Questions from a strobe 'newbie' ??

RadioSouth · Post by **RadioSouth** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:20 am

OK someone has given me a Whelen CSP660 supply and a couple of tubes. I was able to jury rig and those two tubes really go to town. Now the questions: Are the control and power connectors something standard obtainable from the likes of RatShack or is this a Whelen proprietory deal?
Concerning the tubes themselves, are the units that drill into the headlights, etc. all the same power ? From the model# I'm assuming what I have might be 15w. Also the Power Supply is rated at 60W output and there are 6 outlets, would I need some sort of lower power tubes so that all (6) can run at the same time ?

Post by Pj » Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:34 am

Whelen flange mount tubes (the ones that uses screws) are rated for 25watts. The ones with the rubber push in are rated for 20watts.

You won't come close to exceeding the power rating with that strobe pack.

http://install.whelen.com/131/13196.pdf

EOppegaard · Post by **EOppegaard** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:42 am

You can find the connectors from whelen...or you can order new strobe cable.

However you can also just treat them as electrical connections (since they are) and just splice them together correctly using either butt connectors, or the like...just make sure they are rated correctly.

I also find that filling the connectors with dielectric grease keeps all of the water, and nasty things out of the connection.

Post by **alex** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:32 am

Also, to figure out wattage / bulb:

Power supply watts / # of ports.

So your 660 is a 60 watt power supply, 6 ports. 10 watts / bulb.

My ISP188 (188 watts) / 8 ports = 23.5 watts/bulb. Hello lightshow!

-Alex

PriorityOne · Post by **PriorityOne** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:36 pm

The connectors are called AMP connectors and are not proprietary to whelen. They can be found at electronic supply stores, however not at RadioShack.

RadioSouth · Post by **RadioSouth** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:53 pm

Thanks men, on matching bulbs to the supply I'm assuming it's OK to have
more wattage in bulbs than the supply is capable of, will just not fire as brightly ? Saw one supply rated for 20 watts output and came with (2)
30 watt bulbs, guessing that would be pretty anemic.

Post by Pj » Tue Nov 30, 2004 3:50 pm

Yeah....pretty much. Town town I lived in put those 20watt supplies in for hideaways, and they sucked. But, it got them in the car. Now they run 90watt supplies. At work I put in 180 watt supplies running everything.

I usually recommend 90 watt supplies, 60 if its just hideaways.

KitN1MCC · Post by **KitN1MCC** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:20 pm

digikey sells all the Amp products you want a bag of mate n loc from them cost thr same as 1 from whelen

rsqemt911 · Post by **rsqemt911** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 1:12 am

the ISP188 is a 180 watt pack putting out 22.5 watts a head ...

the 188 means 180 watts/8heads

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:22 am

The 660 is also an unregulated pack. So if you enable all the outlets but only have 2 strobes plugged in, all the power goes to those 2 strobes. It's a 60 watt pack so 30 watts each. If you plug in 4 strobes and enable all the outlets, you get 15 watts per head. Plug in all 6 strobes and enable all 6 outlets, you get 10 watts per strobe.

As a general rule, 15 watts is the minimum for anything I do. 20-22.5 watts is ideal but more expensive. 10 watts per strobe head would be a toy.

EOppegaard · Post by **EOppegaard** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 11:45 pm

rsqemt911 wrote:the ISP188 is a 180 watt pack putting out 22.5 watts a head ...

the 188 means 180 watts/8heads

I want that over my CSP690

PriorityOne · Post by **PriorityOne** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:02 pm

A real sweet supply is the Nova RPM 690. It features Random Pattern Mapping, which randomly selects strobe head and pattern combos resulting in the most attention getting strobe display you can imagine. The pack continually changes pairing of bulbs and doesnt repeat the same combo for minutes. They usually run for around $250 including 4 bulbs.

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 5:32 am

That's assuming yoy believe psycho-flash mode is actually they best way to get attention. I've always felt that simultaneous and syncronized was best for making a lot of light and not a lot of distraction and disorientation.

RadioSouth · Post by **RadioSouth** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 9:03 am

Synchronized lighting reminds me of this guy a few years back (probably closer to 15-20 years ago) that had a VW Bug with the complete exterior of his vehicles covered in thousands of small white lights (not strings of Christmas lights) each bulb was actually installed onto the vehicle and I guess he had some sort of PC running the patterns, very cool and well done. Saw him on several occassions in midtown Manhattan. Early version of buff gone wild ?

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:51 pm

nmfire10 wrote:That's assuming yoy believe psycho-flash mode is actually they best way to get attention. I've always felt that simultaneous and syncronized was best for making a lot of light and not a lot of distraction and disorientation.

I'll second that... psycho-flash is a great way to get someone to run into you.

One of the construction companies around here has an Edge on one of their trucks with the strobe-based traffic advisor, all amber. The bar will do a couple of synchronized pulses, then a rapid/random flash for several seconds. The synchro is bright, but not too bad... the rapid/random is absolutely nauseating.

Questions from a strobe 'newbie' ??

Questions from a strobe 'newbie' ??

not quite

Re: not quite