4 ft span glowdog

[sparks]

Hot dog, here we go. Or should I say birdog?

This is a re-post but here it goes.
I did the dog with 6, 3 and 2 mm depron, It took longer to wire the thing than it did to build the model. :rolleyes:
She is almost finished now and weighs in at under two pounds so far with the batteries.
50 each red, white and blue LED's. for a total of 150 LED's the landing lights are mini mag light bulbs and I'm thinking about adding a strobe light.

[sparks]

I tried to make the light sets in a standard configuration to keep from making wiring mistakes.
this worked very good but I wound up with 3 different configs due to space available in the different compartments.
this set was used in the wing and was attached to the strip that joined the upper and lower wing sheeting at the leading edge.
The playing cards was used as solider drip shields.
The wiring through the wing is bare copper wire and is held apart with drops of epoxy.
I know that 1 mm separation is as good as a mile but I expect the wing to flex a little and shorting is a possibility.


Wiring tip

The wire alignment tool is very handy.
It's simply a small stick with a notch cut into it.
Capture both wires in the mouth and they will align . . . then solder.

[Fuegodeth]

Just a thought... I used low-temp hot glue to hold the wires in place. Sets nearly instantly, and you don't have to keep mixing up batches of it. Also, if you screw up, you can peel it off pretty easily. It's low enough temperature that you can use on depron without melting at all. You can get them at walmart for $2 and 30 glue sticks is like 1$. Also, for foamies hot-glue is great structurally. It stretches and absorbes impact, instead of shattering like CA. I guess you wish I had told you that before you built the plane, but better late than never....

150 lights is neat though. I'm doing one with 50, and that seems like a heck of a lot of solder joints.

[yarsmythejr]

Dang....150! Puts my 26 to shame. :) What type of setup are you using to light the LEDs in different sequences? Something similar to UAVPilot's?

The plane looks great. Are you going to put any decals or 'line art' on it?

-Lee

[Darth_Elevator]

150 -- wow! I can't wait to see the finished project all lit up.

[sparks]

Ditto on the solder joints Man there was a bunch to do. and the hot glue tip is a good one. I'll have to give it a try on the next one.

Lightning the tail feathers took a much more condensed set of lights and the link between the panels had to have a flexible wire to join them. The effect was less than what I was going for because is makes a starburst type look and I was looking for a more defused look.
Oh well . . .you cant have it all I guess. I wonder how the glow wire would work here.? ? ?
With it tested and inspected over and over again I was ready to close it up.

[UAVPilot]

Nice build Sparky.

I know I mentioned it at that last fly in, But here is the Specs (http://www.superbrightleds.com/TriColor%20LED.htm) on those three colored LED's I mentioned. Sure would have made things a little easier for you.

I wish I would have taken pics of the plane I built and sold that used them throughout.

I had each color in the whole set wired to three potentiometers.
Since they run the three primary colors in one bulb, just like a TV does,
If they where all on, it was white, like in the pic below.
Very each one any and you could get any possible color you could think of, any color.

Was very cool , was like a flying a different plane each flight.

Look forward to seeing yours glow :cool:

..

[sparks]

This is the first one for me and I've been learning so much.
I love exploring new things in this hobby like this , my problem is I tend to dive right in and make mistakes due to lack of research or know- it- all attitude.
The up side is I learn from the mistakes

A three in one LED would have been a good weight savings aside from the color changing cool factor.
Speaking of weight. how small of a wire gauge do you think we can we get away with?
I know I'm heavy here but I was afraid I would be cheating the LED's in the tail for power.

