The LED Strobe replaces the rotating beacon.
The LED strobe has been developed to replace the less efficient and less reliable Strobe or rotating beacons for emergency and law enforcement vehicles.
A strobe is defined as a light flashing at a regular beat. Derived from the Greek word stobos – to whirl; the original stroboscopes were made with a slotted disk that was made to turn in front of a light beam. If the speed of the rotation was adjustable it was possible to “freeze” the motion of anything caught in the beam. This effect is often used in nightclubs and on dance stages where a blindingly white light is flashed on and off many times per second to stop the motion of the dancers who are then only seen in a series of “poses” with no movement between. The LED strobe can do this far more effectively as no moving or rotation disk is required.
Because incandescent and halogen lights do not last very long at constant and rapid switching the applications for warning lights was limited. Many beacons and the “anti-collision” lights on aircraft for example are rotating lights even though the LED strobe is replacing them fairly rapidly. The rotating beacon is a reflector made to rotate abound a halogen or incandescent light source which is very bright. This reflector casts a moving beam which rotates around and around the beacon so that it is visible from all sides. This is the principle that many nautical lighthouses use and the anti-collision lights on aircraft to this day are of this type.
The LED strobe however does not need anything to move and therefore the beam of angle of visibility need only be as wide as needed to be seen. LEDs do not deteriorate of have a shorter life if they are switched off and on rapidly at all as their luminescence is not dependant on the resistance to current as incandescent lights are but in fact is a by-product of an electron passing from a high to a low state within the diode. The heat given off is miniscule so the energy required for the equivalent luminescence is of orders of magnitude lower than that required by a halogen light for example.
Not only does the LED strobe use less power than the rotating strobe, it is also far more durable. LEDs have very long lives and many of the LEDs deployed in the 60s and 70s are still burning today, 50 years later. They have recently been made to increase in their luminescence so are very visible in even bright daylight. The color of the LED is determined by the materials uses, unlike the old halogen lights which were white lights and the colour was determined by the translucent dome which covered them. This means if the plastic of crystalline lens that is used to cover the LED strobe is cracked its color is not altered.
A LED strobe is usually made up of an array of individual leds so the choice would always be the brightness required. As few as five are usual but strobes made up of 30 to 80 leds are not uncommon. These LEDs are set up in a pattern each with their own reflector but given that they will all shine together they will be visible from afar. The speed and duration of the “flash” can be changed at will from the controls. Because this is electronic there is no difference to the led if a flash of a tenth of a second every two seconds or if two flashes of three microseconds every second is required. It is just a setting change of the controls of the LED strobe. The LED strobe is of immense use as part of the warning lights on law enforcement and emergency vehicles.
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