Quadra Flash

Skulldigger

Member
Aug 23, 2015
1,739
Georgia / USA
I haven' t found a new beacon in a while so today I broke my streak. Picked up this practically new, Tripp Lite QF-1, Quadra Flash. Actually a pretty cool little light. I need some advice on how to hook up the flasher. It didn't come with one. I hooked up a Sig Stat 537 and it worked great but it got hot. X to 12 input, L to the black wire and P to the green wire. It has a great flash rate. Kinda of a wig wag front and rear, then side to side. The flasher should not get hot should it?

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ex416

Member
Apr 28, 2011
1,021
West Central Wisconsin
i picked up a near NOS one of those a few months back. it came wired externally with (2) 540 flashers. to have every thing enclosed within the lens i wired in a small half sized wagner 537 flasher. seems to work fine, but didn't check to see if the flasher got hot. mine appears to have the same bulbs as yours, but noticed that they didn't have any numbers stenciled on the back. do your bulbs have any numbers on them or do you know what bulb number they may be?
 

Skulldigger

Member
Aug 23, 2015
1,739
Georgia / USA
Is Tripp Lite still around? I was wondering if this is new or old. I found a Tri-LIte site with this still for sale, for about $240 by the way. I spent $24 so I think I got a good deal either way.
 
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cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
Tripp-Lite become an independent company when cut off from Trippe Mfg. Co. in about 1988 and changed name to Tri-Lite.
So, yes, they is still around.
Give them a call to see what flasher they recommend.
I saw these light live on a highway in Montana once and they are bright and quite effective.

Michael
 
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MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
According to the instruction page (dated 1967) that came with mine, the default configuration was four 4503 wide beam lamps and two 540 flashers, flashing the front/rear and left/right pairs independently. Options were 4416 spot lamps and 12S heavy-duty flashers.
 

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MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
And, Skulldigger, could you tell me or show a pic of where the lamp ground wires are connected? I think mine was incorrectly reassembled at some pint.
 

Skulldigger

Member
Aug 23, 2015
1,739
Georgia / USA
And, Skulldigger, could you tell me or show a pic of where the lamp ground wires are connected? I think mine was incorrectly reassembled at some pint.


I don't think this picture is easy to follow. But the Green wire comes in and pigtails into two red wires going to 2 bulbs. We will say F/R. The black one comes in and does the same thing going the the L/R bulbs. All of the pig tails are red whether off of the green or black wire going to the bulbs. There are two pig tail wires off a grounding screw in the base that goes to each bulb and they are green. No ground wire coming out, it grounds through the base. This seems factory even the bulbs.

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MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
I don't think this picture is easy to follow. But the Green wire comes in and pigtails into two red wires going to 2 bulbs. We will say F/R. The black one comes in and does the same thing going the the L/R bulbs. All of the pig tails are red whether off of the green or black wire going to the bulbs. There are two pig tail wires off a grounding screw in the base that goes to each bulb and they are green. No ground wire coming out, it grounds through the base. This seems factory even the bulbs.

Thanks, that helps! Mine had the ground wires attached between the top lamp holders, which didn't seem right and made assembly rather challenging.
 

cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
Skulldigger, if you look att your sealed beams you can see the SAE-approval number that say 83 that tells us that the light have been made after 1983.

It is also interesting to know the change of the sealed beam type since 1967 to the mid 80s from 4503 to 4415.

Michael
 

MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
My Quadra Flash is now wired correctly and I'm having way too much fun with this basic beacon. I tried a few 537 flashers, which worked, but with a lot of variability in the flash rate and dwell time. Next, I tried several combinations of independent thermal flashers until I found a closely-matched pair that created a neat pseudo-random sync/alternating pattern.

Coming up, I'm going to try a simulated rotating pattern, using one of my custom flasher circuits. And how about a CA spec variant, with steady red to the front and a left-rear-right-rear sweep pattern?
 

Skulldigger

Member
Aug 23, 2015
1,739
Georgia / USA
Very cool. Let me know which flasher works best for you. I have a 537 but like I said it gets very hot. Oh and video, don't forget video.
 

CrownVic97

Member
May 21, 2010
3,350
Hazen, ND
My Quadra Flash is now wired correctly and I'm having way too much fun with this basic beacon. I tried a few 537 flashers, which worked, but with a lot of variability in the flash rate and dwell time. Next, I tried several combinations of independent thermal flashers until I found a closely-matched pair that created a neat pseudo-random sync/alternating pattern.

Coming up, I'm going to try a simulated rotating pattern, using one of my custom flasher circuits. And how about a CA spec variant, with steady red to the front and a left-rear-right-rear sweep pattern?

If I had one of these, every bulb would be on a Wagner 552 flasher to make it flash as random as it could get!
 
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ex416

Member
Apr 28, 2011
1,021
West Central Wisconsin
i picked up a near NOS one a while back. hooked up a short can 537 flasher, which was small enough to fit inside and simplified the appearance.
 
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