PaPa-NeGeorgeo

My Feedback: (3)

Hi as ive been looking through a couple adds for eletronics such as on board glow, landing lights, servo slowers, voltmeters etc.. and the prices for these things seem really unresonable. I mean things like blinking lights, onboard glow, servo slowers, and voltmeters are really easy to build the only problem is putting the components on a board. First of all does anyone build there own eletronics and if so what do you use as a board (something like a bread board seems too thick and heavy). I mean lights for $35 US is insane when i could make it for like nearly nothing i just dont know how to make the board.
I just want to see if others have done this,

Thanks alot,

Papa

P.S. This question has nothing to do with what i just said but whats the difference between a normal standard servo and a retract servo. Does one go slower longer more powerful?

JimTrainor

Have you stumbled across this site already? :

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/gadgets/gadgets.htm

A retract servo rotates 180 degrees (or nearly) and is not proportional. It rotates all the way in one direction, or all the way in the other. I'd guess is has higher torque than a standard, and gets the force by giving up speed... I have a futaba one that takes... ohhh say... about 3/4 second to rotate through 180 degrees.

Nitro Blast

My Feedback: (2)

PaPa,
First I'll tell you that a retract servo operates 180 degrees. Most times they are just as strong as usual ones but their 'throw' is much longer.

Now as far as other electronics, I have been very creative and have found that if there is a will, there is a way with lighting systems. I now always keep my eyes out for simple lighting that us more common every day in toys, and even kids shoes. Its amazing when you can get a greeting card in it that has some flashing strobe light that you can add a 9 volt battery to and be amazed at how intense it is. I also found that replacement bulbs for mini-mags are extremely bright, and very cheap. Add one of those to a toy flasher, and bingo you have a strobe.

Industrial supply houses have many small IC's for lighting, power and more.. Its very easy to add a sound chip, on board glow and the like if you are into doing it yourself.

PaPa-NeGeorgeo

My Feedback: (3)

First of all thanks for the site its great.
As for eletronic prices getting some LEDs capacitors ICs etc.. dont cost much at all and do the same job retail systems do. A couple LEDs a capacitor and NAND gate easily make a simple yet effective lighting system. That could be made for like $4. I jsut find its a rip off when other companies charge you like i said $35.
Anyways thanks alot ill take a good look at the site,

Papa

chuck_zc

http://www.ncws.com/rcrock/electron.htm

Great site for R/C electronics projects. Radio Shack is also a geat place for componants. Look for the LM3909 LED flasher/oscillator IC. Just add a 3volt power source and a 300 microfarad cap to make your own marker lights. Radio Shack also sells a blinking LED but it requires a 12v source to operate. Do some searches on the web, there's a lot of circuits out there for nicad chargers, LED voltmeters, battery dischargers etc..

PaPa-NeGeorgeo

My Feedback: (3)

Do you think i could just connect all the components solder them together and just lock them up in a case and have a couple wires running out. Its not much of a board but at least its nothing important jsut some landing lights and glow.
About the battery can normal alkaline batteries be used or does it need to be Nicad/Nimh. The reason why i would prefer a normal battery compared to the nicad is the size/wieght, and money. But if all the electrical components (expet the servos) run of the same nicad battery it shouldn't be too bad. What kind of batteries do you guys use for your lighting system?

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Additionaly to the posters above the purpose of a servo slow down device is to slow down the landing gear retraction cycle to look more scale when a retract servo is used.

Concerning lights be careful there are lights for extra scale or 'cool' points on scale airplanes and there are systems for actually flying at night. Be careful, for example its a very bad idea on an airplane actually intended for night flight flight to use flashing, blinking or winking lights as well as cabin lights. Did I say bad idea, no its a receipe for disaster. One of the best systems for true night flight is bright incandesent orientation lights color coded on the three corners i.e. Red left wingtip blue or green right wingtip and white on the tail. These should be on stand offs to minimise structural blocking in various attitudes. The very best setup from an operational point of view is to suppliment this with a glow wire system. Which is a wire instaled internally in the fuselage and the wings and then the after fuse and wing is covered with transparent Film preferably in the same color as the glow wire, the best is yellow.

