post your night flyer pics here

[foam and tape]

:cool: looks like we finnaly got the forum :)

[Darth_Elevator]

I currently have three functional nightflyers in my fleet. A Slow Stick, a geobat-like flying saucer called the "Light Emitting Disc" (LED), and a Glostik.

[StephanB]

Hi,
at this years inter-ex event we had a nightflying-session. Pilots were wearing caps with small illuminated models of models, so that the audience was able to match the pilot with the model.
http://static.rcgroups.com/forums/attachments/1/5/8/1/1/a1463154-30-Inter-Ex07_238.jpg
Yes, we are a little bit crazy. :D
more:
http://www.inter-ex.com/english/interex22/nachtflug01.htm
http://www.inter-ex.com/english/iexoverview1.htm
Stephan
edit: i do not know, why the picture does not show up. Please click the first link.

[Captain Speedy]

This is cool !


What lights / system are you guys using ? They seem to be very bright.


CS

[warhead_71]

Nerds!

I love it :)

[Atom1025]

This is a Ritewing FS48 built to slope.

[eran_k]

Well, congrats on the new forum.
here is my night flyer, it only flew once during daytime to test. i guess it will be after the winter when our nught flying group re-joins.
Eran

[StephanB]

Eran,
that illuminated wing is beautiful. Please tell us more about structure of wing and lighting system.
Thanks.
Stephan

[ColinB]

Here's mine: GWS Beaver, LED's mounted in drinking straws. Running off 6 or 8 cell nimh motor battery. It is not a clean install - wires and lights just taped on for quick removal. But it works great, and I can fly in pitch dark. The landing lights light the runway when I am several feet above.
Colin

[eran_k]

Eran,
that illuminated wing is beautiful. Please tell us more about structure of wing and lighting system.
Thanks.
Stephan

First of all thanks for the compliment, Stephan.

This plane is a very simple 3ch trainer sold here and is called bannana. it's originaly designed for a 1/2A Cox engine. i'm using the 400XT on it.

the light are super bright LED'S that i mounted inside each wing bay,one facing foraward and the next fcaing back, i hope it's clear from the picture of the wing before covering.
for wiring i used "magnet wire" and i made three Bus bars one negative in the midlle and a positive bus at the LE and one at the TE.
each LED is solderd to it's own Resistor and they are all connected in paralel.
on each wing tip i stuck two special wide angle LED's just to make sure left and right will be easily visible from any direction.
the tail is ilimuminated by 6 LED's each two inside a drinking straw and attached on the tips of the stabilizes.
at the front i added (this is not on the pictures) one white super led on each side, sligtly facing downward, to aid in landing.
the whole system is powerd by a small old TP730 3S battery, the system is seperated from the rest of the plane electronics.


Hope it's clear
Eran

[jasmine2501]

My Slow Stick with Lights. Here's a short video too, before I added the lights on the edges.
http://www.smoothjazzy.com/video/SlowStickAtNight_0001.wmv

[Lee]

Christmas lights

[rcproptester]

Lee, that is insane... :)
How hard is it to keep up with?

[Lee]

The 36" Roswell Delta and 36" Pinata are fast but easy to fly. I've flown this style of plane for so many years that isn't a big deal. They will both do vertical performance. You just have to watch out for trees and spectators wandering the flying area.

For those of you still to scared to try flying at night...... Night flying isn't harder than day flying if you know your plane and your flying site. I was very anxious the first time I went out in the night but it was great even with faster planes. The plane flies the same in the dark as in the light so as long as you can see your plane well and you know your flying site you will do just fine.

Fly your plane in the light and get it trimmed in with your light system up and running before you try night flying. A trial run also is a good way to make sure you don't have any loose connections. If your light system fails in the dark it's impossible to land the plane and can be hard to find the plane once it's down. In the video I have a small light stick on each plane in case such an occurrence happens but they were not needed. The Christmas lights worked great.

This video doesn't show much background but the Christmas lights are bright enough to fly in the city against city lights which is not true for the glow sticks. Each plane has 10x 12V lights wired directly to my 3S 1320 TP/PL battery in parallel. If one light gets smashed or burns out the rest of the lights will say on. Each plane only has $2 of lights including the wiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0tVjrEMfEE&eurl=http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=766806

[Pudknocker71]

I keep waiting for Chuck Mangione to start playing. Nice background music. ;)

Flying is not bad either. :p

[rcproptester]

This is totally off topic, but until 6 months ago, I thought Chuck Mangione was a character in "King of the Hill" only :)

[jasmine2501]

This is totally off topic, but until 6 months ago, I thought Chuck Mangione was a character in "King of the Hill" only :)

:D Funny... he was kinda popular when I was younger...

