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Landing/Taxi Light Confusion

CD.

Active Member
I have owned this 7A for less than a year and am still learning about it. It was built in 2010. I have some confusion around the lighting and could use some insight.

It has 2010 vintage lights... conventional strobes, LED circuit board NAV lights and a single halogen (appears to be a MR-16 style?) on each wing tip. The strobes and NAVs work fine, but only the left landing/taxi light works... well.. turns on. (More on that later). I have not found any schematics for the lighting in all my paperwork.

On my switch panel I have separate switches for Taxi and Landing lights... The Taxi switch is Off/WigWag/On and the Landing Light is Off/On. The WigWag position doesn't change anything, but the taxi light comes on. If I turn the landing light on as well, the light gets brighter. :confused: That confuses me... it is a single halogen light.. maybe it has multiple filaments, but I don't think so. However, the Taxi and Landing lights do have separate 10A fuses. How do you have Taxi and Landing with the same light?... hmmm...

So I figured the right light didn't work because it was blown... so I took the wing tip off today to get to it. I disconnected the 2 leads to the bulb connector (only 2 connections means a single filament), turned my landing lights on and then checked for voltage... nothing. :mad: I didn't pull the light to confirm it was good... and thinking about it now, I should have at least checked resistance on the bulb, but I didn't.:(

So then I got under my panel and started trying to look at the wiring... I thought maybe something was disconnected... nope. But both switches do have connections that apparently tie into a WigWag module (I could make out the number 0463B2 on the module)... I didn't understand the wiring so I stopped to try and find a schematic and ask for help here. I don't want to over complicate this, maybe there is a very simple solution.

So I have a few initial questions.

-Does anyone possibly have schematics of a similar set-up? I know it may not be the same, but possibly?

-How is the taxi and landing light on the same halogen bulb... is the voltage possibly regulated lower for taxi?

-Why am I not getting power to the right side? Could the the W/W module be bad?

On another note... I have bought 2 FlyLED spotlights to replace the halogen lights. Obviously I haven't installed them yet, but now I'm not sure how the Taxi/Landing light configuration will work with the single LED per side. I could install a FlyLEDs WigWag switch and module and wire directly to the lights... (have to do a good bit of wire tracing) and then do away with one of my switches.. but I'm just not sure what to do now. Again, I don't want to over complicate things... I would like to keep it simple!!

Your thoughts will be much appreciated! Thanks!:)
 
Well... This sounds like an interesting problem. I think you are going to need a schematic to figure things out. If you can't get one from the original builder then you may need to get your meter out and do some continuity testing and then draw your schematic. It sounds like you have a multimeter so you're almost there. My multimeter has a beeper mode for continuity testing which is helpful when I'm working by myself. I usually have one lead with a clip and the other I use a regular test probe. That way I don't need more hands. I just had to do this for some wires that are coming from my aft fuselage that I installed a while ago but didn't label well enough.

Start at your fuses, it sounds like you have a couple then trace the wires to the switches, then go from the switches to the lights themselves. Luckily these circuits are pretty simple so it shouldn't take you too long. The wig-wag unit may or may not be part of your problem. Try to figure out how it is connected. To do the wig-wag function the lights need to be driven by the wig-wag unit which means it would power one output and then the other so yes that could be why you are only seeing one light operate.

This is the experimental world so the builder could have come up with some "clever" way of operating the lights so it's possible that they are being driven at different voltages. It seems unlikely though but who knows there could be a power resistor in series in one path to drop the voltage and a parallel direct connection.
 
Thoughts

My thoughts/guess is that one wingtip will have the landing light and the other wingtip will have the taxi light. The difference between the two wingtip lights will be how they are aimed or diffused. The wigwag module controls both of them and if it (or one of the 10A fuses) is kaput then that could explain the weird behavior. Possibly, each of the two 10A fuses is on the output side of the wigwag module to protect the wires that run out to the wingtip lights.

Since you have already purchased the flyleds lights, it would make sense to get the flyleds wigwag module and wire it up per the flyleds schematic and I bet the problem will go away, plus you will also then have a schematic!
 
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You don’t really need a separate taxi light for your 7A. If it was conventional landing gear (i.e. an RV7) it makes a difference since there is an angle difference between approach vs taxi. I would tie them both into you landing circuit and the wig wag.
 
-How is the taxi and landing light on the same halogen bulb... is the voltage possibly regulated lower for taxi?

can't really help on the bulk of your issues. You will need to trace the full wiring to see what was done and why it is not working. On the above, yes, this is likely how you are getting hi and low light output on these bulbs. I did something similar for my dash fan. Low for cooling and high for defrost.

Larry
 
Here is a set of wig-wag options from the Aeroelectric website. I used the dual switch shown on the 5th page of the PDF.
Sounds like your system is a little different.
If I only have one switch in wig-wag position the flasher module (automotive) will buzz.
 

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I really appreciate all the responses! Thanks! Much to think about for sure...

Good news, I just went back through all my documents again (I figured there had to be something) and found this gem! Looks like 1 light for taxi and the other one for landing. I've got some tracing and troubleshooting to do... headed back out to the hanger this afternoon.
 

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That does seem like a fairly convoluted wiring diagram there! There's a bridge rectifier and associated wiring in the mix as well.
If someone has the manual for the AviFlash module perhaps I can offer some help.
Installing either our Wigwag Module or our Wigwag switch will certainly simplify the wiring (and save a bit of weight!), but what you have should work.


 
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