[UAVPilot]

This is the first one for me and I've been learning so much.
I love exploring new things in this hobby like this , my problem is I tend to dive right in and make mistakes due to lack of research or know- it- all attitude.
The up side is I learn from the mistakes

A three in one LED would have been a good weight savings aside from the color changing cool factor.
Speaking of weight. how small of a wire gauge do you think we can we get away with?
I know I'm heavy here but I was afraid I would be cheating the LED's in the tail for power.Tell me about it, I have that same problem.
I have a 60" span Ryan PT 20 (electric)I designed and built with Balsa Mono coupe construction skinned in 1/32 sheet balsa, that I started on about 15 years ago. It is covered in Chrome Mica film and uses small pins for rivet detail. I got about 90% complete with the airframe and covering, then did more research, discovered I did not shape the fuselage tail behind the cockpit correctly, and that made me lose interested in it completely. Still sitting on the shelf.

Have quit a few other partly built models hanging around for similar reasons.

Anyway, For LED's , I always use 30 AWG magnet wire. I bought two different colors , green and red, and always used the green for negative. helps when theres a lot of wire.
However, I have never run that many lights as you have in one plane.

I probably would have used about 24 AWG as a main power lead, and then branched off from that to 30 AWG from main terminals back toward the tail and in the wing.

I kinda go by that if I wound a motor with 30 AWG wire, it takes about 10/15 foot to wind one phase of the motor (depending on the number of winds and size of the motor of course), and that motor can take 3-4 amps without really getting hot. That would be like about 130 LED's at full brightness at the very end of the wire, but the LED's would be spread over the length of the wire so the line loss would be less I would believe.
That may not be a good way to think if it, but it works for me. I know somewhere I have seen charts for recommended maximum current draw through particular size, types and lengths of wire with minimum current loss, but I just go by what seems about right from experience and deductive reasoning.

30 Awg is a little tricky to work with though, as it is slightly difficult to strip the coating off and not damage the wire, so 26/28 would have been fine for a plane as large as yours with minimal weight gain.

[sparks]

With the tail closed up and the wing sheeting drying it was time to get out more wire and start the fuselage. Each bulkhead got at least two light sets, the one at the tail only got one and forward of the back window I went to three and four.
When I started this I was a good guy and was scratching off the insulation to the wire. By the time I was finished I was simply pooling solder on the iron and burning it off.
adding just a touch of solder after the smoke went away was the trick.
I think the flux cleans the surface and completes the connection. You cant say it doesn't work. There must be 300 solder joints done this way here and they all light up.

The flexible wires at the tail was necessary for tail feather installation. After testing one last time , the surfaces were bonded and the connections were attached to the buss bars. ( bare wires)

[sparks]

Wing tips.
Here is where I have had problems with night flying. you only see the green one for an instant or it's so dim you have to look for it.
I vacuformed a tip so I could install three and cover the limited angles LED's offer.
it turns out that the LED's will light up the tip as well. . . .even better.

[sparks]

Now how to turn it all on and off.
I have the nav lights on all the time so I'll know for sure that power is available to the color busses.
The landing lights are wired separately with it's own power supply as a back up.
(the white tail nav light is on this system as well.)

As for the switch for the colors. . . I made a sliding switch and it almost went south on me when I realized that my spectrum radio has no channel with a knob.
It turns out that the three position switch is really a programmable 9 position switch if you use the end point adjustments.
I can run any combination of light colors that I want . . . .in flight.

The wing to fuselage connection was taken from something I had thrown away years ago.
Nothing goes in the trash without being disassembled and salvaged for odd parts.
I color coded the bulkhead so I can get the connection right at the field.
The down side is if it disconnects in flight all I'll have is the fuselage lights to go by.


Before you say it, yes I know it could be done with a speed controller or some other electronic device.
But when I'm miles from home and don't have extra parts or electronic test equipment and it don't work I can trouble shoot this and get it back on line and not miss the fun.
The stars only align on "night fun fly's" once in a while. :(

[sparks]

All closed up and waiting for her markings.
I'd show you the lights but I'm saving that for last.

[yarsmythejr]

I'm all smiles. You've really come up with a beauty! I would love to be there for the maiden but that's quite a drive for me (240+). Make sure you get some video cameras on that bad boy and have Ronnie take some long-exposure shots.

