JetStrobe

Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
Hey, hows it going.

I got an oldish light bar yesterday callled a "JetStrobe" model# SJL3P-CPD series-A. It has the Amber filters in it along with 10 strobes, two alley lights, take downs and rear flashers. It's a pretty cool light and works well. I plan to put it on my truck for the racing season for push truck duty and track maintenance and think this thing will be good enough. I'm trying to find a complete wiring diagram/instruction manual, but can only find ones for the "plus" model. I slid the domes off, had a look inside and slid the domes back on, because I have no idea what I am looking at in there. I have no idea how to hook it up either. Any information on this thing will be appreciated.

All I know is it is heavy, big and complex, but will look nice on my truck, instead of the newer, boxy LED everyone else has. I'd like to put this old light back into service where it should be. Thanks.
 

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Doyle257

Member
Jan 13, 2015
658
Cheektowaga, NY
Appears to be in decent shape!
Dumpster Fairy find, or did you have to lay some bread down for it?
 
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Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
I was looking at mini bars, but wanted a full size and couldn't afford new, so I found this on Market Place from a local resident. I got it for reasonable and it's fully functional. Domes have typical scrapes, but not hazed or yellowed at all. I'm just going to buff them out a bit and learn how to wire this thing into a control box. It will be fun to have an old one on my truck....I don't really like the LED boxy styles anyways, even though they are brighter and weigh less.

This one I have is from a Boston, sheriff car, but filters are now amber as I believe it was on a tow truck at one point.
 

jdh

Member
May 21, 2010
1,555
Geneva, FL
The only issue I had with them is you must use the designed optics specifically for the strobe heads. You can not use the regular jet filters. Aside from that, they were a neat bar. I have one in my collection, but the end light heads were at a 45 angle for i-section coverage. Don't know if that was factory setup.
 
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Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
Would this help ??

Yes sir, it helps a lot! Now I can try and fire it up and play with all the functions and to see what I need for a control unit. Thanks a lot!!

Just one more question. I'm hooking directly to a 12 volt car battery, the black on negative and red on positive. This will fire it up? It says to apply 12VDC to other wire combinations to produce different functions. My question is. Do I leave the red wire attached to battery positive at all times, even when adding other wires to produce different functions?

I just don't want to blow something, one of those power supplies look more expensive than what I payed for the whole bar. I totally am new to these things, thanks. you all are great.

The only issue I had with them is you must use the designed optics specifically for the strobe heads. You can not use the regular jet filters. Aside from that, they were a neat bar. I have one in my collection, but the end light heads were at a 45 angle for i-section coverage. Don't know if that was factory setup.
They slide into the main dome I thought that was trick and would be easy to switch color. At first I thought the take downs and alleys were missing the lenses, because it is nothing but a reflector behind the bulb and looked unfinished. I thought there should be white lenses, but I found out that is the way they are suppose to be. Shows you how new I am to real flashbars. No walmart junk here!
 

Nolines

Member
Apr 5, 2018
1,678
Margate, FL
When you say Taco say Viva, no wait you said Wally Mart junk nevermind : )
I actually have a few jetsonic filters from the days I made them look better... Mostly Amber... Now I'm gonna have to look... Dang!
 
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Pete L.

Member
May 21, 2010
2,575
Virginia (south/central)
Just one more question. I'm hooking directly to a 12 volt car battery, the black on negative and red on positive. This will fire it up? It says to apply 12VDC to other wire combinations to produce different functions. My question is. Do I leave the red wire attached to battery positive at all times, even when adding other wires to produce different functions?

Yes, leave that main power wire attached while you put power to those trigger wires.
 
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jdh

Member
May 21, 2010
1,555
Geneva, FL
The problem is, the tubes are not in the focal point of the light head like others. The tubes are set back. So what happens is the optics are designed to take the flash, reflect it back into the light head and back out. A goofy way of doing it, but it also makes the filters proprietary.
 
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Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
Yes, leave that main power wire attached while you put power to those trigger wires.

Thank you.

The problem is, the tubes are not in the focal point of the light head like others. The tubes are set back. So what happens is the optics are designed to take the flash, reflect it back into the light head and back out. A goofy way of doing it, but it also makes the filters proprietary.

I just hope I can see this thing pretty good in the daytime. Tomorrow I will rig it up on the truck and hook up some power to see what it looks like. I'm hoping it is still as brite as when it was in service. I read that the tubes can darken after a lot of running.
 

Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
Made progress last night lit it up and is great. I was able to figure out what wire did what and I also labeled each to their function. This thing draws a lot of energy and found my clip lead getting hot, so I disconnected. I would assume that the main hot wire and ground would be a thicker cable wire, but they are mere 18 Gauge same as the trigger wires. Also a few of the wires are of a different color than the manual would show. I have a feeling it may have been re-wired at some point.

If someone could take a look and tell me if this is the only wires that should be available on the Jetstrobe and the black and red main power leads are indeed the main supply wires, that would be great. I feel stupid asking all these questions, but I know nothing about these things and don't want to fry it up.

I tellya though....this thing is super bright, should have no problem with day time visibility.
 

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Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
Well the wire harness on now does not coincede with the diagram in the manual at all. No orange wire, no red/white, the yellow wire controls left alley, according to diagram should control low intensity strobe. Also no heavy red or black main battery cable. I think this thing has been re-wired at some point. I'm tempted to set aside some dedication and build up a new wire harness, but might burn something up.
 

Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
I was told the cop had a "police" sign screwed on the top, and all the other jetstrobes I've seen don't have the chrome center either. I like it, makes it look classic and heavy. I don't think building a new harness would be too difficult. I think it's 16 guage and just have to map things out and use all the right colors as possible, or label them with markers, color coded. I think the harness on it is too short anyways. It does work well as is, but I just want all the functions it can do. However the only functions I seem to be missing are low intinsety mode and action pattern. Thanks
 

Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
Also, I'm actually touching the trigger wires direct to battery with no fuse. Probably a bad idea looks like I need heavy red heavy black, main battery cables to a fused control box, then trigger wires hooked into the control box. An OEM wire harness would be nice, but probably hard to find.

I believe you have an old Chicago Police jetstrobe. They are the only ones I have ever seen with the chrome center and yours looks like it has screws for the beat tag holder.

Regardless the manual for your bar can be found here


Perhaps it might help with the wiring.
at the end of the model number, it says CPD.....could that be for Chicago Police Department??
 

deelony

Member
May 23, 2010
185
LINY
Yeah thats a chicago police jetstrobe. They sold alot them at auction within the last 5 years. there are alot of them out there.
 

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Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
Yeah thats a chicago police jetstrobe. They sold alot them at auction within the last 5 years. there are alot of them out there.

Cool. Mine are Amber, but I wish it had the spacer/inserts between the strobes like in the picture. Mine just has the strobe lenses. I might find some later used some place, no big deal.

I just got a SW400SS controller for it, off of EBAY. Should be enough switches to run the whole bar. I have some wiring up to do.
 

Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
Hooked my JetStrobe up to admire the lights ans insoire myself to get this thing all wired into the truck. The funny thing is, My camera phone could not keep up with the flash with a slow frame rate, hahha. It looks like it is flashing slowly in the video, but it was really fast in reality. This is what I get for a cheap phone I guess. Anyways a couple of videos showing off my JetStrobe. I only had up to three function on at once, in order to not blow anything. This was the last time it will be ran directly to a battery. It will be fused and controlled the next time. I merely had front take downs and rear'front strobes ignited and still had three more lights to turn on, but decided to not overload the battery.

Posting link to youtube for the videos, this site won't let me upload videos. Low quality, sorry.
 

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