[mfeuilly]

Just got done doing some killer night flying with my foamy bipe If any of ya'll have not tried night flying with your foamies, you need too... A few bucks worth of LEDs, some magnet wire, and a few resistors and you will be able to fly anytime, day or night.

Gotta have one on the rudder pointing back for tail touches. Its so awsome to watch the little circle of light get smaller and smaller and then get blocked out for a split second as it touches the ground. Snaps and spins are almost as good as fireworks.

I can't beleive I went so long without putting lights on one of my bipes.

 

[mfeuilly]

Yup, I guess that would be a lot easier. I live a few miles out of the city limits, and have open fields within walking distance, so LEDs are actually easier for me.

Lights also screw with peoples minds. Sometimes cars will stop and watch when my friend flys his. I wonder how many are thinking Oh shit I hope them aliens don't probe me.

 

[mfeuilly]

Hey Birdie

I misplaced the damn white LEDs... I should find them today, since I have a lot of packing to do and should run across them. All that remains for the LEDs are the two inside bays on both wings, and then I can cover.

You got my vids converted yet?

 

[mfeuilly]

can you put them on my site?

 

[mfeuilly]

Like what? my cd collection is pretty limited, but I'll see what I can find.

 

[mfeuilly]

3rd night of night flying in a row tonight there was no moon that I could tell, and my plane seemed really bright. I could light up a nice chunk of ground below me. Winds have been strong all day, but it was damn near dead calm tonight.

fuck the sun :twisted:

 

[mfeuilly]

This thread has a great explanation(better than I could do) http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthre ... t=lighting

If you stil have questions, I'll do my best to help.

 

[mfeuilly]

who lost what plane Birdie?

 

[mfeuilly]

I'll try to simplify

First, try to find 5volt LEDs. That will eliminate the math part. 4-5volts is probably close enough. Then you will need magnet wire. Radio Shack(not sure if they have radio shacks in South Africa) carries a 3 pack of 30, 26 and 22 guage. The 30 works best. You will have to scrape the enamel off the end where you will be soldering the led legs to. The longer leg is the + one and the shorter one is the - one. Tin the ends of the wire where you scraped the enamel off and tin the ends of the LED legs. Solder a length of wire to each one long enough to make it to your receiver. After you have all the leds soldered to there leads, join all the + leads to each other at the receiver end, scrape the enamel off, tin the ends, and the solder them together. repeat with the - wires. You will need a servo extension or a Y connector, depending on if you have a spare plug in you receiver.

If you have an extra channel on you RX or a battery port, just take a servo plug, solder the + led leads to the middle wire, and the - to the black wire, then plug it into your rx, and it will get its power from the BEC. The signal wire will not be used. You can pull it out of the connector casing, or just tape up the end.

If you don't have a spare channel, take a Y connector, and cut off one of the plugs that the servo would plug into. and solder the + led leads to the red wire, and the - to the black wire. Unplug any servo, plug the Y connecter where it was and a plug the servo you just pulled into the uncut servo plug on the Y connector. Tape up the unused signal wire on the light side of the Y connector.

hope that helped.

magnet wire http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... d=278-1345

LEDs http://hosfelt.com/ http://superbrightleds.com/

Edit: forgot to mention to heat shrink all solder joints, or tape them up so nothing shorts out and causes you plane to fall out of the sky.

 

[mfeuilly]

The RX is pretty safe. The BEC on the ESC is most likely to go if anything does. Test it on a 4 cell receiver pack first.

If you can't find magnet wire, some really thin regular insulated wire would work. It all depends on how much weight weight you're willing to add to you SF.

 

[mfeuilly]

Quicker, the tree did move. They do that sometimes, and even more so at night. I think they are nocturnal or something.

 

[mfeuilly]

you could actually get some from a motor, transformer, relay ect..