...eagerly awaiting your final few steps. :)

-Lee

[dawnron1]

I'm all smiles. You've really come up with a beauty! I would love to be there for the maiden but that's quite a drive for me (240+). Make sure you get some video cameras on that bad boy and have Ronnie take some long-exposure shots.

...eagerly awaiting your final few steps. :)

-Lee

Lee,

You read my mind, dude. I have the video camera, still camera, tripod and remote shutter cable ready :D We're shooting for 6:30am tomorrow, stay tuned!

Ronnie

[sparks]

I did the markings over the holidays
While I was at the LHS I ran across clear Tamya paint.
Oh my god . . .perfect!
Red, blue and I had to mix some of the two to get the dark blue.
The black is just plain old black.

Since I didn't want to use tape on the surface because it could pull off a very thin layer I went with paper stencils.
Nothing special, plain printer paper.
To hold it down I used a whole fist full of nuts.
the rest was done with an air brush.

TA Da.

[sparks]

Time to light her up.
We will see if Ronnie can do better with a tripod.
I love the way the markings change with the colors.

[dawnron1]

AMAZING Keith!! Can't wait to get 'er on video!!

[sparks]

The test flight was just too cool.
On the first run I thought it was underpowered because it wouldn't takeoff.
I gave it a shot on concrete and it only took 4 ft and up she went.
Now all I have to do is give her a little shove on grass and it does fine.
Rather boring to fly really, it's like driveling a school bus . . .slow, docile.
A stall only looses about 6 inches altitude.
She skids allot in the turns without rudder, add a little and she comes around right away.
I should have went heavier on the gear wire because it spreads like a slow stick if I put her down hard.
Any thing above 5 MPH and she id going to be a hand full though. I might need a larger motor.

[yarsmythejr]

Wonderful news Keith. That is a perty lookin' thang. Can't wait to see the video. You should take that to Chicago for the indoor flying event in February. Those fellas are gonna poop in their shorts when they see that thing fly.

I knew you were going to build an LED plane after you saw mine...I just never realized you were gonna go that crazy! How am I going to beat that next year??!! :rolleyes:

Cheers to you...

-Lee

PS - What else you got cookin'?

[sparks]

I showed up at the field at 6:10 AM. Ronnie agreed to be there at 6:30.
I was shocked when the cars started showing up.
First Wendell, Then Ronnie and Tom then Mike. I was glad to see that I'm not the only insane one that would be at an RC field in the freezing darkness.
You have to love it when your friends have your back!
All went well and I'm looking forward to seeing the stuff Ronnie collected for you to see.
Thanks to every one that showed up, I couldn't do half the stuff I manage to pull off without help from friends.
You too Lee . . . . . . . . what an inspiration your model was.

I do have something under the covers but If I post it there will be questions I don't know the answers to and perhaps orders I cant fill yet.
Tell you what, I'll post it here first when it's ready.

[Spackles94]

Can't wait to see it!

[pda4you]

It was a blast....totally cool....it sure lights up the morning sky!

Mike

[dawnron1]

Ok guys, here's the video from this morning, enjoy!

Ronnie

Keith Sparks' L-19 Glow Dog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isb47OBOhow)

[dawnron1]

And a couple of pics taken at dawn of the Glow Dog:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2043/2147291699_a314780a06_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2327/2147291755_2ae5cff98f_o.jpg

[Spackles94]

Ronnie,

Those pictures are AMAZING!

I have yet to watch the video, but I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

Amazing job -- keep it up!

[Bill K.]

Ok guys, here's the video from this morning, enjoy!

Ronnie



That's just toooooo cool!!

[Spackles94]

Ok guys, here's the video from this morning, enjoy!

Ronnie

Keith Sparks' L-19 Glow Dog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isb47OBOhow)

That's definitely beyond cool.

Way to go, Ronnie and Keith!

[Darth_Elevator]

Wow, great vid and pics. I love the mid-flight light changes. Excellent stuff.

