Hi
An airplane I bought has a Sandel HSI. It worked on the flight home. When I started it the other day there was no light at all. At dusk you could just make out a green light around the edges when you turn on power. It’s hardly the infamous bulb that requires replacement?
Ideas’s welcome.
WilliamF wrote:
the infamous bulb that requires replacement?
PROB40
William – three suggestions
1. On my installation there is a manual dimmer. Could that have been turned down inadvertently or is faulty?
2. There is a cooling fan in the Sandel just for the bulb (as it produces mostly heat and not light). If the voltage at the unit is low, the unit won’t power up (or the lamp, I’m not sure) to protect from overheating. Either way, low voltage gives the impression of a failed unit.
3. It’s the lamp. Very easy to take out and check
Best of luck
Alan
I concur with Alan.
Had a SN3308 for years before replacing it with an SN3500. Was working fine when removed and still have it in a box in the cellar. You’re welcome to have it if you want (incl dimmer, 2x spare bulbs, data cable, & pilot’s guide). Drop me a pm if you’re interested. Same goes for anyone else looking for an SN3308 (need a spare Alan?). S/N is 4404. Was removed from an N-reg and no paperwork.
Whatever you do, DO NOT send it to a certain Avionics shop in South Germany without PERSONALLY checking the bulb first. I made the mistake of believing they knew what they were doing. They claimed the ‘lighting circuit’ was defect and had it sent to the manufacturer for overhaul. $2000 for a Bulb…. And their response:
“It must have been a loose connection too”…..
An avionics shop unable to detect a burnt out bulb / replacing a duff bulb with another duff bulb…. You couldn’t make it up… Except I have the proof, and the bill to prove it….
Steve you posted that account here previously. And there are several others… No company is immune from doing screwups, no matter how an enthusiastic “best company in the world” fan club they have in some quarters.
However, does one need an avionics shop to change the 3308 bulb? Is it a Chapter 1 lifed item under EASA Part M?
The bulb can be found here.
The 3308 IM is here
The bulb procedure is on page 44.
There may be a procedure for verifying that the bulb has actually gone… would be rather useful. The bulb life is specced at 225hrs at full brightness, and in most installations it is running at full brightness.
It must also be the case that if you reduce the brightness even a tiny bit – say a 5% reduction in voltage – the bulb life increases dramatically. That is true for all incandescent lamps. One can imagine what this means for 24V bulbs running at 28V (or 14 at 14) which is basically all of aviation!
I have the SN3500 which – except for early ones (beware of units recently on Ebay!) – uses an LED and it’s a great product. I have two of them. Sadly it is not a plug-compatible replacement otherwise I would make the useless-to-OP suggestion that he puts in the 3500 
Peter wrote:
Steve you posted that account here previously. And there are several others… No company is immune from doing screwups, no matter how an enthusiastic “best company in the world” fan club they have in some quarters.
Peter, the aircraft was in for an annual. The company carrying out the annual screwed our starter, MCU and battery by trying to start the engine with a depleted battery and using ground power, then they said the Sandel was dead. If I had been there, I would have changed the bulb myself. But I wasn’t, they sent it to this ‘world renowned’ South German Aviation shop. To say it was a screw up is a joke. It cost me $2000. And just to add insult to injury, I had to pay for their pathetic ‘fault finding’ on top.
Yes, the story has been posted before but I will not stop pointing out to people about their absolute incompetence, after all, if it happened to me, it could happen to others. Sandel even asked why it had been sent and who sent it. Maybe if enough people read the story, then this pathetic shop will change their attitude towards customer service because if one of my techs had made such a pigs ear of a job and left a customer so much out of pocket, I would have reimbursed the customer out of embarrassment. But no, I even had to pay THEIR bill.
Oh, FYI our friend tried to get involved but even his name didn’t cause them to change their minds…. shockingly poor customer service after abject incompetence from their technicans. I understand they might take offence, but let them. I have the proof – I am offended at paying $2000 (and 75€) for a bulb. I have both their bill claiming that the issue is brightness circuitry failure and also the worksheet from Sandel indicating defective bulb plus a query from Sandel asking why a unit with only a defective bulb had been sent in for repair……
Yes; I wasn’t suggesting you should not have posted that account. These reports are very useful to others.
I just have a habit of linking to other threads I think are relevant
chflyer i just send you a PM!!
now back to the light bulb
you can get a light bulb that fits and work from your local shop that sells halogen light bulbs for less than 5 euros or so sou can check out the unit for function
that light bulb will also work — may or may be not last forever but for sure will do he job at that price u can replace them every 50hrs if u fance or have always some spare ones with you
here is some ore info that helped me on this issue
