Hyperdyne Labs - Night Flying LED Kit

Hyperdyne Labs - Night Flying LED Kit
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All Forums >> Radios, Batteries, Clubhouse and more >> User Product Reviews >> Hyperdyne Labs - Night Flying LED Kit

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Hyperdyne Labs - Night Flying LED Kit - 12/20/2007 12:14:14 AM

SackOHammers

Posts: 335
Joined: 7/9/2007
From: Austin, TX, USA
Status: offline

This product is available here:
http://www.hyperdynelabs.com/products_RC_superCubNight.php

Due to the time shift this fall, I was disappointed that I could no longer fly my planes after work. It got dark out. This puts a big dent in my available flight time.
I noticed that Hyperdyne made a post awhile back in the ParkFlyer's thread about creating a light system that will work with my Hobby Zone Super Cub. When they became available I snatched up one from his first production run. Man, am I glad I did!

This kit plugs right into the Xport on the Super Cub and provides great lighting for night flying. This is far superior to the Hobby Zone branded light kit.
*For those not flying the Super Cub, I believe he has a version that runs off of a servo lead as well.

If you look at the manufacturer website you can see plenty of photos and videos of it in action. I won't post my own action shots as the ones on that site show everything. The lights are bright, and thoughtfully placed to optimize visibility during flight. Much thought was placed in selecting colors, placement, and programming to make it easy for people to determine orientation, even while flying aerobatics.... as much as a Super Cub can fly aerobatics, heh.

As you can see in the pictures below, the kit comes complete with LEDs (12 single LEDs, plus a cluster of LEDs for the headlight), ribbon wires, wiring harnesses, controller board, and detailed instructions in PDF form on the included CD.

After installing and flying this kit... the thing that sticks most in my mind about the kit is the quality of the instructions. They were very well done. There are nice, large pictures detailing every step along the way. There is a picture showing each and every LED, where and how it should be soldered together. There are pictures detailing how to solder the wiring together. LED placement is very well covered as well. At the end of the manual there is a large section, complete with pictures and diagrams, showing you how to use the lights to determine orientation in flight. It only took a few moments of me driving my plane in the driveway for me to become completely confident. I drove to a middle school nearbye... there was zero wind. I was a little giddy and a little nervous. Honestly, I had a huge grin from ear to ear as I quickly stuffed the plane into my car and headed to the school.

I flew it with a 9-cell 1000mah NiMH battery first. Its very easy to modify the cub to take this battery. Just cut the back support for the battery box out and then cut some foam away to make room for that 9th cell. WOW, this plane flies so well with a 9 cell. I put the battery in and turned on the lights. A mischeivous grin grew across my face. I slammed it into full throttle and did an ROG. I flew several slow circles to get used to determining orientation. Then I did some figure 8's. Folks, I'm pretty colorblind... one of the worse cases. When it was in the air I couldn't really tell the Yellow from the Green. It didn't matter. I could tell orientation by focusing on the very bright red clusters at the wingtips. This told me a lot about what the plane was doing... then I was able to use the tail-lights vs the headlight to see if it was coming or going away. The tail lights flash red (above) and blue (below). The headlight is a wonderfully bright cluster of white LEDs. Its actually more like a mini-flashlight. I could see it lighting up the ground a bit when I came in for a landing.

For the second flight I put in an 8-cell 1000mah NiMH battery. It flew great. Just as expected. I got more confident and performed several stunts... stalls, loops, and all sorts of crazy things. I didn't have a hard time keeping orientation. Landing was great. I had that white nose cluster looking at me and the red wingtips let me know exactly what the wings were doing. It came in nice and sweet.

There are several modes for the lights. You cycle through the modes by tapping the Xport button on your transmitter. Easy as pie. There are different light patterns to try. You can select the one that you like best. There are also a number of value-add type features. For example, there is an Xport passthrough mode so that you can still use your Xport devices while the light kit is installed. Can you say night-time sonic combat!? Whoot.

There are safety features as well. The default mode for the lights is "off". When you apply power you will see the lights are off. When you turn the lights on, the setting is saved to the chip on the controller. This is important because if you glitch and temporarily lose power during a flight, you want the lights to come on when power is restored. I can verify that this safety feature works. On one of my flights I had a loose battery connection that glitched me for less than a second a few times during the flight. As designed, when power was restored, the lights were "on".
Likewise, the Xport passthrough state is also saved to memory.

Folks, this kit is great. It does require you to do a bit of soldering. I won't lie, it took me a couple hours. WELL worth it in my opinion. I can fly during the week now! Yay. This is a superior kit... and working with Hyperdyne was great. He was prompt with shipping and very quick with communication. He should be proud of this kit.

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