[Darth_Elevator]

Just replaced all the magnet wire on my lights with the small wire from a phone cord. While I was at it, I decided to put on some brighter lights and change the color scheme. Before and after pics below. New light system AUW (including solder, resistors, wire and LEDs) weighs 0.95 ounces; old system was 0.75 ounces.

[dalbert02]

Here are a couple...
-dave

[Pudknocker71]

Herr Cloud Ranger....LEDs? Looks like luminus wire in the wings. More detail please!

That is by far the best lookin plane yet!

[dalbert02]

Thanks. I got a little carried away typing LED LED LED... You are correct, the blue one is glow wire. I think LEDs are better as glow wire introduces some noise and can cause glitches, LEDs are noise free. Nothing really specially about them, just wired the wires through the wings and then covered them. I used the thinnnest magnet wire they sold at radio shack and put a resistor on each LED. They are all wired in parallel off a 5v Dimension Engineering BEC seperate from the Rx/ESC's BEC. Here is a video:

http://www.bijouxdesigns.com/video/night%20flight_final.wmv

The other one uses Ultra Violette LEDs pointed at the airframe that was painted with flourescent paint. Also powered by a seperate BEC.


-dave

PS I think Eran's is the best so far, I'm really diggin' the checkerboard effect!

[foam and tape]

oooooo, dalbert02 those are pretty i especially like the UV LED one :cool:

[Diggs]

Thanks. I got a little carried away typing LED LED LED... You are correct, the blue one is glow wire. I think LEDs are better as glow wire introduces some noise and can cause glitches, LEDs are noise free. Nothing really specially about them, just wired the wires through the wings and then covered them. I used the thinnnest magnet wire they sold at radio shack and put a resistor on each LED. They are all wired in parallel off a 5v Dimension Engineering BEC seperate from the Rx/ESC's BEC. Here is a video:

http://www.bijouxdesigns.com/video/night%20flight_final.wmv

The other one uses Ultra Violette LEDs pointed at the airframe that was painted with flourescent paint. Also powered by a seperate BEC.


-dave

PS I think Eran's is the best so far, I'm really diggin' the checkerboard effect!


Dave,

What type of paint did you use? I have been trying to find something either Glo or Flo that is foam safe. Would love something that glows with UV. Also how bright is it? I like how LEDs put out so much light, but curious how well you can see the florescent paint at a distance? Is it brighter than Glow/El wire?


Thanks for any input.
Diggs

[dalbert02]

I airbrush the paint on using water based airbrush paint I bought at Pearls Arts and Crafts. You could probably buy something similar at any art/craft store that sells airbrush equipment. I have not found any foam friendly glow in the dark paint. The glow paint I did buy was very expensive ($25/oz) and not as bright as flourescent paint.
-dave

[MX]

Here's my lighting control board installed on my LightFlite bug. Hope to get some actual flight tomorrow night.

Video is here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=788881#post8771404

MX

[flattermann]

Hi together,

last night ... cold and clear ... moon shining bright...

Have a look to my new night - kite - video

http://www.crazyplanes.de/drache11.wmv

illuminated by 73 LEDs ... flying to the moon . :D :D

flattermann

[Darth_Elevator]

Nice, flatterman. That looks like a good, stable flyer.

[dalbert02]

Yes Flatterman, that is great! I like how slowly she flies, almost hovers. What plane is that? I like it alot.
-dave

[flattermann]

Hi darth, dave:

This stable flying object is a fold-up kite:

[StephanB]

Darth, Dave,
"whiste-blowing mode on:"
Flatterman is the actual holder of the "querdenker-trophy" (lateral thinking trophy), which is the main trophy of the yearly pan-european Inter-Ex event.
"whiste-blowing mode off:" :D
Visit Inter-Ex and have some fun: http://www.inter-ex.com/
Stephan :)

[Pudknocker71]

Here is a picture of what I plan on flying on Christmas Eve (tonight). Kind of Christmassy don't cha think? :)

[Pudknocker71]

Darth, Dave,
"whiste-blowing mode on:"
Flatterman is the actual holder of the "querdenker-trophy" (lateral thinking trophy), which is the main trophy of the yearly pan-european Inter-Ex event.
"whiste-blowing mode off:" :D
Visit Inter-Ex and have some fun: http://www.inter-ex.com/
Stephan :)

That's cools stuff! Need so start a tread on this in a more general area.