[pda4you]

Love it! Burr cold....we Texans are not used to 27-28 degrees!

Mike

[dawnron1]

Thanks everyone! Here are some static shots...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2225/2148305117_8f70b1bd0e_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2359/2149099560_f31cd2eb51_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2409/2148304995_a87c85b310_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2083/2149100062_bea1e565e8_o.jpg

[yarsmythejr]

Love it! Burr cold....we Texans are not used to 27-28 degrees!MikeDid Keith have to de-ice the plane before take-off?? :D

Looks really nice. I definitely want to see it in person. When the weather gets warmer, we need to come up with an official night-flying event. I'm sure there are enough guys in Dallas to get one started.

I'm thinking of building a B-17 night flyer that drops lighted bombs....what do ya think?? :p

Good job Keith. I hope it met your expectations. Don't forget to add it to your list of airplanes on the blog!

-Lee

[yarsmythejr]

Thanks everyone! Here are some static shots...[/IMG]Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. People are definitely gonna be talking about this plane after seeing those picks. Keith, get ready for Flying Models to call you up for another interview!

Keith, can ya put a silhouette of a pilot behind the windshield? That way, you can only see the pilot when the lights are on! :D

-Lee

[sparks]

The pilot shadow is a very cool Idea! I'll look into it.
Look at the great static shots Ronnie took and you can barely make-out the glow of the LED from the receiver. . . . .It's right about where a rear view mirror would be.
it shows up best in the all white shot . . .(#2).

Glow in the dark bombs.
Lee, Remember when your plane was at 1000 ft at BEST?.
What happened to your dropping glow stick Idea?
It sure would have been worth hauling them up.

[pda4you]

When the weather gets warmer, we need to come up with an official night-flying event. I'm sure there are enough guys in Dallas to get one started.

I'm thinking of building a B-17 night flyer that drops lighted bombs....what do ya think??

Get busy....sounds good to me! I like the bomb idea too!

Mike

[CygnusX1]

Wow now THAT is a lit plane. I bet all that wiring is actually structural at this point.

[Diggs]

Ok, have seen a lot of cool stuff here on RCG, but this plane has to be in the top 3. For one, my father spent a lot of time getting transported in the L-19 during the Korean War, so I have a soft spot for the plane itself. The lighting setup is top notch. And the build of the plane is also impeccable. I will try to give this thread a mention on the next episode of allthingsthatfly.com podcast.

Saying Great job really falls short. You did an amazing job. Hope it serves you for many years.

Diggs

[Scooter04]

Very nice plane. Makes my Moth look silly compared to this work of art.

[sparks]

Thanks guys It was a fun project.
With all the RC planes I have built this one impressed my wife. I think is the only one she didn't say "it's nice" . . . . .
New years eve, after the party.
I took her and the kids to the field at the end of the street for a private viewing.
I gave it a few clicks of up trim, throttled it back until it stopped in the sky and waited.
they said it looked like a kite.
At one point the plane appeared to have a span of 1/2 inch.
This is something I watched Lee do with his last summer. It may sound lame, but you just have to be there.
I put her into a spin and the family freaked. I just grinned and changed colors on the way down.
I finished off the night with a loop.

I think Night Flying does not get the coverage it could get because the people that cover events are at the hotel.
The glow fueled guys at my home field didn't even know it was possible, some were not interested.
Out of the 15 guys that was at the field last week 5 stayed to see it fly at dusk.
What a shame.

[yarsmythejr]

Keith,

I'm pretty sure your Glow Dog has inspired many viewers. Although R/C night flying has been around for some time, now is the time where it'll spread like wildfire. Airhogs has that dinky coaxial helicopter with ONE LED that is advertised for night flying...but my vote is someone is going to develop an ARF kit very soon with LEDs built into it.

