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Posts: 1511
Joined: 12/3/2005 From: Atlanta,
GA, USA Status: offline
Wiring Your Lights
I found this important info on the FlightLites website. It is important because if twisting the wires is not done, the pulse frequency of a strobe LED could interfere with your receiver and possibly crash your helo.
".......RC modelers are always concerned about glitches - stray signals that can interfere with the normal operation of your receiver and servos. For various reasons and under specific circumstances, a pulsed LED could theoretically induce an unwanted signal into the radio system. Twisting the wires effectively cancels out this interference and provides peace of mind to the modeler. It also makes the wires easier to route within the airframe."
< Message edited by Sky High -- 1/8/2006 10:11:54 PM >
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Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead! Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!
Posts: 1511
Joined: 12/3/2005 From: Atlanta,
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I spoke to the owner of Flight Lites and I will definitely be getting a custom LED harness for my helo. The strobes are true strobes and not just quick on/off blinks like alot of other companies that claim they have LED strobes. His light systems are controlled with a custom board soon to be end user customizable by PC. It currently allows up to 5 different lighting sequences assigning solids and strobes to single or multiple fixtures and in various orders of firing. Absolutely bad ass!! Thanks for that link Kuzer!
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Joined: 12/29/2005 From: Victoria, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
I have just made my own nav light system made from 4 hi intensity LED's a couple of resistors and some black drinking straw.
They are very bright and run of the main boards 5v regulated supply. They draw about 40mA in total which will only affect total flight time by a matter of seconds as the whole setup only weighs a few grams. I went for 2 white LED's facing forwards and 2 red LED's facing backwards. I know this is not normal for nav lights, but being a driver, my brain finds it easier orientate the DF with vehicle style coloured lights. (otherwise I am thinking port is ermm...red which is ...erm...left....no right..so that means the df is going...erm......down...bugger)
The obvious disadvantage of running of the main board is if you loose power and your DF goes down in the dark, then the lights wont help you find your baby. If any one is interested in more details, just let me know. (I would post full instructions here, but certain members would rip off my design and go into mass production and sell them on E-bay, as seems to have happened with my rotor blades)
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Joined: 12/3/2005 From: Atlanta,
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Caladin
The obvious disadvantage of running of the main board is if you loose power and your DF goes down in the dark, then the lights wont help you find your baby.
I can tell you first hand about that! If my lights had been powered by the board in the incident below, I never would have found it because the fuse popped from the rotors being jammed in the limbs and cut all power to the board.
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Joined: 12/3/2005 From: Atlanta,
GA, USA Status: offline
Thanks for that link Hunter. That is really cool and could be very useful. I am still getting 13-15 minutes of continuous flight but have had some close calls shortly after my alarm goes off. A visual warning would be that much better than just the alarm on my phone.
My Flight Lites will be here tomorrow and I'll post the results.
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Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead! Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!
Posts: 1511
Joined: 12/3/2005 From: Atlanta,
GA, USA Status: offline
I just got my Flight Lites kit today! I flew with them this evening and they are kick ass! The solids are very similar to my original keychain LEDs as far as brightness and the strobes are very realistic! Not like the simulated strobe I was using that had two blink patterns instead of pulsing. They look just like real helo and plane strobes and the current controller has 5 different sequence profiles to choose from. Jeff Swayze at Flight Lites said there is another version to be available soon with around 20 or so profiles to choose from. Then later on this year a pro controller where we, the end users, can create our own custom profiles with our PCs. Another high intensity landing light controller will be released soon as well. The kit comes with a controller and 5 lights of any color of solids or strobes that you choose. Each light is custom made and terminated with a two pole micro plug. The kit is only $44 including postage and the delivery time was only 2 days! My keychain LEDs cost me $140! But, they are high quality LEDs with switches and served their purpose well until I found out about this kit. Now one switch turns on all of the new lights and no more $20 (5 x $4/2 pack) Energizer button cell batteries to power the others!
Important!: Unless you have an independent 5v power supply, you will need to get the multipin to 3 pin adapter from DFI in order to power the LED controller from the board. DFI will send one at no charge only if you request it. If you do have an independent power supply and it exceeds 5v, you will also need to order the Flight Lites voltage regulator or provide your own. If you're ordering this kit for your DF, you will also need to request custom wire lengths of at least 12" per LED. If you don't, you will get the standard 36" lengths and have 10 extra feet, that's right, 10 feet of wire to manage and carry onboard. My DF was his first application with this particular helo and by shortening the wire lengths, it saved 4.5g of weight!
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Joined: 6/18/2005 From: Bakersfield,
CA, USA Status: offline
How much drain will this system draw from my batteries? I have a 2700 Mah receiver battery so I was wondering if this will cause too much draw and end up in a compromising position. I plan on using just a landing light and maybe a couple of strobes and I won't use them during the whole flight. Mainly on take off and landing. Will it still cause a problem?
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Joined: 12/3/2005 From: Atlanta,
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What do you fly Nitrodan73? It doesn't matter but I just wanted to know if you had a DF. Anyway, the Flight Lites LEDs only pull 25 mA per LED at 5v global, so with a 2700 mAh battery you're not going to even feel that draw. I use 1320 mAh packs and haven't noticed any falloff in power. However, I am having some custom harnesses made that will have at least 3 LEDs per array and with increased intensity, maybe 50 mA per LED, with as much as 8 arrays. I'm already taking power from the helo with the video camera and transmitter so the more powerful and number of arrays will change things with the power requirement and I don't want to take away from the helo power with that kind of draw. I am looking at a seperate power source for that system. I'm going to use 4-6 lipoly button cells in series.
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Joined: 12/3/2005 From: Atlanta,
GA, USA Status: offline
Flight Lites also has UV LEDs. Now this ought to be interesting to paint the underside of the rotors with phosphorescent paint and point one UV LED for each rotor up under them. The light from the LEDs that I have now illuminate or shimmer off of the underside my rotors mostly because they are laminated.
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Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead! Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!
Posts: 58
Joined: 1/8/2006 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Status: offline
Good Show Sky! Looks cool! Any problems with videos and the NAV lights? What would you say is the total weight of the NAV lights setup is? Can you control the lights with the remote controller?
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Draganflyer Navigation Lighting Systems - 
RE: Draganflyer Navigation Lighting Systems - 
Thanks for that link Kuzer! 
But, they are high quality LEDs with switches and served their purpose well until I found out about this kit. Now one switch turns on all of the new lights and no more $20 (5 x $4/2 pack) Energizer button cell batteries to power the others! 