It wouldn't translate in english but I could read Bonbon Bomber. Droping candy from a plane. Kids running after the candy. Looks like a lot of fun. Sounds like something we should copy in the US. Maybe send the winner to europe!

[Tommy D]

Did they burry this forum or what? My only gripe!

[Pudknocker71]

Well above is before night flying and here is after night flying. I should have used the other field with a little more light. NEED MORE LEDS!

[myates]

My Night Owl...

[/IMG]

[flattermann]

Hi myates,

How did you realize that glowing owl-shape? Glow-sticks? Neon-tubes :D :D ?
Let us know!

flattermann

[Pudknocker71]

Glow tape I bet.

Update on my Pico. 2 Bad crashes at night. I suck. Ripped out the Lights for now. The CG is messed up with the power system I put in it. I'll adapt the light system to maybe the SS I'm buying this weekend. ;)

[myates]

Howdy Flattermann,

It's called EL wire. I purchased it from http://www.vibelights.com. I used the 2.3 mm pink and lime green. They seem to show up the best, IMO. The lime green I can see fairly well even at dusk.

I cut an owl shape from 5mm Depron foam and fastened it to the fuse with zip ties. The EL wire is then taped to it to hold the shape. Fly's great, even when attacked by dragon fly's, Tinkerbells, and ghosts (lol, other night planes my friends have).

[Pudknocker71]

That was a brilliant idea....Now Clean Your Room! :eek: :D

[flattermann]

Howdy myates,

thanks for information. I found a source in Germany and ordered 6ft. each white and green neon cords and inverters for an acceptable amount. Will use it for illumination of a 3rd, red-black coloured, 3D-vectorized trapezoid kite.

When ready, I gonna post photos and a new video.

Happy New-Year!

flattermann

[StephanB]

Howdy myates,

thanks for information. I found a source in Germany and ordered 6ft. each white and green neon cords and inverters for an acceptable amount. Will use it for illumination of a 3rd, red-black coloured, 3D-vectorized trapezoid kite.

When ready, I gonna post photos and a new video.

Happy New-Year!

flattermann

Happy new year, Flattermann! :)
Where did you buy it in Germany? Please let me know, how bright these lines are. I've seen them earlier, but not as bright as myates ones. So i stood away. Maybe i should give them a try.
Stephan

[flattermann]

Where did you buy it in Germany? Please let me know, how bright these lines are. I've seen them earlier, but not as bright as myates ones. So i stood away. Maybe i should give them a try.
Stephan

Hi together,

I ordered 2 sets of 1,5m EL-WIRE, 2,2mm diameter, one green, one white, total: $ 28.00), at blauertacho4u.de, specialized in LED-illuminations of speedometer-scalas and car-pimping equipment.

After dismanteling and separating the 2 inverters from the Cigar-lighter-plug housings, i glued them together and soldered a 12V LIPO-Connector

There are different inverters available, depending to the total length of the neon cables you use.

The white and the green neon-cable has been mounted on a 180cm wingspan blue-grey trapezoid-kite with 3D-Vectoring. (Servos: HITEC HS65 Metal Gear)

At the head of the motor-mount, I glued 3 RGB-LED-point-lensers, dismanteled from 3 cheap glasfibre-lamps. These LED-lamps change their colour from red over blue to white and green within a 15 seconds turnaround.

The total weight of the illumination including 2 Lipos, controls, LEDs and Neon-Wires is 120g, the total flightweight of the Kite is 470g now.

These LED point-lenses are shining circles of 30cm on the kites topside, 1 right, 1 left, and 1 to the back. The colour changes in a strange way, when looking to the underside of the flying kite. Together with the neaon-wire: remarkable: Have a look.....
(video follows as soon as one of my comrades is willing to accompany me on a cold and rainy and dark evening...) :D :D

After a 1 hour nightflight I can say: recommandable.. :D

Have a look at my short nightflight-video on

http://www.crazyplanes.de/drache13.wmv



flattermann

[warhead_71]

I've thought of taking the fiberoptics strands and stuffing a plug of them into one end of an aluminum shaft, the LED in the other end.

[Rocketman1092]

Here's my Slow Stick night flyer. I flew it at the Night Flight competition at the 2007 NEAT Fair, and won 2nd place. Here's the video: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=776916.

