Building my own light system for the Super Cub

[daurkin]

I've been looking at the photos of night flying and it looks cool. I've seen videos on YouTube of self-built night lights for the Super Cub and it gave me inspiration. I thought about getting the button LED lights or x-port add-on but they just didn't seem to be as custom and integrated in to the plane as much as I want. So I've been using the LED Formula Wizard (http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz), this forum, and a couple trips to Radio Shack to get an idea of how to get started.

Here's my build log for others that want to build their own Super Cub dusk/night flying system.

[daurkin]

I've started by using a 9v battery, two LEDs (7000mcd, 30 degree, 25mA, 3.3v) from Radio Shack $1 each, and one resistor (100ohm .5w), telephone wire, and tape.

I just realized that I mounted all 5 of my planed resistors in to my mounting board and didn't calculate if all my circuits are going to need the same resistors. I know all my whites will be fine, but my colored lights may be different.

[daurkin]

Heading to Radio Shack again to get two more LED's (one for the back hollow section of fuse and one for the front near the motor. Also looking for some small quick connect connectors so that they are not permanently attached to the wing. I'll have to order the colored lights from online so that I have a better selection.

[daurkin]

Added on the two fuselage lights. One stuck in to the hole that was drilled for the motor wiring. The other is taped to the ceiling of the hollow tail section. These two light really do the trick for lighting up the other sections that the lights from the wing miss.

I'm getting better with the soldering iron and picked up some heat shrink to wrap up the exposed areas. At this point I confirmed I will need to remove those resistors I pre-planed as it is difficult to find colored lights running on the same voltage and current. Plus I need to figure out if I want a blinking tail light, and colored wing lights. I can wait to fly it.

I'm getting a little tired from working on the iron, I do need to go back and pick up some of the slack. I don't want to have a wire get in the way of the servos in that main receiver compartment.

Any advice before I break something is always welcomed....

[daurkin]

Took it up for a first flight with the light. It looked awesome. Fully lit and could see it from a good distance. It was so cool that as it was getting dark, I could see the plane, but forgot where the trees were. My first flight ended up landing about 20' up in a tree and me scraping my hands from climbing the tree.

I tried to take photos. It's tough to take photos with a cell phone and fly the plane and take it at night period. But here's what I got, you can see it sort of.