Unilight System
 

I thought It would be good to write a few lines on the Unilight system I have bought for my Airworld F104.

The system I have purchased consists of the 8 channel controller, 4 nav lights, 2 strobes, 1 flashing beacon and 3 landing lights. I also purchased the afterburner ring and its dedicated controller.

Ulrich at unilight has been most helpful and replies almost immediately to emails, even if they contain daft questions.

The 8 channel controller is excellent and will cover most applications a modeller will want.( there will always be a configuration that an individual comes up with that the controller will not do). The programming is simple but unfortunately can only be done from Windows,(mac not supported). Programming the controller is easy and the best way to learn is to have a play with it and see what happens. You can quickly pass hours coming up with different effects. If you get a problem you can just reset and start again. One feature I like is the bar graph display as it depicts the light sequence. Once you have generated a programme you can save it on your PC,which allows you to play and generate more programmes and load which ever one you want to use.

The afterburner ring is excellent and with the diffuser it removes the appearance of a series of lights in a circle.

A couple of things to note, these lights do get hot and are protected by thermal cut outs, and you need to wear sunglasses when working with them in the work shop.

I have not fitted them to the model yet, but I have had them out side in bright sunlight and you can definitely see these.
If you are looking for lights for your model these are

I if you have any questions on these lights email Ulrich at [email protected] he will certainly answer your emails. Or visit the web site http://www.unilight.at/

Finally I have no ties to unilight, I just thought I would let other modellers know what they are like if you were thinking about buying a set.

Paul

LED for dummys
 

I came across a few planes that had Unilights installed in them and was very impressed with what I saw. I have been having a issue with being able to see my 12'/3.7M glider at about 1300'. It has totally vanished for several seconds at a time. The thin airfoil also goes into stealth mode below the tree line during landings and I have decided to install two clear, LED strobes (one on bottom of each wing) .

Ordered a few pieces from DreamWorks to do some bench testing. They were out of the clear LED but I purchased a Red to play around with, make pattern for wing cut out, etc. I choose what Unilight advertised as their most powerful strobe, capable of 20W, 900 lumens in clear, the Unilight Profile Light Ultra and their 4 channel controller, and a Pulse 2S 850mah 30C battery. Within 2 minutes I had the system up and running, plugged into one of my spare rx's. All the connectors so far, fit without having to do any soldering. The strobe is strobeing and Im impressed with how bright this red flash is in my work shop during the daytime. Can't wait to see what the clears will do.

A few stumbling blocks out of the gate. This is my first lighting install. With a rx, controller, battery, LED that all need to be connected together, there is no mention of how +/-/S might line up. I took the controller outside in the bright sun and did find the pins identified on the bottom of unit, at each pin. Very, very small but they are all identified. Once you see it, you'll not forget what to look for in the future.

Controller ?: I plugged red LED in to channe1. When I add a LED, can it just plug into channel 2 and both strobes work together? I'm looking for the easiest way to hook up this two "clear" light system where the pair work together, no matter which mode I select (single flash, double flash etc.)

2S/3S operation: for my needs, am I cutting these strobes short by using 2S? Space is limited in my glider fuse but I can get a 3S in there if the benefits are worth the effort.

Are these the PRO24F-200-RT and PRO24F-200-WE? If so the product page on the website says:

However I would double check the info that came supplied with your lights.

You can get Y-Leads if you want a simple way to wire 2 lights into the beacon channel of the 4 channel controller (or you can make one yourself).

http://www.unilight.at/shop/eu/addon/cables/y-cable.php

Paul, thanks for the info.

Question: did you also get the lenses for the 104 from unilight, or you had to make them yourself ?

Jack

Yes, those are the lights I am using. I saw the Y connector listed on Unilights website. So, I guess from your answer, there is no way to program the controller for 2 of the 4 channels to work like a single beacon? My shop does not have anything this small so I'll give my LHS a try before throwing in the towel for the unilight Y.

The picture below shows the 4 different channels (nominally called Anti-Collision, Navigation, Beacon and Landing) and the flash patterns available. The various patterns are selected by varying the ATV (travel) of the input channel into the controller. The 4 channel controller is not 'programmable' in the traditional sense; you can only vary the flash pattern to one of those in the picture. You can therefore see that there isn't a flash pattern that will flash 2 different channels, at the same time, in the way that you want.

The 2 options available to achieve your desired result are to either Y both lights into one channel (with either the Unilight Y-lead or by making one up yourself) or by using the 8-channel controller, which is fully programmable with a PC.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2105297

Thanks! Just the level of detail I was looking for and needed :) really looking forward to installing this system.