[Darth_Elevator]

Here's my Slow Stick night flyer. I flew it at the Night Flight competition at the 2007 NEAT Fair, and won 2nd place. Here's the video: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=776916.Nice looking flyer. Great video. Congratulations on the win!

[Conehead]

Here are a couple of images of my Flutter-By with the lights I got from Lazertoyz. I can turn the landing lights off and on via the gear switch.

Many thanks to my bride, Susan, for taking these images especially the ones at night. It wasn't very warm that evening.
Conehead
Honor, MI

[jiggiba]

Here is my Acromaster. It's also got a curtek system installed but not on in the pictures. The curtek system lights up the tail group. It actually looks better the further away it gets. It's got insane amount of power(740watts) and is one sweet flying plane. It's got yellow LEDs on top, blue on botom, red on left wing, green on right wing. Curtek lights are red on left top tail group, green on right top tail group, flashing blue on bottom of tail group.

Changes to come, move the three yellow lights in canopy to rear fuse area, add two white LEDs to canopy.

[Diggs]

Nice Acro!! Did you have to drill out the slots for the LEDs? I am about to do a mini mag very similar, but was thinking of pushing the lights all the way through the fuse from the inside. However, I like the glow effect you have. Well done... Looking forward to the pics with the curtek lights, even though I don't know what they are :)

Diggs

[jiggiba]

Diggs, the Acromaster is a little different than the Minimag. The wings are hollow and the fuse is more hollow than the Minimag. I do know that you can still put the LEDs into solid foam and it will have the glow effect. I joke around with my clubmates (all electric field) that I'm going to bring my "glow" plane to the field :D .

[Diggs]

Ah. Didn't realize that.. Cool deal. Take it to the field, I take mine :) When everyone is packing up, I am still flying!

Diggs

[Darth_Elevator]

I joke around with my clubmates (all electric field) that I'm going to bring my "glow" plane to the field :D .Nice pun. I'm going to steal that one and use it if you don't mind.

[edge5foamy]

Here (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=809824) is mine!

[hyperdyne]

Here is my HZ Supercub with a custom light kit. Lights are controlled via the x-port button and have 4 different lighting modes. Lights are very bright and can see them 1500ft away no problem!

If anyone is interested you can get a kit here:
http://www.hyperdynelabs.com/products_RC_superCubNight.php

Here are some pics:
http://www.hyperdynelabs.com/RC/cub_lights1.jpg

http://www.hyperdynelabs.com/RC/cub_lights2.jpg

Here are a couple videos of the lights in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wseY8hfCK8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceZFsC2dHcQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpTBCNuTPSg

[oldkiteman]

Heres my first night flyer.Its a Superfly with 52 ultra bright LEDs.I have now flown it about 15 times,Its not a problem when viewed from underneath,but the leds on top are so bright that you get dazzled by them and can lose orientation.

[Darth_Elevator]

Great nightflyer, oldkiteman. And I love the long exposure shots. Going to have to try that sometime.

[Diggs]

Nice!!! I just bought two SF kits from Graves RC, both very old brushed setups. I know what I am doing with one of them now!! I thought the SF would make a great night flyer. Great pics, thanks for sharing I think :P

Add another project to the pile.

Diggs

[Fish07]

My Slow Stick with Lights. Here's a short video too, before I added the lights on the edges.
http://www.smoothjazzy.com/video/SlowStickAtNight_0001.wmv
Hello ,nice video ,nice model,keep up the good work jazz! ;)

[jasmine2501]

Hello ,nice video ,nice model,keep up the good work jazz! ;)

Hey thanks :)

Did I post this one yet? I added even more lights :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTTj924RoTQ

[sharonx]

Here are some night shots from Israel with Super Zoom (4 drivers on the plane and 7 glow wires).

Video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KzyV2Fo-t8


Super Zoom Glow Wire - Test Flight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LNI-vkIJWY) (3 min 24 sec)

[FXR]

Very cool wing, orientation seems to be easier at night when the lights are setup properly.

[trevormatney]

Here are some pics of my Slo-V with LED's. This is my first ever night flyer, and it's quite fun! The wiring job is kind of sloppy, but I learned some things that will help on the next project. Take care all!

[Darth_Elevator]

Well done, trevor. Welcome to the grand night flying adventure.

[edge5foamy]

Here is my latest night flyer. Although I do fly the plane more in the day, then I do at night.

