0
\$\begingroup\$

I'd like to make a high power strobe anti collision light (ACL) for aviation. The available power source is 12 - 13 V DC.

The strobe pattern should be programmable / adjustable, therefore an arduino seems to be a good choice. Typical strobe sequences will be 0.1 s on, 0.1 s off, 0.1 s on, 1 s off or in other words the on / off ratio will be typically be 10 - 20% on only.

I'd proably use 4 - 8 high power LEDs such as the Cree XM-L 2/3. I've a couple of questions about this:

  1. is it ok to use buck constant current LED drivers to provide a constant defined current to the LEDs? (or are there other options to provide a constant current to the LEDs)?
  2. I'd probably need to use a transistor to control the buck driver with the arduino to generate the strobe pattern. Which transistors could be used for that?
  3. is it better to generate the strobe pattern at the input of the buck driver or at the output?
  4. should I use a separate transistor / buck driver for each LED or can I control several LEDs with the same transistor / buck driver?
\$\endgroup\$
3
  • \$\begingroup\$ Welcome! 1. Is the LED Vf lower than your supply? 2. Good ones have EN or PWM pin for the very purpose. You should not need it. 3. See 2. 4. Depends on the driver. Please draw a schematic. \$\endgroup\$
    – winny
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 14:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ Aviation will require both red and green, right? The forward drops will likely be different, then. \$\endgroup\$
    – Reinderien
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 14:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ Reliability isn't mentioned. Rather than a buck, a single boost might be used to drive a series-string of 5 or more LEDS...but a single-point failure in this arrangement may not be acceptable. \$\endgroup\$
    – glen_geek
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 15:21

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.