S&W model L-31D

[Southern5]

Hello Folks, I found these lights at a yard sale. From what I can figure out, S&W didn't make them, it just has their tag on it. It seems that they have been retro fitted to have halogen strobes instead of rotators (not for sure though). Can anyone give me some specifics about them? I would like to put some rotators back in them. I guess I need to know what I'm looking for before I can start trying to find them.

 

[dmathieu]

These were strobes, made by Dietz, and rebadged as S&W.
These are Strobe lights, not "Halogen strobes". There is No such thing.
Do not change a thing, these were not altered.
If you make a mistake and hook these up wrong, you will quickly fry them.

 

[Southern5]

Thanks for the info. Can you give me any info on hooking them up? Do I need anything besides whats container in the cans themselves?

 

[Mndlm]

Fire them up!!

 

[dmathieu]

I assume red/pos, black/neg, but that's just an educated guess. Use strobe safety procedures, or you'll get zapped big time!

 

[cmb56]

@Southern5
As you have already been advised, this is a strobe light.
That means it uses high Voltage to operate. The two capacitors inside holds a very high amount of energy and is extremely dangerous when loaded.
The light is originally, as already mentioned, a Dietz 7-430.
It is a single flash light with about 10 Joules of flash energy.
It is a straight forward light with only two cables, one +12V and one -12V.
Usually + is red and - is black.

This light is in my opinion a bright light.
You will find that the blue is more visible than the red one because that flash tubes emits more blue light than red light in the white spectrum and that give more light through a blue lens than a red one.

Michael

 

[cmb56]

By the way, the outer fresnel lens should have a guiding pin that goes into the hole in the upper surface of the base.
If this pin is broken the lens will not focus correctly if installed wrongly.
This lens has focused fresnel bars that direct most of the light to the front and rear.

Michael

 

[Southern5]

So finally got back around to fooling with these lights. When I hook them up to power I hear a high pitched squealing noise. I only keep power on for about 2-3 seconds. Not sure if that was normal. I don’t get any light.... any ideas where to start troubleshooting?

 

[Southern5]

These were strobes, made by Dietz, and rebadged as S&W.
These are Strobe lights, not "Halogen strobes". There is No such thing.
Do not change a thing, these were not altered.
If you make a mistake and hook these up wrong, you will quickly fry them.

Which component fries? I’m not getting any light from these, only a high pitched squeal when power is initially supplied.

 

[dmathieu]

Unknown, first thing to try is a new strobe tube.

 

[Aaron W]

I only mention this because it occurs to me that LEDs have now been around long enough that there are people who have never been around strobes. If you are not one of these people disregard.


High power strobe units, like those used in warning light have a high pitched whine while they charge. This is then followed by the strobe discharge / flash. 2-3 seconds seems kind of long, but it is possible that you are not giving them time to fully charge and then discharge flashing the light.

I know diddly about the inner working of strobes, only familiar from a user / switch flipper perspective.


I have always been partial to rotators, but do find myself missing the whine, zip-zap sound of strobe units.

 

[Aaron W]

Neat light by the way, and not one I'm the least bit familiar with. I'm guessing late 1970s as that is when S&W become interested in marketing their own line of (rebadged) emergency lights.

 

[cmb56]

Actually their own line came in around 1978-79.
The rebadge line was earlier.
They used lights from Yankee and Dietz.

Michael

 

[Southern5]

Actually their own line came in around 1978-79.
The rebadge line was earlier.
They used lights from Yankee and Dietz.

Michael

Thanks for the info, These are stamped 79

 

[Southern5]

Unknown, first thing to try is a new strobe tube.

Thanks for your information. I used what y’all told me along with some info from the web and turns out I just wasn’t getting enough power to them. They are working now!

 

[dmathieu]

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[coop359]

Video?

 

[stansdds]

Wow! Those are Dietz strobes on a Dietz bar. I wouldn't do anything to that except to clean it. These are pretty rare items, even rarer to be an all original bar and marked as S&W. Smith & Wesson never made any of their own bars, speakers, lights, or sirens. All of the S&W branded warning equipment was made by Signal Stat, Dietz, and I think maybe even SVP and a few products may have been Federal Signal, then labeled first as Stephenson, then later S&W.