[golddigger]

This is my first attempt at a nightflying setup. Way cool.

golddigger

[anatoly]

My scratch-built GloStik and UFO, these have been flying for a while. I also made a plug-and-play rx-powered LED setup that I can plug into any of my other planes, but haven't had a chance to fly with it yet.

[mattmc]

Two Boomerang trainers fitted with LEDs for some night flying fun. The bright white lights at the front do a great job lighting up the field when coming in for a landing.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2135/2108737514_981d3c2b98.jpg

More photos at Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fangin/sets/72157603450249821/)

[supertiger]

i havent recovered the wings yet http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/supertigre/th_100_0516.jpg (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/supertigre/100_0516.jpg)
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/supertigre/th_100_0528.jpg (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/supertigre/100_0528.jpg)

[Darth_Elevator]

Is pre-dawn flying techically "night flying"? What do the night flying purists think?

[foam and tape]

Is pre-dawn flying techically "night flying"? What do the night flying purists think?


slap some LED's on there and yeah i guess :confused: :cool:

[Darth_Elevator]

slap some LED's on there and yeah i guess :confused: :cool:It's my regular nightflyer. It has 24 LEDs. But they were turned off. ;)

[foam and tape]

lol, opps didnt see that

[supertiger]

Well it was verry exciting for me. i guess i was getting a little board with normal RC flying. but this brought back the fear and excitment of flying RC airplanes. :D I will try and post a short vidio and picture of the night flight. The camera i used dosnt show just how bright the LEDs were in real life. In real life the plane accually litted up the run way on my landing. Thanks to Darth Elivator for showing that vidio on how to soder up LEDs i was able to wire my plane myself.http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/supertigre/th_100_0692.jpg (http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/supertigre/?action=view&current=100_0692.flv)
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/supertigre/th_100_0695.jpg (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/supertigre/100_0695.jpg)

[Darth_Elevator]

Great setup, Supertiger. Glad to hear you got some of the fear and excitement back.

[omaha_rc_flyer]

Here are a few of mine.

My First night flyer a TR1
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/10/28423385129.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/6853362)http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/11/30723301190.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7019752)

In flight long exposure photos of the TR1 (http://www.putfile.com/album/158537)

TR1.5 (bottom view)
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/11/31915324388.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7107096)http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/11/31915324317.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7107100)


Mini VTO
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/3/7501354227.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7829393)http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/3/7501354245.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7829397)


This is my most recent build (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9411626&postcount=563) for night flying.
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/3/8218574828.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7871113)http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/3/8218574881.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7871115)



Later,
Omaha

[OICU812]

Oh the pains, lets get some Whirly gigs in here, something really cool now!! :D

[Diggs]

Just completed for SEFF! It's a Mini Mag Lite :)

Diggs

[Rockwell]

Just completed for SEFF! It's a Mini Mag Lite :)

Diggs
Looks great - can't wait to see it flying!

Rockwell

[Michael211_2000]

My Falcon 3D night-fly heli. :cool:

I'm not completely satisfied with my glowires just yet (will be splicing in some blue wire on the tail so I can do the horizontal and vertical fins in blue!), but this is what I've been flying from 10pm till midnight almost every night this week out in the yard. Even though I have more work to do on the glowires it's still a total blast to fly with the LED disk of light and all!!! 8-)

Since I currenty have the horizontal fin traced out in the red glowire, I came up short at the vertical fin... but now I've found instructions for soldering and splicing together glowire so I will be unwrapping the tailboom back to the horizontal fin and will splice blue wire in for tracing the fin then return to red glowire till I get to the vertical fin where I'll switch it back to blue... the effect should be awesome! :D

The skid lights are white tubes (lit by an internal white LED light in the end of each tube) and the main rotor disk has 3 different rings of LED color... red on the tip (visible top and bottom), blue about 3/4" in from the tip (visible top only) and green about 2 1/2" in from the tip (visible from below only). This is a 400 sized electric heli (just slightly smaller than a T-Rex 450) and flies for around 12 minutes on a 2100 mah LiPo battery pack. Very peppy too! I can get about 100 feet away in the dark and still maintain perspective well. :rolleyes:

ps. My camera does not even begin to do this machine justice! The LED rings of light in the main rotor disk are absolutely stunning!!! Now if they'd just make LED tailblades for a 400 sized heli it'd be perfect... :rolleyes:

- Michael

[rkopka]

My last nightflyer: flying boat AventuraTwin

If my count is correct it has 100 LEDs at the moment. Some at the tail will be added in the future. No problem with brightness :-) But if the distance gets too far orientation gets difficult. The effect on water is quite nice.