Hi and sorry for the late reply, we try to help on threats like that as well but not looking in here each day. First many thanks for the good feedback, we try the best to get the perfect solution for each aircraft. So if any questions you can simply contact us at [email protected] as well, usually get a faster reply :D

siclick33 is completely right, the big white strobe is for 3S/12V operation. And yes, the 4-channel controller is pre-programmed with its functions, two lights simply connect parallel on a channel to have the same function. It's because all lights can directly operated on a battery as well, parallel connection is possible. And there is a small, cheap but powerfull 1-channel controller coming for exactly such gliders and sport applications. Not sure if I'm allowed to post more information here...

@Jack: The lights for the F-104 comes usually with caps and lenses. But they are clear to allow the most power as possible - coloring them is possible but you will loose ~20% brightness. And these caps are injected moulded PC parts, so some of them are good usable, some are maybe not perfectly suitable when your scale effort is really high. But I think a scale-modellers know how to improove that ;). In case of the F-104 its quite simple, a plain round piece of plastic is used. Usually we can help with such special demands as well when you contact us...


g. Ulrich

Ulrich, thanks a lot for the reply.
I will contact you with specific details.

Great products !

Ulrich,

Thanks for the info. Good to hear there are new products coming for gliders. Several of my friends are interested.

Hey Jack - are you doing a 104...? I am just finishing my lights using Ulrich's system. I picked the unit up at the JWM last year and about to install. Ulrich uploaded the 104 program for me which was great. I've made my own lens making some molds and doing them on a small vac form machine if brought from Micromark for around $100. Mold took an hour and moldings maybe 10mins. Planning a new set at the moment with the small circle details in the lens. Then of course there's getting the right cols sorted for the 104 - a bit tricky. A few shots of the lens and the machine.Can do u a set and throw them in the post if you like. Smaller ones required for the Tip tanks.http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2144304http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2144305http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2144306

I have to join in on all the positive comments, the Unilight system is simply outstanding!
(I have had some discussion with a "un named US based lightcontroller inventor" that insisted that a blower was needed on his cigar-box sized controller, nice to see someone that knows how to design electronics the proper way ;))

The lights are very clever made, and B R I G H T !! Wear sunglasses when working with these (seriously!), they are the brightest I have ever seen!
The controllers are very very clever made with the way you "program" them, the smaller ones are dead-simple to use, and the larger using USB. Outstanding!

I bought a good bag full of lights for some of my models on JetPower. I also told the guys were the nice looking BMW Futura on their boxes come from, my hangar ;) Original picture attached (just to be clear, I have absolutely nothing against Unilight using the picture, I think it is cool :cool:)

tobba, how did you get on with the micromark vac forming machine? I was thinking of trying one of those for my lenses.

If anyone in the UK is thinking of trying these lights then I am currently running a special offer for sets that I have in stock.

what type of machine is this a mini vacuum form?

Cool little unit - works flawlessly.

Yes a mini vac machine. Used primarily in the dental industry I believe.

Thanks a lot Toba for your offer.
I'm doing a SM F-104 german camo. Beautiful kit !
I already got the light lenses from Details4Scale. They are pretty good.
Great molding machine btw.. I'm ordering one :)

Does anyone know if the unilights will work w/o a unilight controller?

The LEDs are 'just' LEDs (albeit very nice ones); they don't need a controller to work.

Beware of the heat they produce though. The controllers are good as they allow you to turn them on just before flight (where the cooling is generally better) and turn them off straight afterwards. They also allow the more powerful LEDs to blink which also reduces the amount of heat they produce.

A simple RC switch can also work but uniLIGHT also have tiny 1 and 2 channel controllers available for simple installations.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2179918

With the supplied resisters to use for 3S; do they go on the black wire or the red/orange wire. For example the NAV/ with Becon light. The single black wire has a resister on it already so do I put another one in it as well and then one on the other black or red/orange wire? Please help.

Thank you

Joe

Connect the resistor to either the black or the red/orange wire, makes no difference.

Okay awesome. Do I still need to add another one to the single black wire that already has one? The light pack came with two resisters. O and does it matter which direction the rings goes (Color?)

The resistor that is already mounted is so you can use 2S directly. If you need to use 3S, you have to mount the extra resistor (in either the black OR the red/orange wire), the "already mounted" resistor in the wire must stay there regardless if you are running 2S or 3S (only mount the extra resistor when using 3S)

Okay Thanks. I was just wondering because they came with two extra resisters in a little sealed bag with each light and I will be using 3S .

Then you need to check with Unilight, the ones I have/is using, only had 1 extra resistor to use if running on 3S !!