My all-strobe Edge build thread

ur20v

Member
Feb 3, 2017
571
Northern Virginia
So I'm embarking on building my first light bar after having been collecting emergency lights for nearly 30 years. I bought an ancient rollback truck that I've begun to restore, and decided it needs a special light bar. I recently wound up with a pile of 9M and 9000 Edges and decided that will be starting point. Of course I always end up over-doing things and taking the difficult/challenging route, and this project probably isn't going to be any different!

I'm thinking I'm going to start with my (only) Edge Ultra bar as the foundation. The frame is significantly wider than all my other 9000s and 9Ms, so I'm hoping it has room for more/larger power supplies if necessary. It's a 9U428000 from 2004 with 12 strobes (6 forward, 4 rearward, 2 duplex alleys), takedowns, alleys, and a pair of rear flashers. Since I don't need takedowns or alleys, I want to replace them and the rear flashers with strobes. I have been hoping to find a pair of twin sidebeam strobes (REPTSSTR) to replace the duplex alleys, but I don't know if I'll get that lucky.

I'm sure I will have plenty of questions and will run into a few problems along the way so I will probably need some help.

I have the first end cap off the Ultra and I'm diving in now... wish me luck!
 

Nolines

Member
Apr 5, 2018
1,678
Margate, FL
As a thought why not put a pair of 400 series over and under LEDs in the rear flasher spot, or use that for your rear work lights that the rollbacks needed. And put the 400s on the alleys!!??
 

ur20v

Member
Feb 3, 2017
571
Northern Virginia
As a thought why not put a pair of 400 series over and under LEDs in the rear flasher spot, or use that for your rear work lights that the rollbacks needed. And put the 400s on the alleys!!??
The truck isn't going into service as a business operation. I collect and restore cars as a hobby, and it will be used to pick up the strays I buy, transport to/from car shows, and haul carcasses to the scrappers. I'm going to keep the truck relatively simple, and the light bar is just for fun and a nod to my other hobby. I have a ton of other bars I could put on the truck, but the Edge was my first love as a kid.

There's some free space in the Edge Ultra, so I think I can get away with a 4th power supply of some sort, depending on the packaging and if I do a little creative rearranging of the wiring passing from front to rear. I could use the AUX to trigger a relay for the 4th power supply and power it separately so I can have some wattage behind the extra strobes... Or maybe adapt a Liberty 2 strobe supply to fit... find a burned out Piercer 2 and scavenge the ps... I have some DashMeisers I could plunder for their innards. We'll see. Obviously the strobes on ps #4 won't sync with the rest of the bar, but that's OK.

Did Whelen ever make a 400 series duplex LED/strobe module? I could mount 6 of them across the rear and use the f/r flasher and flashing takedown outputs for the LEDs...
 

ur20v

Member
Feb 3, 2017
571
Northern Virginia
Over the last week or so I've had sporadic moments of free time and I used them to tear into a few 9Ms and 9000s to figure out how I'm going to build this bar. I was relieved to find out my Ultra Edge has a LC board installed, so that's a good start. My two late 9000s each have a pair of EB6 power supplies, plus harnesses and brackets, making powering the additional strobes simple. Between the originals in the Ultra and those installed in the other 9M bars I have plenty of 400 series linear strobes to fully populate the Ultra with 18 strobe heads. Yhe Ultra frame has enough room to mount the EB6 with 9000 brackets, but I am going to have to do some creative wire arrangement. I'll have to build a custom low current control harness that plugs into the LC board and daisychains to the EB6, but that's a piece of cake for me. I will have to step up the size of the power and ground cables to the bar and do something about power distribution, but I haven't noodled that through yet. One more thing I need to explore with the EB6: seeing as the 9000s had matrix boards with relays, I'm guessing I need to physically switch power to the EB6 on and off manually as there is no serial control, right? I can accomplish that by connecting a relay to the AUX outlet on the Ultra board and controlling power to the EB6 with that (and thoughtful wiring at the control switches).

Depending on what real life has in store for me this weekend, I will try to strip out the halogen harness from the Ultra frame and rearrange the strobe wiring and test fit the EB6 and it's associated cabling. And I just realized I also need to plan out the strobe sequence arrangement to try and coordinate it with the existing strobes... hmmm...

20220204_153742.jpg
 

firebuff17

Member
Mar 28, 2011
774
CT
I'm guessing I need to physically switch power to the EB6 on and off manually as there is no serial control, right?
Correct.

This is going to be a project. But I love it and can’t wait to see the final outcome.
 

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