The LEDs at the side are LED strips which are very easy to mount. The wing took some more time. Most LEDs are 2 in series with a resistor at the main battery (3s), Only red uses 3 LEDs in series.

More (http://www.kopka.at/modell_f_nacht.htm#Aventura)

RK

[Darth_Elevator]

I finished building another Glostik last night. May my first Glostik rest in pieces after it nosed in at WOT. Kudos to UAVPilot for a great design and an extremely detailed build log: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=524110. If not for the great build log, I would have never dared tackle the first Glostik build.

[zagimon]

I just got this put together this weekend. The canopy is off, but you can get a good idea of how it looks.

Acromaster
Scorpion 3008-28
Pentium 30amp
castle BEC
Prop?
Xcite 3000 11.1V

I was inspired after seeing work done by fuegodeth on his scratchbuilt

[Darth_Elevator]

That looks sweet, Zagimon. Are the LEDs inside the ailerons?

[zagimon]

That looks sweet, Zagimon. Are the LEDs inside the ailerons?

Yes, The elevones were thick enough to drill out holes across and then to make to channels (use a solder iron) to run the wire down. I can post a pick on the elevons as they are the most time consuming part of this build. The acromaster was perfect for having stripes and the individual cells all can make cool patterns. All LEDs were 5mm and I'm running 9V through the system to get the blinking LEDs to work under the canopy in parallel.

[Diggs]

I just got this put together this weekend. The canopy is off, but you can get a good idea of how it looks.

Acromaster
Scorpion 3008-28
Pentium 30amp
castle BEC
Prop?
Xcite 3000 11.1V

I was inspired after seeing work done by fuegodeth on his scratchbuilt


UGH, you people with these sexy Acromasters!!! Visa loves you folks for making me want one. I must resist for now, but that is a great job on a night flyer!

Diggs

[zagimon]

UGH, you people with these sexy Acromasters!!! Visa loves you folks for making me want one. I must resist for now, but that is a great job on a night flyer!

Diggs

Hey man, I have a magistar also. All great. Nice job on yours also. Very bright night indeed with yours in the sky.

[SHELBY1]

Just another Slo-V. But uses three 555 timers to cycle the red/blue/green LED's so that they can flash on and off at different rates.

[loganz28]

Check out my latest creation. :D

[420RcPilot]

Thought I´d share this with all of you - my homemade night flying FP Moth.

It is a basic moth (200 mm blades) based on HBFP, brushless conversion. Flown on 800 Mah Loong Max 2s 20C

The blades are lit by two 5mm white LEDs powered by a Picooz 50 Mah lipo mounted on top of blade holders. Connections are made with magnet wire, the plugs are "tulip-sockets" - mounts for IC´s. There is a 100 ohm resistor on the hot wire. To turn on or off, simply pull the negative plug. Charging is done with the Picooz TX, again mounted with two of the tiny tulip-sockets.

Of course 3 mm LEDs would be better, but this prototype was made with stuff I had lying around. I will do another set of blades with 3mm leds soon

The body light is powered by a 60 Mah lipo, also from Picooz again with a 100 ohm resistor on hot wire. I put a 60 ohm on the red, to get it to match the green. All LEDs are wired in parallel.

All LEDs are of ultra bright type, the front white one is a 10 MM.

Planning to add red and green to canopy lighting.

I get 45-60 minutes on the blades, about 30 mins on the body light, before charging, which takes max 10 mins.

Total added weight is under 10 grams. It gets a bit sluggish on cyclic - probably because of drag from 5mm LEDs, but otherwise it flies fine and is quite stable.

Enjoy!

Jussi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH_Kvs3OenQ

[scalefreak]

I'm a bit late, as I wanted to share this much earlier. I want to thank all of you guys for all of the great ideas. Here's some info on how I built my setup...168 LED's later!

