Wind_of_change, I put my inverter back as far as I could, so not to mess with the CG wery much. The power wire that goes from the inverter to the glow wire is burried in the wing and the (now) Deans micro plug comes out of the foam between the winglett and the wing. I did this so when I fly in the daytime I can unplug the glowwires and the only thing showing is the little Deans micro plug. ...R... p.s. in the pic you can see the "power tap" so I can run the lights off my plane batt.

RandyK1,

Cool. I just got my inverter mounted, finally. It's similar to yours, except the full-size deans plugs. Haven't had much time to work on the Unicorn this week.

Now I gotta cover it. Can't wait to fly this thing. It's driving me crazy.

Todd

Wind_of_change, dont forget to ballance it side to side. With the powerwires running down one side, I have to put a quarter in the other wing tip for ballance ...R... p.s. It's gonna be cool doing very low fly-by's over the snow at night, also would be cool flying in fog now

RandyK1,

Thanks for the heads up. I'll check L/R balance.

Now you've got me even more anxious to get this Unicorn done. We've had a TON of fog this month, more than I ever remember, and the glow wires would definitely look cool in fog. Flying over snow would be awesome too. Airhole is putting some extremely bright LED's on the belly of his plane, mounted with a switch. So when he flies low over the ground, he can flip a switch on his radio and turn on the lights that will illuminate the ground. These lights are as bright as a flashlight, so it'll look awesome over snow.

I wish these darn Unicorns didn't take so dang long to build!

Todd

According to the Weather Network, at 9pm when I test flew the Zagi with Glowire it was:

-10 deg. C
- Winds at 19km
with the wind chill a balmy -18 degrees!

but hey - I needed to test fly, frozen fingers and all.... AND IT WAS A SUCCESS!

I had no problem with orientation, in fact the only problem is that my 10-pak of KAN950's didn't last very long - the cold got to them pretty quick. I didn't mind - my fingers were frozen!

But a successful night-flight with the Glowire was all I needed to prove to myself that the glowire was worth it - any yes it was!

Awesome, Helicool! Welcome to the "Winter Night Fliers Club!" where our motto is: "The Few, The Crazy, the Frostbitten!"

It's a SMALL club right now, but hey, who cares?! It's Cool!

Originally posted by Wind_of_Change

Airhole is putting some extremely bright LED's on the belly of his plane, mounted with a switch. So when he flies low over the ground, he can flip a switch on his radio and turn on the lights that will illuminate the ground. These lights are as bright as a flashlight, so it'll look awesome over snow.

Yes I am... and yes it will!

Behold! My remote switch operated landing lights!

The switch: Using a HiTec 'feather' servo, with a female brass bullet connector clamped onto the arm. One half of the feed line from the battery is soldered into this, and I left a little tail of copper wire clamped onto the base end of the connector to act as a brush. Then, a small metal tab was soldered to the other half of the feed wire and embedded near the bottom of the 'switch' servo cavity:






Lights off:



Lights ON with a throw of toggle #3 on my radio!

Yeah, Baby! That's what I'm talking about! And with Airhole's glow wires, this thing is gonna rock at night. When doing fly-by's or landings, he can just flip switch #3 and illuminate the snow. Like one of those UFO's when the bright lights get switched on and poor Agents Mulder & Scully (or in this case Wind_of_Change and Airhole) are blinded and amazed. Imagine that thing in the fog, which we've had an abundance of here lately!

Now I gotta do it! It's like keeping up with the Joneses!

Slick!

I just discovered that if you really want to get a bunch of guys at the indoor fly-in excited, roll out the Glowire on your IFO MKIII!

Too much fun!

OK, I'm hooked. I'll have to put in an order for the Glow wire tomarrow for my Slow Stik. Night flying hear I come. Thanks for all the info guys.

Wind_of_Change

Can we take a look at the "Guts" of your Projeti?

I am looking at doing this with LED`s from Curtek

I did it with a MSW that had a 10 Turn 010 Worked quite well. I think it will be bright enough for me.....Hopefully. I do like the looks of yours though.....Very cool indeed.

MAl

kushal_22,

Sorry, I just stripped off the wires to put them on my newly completed Unicorn. But I can describe it to you. I cut off the 9 volt attachment on my EL Wire inverter, and then soldered the wires to my deans connector leads (the one that is attached to my speed controller.)

I ran the two blue glowires out the same holes that the wing servos come into the fuselage through. I ran them out and wrapped them up around the vertical stabilizers, then down to the nose of the plane

I ran a lead wire out one of the servo holes as well, down the underside of my plane out to the tip, where the glowire started. Then I wound it around that wing tip, along the front of the plane, out to the other tip, which I wrapped with E.L. wire.

Inside the fuselage, I was using a Kokam 1500 3S1P Lipo battery and the Jeti 18 speed controller. That sat at the nose. Behind that I put the E.L. Wire Inverter. Then behind the firewall was the receiver and ESC.

If anything's not clear, or you have other specific questions, let me know.

Todd

Firewall?? I M Basically going to do the same thing with mine and the Curteks.....A llittle different for the LE Strip but this is because the wire is thinner. I am just going to go striaght up inside the fuse to where the nose cone stops then out along the LE. ANYWAYS THANKS for the Pics. BTW did you ever get it to WOT at night??

Mal

Well, I am finnished, here she is, ready to go. ...R... Top (aqua)

And here is the bottom (yellow) ...R...