...could it be you??? :D

***
I'm at a stand-still with the hobby right now as I am still moving all of my hobby tools out of the house and into the garage. A new baby is arriving this summer and I'm being evicted. The tables are set up but there is a LOT more arranging to be done before I can start building again.

I picked up 25' of telephone wire (solid copper) from Fry's last month. It is heavier but has been a lot easier to solder than magnetic coil wire. I've got a plane/design in mind for my next night flyer...but I'll keep it under wraps until it's done. Let's just say I saw something at a toy store a few weeks back that got me gigglin' with anticipation. Can't wait to show it to ya.

Can we work on a "Dallas Night Fly" in April? I pitched the idea to Ronnie. Anyone else interested?

-Lee

[pda4you]

Yep Lee - we should just do it! We can use the 114th or even a smaller spot....

Keith - maybe even Dave Grabins spot...don't know....

Mike

[sparks]

Let's try to keep it in the city.
No point in doing it without freaking out a few people.
Hay . . . . . . How about Stevensville? :D

[JWilliams2]

Excellent work. I thought rigging up 18 LEDs was a lot. The problem with mine is I'm a bit scared to crash it. That is a lot of wiring, though!

I second the idea above about hot glue. it's what I used and it does add maybe a touch more weight but is very easy to use.

[sparks]

Here's how it went.
Straight and level at 1/2 power. then the prop stopped.
" Dang I put a low battery in it again, no big deal I'll just glide her in "
The nose pitched up and stalled so naturally I pushed the stick forward and thought it responded because it leveled off. A roll to the right started and I went to correct and had nothing. "Not again!"
It was one giant spin the right until it hit the ground.
The fault was running a 25 AMP ESC against a 480 outrunner
The amp draw was well within the operating range of the ESC. I still have no idea why it failed.

My Jenny tried to warn me about this problem last fall. She hit the ground from 10 foot and was repairable. It too had the same components on the ESC overheat. On the good side the I have removed this speed controller from 2 other models with the same power set up.

I doubt the next one will be ready for SEFF but the BEST event should see the new and improved Glowdog.
More ribs, hardwood spars. thicker wire in the landing gear. 1 MM thicker skin and of coarse MORE LED'S

[karl k]

I can't remember, were you running all those lights off the BEC in the ESC?

That looks like one of the older speed controllers from CC with a 1.5A BEC

The newer ones, including the Thunderbirds, have 3A BEC's (ie. 2 voltage regs instead of one)

The only reason I bring it up is that I see the heat shrink is slightly melted on the voltage reg for the BEC.

If I'm wrong and you had a seperate power source, disregard this post.

Karl

[Spackles94]

Keith,

Sorry to hear about the demise of the Glow Dog. :( It was awesome while it lasted.

I can't wait to see the Glow Dog v2, though. :)

[yarsmythejr]

Aaaaaggghhh....NOOO!!

Keith, I was hoping to see this bird for the (tentative) April 26th fly-in!! I'm bummed. Can you get something else ready for the night fly event?

Sorry dude. I sure loved it before its demise.

-Lee

[Diggs]

Wow, that is sad. I was also looking forward to seeing the plane at SEFF :(
Sorry man, that is a terrible loss. I will certainly be watching for V2.

Diggs

[sparks]

The LED's were all on a different circuit.

So is that what the chip is in the upper left of the ESC.
I had another model with the same power set up do the same thing, Thankfully it was very close to the ground.

[Fuegodeth]

That really sucks. I'm very sorry for your loss. It was a beaut. I didn't see any details in the thread about the flight equipment used, except for the 25A esc in the pics. My first guess is that the BEC got overworked. Linear BEC's generate a lot of heat especially at source higher voltages and loads. If you were running 3s lipo, and you had 5 servo's going, and any of them were stalled or had a bit of resistance in the control surface or the LED controller, then it could generate enough current draw to blow the BEC. If it had 1.5A BEC, then even more likely this is the culprit. However, here's the user guide for CC phoenix 25 with the 3A BEC.
http://www.castlecreations.com/support/documents/Phoenix_User_Guide.pdf