Here is what I used and where you can get it:

28awg bare copper wire - 1/4 lb. spool = 497 ft. - $5.97
@ McMaster Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/ their part number 8873K26

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5mm Super Bright LED's at roughly .15 cents each

WHITE LED 515MW7C - Wavelenght(nm)-6000~12000K (Typ)Vf-2.8 (Max)Vf-3.4 lv(at 20ma) mcd-12000~15000 Half-intensity-angle-13°~17°
Price:$0.14 each, 250 for $32.40

PURE GREEN LED 510PG2C - Wavelenght(nm)-525 (Typ)Vf-3 (Max)Vf-3.6 lv(at 20ma) mcd-12000~18000 Half-intensity-angle-10°~13°
Price:$0.20 each, 250 for $47.12

BLUE LED 510LB7C - Wavelenght(nm)-460~475 (Typ)Vf-2.8 (Max)Vf-3.4-4000~8000 Half intensity angle-10°~13°
Price:$0.09 each, 250 for $22.58

5mm Super Red 10° 510PR2C - Wavelenght(nm)-624~630, (Typ)Vf-2, (Max)Vf-2.6, lv(at 20ma)mcd-6000~12000, Half intensity angle-10°~13°
Price:$0.20 each, 250 for $48.43

Amber (Yellow) HP Chip Very long life 510PY9C - Wavelenght(nm)-588~594, (Typ)Vf-2, (Max)Vf-2.6, lv(at 20ma)mcd-6000~12000, Half intensity angle-10°~13°
Price:$0.20 each, 250 for $48.43

all from http://www.buy-leds-online.com/
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Voltage Regulator (NECESSARY!)
You can buy a kit here - http://webtronics.stores.yahoo.net/15powsupk1.html

or the DIY guys: you know where to get electroic components :)

(1)LM317 3 pin adjustable voltage regulator - a few bucks at the MOST

(1)5000 ohm pot

(1)240 ohm resistor

(1).1 microfarad cap

(1)1 microfarad cap

(1) light weight heatsink

(1) bottle of finger nail polish (I know you guys are stocked up on this)

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Note* All LED's are wired in Parallel! Due to the variances in the LED's (nope, they're not all the same) I built 2 separate regs and attached them to a common heatsink. The BLUE, WHITE & GREEN LED's all like 3.1 volts. I achieved peak brightness for amperage at this voltage. With 140 of these all wired in parallel it only pulled 110mah. The RED & YELLOW LED's would match the brightness of the others at 2.1 volts, yet drew 228mah. Quite a difference, being that the reds and yellows totaled 28 LEDS. I built 1 reg for the reds and yellows and 1 for the whites, blues & greens. I used a good, accurate volt/amp meter to fine tune the regs, using the 5k pot and locked them down with fingernail polish.

Having whites, blues and greens in the wing I bussed all of my wires in teh center section and used red/black zip chord/wire coming out of the sheeting and used a deans ultra plug to tie the wing led's in with the circuit within the fuse. All of my reds and yellows were in the horizontal and vertical stab, so I used shielded wire to get by all of my fuse leds to tie them in with their reg. The regs/heatsink was mounted under the wing saddle in the fuse floor. Each reg's voltage input was wired in parallel and I used a single deans ultra and 2500mah 2s LiPo to power the group. It would fly for many many hours with this pack without losing a lumen of intensity.

The only part of the Kadet Senior kit that isn't open, stick built construction is the forward section of the fuse. I used a dremel tool to route out grooves on each side and laid Align Glow Wire in them, blue on one side and orange on the other. Originally I was using one Align regulator for both sides, mounted in teh fuse floor beside my led's reg/heatsink, but the brightness wasn't even close to the leds, so I later went to a single Align reg for each side and this doubled the intensity of each strand of glow wire. I made a simple jst parallel harness and use an additional 2500mah 2s pack to power these. Worked nicely!

When deciding on what kind of LEDs I wanted to use I built a few small balsa stick built cubes and covered them with various coverings (i.e. colored translucents, colored opaques, white, clear, etc.) I had initially intended to use all white LED's and use colored translucent covering to achieve diferent colors. That worked with the balsa cube testing, but it wasn't as "Colorful" as I was looking for. The solid white had the effect I was looking for, kind of like a soft white light bulb. The color is in a sense "Soaked" and spread accross the covering as opposed to just passing through it, as it did with the translucents and clear coverings. It also seemed to have much better visibility at greater distances.

I have since lost the airplane. The flight battery became lose at Joe Nall and unplugged itself from the ESC.....NOT TOO GOOD! All is well, though. We are building a MUCH larger airplane with even better flying characteristics for night flying and it has tons of room inside for all sorts of electronic gadgets.

I attached the schematic for the reg in the event that any of this info will be helpful. I spent a lot of time researching different parts and sources for things, so maybe this will save someone the headache doing a similar project.

