On May 15, using information kindly provided by CPF Member PolarLi, I began searching for an AEG XSW 30 U German Leopard 1 Tank light. On May 16, I hit pay dirt. A company in Germany had a fully functioning light, Control Box, Remote Controller, all cables and a power supply for sale. I excitedly emailed them and got the reply that "they cannot sell to an individual, only a company". Not to be deterred, I emailed back that I have a company name and would that do? They said yes and so began the long process of getting the light here. It took about 8 weeks for the company to obtain an export license. Then another week for actual shipping and finally, another two weeks to hire a Customs Broker to take the shipment through Customs and deliver it to my door. And wouldn't you know it, the day that the package arrived, I had to make a short trip to Utah so I wasn't able to "play" until this last Thursday night.
The light itself is 14" x 14" x 22" long and it is quite a bit heavier than the VSS-3a. It has electrically opening shielding doors on the front, electrically open and closable half-circle IR filter doors that pivot over the clear glass front window from inside the case and the light is two-position focusable. There is a re circulation cooling fan in the light but no outside cooling air is used. No heat exchanger which is surprising. I would guess that the relatively low power level of 450 Watts coupled with a large volume, high mass, heavy-weight case allows for only recirculated air to be enough. So far, after a 25 minute run, the fan has not stayed on after the run. It sure is scary turning off the light after a long run and not hearing a cooling fan at work. I keep waiting to hear the "explosion". The reflector is about 11" in diameter. The coating on the reflector is also in excellent condition. The light utilizes a Retro-Reflector to reflect forward shining light back into the main reflector. There is a total of 4 slide out handles – two pivot-out handles in the back and two slide-out handles on the bottom. The light is in excellent condition with some normal use scuff marks in the paint. No dings, no dents, no damage of any kind. The only issue I have noted is that the Light-to-Controller cable connection at the controller has a loose pin fit so it has to be wiggled a bit for the connection to be made. I may look into new connectors.
The controller box/ballast is also quite heavy and contains a DC to DC Converter to provide regulated current to the lamp regardless of input Voltage which ranges from 23.5 to 30 Volts. There are no easy access Voltage measurement points on the input or output so measuring actual input and output power of this particular light will have to wait until I can rig up something. I did measure 29 Input Amps and the unloaded Power Supply Voltage was right at 27. If I use those figures for total Input power, then she's consuming about 785 Watts. That is right In-Line with the maximum and minimum Watts power consumption I listed below in the Technical Specs. With a DC to DC converter being used to regulate the light, an overhead of 350 Watts to run all the other "stuff" seems pretty inefficient to me. The controller/ballast also contains resettable circuit breakers and the front shielding doors open/close toggle switch. This unit is also in excellent condition.
The Remote Control contains the "System On" toggle, Pilot light for "Visible Light" , "Lamp On" toggle and pilot light, Tight and Wide focus toggle and pilot light and the IR/Visible protected toggle switch. The white plastic has yellowed and I'm hoping it will clean up. The panel faceplate is in very good condition. The cable sheathing is not original, too short and looks like someone may have re-wired it at some point. All the toggle switches are very firm in their action.
The power supply looks to be a military unit that came from some other source as the light was originally powered by the tanks' electrical system. It's a 24 Volt/1200 Watt unit powered from 230 VAC, 50/60 Hz. A cooling fan was retrofitted into the side of the case in sort of a Mickey Mouse fashion. It is in average condition overall. EDIT: I no longer use this power supply. It was not providing sufficient power to achieve 1st or second strike ignition. Sometimes, I could not ignite the lamp after a dozen strikes.
ADDED
Technical Specs/Information:
Light Intensity - 30,000,000 cp in Spot Mode, 5,000,000 cp in Spread Beam
Light Beam Angle: 1.2 degrees in Spot Mode, 1.8 degrees in Spread Beam
Power Consumption: 24 VDC - 700 Watts Max, 29.5VDC - 950 Watts Max
Lamp Wattage: 450 Watts
Observed Performance:
The beam and spot produced by this light is phenomenal! Think "Maxabeam" but on Super Steroids. The beam is tighter than my VSS-3a, which up until now, was my tightest beam Heavy Iron light. The pics below show the flood beam and then the spot beam. Both are 1.07-mile/1885 Yard shots of the top of a hill. I would guess the beam hotspot is about 50-70 feet in diameter at the 1.07 mile distance. When I fired it up and shone it on the target, I was really amazed at the brightness, clarity and definition of the spot on the hill. I snapped some shots and then decided to toggle to "flood". Was I ever surprised to find that I was already in "flood". (I don't read German) So…..I toggled to "spot" and….. Holy Moley….Maxabeam on Steroids! It was difficult to believe what I was seeing. As with the Maxabeam spot at long distances, I could not make out what was being illuminated because the spot is too tiny but I have zero doubt that if I was up there with the "Times" in my hand, I could easily read it.
The amount of light on the hill in this video is quite a bit less than what I actually saw thru my Ziess Binoculars. The pic below is a much better representation.
