I am working on my first night flier that will require a 6S LiPo pack for the motor. Because of the small hatch I was thinking of using a BEC to power the LED's off of the motor battery instead of using a 3S LiPo.

Hobby King makes this one that should do the trick.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...___store=en_us

I have not found any threads that are using a BEC for this.

Does anyone have any experience with this method?

Paul

That will output 5V. Are your LEDs setup for 5V or 12V? If you are using 12V LED tape, you can put 1/2 of them on cells 1-3 and the other half on cells 4-6.

Originally posted by EvenM:

That will output 5V. Are your LEDs setup for 5V or 12V? If you are using 12V LED tape, you can put 1/2 of them on cells 1-3 and the other half on cells 4-6.

Even:

Thank you for the reply.

Your idea is not bad and I will give it some thought how to separate the strings 50/50. I do know where I can buy the Female JST connector so I just may go with it.

The BEC I have a link to in post #1 puts out 5 Volts @ Max 5 Amps AND 12 Volts @ Max 10 Amps.

I chose this BEC because so far I have 24 feet of 12 Volt strip LED's in the wing. They should draw about 6 Amps but not sure as I have not put a meter to them yet.

What I am looking for is if anyone has tried using a 12 Volt BEC yet for the LED's.

Paul

I decided to give the BEC Linked in post #1 a try.

I will report the results.

Ta Ta for now.

Paul

I looked at he BEC in post #1. It is really a dual output regulator. 5 and 12V.
The 12V lead has the JST connector and will work fine to power regular single color and RGB strip. The 5V output could be used to power 2812 LED strip (fully addressable, requires Arduino to control). The 12V is rated for 10A so you could power roughly 25 meters of regular strip.

Barn-E-Stormer:

Thank you for some input.

The plane I am working on is a Senior Telemaster I picked up used and restoring it from the 20 years of use. So far I have the wing done and should be finished with the fuselage by next weekend. The wing is drawing 4.6 Amps, not the 6 Amps I was expecting.
When I found the BEC (linked in post #1) it made sense to me in that it would simplify the setup.
I plan to test with 3 strings of the white LED strips I have put in the plane before installing.

Photos of the wing below. Red is the top, blue the bottom.

Paul

That is going to look good. I have built several night Telemasters and Kadets for myself and friends. They make great night flyers.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...d#post22165222

Stormer:

I read you whole thread before I started my project. You are my hero! The time and thought that went into your build must have been even more than mine. Nice work.

Paul

As mentioned in post #6 I tested the 12 Volt BEC connected to 3 16 foot LED Strips with no issues. The BEC got slightly worm after 5 minutes of run time. Without a load the voltage jumped between 12.2 and 12.6 volts. Once under the 6.2 Amp load the 3 strings of LED's were drawing the voltage stayed a steady 12.04 volts. The size and weight of the BEC is about the same as a 40 Amp ESC so plenty of room in my Fuselage for placement.

I soldered the input leads directly into the connector for the battery also feeding the 80 Amp ESC I am using for this plane. Power is 6S 5000 MAh LiPo. I then installed a switch on the Fuselage breaking the positive 12 Volt line to turn the LED's on and off. In order to distribute an even voltage feed to the LED strings I wired them all in parallel which resulted in even illumination.

Today I flew the plane on it's first 3 flights during the day each time with the LED's on without a hitch.

I will post pics of it at night the first chance I get.

Paul

That is going to look good.

Add a connector and fishing swivel at the tail so you can pull a string of LED for a streamer. It is almost no pull on the plane and it looks great at night. Start with 8 or 10 feet.

Yes the regulator output should not vary much with load. The current measurement is what's important. Your meter probably will not measure that much current. If you have a current meter for testing motors that can be used. For your setup I would guess you are pulling about 5 amps.