Important to note that max current rating is with 2s lipo, and so max current is much lower than 3A with 3s lipo. Also, they say max# of micro or standard servo's is 4 with 3s lipo, and max # is 2 for high torque or digital servo's with 3s lipo. Over 3s lipo it says not to use BEC at all. So, either way, if you are running 5 servo's on BEC, its more than what is recommended. You may want to consider a separate switching BEC or flight pack for v2 of the glowdog, so you don't have a horrible repeat. I hope this is helpful in finding the cause of the tragedy.

[dawnron1]

Aaaaaggghhh....NOOO!!

Keith, I was hoping to see this bird for the (tentative) April 26th fly-in!! I'm bummed. Can you get something else ready for the night fly event?

Sorry dude. I sure loved it before its demise.

-Lee

Dang Keith, sorry to hear about the crash :( We need to just install a separate BEC in the next one. Heck, I have one I bought for $9.00 plus shipping that works GREAT!@

Lee,

I am still in for the 'night fly' though!! As far as a I know, Wendell, Mike L, Doug, Tom, and perhaps Mike Connally and Ernest(talked to Mike on Saturday and he's interested).

Ronnie

[sparks]

Fuegodeth, I think you have the reason then.
3 servos for flight and two for light switching. that was the count.
The servo with the slider switch seemed to be the one that growled almost all the time. (not in the next one.)

Having to buy a separate BEC is B. S.
The last thing that should go bad in a ESC is your contact with the radio. I can understand if I had 20 servos working or even 8 working really hard.
Not one servo was even in the "standard" range in size.

In the interest of safety ESC's should come with some redundant value built into their BEC's
I'll be paying closer attention to this in the future while shopping for my speed controllers.

[Fuegodeth]

well, I'm not an expert, but as I understand it a linear BEC reduces the voltage to 5v for the radio by bleeding off excess energy as heat. So, If you have a higher input voltage, then there is more heat output. This is why the BEC fails more easily on 3s than on 2s. There are ESC's and standalone BEC's that are "switching BEC's" They are capable of handling much higher voltage and current without the heat production. I think maybe it was scorpion that had switching BEC"s on all their esc's. I'm not 100% sure about that though. I read that a while ago, so it could be somebody else. Most esc manufacturers don't tell you anything about it. At least castle does warn us in the user guide.

[sparks]

After looking into this more and more I believe the glowdog fell victim to my own complacency.
Reading the information in the users guide might have alerted me to this problem.

Since this weak link does exist in our hobby . . .. . .
Is there a volt / amp meter available to see the BEC draw.
Chances are the information would be worthless since the readings would be taken in a static mode.

[karl k]

You can make up some adapters from Deans Ultra to servo connectors and use the micro Power Logger from http://www.eagletreesystems.com to measure the current draw and voltage supplied by your BEC while in flight.

Saves a lot of grief doing it this way. Then you actually know what your rx power system is doing while in flight.

There are other alternatives for doing the same thing. I'm just posting what I have personally used.

Karl

[foam and tape]

ouch! thats sad that your plane was lost. :( Sure was pretty. :cool:

[kepople]

Awesome and ouch...

Kirb

[skullcrusher49]

I must say justa very very nice job. Sorry what happened

[sparks]

Thanks guys, not to worry though. I have most of the summer to build another one .
It should be ready for the Best event.

[SRush99]

Here's how it went.
Straight and level at 1/2 power. then the prop stopped.
" Dang I put a low battery in it again, no big deal I'll just glide her in "
The nose pitched up and stalled so naturally I pushed the stick forward and thought it responded because it leveled off. A roll to the right started and I went to correct and had nothing. "Not again!"
It was one giant spin the right until it hit the ground.
The fault was running a 25 AMP ESC against a 480 outrunner
The amp draw was well within the operating range of the ESC. I still have no idea why it failed.

