RCU Forums - Night Flyer Lights. Glow gas and electric?

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Night Flyer Lights. Glow gas and electric?

How do you hook up LED strip LED Lights on airplanes. HELP!<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>
Talking about this with a bunch of guys has me really confused. Lots of complicated ideas and some interesting "Be careful you don't do this or that etc....."
I have searched the net for hours and came up with lots of videos of night flyers, but very little usefull "How to hook-em-up" information.If you have successfully done this, your replies will be greatly appreciated. Also:I am not really interested in purchasing $150 light kits.<o:p></o:p>I have some strip LED lights from Hobby King (12 volt) and am wondering what set-ups you guys may have found for hooking them up to you planes that work well!<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>My questions are based on two types of airplanes...Electric with various voltage batteries and Gas/glow 4.8 or 6 volt batteries.<o:p></o:p>Is using a really high MAH battery that is running the receiver and servos a really a bad idea?
The lights themselves last for over a week without turning them off on the 4 AA battery pack that I have used in the past.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>On a glow or gas airplane with a 5-cell 6 volt NiCad is there a way to hook the lights to the flap and or gear switches without a lot of issues other than additional battery draw?
I can make the simple connector to do that, but I really don’t want to lose control of the plane and hurt someone, nor do I want to “blow-up” a $150.00 2.4 receiver trying it out. <o:p></o:p>On electric airplanes do I need to hook up to 3 cell pack receiver packs or will the lower voltage 2 and 1 cell packs still light the lights.<o:p></o:p>
I would like to operate the lights from the transmitter’s unused channels.<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>If you have a plan that works well for you, I would really appreciate the details.<o:p></o:p>Any pictures, drawings and plain English descriptions in as complete of detail as possible would be greatly appreciated.<o:p></o:p>
Thanks in advance for any help as I know of at least a half a dozen flyers who are interested.<o:p></o:p>I will post a link to this site for my club's next "Night Flyer event" and maybe more guys will join in the fun.<o:p></o:p><o:p>
My night flying experience:</o:p>Tom<o:p></o:p>

Many years ago we would fly our planes at night using "Glow" sticks.
While they worked quite well, they were/are expensive and a real pain to hook on to a plane.
Every night we had to purchase new Glow sticks. Boy is that “Old School”!<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>A few years ago I bought some LED Christmas Lights that ran off a 4-cell AA battery pack.
The bulbs were big and the wires were very heavy/thick and really made the airfoil foul up.
Lots of Clear tape over thewires and lights allowed it to lift, but not well.
I recently strippedthose lightsoff my trainer type night flyer and re-covered the plane.
I’m getting ready to start with the LED’s. (I did not want the lights inside the wing.) <o:p></o:p>

RE: Night Flyer Lights. Glow gas and electric?

Hi Buckmeister,
I think you will get more information and help from this group: http://www.rcgroups.com/night-flying-522/
You can buy ready made lights or LED light strips from places like Hobby King, their prices are reasonable. A decent soldering iron and a DMM are useful for designing your own lighting system, plus it doesn't hurt to have a friend with some electronics experience. Places like Dimension Engineering have ready-made landing lights that just plug into the receiver; they even have programmable lights and RC relays if you want to get crazy! Have fun!

RE: Night Flyer Lights. Glow gas and electric?

Quote:

ORIGINAL: Buckmeister

How do you hook up LED strip LED Lights on airplanes.

Easy. Supply them with ~ 12V.

Is using a really high MAH battery that is running the receiver and servos a really a bad idea?

Yes and no. The LED's will illuminate at ~5V but not very bright. If you can calculate the current draw of the LED's and figure out how much you're pulling from you battery, then pulling from the Rx battery is fine. I have a Hitec Aroura 9 with telemetry that tells me my Rx batter voltage and I can set a low voltage alarm for extra peace of mind.

On electric airplanes do I need to hook up to 3 cell pack receiver packs or will the lower voltage 2 and 1 cell packs still light the lights.

More voltage, the brighter the light.

Me and some friends have been night flying our electric powered gliders, tapping into the 3 cell Lipo. We use a BRUSHED ESC to act as a dimmer/ on off switch.

We bought our strip lights off ebay for ~$15 for a 5 meter roll.

RE: Night Flyer Lights. Glow gas and electric?

Thanks for the reference

I've gone through all the post on that sight and the only useful info has been a link to a specific hook-up to a 3-cell lipo for an electric plane.
Lots of the post are about 4 years old or older with little to no information
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...9c8c237035eb46

The link is really good for that application. How about 4.8 volts, & 6 volt or 18 volt set ups?

Also interested if others have totally different set up.

Quote:

ORIGINAL: CanDo

Hi Buckmeister,
I think you will get more information and help from this group: http://www.rcgroups.com/night-flying-522/
You can buy ready made lights or LED light strips from places like Hobby King, their prices are reasonable. A decent soldering iron and a DMM are useful for designing your own lighting system, plus it doesn't hurt to have a friend with some electronics experience. Places like Dimension Engineering have ready-made landing lights that just plug into the receiver; they even have programmable lights and RC relays if you want to get crazy! Have fun!

RE: Night Flyer Lights. Glow gas and electric?

Hello Jeff.
looks good, I'll play with this a bit.

ANY OTHER WAYS THATWORK TO SET UP LIGHTS FOR NIGHT FLYING ARE WELCOME

Hopefully get a lot of info with lots of details for lighting systems that work and don't cost an arm and a leg.

Has anyone done the lights off a 6 volt receiver battery set up- with 12 volt LEDs????

PS please send any "paid for" hook-up kits as I'm sure some readers would have interest in those as well.
Tom