On the KR I owned in South Africa, I did just that: used house alarm strobes, which are extremely cheap and easy to find. The same strobes are also used on industrial machinery as an indicator of the machine condition. The ones I used had a perfect flash rate (1Hz, that is 1 flash per second). I did an interesting repackaging exercice. The flash tube was initially mounted flat on the PCB, I mounted it vertical and on the other side of the PCB. I even found an appropriate plastic dome (coming from a cheap brand of deodorant!). I had one strobe mounted on the top, and one on the bottom of the fuselage. One failed after six months (I did not bother to investigate the cause), the other kept going.
Those $5 strobes had a couple advantages: lightweight, self contained, no RF noise to speak of, pretty low current drain, and low drag. The flash was not ridiculous either. I compared it on the ramp with old Whelens from C172s and PA28s, and it was indeed brighter. I would have liked to find a Fresnel lens to improve further, then I heard of the "aluminum golf ball" technique, but I never found time to try that. Serge Vidal Melbourne, Australia No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.549 / Virus Database: 270.8.3/1747 - Release Date: 26/10/2008 09:27
