FireBeam Conversion...

EMT-BLS

New Member
Oct 28, 2011
2,640
Waterbury, CT
I have been thinking about putting a red Feniex Cannon inside a FireBeam housing, and using it as a dash/throw light in my second car. I am planning on just removing the halogen bulb, and attaching the Cannon to the mirror to completely capture all the light output and direct forward. My plan is to continue to allow the mirror to spin, and the Cannon will (obviously) spin with it. I haven't yet decided if I want the Cannon to flash or not...if I leave it on steady-burn, I can only use half the LEDs on the Cannon...but if I set it to flash, I'm worried I may end up with having a rotation where the light didn't blink, and no light was put out. Also, how would I wire up the Cannon to receive power? I've seen some threads about previous conversions, but I haven't seen one done where the mirror and LED actually rotated.
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
the bulb doesnt rotate..... the reflector rotates around the bulb....


eat more bacon you'd know that.


run the wire down the shaft where the bulb is and youll have to fab a bracket for the cannon to sit on (or "glue" it on) and make sure the shaft spins freely...
 

EMT-BLS

New Member
Oct 28, 2011
2,640
Waterbury, CT
EMT-BLS said:
My plan is to continue to allow the mirror to spin

Jarred J. said:
the bulb doesnt rotate..... the reflector rotates around the bulb....
eat more bacon you'd know that.
See how bacon isn't the answer?

Jarred J. said:
un the wire down the shaft where the bulb is and youll have to fab a bracket for the cannon to sit on (or "glue" it on) and make sure the shaft spins freely...
So I could get a L bracket, and drill a hole so that it fits on the shaft for the mirror, and then the mirror can still spin....Hmm...sounds do-able.
 

JPolston

Member
Mar 27, 2012
512
Indiana, USA
EMT-BLS said:
I am planning on just removing the halogen bulb, and attaching the Cannon to the mirror to completely capture all the light output and direct forward. My plan is to continue to allow the mirror to spin, and the Cannon will (obviously) spin with it. .

Mmmm bacon. But this is what he was referring to. There is NO way you'll be able to attach the Cannon to the mirror due the it's the mirror that spins around the light, and the light is stationary. How he recommended doing it would be the best way of doing said project. You can't attach the Cannon to the mirror because it will twist the wiring.
 

EMT-BLS

New Member
Oct 28, 2011
2,640
Waterbury, CT
JPolston said:
Mmmm bacon. But this is what he was referring to. There is NO way you'll be able to attach the Cannon to the mirror due the it's the mirror that spins around the light, and the light is stationary. How he recommended doing it would be the best way of doing said project. You can't attach the Cannon to the mirror because it will twist the wiring.

The wiring is the only hiccup in an otherwise solid plan...I have no reason to mount the Cannon in the middle, because then the whole mirror is deemed pointless. It'd just be facing forward.
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
if your really wanting to put the cannon in the mirror and have it rotate WITH the reflector then you would need to


a. devise a way to have power come up through the center post well bulb would have been. wrap a piece of copper wire but have it insulated from base.. other wise sparks will fly since base is grounded.


b. have a solid copper bar with a copper wheel attached to the positive of the led head.


c. repeat same process for a ground.
 

chief1562

Member
Mar 18, 2011
5,840
Slaterville/NY
Or you could just replace the bulb with a Chinese led bulb from Ebay job done. :haha:
 

Abacus

Member
May 24, 2010
432
Sydney Australia
Better still just rip out all the guts of the old firebeam and let it become a 2013 Federal firebeam flashball. I bet that would be pretty unique. I tried something similar on a SVP rotator with TIR3s dual stacked on a custom bracket. Slow flash pattern wonderful !
 

chief1562

Member
Mar 18, 2011
5,840
Slaterville/NY
strobecrazy said:
Is there a way you can make it oscillating? And mount the cannon from behind?

EX:


Well that was just

boring.jpg
 

dmathieu

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 20, 2010
8,766
S.W. New Hampshire, USA
Instead of an Oscilaser retrofit, why not just find a MagnaBeam. It's basically the same light as the FireBeam, but has a whole lot better directional light output. Federal advertised it as having 3X the light output as the rotator.

 

JPolston

Member
Mar 27, 2012
512
Indiana, USA
I don't see why putting it in the middle wouldn't work. It would be replacing the bulb with an LED, then letting it work just like how it did, just be brighter.. Of course you could get something like the Code3 Hide-a-blast or something of the like and place it in the center on steadyburn. There are much easier ways to do it.
 

Quickstep80

Member
May 30, 2012
149
Europe
JPolston said:
I don't see why putting it in the middle wouldn't work.
I suppose that the best light output can be achieved by having the Cannon facing the mirror constantly. As the FireBeam bulb is designed to be stationary, there would be only one single position where all the light would be directed to the reflector and amplified then. A Cannon is totally different to a halogen bulb which emits light in a 360° angle. A LAW won't, it needs a powerful reflector, otherwise will just work as a directional light.
 

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