New Product DELight Programmable Lighting System Beta thread

[Comatose]

Dimension Engineering is proud to announce the impending release of our DELight programmable lighting controller system.

We're looking for 10 additional beta testers for our final stages of testing. Beta testers will be given a free
DELight Starter Kit consisting of the controller, LEDs, a USB link cable and software for creating your own lighting sequences.

DELight is far and away the most advanced lighting system ever created for R/C models. It features four current and sequence programmable output channels, plus two high power (2A each), sequence programmable output channels. You can program in strobes, chaser lights, glow,
flash effects, and control them from your transmitter. The programs are loaded into the controller via a USB link.

The included LEDs are half-watt and 15 lumen. They're excruciatingly bright, and wide angle. No wiring or soldering is required as they come with connnectors and are plug-and-play. You're welcome to use your own LEDs too if you are so inclined.

What I'm really looking to verify before we release this thing is that the PC software is easy enough to use. You can use the PC software (which features a simulator) without the controller. I've cooked up a quick tutorial on the basics.

If you'd like to be a beta tester (and, hey, its a free $59.99 lighting system) follow the download link below and install the software, then make some lighting sequences. The first five people to post interesting sequences into this thread get to be beta testers. Interesting is decided by me. After I've chosen those, the five most interesting ones posted before midnight, Jan 31 also get to be beta testers and recieve free kits.

Once you've made a sequence that you think I'll find interesting, post the saved .delight file, a note about what the sequence does and what you would use it for, and any othernotes about it or creating it that you'd like to share.

All I ask is after you receive the kit, play with it and then post some quick feedback about what you did or didn't like about it to the forum.

The software can be found here
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/Software/setup.exe

The tutorial can be found here
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/...DELightQSG.pdf

[Darth_Elevator]

Here are two entries. If I'm only allowed to submit one, please take the first one.

The first entry is called "Equalizer" and at below 50% it uses three colors of LEDs to simulate the graphic display on an audio equalizer. I tried to make the spikes of color somewhat random looking as if the lights really are hooked to a sound system. I designed this for my nightflying Slow Stick and would wire up this sequence on the left wing, with a mirror image sequence on the other wing. So imagine both wings are lit up with the spikes of color coming from the fuselage out toward the wingtips. At above 50%, I made some simple flashing color sequences to contrasts the equalizer look of the other circuit.

The second entry is also designed to be mirrored on the two wings of a Slow Stick. This design is called "Chase and Blink" and is a much simpler one. At above 50%, it has a back and forth chaser design, which was intended to give maximum visibility for nightflying, so there are always three LEDs per wing turned on at a time. At less than 50%, all of the LEDs will flash on and off together.

Let me add that I think this will be a great product. The fact that it's infinitely customizable will draw a lot of interest. And the program was fairly straightforward to use. Here are some of my initial thoughts, not as criticism (because this program is put together very well), just as feedback. It would have been nice if the cut and paste feature could copy multiple channels but that's not the end of the world. It also would be nice to have a couple shortcut keys, such as for "Add" and "Insert" and the different zooms. That would allow for less repetive mouse movements when you're creating a long pattern. I didn't understand in the view all channel tab that each channel had a dedicated space. But once I figured that out, the layout made sense. And when you select red LEDs, you can't tell that they are highlighted because they are the same color as the highlight line.

Even if I end up not being a beta tester, it's been fun to take a look at this program and I look foward to your release of the DELight! Thanks

[Comatose]

Because its the first one, that'll cross my threshhold for "interesting." PM me your shipping address.

A few comments/questions:

First, remember that there's a 100 block limit for the total controller memory. Equalizer probably won't fit as written.

The second thing to remember (I probably should have been explicit with this in the tutorials) is that the blocks don't all have to be the same length. Was it easier to use a series of identical blocks than to click/drag or key a single block to the appropriate length? It might be worth creating an "optimize" option.

Just a thought: Remember channels 1-4 have programmable brightness. It might be fun to make equallizer have a fading trail as it falls.

[BEC]

From a more "how do we put this in the airplane?" standpoint - how big, how heavy, what sort of connections, what power is required (and are you assuming it all comes from the Rx connection(s) and therefore must be supplied by the BEC, are/will LEDs that are prewired (and pre-resistored if needed) be available/included, etc., etc......

[Comatose]

All excellent questions.

The LEDs are surface mounted to a PCB. That PCB is .2" x.375". A resistor is included on the PCB, although channels 1-4 can be hooked up with no resistor to any LED - they're true analog programmable current sources. The pigtails are 24" long, 32 gauge. They terminate in a standard servo type connector. Each LED weighs 2.8 grams with wire.

Each LED can handle up to 150mA. They're seriously powerful. That means a full set of eight can be pulling 1200mA. We recommend using a switching BEC if one was to do that. Of course, you can program them to draw less current.

Alternatively, you can remove the red lead from the pigtail that goes from controller to RX, and instead power the controller with a separate regulator or a 4 or 5 cell pack, or a 2s lipo battery. If using an unregulated 2s battery as power, the current that can be supplied by channels 1-4 should be derated to 100mA per channel (instead of 250mA from up to 6v)

The starter kit will come with four LEDs, one red, one green and two white. LEDs will be availiable separately as well.

The controller PCB measures .83" x 1.0", plus connectors on one side. It has a 12" pigtail that plugs into the RX. The controller weighs six grams.

This is really designed to be LED lighting done right.

