I recently added AeroLED Pulsar NSP wingtip lights.  These have the Nav / Strobe / and Postion lights all in 1.

My strobes work great, but the NAV lights pop the breaker in several minuites of use.  I can imediatly reset the braker and get several more minutes of use before it pops again.

The directions say to budget 5 Amps per strobe and .5 amps per NAV.  Since I have 2 wingtip lights, I read that as 10 Amps for Strobe and 1 Amp for NAV.

I installed the lights with 18ga Wire (Calls for 20-22 but I already had 18 ran) and a 10 amp tyco breaker/switch for Strobe and a 1 amp tyco Braker/switch for NAV. All lights have a ground wire run back to the main ground inside the fuselage.

All wires and connectors look fine, nothing is warm. When I calculated the brakers, should I have added 20% like you would with home wiring?  What are others using with the AeroLED Pulsar NSP lights?

Thanks for your input

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You can "fuse" the wire size, instead of the appliance. That is what you are trying to protect, the wiring.

So fuse for 18 ga wire.  Believe I used 4 amp fuse  (ATC) and had no problems.

Thanks Mark.  That makes sense. 

You're educating me on the wire vs appliance made me think I should have looked it up in the Bingels books.  He echo's your comments and has a chart on pg 296 in the Yellow book covering wire gauge vs braker size.  18ga = 10 amp braker.  That should be way more then needed, so I ordered a new 5 amp.

Thanks again!

I have the strobes only and use a 10 amp breaker, no issues after a year plus of use. I understand fusing for wire size but am curious as to how going to a smaller amp breaker will solve the problem. Won’t the smaller breaker just trip sooner if you have a fault somewhere?  Appreciate a follow up post after a few flights. 
Thanks and Merry Christmas 

Hi Jim,

I am going to a larger breaker, not smaller.  I have a 10 Amp on my strobes which is fine and I wont be changing that.  I currently have a 1 Amp on my NAV and that is the one poping. While the lights are all in 1 housing, the NAVs and Strobes each have their own power leads, switches, and breakers.

I will be swapping out the 1 amp for a 5 amp on the NAVs.  I could go up to 10 amp based on the wire size I used, however the NAV lights claim they only take .5 amp each, so going to 10 Amp breaker sounds like overkill to me.

I'll report back once I get in a flight with the new breaker.  Merry Christmas!

Sorry I’m awake now!

No problem Jim.  I've been there!   I threw out a lot of numbers and details that perhaps made it more confusing then giving the complete picture.

I worked on a few things yesterday and despite the bad weather, I taxied around the airport for 15 min with the strobes and NAV lights on without issue after changing the breaker out.

Ready for night flight.  Thanks for the help!  

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