My Jenny tried to warn me about this problem last fall. She hit the ground from 10 foot and was repairable. It too had the same components on the ESC overheat. On the good side the I have removed this speed controller from 2 other models with the same power set up.

I doubt the next one will be ready for SEFF but the BEST event should see the new and improved Glowdog.
More ribs, hardwood spars. thicker wire in the landing gear. 1 MM thicker skin and of coarse MORE LED'S



Keith your Glowdog is great!!! It looks like you are using one of the older CC escs w/ 1.5A BEC. CC had an issue with a high wind low kv motors causing the escs to heat up. I had 2 new 1.5A escs on my OV10 (#155) and melted some of the components off the printed circuit board while taxi testing it. Also, CC recommends no more than 4 servos with their escs. A seperate BEC may be the safe way to go.

From the CC website - much clearer now than when I had problems:

4. I’ve heard the Phoenix 25’s are/were having problems with high wind, low kv outrunner motors. Is this true, and what is the definition of a “high wind, low kv outrunner”?
It is true that the old 1.5A BEC Phoenix-25’s started to have issues with high wind, low kv outrunners. This is the reason we redesigned the controller. This issue only affects 1.5A BEC Phoenix-25s. It does not affect any of our other controllers. A high wind, low kv outrunner is one that has a kv (rpm/volt) of approximately 1000 or less. If you have any questions regarding this issue contact tech support at support@castlecreations.com or give us a call at (913) 390-6939. We will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.


-Stuart

[sparks]

Wow, I just barely made it , I think the paint is still drying.
The new model took so long because I'll be turning it in as a construction article to Model Airplane news. That plus all the wiring really slowed this one down.
If the B-58 hustler had not taken my attention I would have been done months ago.

[Spackles94]

Looks great -- I can't wait for the article, too!

What'd you end up doing as far as powering up the lights? Did you go with a BEC?

[Diggs]

Yay, it has returned. I love this plane!! Any chance we will have a chance to see this one at SEFF 09?

Diggs

[yarsmythejr]

Keith,

Makes me want to build an LED glider so you can tow it up!! That would rock!!

See you tomorrow!

-Lee

[sparks]

The test flight and in-flight shots were taken at BEST this year. (Made it just under the wire.)
I have some thrust line issues to deal with then it will be ready to turn in.
I'll be bumping this thread with some of the differences between the two Glowdogs until the article comes out.

SEFF . . .lets see what the fuel cost is.
I was told that the YO-3a lost best of show to the cartoon rocket because I won last year.
Perhaps SEFF 2010
I should have a trailer full of new stuff and the web site will be up then.
So the trip should be worth the promotion value by then as long as it does not turn into a 3D event. ( it's getting close )

[heli_ebook]

Just a thought... I used low-temp hot glue to hold the wires in place. Sets nearly instantly, and you don't have to keep mixing up batches of it. Also, if you screw up, you can peel it off pretty easily. It's low enough temperature that you can use on depron without melting at all.

150 lights is neat though. I'm doing one with 50, and that seems like a heck of a lot of solder joints.


See Below: NO soldering! Only 6 LED's but it's my first one! I need light on the rudder because in a NO light area... just not enough to orient on while in flight. I burn the insulation off the magnet wire (using a ciggy lighter) where I want to connect an LED. Wrap the burned part around the cathode or anode leg and then hot glue it! If I want to remove/reuse the LED, I use the same ciggy lighter and let the flame completely BURN the plastic. Afterall, it really is just that... low melt plastic!

Basically, NO soldering at all. No intermittent problems either! :)

Cheers!

[sparks]

She is going to press guys.
Watch Backyard Flyer in the next few months.
Just in time for daylight savings time.
The article was intended to run as a two part , one about the plane and the other to detail the lighting.
I have no word on when or if the lighting portion will be published.

Sparky

[yarsmythejr]

Cool beans Sparky. Congrats. Ya bringing it with you to BEST 2009?