Diagnosing a wingtip strobe?s

[Quint Van Deman]

Comanche Flyers--

Tonight on my flight home I noticed that the right hand strobe light didn't have its normal pattern to it, the timing was seemingly off (erratic intervals instead of the normal 3 clustered flashes).
Once on the ground I had a chance to investigate and it looks like the expected timing is occuring, however the light produced was more reminiscent of a weak spark plug vs. a strobe (the brilliant flash was certainly absent).
Anyone have this happen before? Is the bulb simply on the way out? What's the basic diagnosis progression to narrow down the problem?

Thanks,

-Quint

[Pat Elliott]

Swaptronics.. Swap bulbs from wingtips. if problem follows it's the bulb. if problem stays, it's wiring or power supply.
Where are your power supplies? or supply? one in each wingtip? or central one?
If you have one central one. swap plugs from each wing tip. could be a bad circuit in the power supply.
trouble shooting is all about divide and conquer.

[N3322G]

If yours are like mine, be careful on the removal. I dropped a cover and broke it.

[Quint Van Deman]

Awesome, thanks for the tips - the strobes were installed long before I owned the airplane, so the power supply configuration is certainly a mystery right now. Last question, can the bulbs be removed from the outside or do the wingtips usually have to come off to access the mounting hardware?

Thanks,

-Quint

[N3322G]

The Twin's are on tip tanks and were accessed form outside - FYI, the last change was with a bad bulb from mfgr so be prepared.