even more true of our soon to be released 5,700 lumen system (80% more light than the standard 3,200 lumen systems). Projected release June 2003. To respond to Eric's other comment about heat from the "bulb". The reason our lights put out so much more light than traditional incandescent units is efficiency. Very little of the electrical energy to operate the system is consummed by generating heat(wasted energy). This system is very efficient at making visible light instead and not so much IR (heat). Our reflector housing outside surfaces typically run at 150 degrees Farenheit when left on continuously with no cooling air flow,(in a stagnant air environment). (over 300 deg. F for a 100 watt incandescent) | ||
| Allyn Roe Unregistered guest |
We have posted some pictures on our website showing the lights installed in an Express. They look very good and swap out easily. www.express-aircraft.com/News.htm Allyn Roe Express Aircraft Co | ||
| ThunderFlash New member Username: Thunderflash Post Number: 1 Registered: 12-2005 |
Unfortunately, HID has piss poor color rendering. The bluish white high efficiency HID/Xenon bulbs typically have a Color Rendering Index of only 65% The warmer HID/Xenon has a 75% CRI, but the efficiency drops 30%. One should *very* carefully consider the loss of color recognition, especially in an emergency situtation when it counts. |