[sm=50_50.gif] Guys,

I recently installed a red flashing LED from Radioshack ([link=http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2117837&cp=&sr=1&origkw=blinki ng+led&kw=blinking+led&parentPage=search]cat#276-312[/link]) on the tail boom of my CX2, plugged into the "Batt" port on the receiver. It works beautifully, and flashes at a nice rate. I wired in a 100ohm resistor inline of the positive lead, and have had no problems out of this guy. I'm pretty sure none of this lighting follows any sort of FAA navigation guidelines BTW.

Anyways, so I decided to go ahead and add the EasyLights white search lights to the bird. So, I plugged them into the controllable "Gear" channel and placed them inside the canopy nose. They work beautifully in conjunction with the red tail LED, however, if I leave them powered on continuously I only get about 5minutes out of a full, fresh battery. This is down from about 10 minutes when I only run the rear tail LED.

Shouldn't I be getting more than 5 mins? This is just tooling around in the living room, no heavy flying. I know it's nothing mechanical or motor related because as I said, with only the rear flashing LED I get a full 10 minutes. Is it the combination of BOTH LED's that's draining my juice?

It's also worth mentioning that I ran a basic single white LED with inline 100ohm resistor to the front of the bird in place of the EasyLights and still only got around 5 minutes. That tells me it's nothing specifically wrong with the EasyLights.

Here's a short YouTube clip of my setup where you can see both LED's installed and get an idea of what I'm talking about:

[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZCcGf0tFeY]Blade CX2 with LED's[/link]

Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks and take care,

Derek

Just a stab in the dark here, but it may be due to it having to use the signal line to keep the lights on.

I could be totally wrong, but you might try a Y connector off the batt port on the RX.

mosiris,

I think I follow you, what you're suggesting is the EasyLights holding the signal line open on that channel? Whereas normally a servo would only send signal at the milliseconds it was used to control something, these are drawing power by holding open the signal line the entire duration?

That does make sense...although, they are designed to allow them to be controlled- as far as turning them on and off via the 5th channel on the CX2's transmitter. That will be my first test though....we'll see once I'm home. Thanks.

Derek

That's what I was thinking, but like I said , a stab in the dark., but sounds good on paper


Let us know if it works !




-- Mike

The easy lights should be drawing main power from the supply pin on the receiver, not the signal pin. The signal pin is only used to switch them on and off, not power them.
But bright white LED's like those ( "EasyLights each have a pair of ultra bright 10,000mcd white LEDs." ) will suck down a lot more current than ordinary LED's.

What I may do as well is simply de-solder one of the two easylights and see if that adds any significant runtime. Don't really suppose I need two high output LED's up there as it's strictly cosmetic anyway and not like I'm actually flying over the roofs of the neighborhood seeking escaped convicts

If the LED's are in parallel, you should be able to simply remove one which will cut the current nearly in half and get you almost 2 1/2 minutes of flight time back (based on your estimate of them decreasing your flight time by 5 minutes). But they might be in series in which case I think you're SOL.

You know, the spec for those lights says it only draws 80 mA. That's not very much compared to the current draw of the motor and now that I think about it, probably shouldn't cut your flight time in half.

Sorry for the late reply guys, daughter was sick last night and today.

I ran another test with ONLY the EasyLights running (no tail light LED), and this time got around 7 minutes. Still not the 10 I get with either only the tail light LED or no LED's at all, but it's better than 5 minutes.

Not sure what the issue might be....maybe those that have these installed don't run them on continuously? Maybe only use them for landing and take off or something so they haven't really timed them?

Realistically, they don't need to be on full time anyway, but I'm still curious as to why such a decrease in flight time. Hmmm....


Derek


A quick edit.... it seems to be the combination of running both the tail light AND the EasyLights that is cutting the time down to 5 minutes...still, I know plenty of people run LEDs and I haven't heard complaints of losing this much time.

Those are probably Cree or Luxeon LEDs. They can draw up an 1000ma of power EACH! Your best bet is going to reduce down the amperage draw of your search lights. They will get dimmer, but it's a trade off. Do you want lumens or head speed?