See ya'

Chris

PS Fred from Higher Plane Productions got a bit of video of this flying at SEFF this year and included it on the SEFF 2008 HPP DVD and is also on his website at http://www.higherplaneproductions.com

[Lee]

For more complete instructions look at the photos on post 17 here:P

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=784718

Many flyers are building their lights into their planes but often I want a set of lights to tape to a plane for that occasional night flight.

I needed a more durable set of lights that wouldn't short out and could take some abuse. The sets shown here meet that criteria.

All speaker wire is not the same. The solid core or single strand wire is so much easier to work with on this project. The multi strands would sometimes separate and were hard to fix once they came apart. I like the 24 gauge, two conductor solid core clear speaker wire from Radio Shack. I smaller gauge wire would do. The heat shrink is a hassle but well worth the effort. These lights can be rolled and twisted together and won't short out.

You can color white LEDs with permanent markers to get a desired color. It seems to work for the desired effect if you can't get the color you want.

All of the sets of lights came with resistors to run them off 12V. They all look the same color and only show their color when they are on. I marked them with the a permanent marker when I took them out of the packages so I could tell them apart while building.

One set Is for a larger plane with 2 X 60" wires with 10 bulbs on each. I built R and L sides and 10 LEDs on each string. I have 4 colored and six white on each side. I used the LEDs listed above. My other set is for a flying wing and I built with 4 X 24" strands of 6. All 6 lights in each strand are the same color with one strand of red, one of blue and two of white.

The lights are amazingly bright, far brighter than the glow wire, glow tape or glow sticks and probably brighter than Christmas lights at their best.

These lights are bright from any direction but do aim like a flashlight. I took them in a 20'x16' family room and they put lights on all 4 walls. These reds and blues are as bright as the whites.

I built them with heavier wire to make them a little more durable. I ended up with some 24g speaker wire that has single strand wires. I cut out all of the extra wire on the resisters and LEDs and only had them about 3/8" apart then heat shrink over the resister and both sides of the wire connections and solder joints on the LEDs. I can roll up the set with the lights on without risk of shorting them out.

I put my 30 W soldering iron in a vise to leave my two hands free to make the mini solder joints. It is much easier and faster than holding the soldering iron. I used flux and pre-tinned the leads so I could keep the soldering time and temperature down while working with such small leads on the resistors and the LEDs since both can be ruined with too much heat.

20 Christmas lights as discussed in other posts, that I used in the past, would weigh 1.8 oz and would require 1.4 A and are more fragile so the LEDs outshine them in most ways.

It was a enjoyable project but with all of the soldering and heat shrink it took me 2-3 hours to solder it all up.

Total weight with the plug, 10' of speaker wire, 20 x 5mm LEDs, 20 resistors and 40 pieces of heat shrink is 1.0 oz. The set uses 0.34 A. I am pleased.

[Darth_Elevator]

Those look great, Lee. Excellent work.

[Lee]

Darth

It was your idea .... I'm the copycat.

Thanks

Lee

[edge5foamy]

Here are a few pics of my 6ft Telemaster Electro!

[scalefreak]

Right on guys!

Lee, did you achieve your colors with markers? If so, that is awesome! Nice work!

[Lee]

Right on guys!

Lee, did you achieve your colors with markers? If so, that is awesome! Nice work!

Not on the examples shown but it works well.

When the lights are off all of the bulbs colors look clear ... until they are painted with the permanent markers. The painted colors are a little dimmer than the colored LEDs, but not much.

I had one plane I even painted the bulbs red on one side and they were clear on the other for visualizing top and bottom. It helped in that case and was something I did after the installation to improve orientation.

[Lee]

I just got back from flying 5 batteries through the Capricorn in the picture a couple of posts back. The LEDs are so bright I can see the ground under the plane with the plane still 20+ feet in the air. It is by far the brightest and will be my favorite. It is far brighter than my glow wire, light sticks or glow tape and also has advantages over the 12V Christmas lights.

The lights are bright on the flying wing but the lights and tape affected the planes performance significantly. I will remove the lights from this plane.

[rkopka]

My last Nightplane - 172 LEDs:

Turbo Raven (http://kopka.at/modell_f_nacht.htm#Raven)

RK

[foam and tape]

latest night flyer :cool:

the next one will blow your mind though :) :D 300 + LED's on a secret plane :cool:

[sumomo]

After a few attempt, I finally decided this set up. Total 144LEDs. :D

[jasmine2501]

After a few attempt, I finally decided this set up. Total 144LEDs. :D
Why do you need so many?