Finding manufacture date of an old (ballast?) SlimLighter?

shues

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
10,276
NW Indiana
My buddy purchased a user Teal/Clear TIR-6 SlimLighter from someone local to him. It is the old style of MM SlimLighter where the sticker does not indicate the manufacture date or color or model number or anything cool like that. It just says Whelen SlimLighter.


The LEDs make noise in his fire pager whenever the pager is receiving audio; it's a ticking sound whenever the LEDs fire. I have seen this in a few other old SlimLighters with the same style sticker. The same noise can be heard if the stereo is tuned to an AM station.


We disassembled the light to see whether there was a date printed anywhere inside. It was interesting, taking the light apart, because the TIR optics were not attached to the LEDs like in a standalone sealed TIR-6. The TIR optics are a separate piece of plastic, and then the LEDs are mounted to a circuit board with a black metal heatsink on the back. Are all SlimLighters are made with non-sealed TIR-6 modules, or just the old ones like this?


Anyhow, how can we determine the manufacture date of this SlimLighter? My buddy has hopes of sending the light in to Whelen so they can replace the ugly teal colored TIR6 with a blue one. The teal looks nearly green compared to the blue of his 500 series strobe DashMiser.


Any help would be great!
 

bigcat

Member
May 20, 2010
641
Hartford County, CT
shues said:
It was interesting, taking the light apart, because the TIR optics were not attached to the LEDs like in a standalone sealed TIR-6. The TIR optics are a separate piece of plastic, and then the LEDs are mounted to a circuit board with a black metal heatsink on the back. Are all SlimLighters are made with non-sealed TIR-6 modules, or just the old ones like this? That is how they all are.


Anyhow, how can we determine the manufacture date of this SlimLighter? My buddy has hopes of sending the light in to Whelen so they can replace the ugly teal colored TIR6 with a blue one. The teal looks nearly green compared to the blue of his 500 series strobe DashMiser. Is there a serial number on it? Maybe Whelen could tell from that? Otherwise I think you are sol. I'm not sure what Whelen will do about the teal head. They are a great company and want to help you out [i've sat in the repair lobby and experienced it first hand] but they're a business and can't afford to do everything for free. Never hurts to ask though.


As for the feedback... I had a pair of the Sound Off Hide-a-way LEDs [the lighthouse looking kind] that fed into my stereo. I guess it was a well known problem. I called up Sound Off and they sent me ferrous beads to wrap the cables around. After that... no more interference. They weren't ballast LEDs either, but I guess it is still possible to get interference.
 

shues

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
10,276
NW Indiana
Thanks for the info!


Where was the serial number found, before they started including it on the large sticker on the rear?
 

UndercoverVLS

Member
Jun 1, 2010
337
NY
Being a big fan of slimlighters and having dissected them before Sounds like the sticker you have is actually the newer sticker. If its just says Whelen Chester CT, Slimlighter, and then Patent#, i believe that is infact the newer sticker. The older ones from around 07 have all the details on it. Unless Whelen went back to that sticker in the last few months....


As for the optics inside, they have always been separate from the circuit in all TIR6 units.


And I don't believe there are ballast slimlighters. If the light is being used with a cig plug and you are listening closely you will actually hear a "ticking" in sync with the flash pattern coming from the lighter plug. But as far as it messing up pagers and radios, Ive never had that problem with a slimlighter. :?


And Whelen won't change out your Greenish lighthead. At least they didnt for me or others that asked. I believe they stated something about theyre Blue LED batches and it being almost impossible to always have the same shade of blue since the blue spectrum is so big. But however, they say, they always strive to have 1 unit with all the same colored LEDS, and if you have a lighthead with 2 different shades, they will change it. And as of this conference they said they have eliminated the "teal" and are working on getting one shade of blue for all their lights. (im assuming this is the new Avenger lighter blue)
 

shues

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
10,276
NW Indiana
Thank you for the information.


I am thoroughly confused by the sticker that you say is new. We know for a fact that this SlimLighter is at least 3 years old.


Further, I had a TIR-6 SlimLighter that I bought used way back in the summer of 2006 which had the same sticker with no real information on it, and which had the same radio noise problem. It was a truer blue, but the sticker and the noise were present.


It is understandable that there are variances in the shade of blue, that makes a lot of sense. However, this particular SlimLighter is so teal that there could be half a dozen shades between it and a true blue.


Maybe I should call Whelen and ask them. What's the best number to call?
 

UndercoverVLS

Member
Jun 1, 2010
337
NY
Hm, sounds like whelen jumps around with alot of their stuff. I got a slimlighter summer 09 and it had that plain sticker. The only new thing on them now on one i just received was the center piece between the lenses is now a soft jelly rubber instead of plastic with a sticker.
 

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