The airplane fuselage and wing will glow with an yellowish glow that can be seen at any normal distance and the orientation color coded incandesents will provide you with almost daytime orientation. I make up my own removable orientation lights out of taillight bulbs with internal wires and power them with an RC car pack and 15 feet of glow wire is powered with a 9 volt battery that lasts for hours. The glow wire system is the best thing that ever happened to the sport of night RC flight and at about 35 dollars worth every penny. www.glowire.com.

The airplane in my Avitar is equiped for true night flying with both the orientation and glowire lighting. Thats why the yellow aft clear film cover on the fusealage and wings. Night flight is truly a euphoric experiance.

John

Almost forgot switchable landing lights is another vertigo inducer and a poor idea.

Nitro Blast

My Feedback: (2)

I once built a Ace 4-120 and used the PVC leading edge as a perfect light socket..

Anyway I bought a Kavan lighting strobe system...
FLASHBULB BRIGHT! Super bad idea as it left me temporarily night blinded due to the intensity of the flash.... I never flew it at night and sold it because I figured it was a disaster waiting to happen.

PaPa-NeGeorgeo

My Feedback: (3)

O so thats why its so expensive i only wanted it for the 'cool' scale effect i didn't know people actually flew at night i should look into this.
Thanks

Eaglewatch

The cost of "commercial" light systems (and many other onboard electronics) is due more to the convenience provided by an assembled and tested system, rather than the actual cost of components. What you essentially are paying "extra" for is the labor necessary to assemble, wire, test, and package the system. I recall that Jomar used to offer the schematics and parts lists for all of their designs, as well as selling the units themselves. This gave the do-it-yourself guys the correct information for free (or the cost of a magazine copy), and also gave others the option of getting a system in a "near-ready-to-install" state in return for paying for the company's labor, parts, and a small profit. I think that's a pretty good deal for all concerned.

Regards,

Al
[email protected]

Lynx

You don't need a board if you don't want one, and with lighting systems and simple electronics there's no need, the parts can be connected directly by soldering and covered with electrical tape, if you want to get fancy find a nice little box that's small enough and glue the parts inside. If you want to make boards you can buy coppered PCB's etchant masking materials and sealant at radio shack. But that's only if you want to make them look really nice, or intend to produce them in any number as the chemicals and board are a little expensive for single shot runs. If you get into more advanced electronics you'd be surprised what you can make, radio shack has a myriad number of simple CMOS chips available that can do everything from help generating servo signals to controlling micro relays for doing just about anything your heart desires. Just gotta be willing to learn, and not be intimidated by 3 inch thick books <G>

PaPa-NeGeorgeo

My Feedback: (3)

What exactly is a CMOS chip? How much does it cost?

chuck_zc

The term CMOS refers to the physical make-up of the chip in question. It stands for Complementry Metal Oxide Semiconductor. Earlier IC's were refered to as TTL(transistor-transistor logic). Don't let the term CMOS confuse you. This type of chip was designed to have lowe power consumption than the regular TTL chips on the market. The only draw-backwith CMOS is that it is more prone to damage caused by static dischage thus special precautions must be used when handling these kind of devices.

Eaglewatch

CMOS definition (info below taken from: www.webopedia.com )
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CMOS is an abbreviation for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor.

CMOS is a widely used type of semiconductor. CMOS semiconductors use both NMOS (negative polarity) and PMOS (positive polarity) circuits. Since only one of the circuit types is on at any given time, CMOS chips require less power than chips using just one type of transistor. This makes them particularly attractive for use in battery-powered devices, such as portable computers. Personal computers also contain a small amount of battery-powered CMOS memory to hold the date, time, and system setup parameters.
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Regards,

Al
[email protected]