A 12X zoom shot: The amount of light on the peak 1.07 Mi distant is very representative of what I actually saw thru my 7X Ziess binoculars but the beam itself is too bright.
A medium Zoom shot
Another No Zoom shot
This is not my image but shows the reflector and lamp mounting system. Tthe front dome shaped item is a retro-reflector. The image was taken by Frederik on the Militarfahrzeugforum Forum.
The light itself is 14" x 14" x 22" long and it is quite a bit heavier than the VSS-3a. It has electrically opening shielding doors on the front, electrically open and closable half-circle IR filter doors that pivot over the clear glass front window from inside the case and the light is two-position focusable. There is a re circulation cooling fan in the light but no outside cooling air is used. No heat exchanger which is surprising. I would guess that the relatively low power level of 450 Watts coupled with a large volume, high mass, heavy-weight case allows for only recirculated air to be enough. So far, after a 25 minute run, the fan has not stayed on after the run. It sure is scary turning off the light after a long run and not hearing a cooling fan at work. I keep waiting to hear the "explosion". The reflector is about 11" in diameter. The coating on the reflector is also in excellent condition. The light utilizes a Retro-Reflector to reflect forward shining light back into the main reflector. There is a total of 4 slide out handles – two pivot-out handles in the back and two slide-out handles on the bottom. The light is in excellent condition with some normal use scuff marks in the paint. No dings, no dents, no damage of any kind. The only issue I have noted is that the Light-to-Controller cable connection at the controller has a loose pin fit so it has to be wiggled a bit for the connection to be made. I may look into new connectors.
The controller box/ballast is also quite heavy and contains a DC to DC Converter to provide regulated current to the lamp regardless of input Voltage which ranges from 23.5 to 30 Volts. There are no easy access Voltage measurement points on the input or output so measuring actual input and output power of this particular light will have to wait until I can rig up something. I did measure 29 Input Amps and the unloaded Power Supply Voltage was right at 27. If I use those figures for total Input power, then she's consuming about 785 Watts. That is right In-Line with the maximum and minimum Watts power consumption I listed below in the Technical Specs. With a DC to DC converter being used to regulate the light, an overhead of 350 Watts to run all the other "stuff" seems pretty inefficient to me. The controller/ballast also contains resettable circuit breakers and the front shielding doors open/close toggle switch. This unit is also in excellent condition.
The Remote Control contains the "System On" toggle, Pilot light for "Visible Light" , "Lamp On" toggle and pilot light, Tight and Wide focus toggle and pilot light and the IR/Visible protected toggle switch. The white plastic has yellowed and I'm hoping it will clean up. The panel faceplate is in very good condition. The cable sheathing is not original, too short and looks like someone may have re-wired it at some point. All the toggle switches are very firm in their action.
The power supply looks to be a military unit that came from some other source as the light was originally powered by the tanks' electrical system. It's a 24 Volt/1200 Watt unit powered from 230 VAC, 50/60 Hz. A cooling fan was retrofitted into the side of the case in sort of a Mickey Mouse fashion. It is in average condition overall. EDIT: I no longer use this power supply. It was not providing sufficient power to achieve 1st or second strike ignition. Sometimes, I could not ignite the lamp after a dozen strikes.
ADDED
Technical Specs/Information:
Light Intensity - 30,000,000 cp in Spot Mode, 5,000,000 cp in Spread Beam
Light Beam Angle: 1.2 degrees in Spot Mode, 1.8 degrees in Spread Beam
Power Consumption: 24 VDC - 700 Watts Max, 29.5VDC - 950 Watts Max
Lamp Wattage: 450 Watts
Observed Performance:
The beam and spot produced by this light is phenomenal! Think "Maxabeam" but on Super Steroids. The beam is tighter than my VSS-3a, which up until now, was my tightest beam Heavy Iron light. The pics below show the flood beam and then the spot beam. Both are 1.07-mile/1885 Yard shots of the top of a hill. I would guess the beam hotspot is about 50-70 feet in diameter at the 1.07 mile distance. When I fired it up and shone it on the target, I was really amazed at the brightness, clarity and definition of the spot on the hill. I snapped some shots and then decided to toggle to "flood". Was I ever surprised to find that I was already in "flood". (I don't read German) So…..I toggled to "spot" and….. Holy Moley….Maxabeam on Steroids! It was difficult to believe what I was seeing. As with the Maxabeam spot at long distances, I could not make out what was being illuminated because the spot is too tiny but I have zero doubt that if I was up there with the "Times" in my hand, I could easily read it.
The amount of light on the hill in this video is quite a bit less than what I actually saw thru my Ziess Binoculars. The pic below is a much better representation.
A 12X zoom shot: The amount of light on the peak 1.07 Mi distant is very representative of what I actually saw thru my 7X Ziess binoculars but the beam itself is too bright.
A medium Zoom shot
Another No Zoom shot
This is not my image but shows the reflector and lamp mounting system. Tthe front dome shaped item is a retro-reflector. The image was taken by Frederik on the Militarfahrzeugforum Forum.
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