How do you hook up LED strip LED Lights on airplanes. HELP!<o></o> <o></o> 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></o>
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></o>
My questions are based on two types of airplanes...Electric with various voltage batteries and Gas/glow 4.8 or 6 volt batteries.<o></o>
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></o> <o></o>
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></o>
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></o>
I would like to operate the lights from the transmitter’s unused channels.<o></o>
If you have a plan that works well for you, I would really appreciate the details.<o></o>
Any pictures, drawings and plain English descriptions in as complete of detail as possible would be greatly appreciated.<o></o>
Thanks in advance for any help as I know of at least a half a dozen flyers who are interested.<o></o>
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></o>
<o> My night flying experience:</o>
Tom<o></o>
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></o>
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></o>