[Darth_Elevator]

PM sent. I misread the block limit and thought it was per channel, not total, so I'll squeeze Equalizer down to make it fit. That's a good idea to try different size blocks and add a fading trail.

I tried running the program on a different computer (XP Pro) but got runtime error 372. I uninstalled and tried again but same problem. Is there a workaround for this? Not sure if this caused the problem, but I tried installing directly from the link in this thread, unlike last night when I downloaded the setup file first and then installed from the local file.

[Comatose]

Thanks! That looks like its probably an installer issue. A lot of the point of beta testing software is to find weird quirks such as this that don't pop up on any of the computers here. I'll have it looked into.

[Dorsal]

Here's a different file with running lights, moving in one direction only. All lights are red, but since the timing is set at one second, they can also be used as a timer to judge the flying speed. (60 mph = 88 fps, y'know)

A couple suggestions for the program and tutorial:
First - if there are multiple steps for a channel, they can be copied by selecting the first one, then holding the SHIFT, select the last one, then press CTRL+C
Multiple individual steps can be copied by selecting the first one, then holding the CTRL button down, select the next, then the next, etc.
An entire channel can be copied and pasted to another channel this way, while viewing the "All Channels" tab. The Tutorial should mention these things.

Second - It would be nice if the Color Selection Window would pop up near the "Light Color" "Change" button, or, if there were another "Light Color" "Change" button near the top of the screen. Bouncing the mouse up and down the screen for color changes is a bother.

[jsfrench]

Comatose:
Looks like a great product. Here's my try:
John

[Redbeardrc]

Here's my delight!

Airwolf with strobe tail, red revolving beacon on bottom, gun fire and afterburners.

0 - 33% Dark
33% to 66% Nav Lights
66% to 90% Guns and missiles
> 90% Afterburners

I found the software easy to use but the constant zooming and changing of sizes of the inputs anoying.

Simulator keeps missing the beat when time intervals are short.

Being able to swap the upper and lower areas per channel would be a nice addition.

Would love to see an auto ramping intensity control instead of having to input each setting.

All in all good stuff!

-Dave

[BMWdriver]

Just what I was looking for, need to cover my 2nd beech with retracts.Need the lights before I cover her. pic credit to Glue sniffer

simple setup
RED and GREEN nav lights blinking always on
WHITE tail and belly strobes Always on
Yellow or White nose gear landing light to come on after >20%

Could not figure out if you could have the nav lights come on by switch(on or off) or how that would work. Sure the would be able to with a computer raido.

[Comatose]

Originally Posted by BMWdriver

Could not figure out if you could have the nav lights come on by switch(on or off) or how that would work. Sure the would be able to with a computer raido.

Are you looking to have them come on when you power the radio up, or at some sort of percentage of the input stick?

To make them turn off on loss of radio signal, you'd do the following:

Top track: 100% brightness, one block
Bottom track: 0% brightness, one block

Trip point: 0%

Default: bottom track.

Because the trip point is 0%, any time there is an input signal, the top track (on) wil be played. If the input signal is not coming in (flew out of range, haven't yet turned the TX on or whatever) the bottom track (off, in this case) will be played.

You can do the exact opposite to set up a lost model locator. Have a light that is always off when there's a TX signal, but if you lose the signal it flashes periodically.

[BMWdriver]

Comatose,
What I would like to do is when I flip the switch for the retracts the nose wheel landing light will come on. The way your programming is set up (I THINK) is all percentages. So in my demo I have it set at a low percent on the throttle I guess. Same for nav lights if you could run them by a switch channel. Taxiing out flip switch nav and beacon lights come on. Flip seconded switch landing lights come on. Something to that effect.

[Stryker_Viking]

Since I have been fooling around with many home made versions of running lights for my slower planes for more then a year, but not been able to figure out a solution that will aid in detecting the orientation, this system has all one can wish for - and more.
My first attempt is for my Typhoon 3D, quite simple but hopefully detectable in the dark.
Here it is...

Stryker_Viking

[Comatose]

Originally Posted by BMWdriver

Comatose,
What I would like to do is when I flip the switch for the retracts the nose wheel landing light will come on. The way your programming is set up (I THINK) is all percentages. So in my demo I have it set at a low percent on the throttle I guess. Same for nav lights if you could run them by a switch channel. Taxiing out flip switch nav and beacon lights come on. Flip seconded switch landing lights come on. Something to that effect.

What you'd want to do, if you have a programmable TX, is mix the two switches together. Think of it like a servo, with 0% being full deflection one direction, 50% being centered and 100% being full deflection the other direction.

So you've got a 6 channel radio, with a free programmable mix,using the standard 4 plus gear. Further, say that the free channel is a 3-position. So using just the free channel, you'd be abe to send it 0% with the switch down, 50% with the switch in the center and 100%. So, you'd want to put your trip points at, say, 25% or 75%.

Mixing the aux and the gear channels in the tx0 would give you even more options.

If you wanted something be be on ONLY in the center position, and off with the 3-position switch in the up or down position, then the thing to do would be this:

Put the program in the bottom track. Make a one block, 0% brightness program in the top track. Set the trip point to 660% Now, click on Advanced Options, and set "Turn Off Below" to 33%. This will make the program in the bottom track active ONLY with the switch in the middle position.


A 2-position switch is exactly like any other channel, except it is always at 0% or 100%. A 3-position switch is exactly like any other channel, except its always either 0%, 50% or 100%.