Earlier this morning I viewed a video on putting LEDs on a plane but it still is all to confusing. My goal is to put lights on a designed plane I am working on so that the lights will look like lights on the Night Vapor. My desire is to use all white lights to aid in the flight direction in the dark.
I wish I had a picture but I don't. Follow me on this, it will make sense at the end, I promise...
I made a greenhouse for in my garage a few years ago. It is 8 feet square and 7' tall.
I used some ideas I got from our Flight Test brothers when designing my greenhouse.
I planned it for the garage as Omro, Wisconsin (right next to Oshkosh.... SO, Flight Test brothers, If you ever come back to the EAA, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me a call/email. I will take you to lunch or dinner someplace around here that isn't packed to the gills, introduce you to my daughter, whom, I am trying to introduce to RC Flight. I am a shitty teacher and you guys are phenomenal, we NEED to meet up) Anyway, it is windy here more than it isn't due to Lake Winnebago, Lake Buttes Des Mortes and Lake Poygan. So, the greenhouse is in the garage so there is no wind and it is easier to keep warm. Heating bill costs way more than light bill.
I don't have any place around my tiny house to store 8'x7' panels, so I cut them in half. Now they are 3.5'x8. So, I have them attached at the center by door hinges. Two on the ends on the outside and the one in the center on the inside. That way, when I break it down for the summer, I pull the one pin and the top of the panel folds over onto the lower one. The panels are also connected by door hinges on the corners. two on the bottom section and one on the top.
That way, When I take the end off of the walls, I pull the 3 pins and my wall come apart.
----H----------------------H---
- -
H H
- -
----H-----------H----------H---
H H
- -
H H
---------------------------------
All the panels look like the above. The hinges in the center separate the wall into two halves for easy storage. The hinges on the ends attach the wall to the other walls. the two hinges on top attach the roof. The only wall different is the one with the door. It is framed the same but has a door cut into the center, so there are two more hinges in that section.
OK, WTF???
Hang on, I am getting to it... I use this concept in my big-ass planes. I have the spar that fits into the section next to it, but have a tiny jewelry chest hinge that folds over onto a loop and I put a tiny cotter pin in it to keep the hinge closed and the wing sections together.. better than tape, and for big aircraft that need the separating wings, that tiny bit of brass is negligible in weight.
SO....
With my greenhouse, I have 3 shelves on each side that are 2.5' deep. for a total of 6 shelves that are 8 feet long. In order to have enough light to grow my flowers and vegetables, I would need 4... 4foot long T5 High Output florescent bulbs per half length for a total of 8 bulbs per shelf. For my six shelves, that comes out to 48 bulbs burning 18 hours a day.
That is a lot of electricity for some stupid flowers and vegetables. well, actually it is hundreds of flowers and vegies. but still...
SO, I started to dab in LED's. Now I have 500w equivalent light (10,000 lumen) per 4 foot section that cost me all of about $50. per. 25 for the fixture and 25 for the Led's, heat sinks and drivers.
I dabbled in TONS of options over the last two years until I came up with what I have. In the mean time, I now have LED strips inside my cars, on my Motorcycle and Sidecar (gift from Hogs 4 Hero's), On and in my 1991 Snowmobile ( the led's cost more than the sled) and all over my 1994 Jetski (which was free if I would get it off of the property it was on) my wife thinks I am crazy..
in the meantime. I found 2 different option for RC lighting that works depending on your desire.
At the place I get much of my greenhouse supplies from, they have those LED strips with mirco-leds. they have a battery box for 2 AA batteries for power and the 18" strip has a bunch of Blue, Red, Green or white LED's on it. You can use those, and cut the wires and solder extensions made from Cat5/6 wiring and send your micro LED's all over the place. You can get two sets and actually combine ALL of the LED's onto one battery box but instead of two days of light, you will only get about 8 hours per set of batteries.
I find this the easiest to do when I want just a few lights here and there.
The other and my main option that I use on almost everything..
The LED strips mentioned in another response in this forum section is the LED strips that run at 12v. You can get individually addressable lights, but then you also need a controller and a way to control or program the lights. If you are just starting out OR using them on a smaller and very light aircraft, then it can be a challenge to go that way.
At this junk store which most stuff is $5 or less, I found LED strips that are 18" long and controlled with a cord that has a USB end for power and the other end connects to the lights. There is a really small circuit board that controls the lights and a controller to change the lights to any of 16 colors or fading into all of the colors from one to the next, or to flash them or fade them on and off. There is also one that is Blutooth.
For the most part, the ones with a controller work just fine. Why blutooth my bird, don't want any more signals going to or from it than needed. ALL of the lights on that set will be the same color (except if...) but for the most part, you can do what you want. Lastly, with them, you can cut the sections and as long as you soldier your 4 wires to the appropriate leads, you can have small 3 light sections anywhere you want. They are also mostly waterproof. you should paint your soldered points with liquid electrical tape. Then they are waterproof.
To turn them on, off, change color or brightness and if fade on/off or strobe, you just use your controller and poof, done.
To power them, all you need to do is come up with the proper voltage that USB is. Again, I use AA batteries. I have rechargeable. I think I have a 4 pack for my LED lights with the controller. I also hooked up a total of 30" of lights by cutting other strips. For the most part, the driver will drive all of them, just chew thru the batteries faster.
My power supply is 3 AA batteries in series and one in parallel. I think I get about 30 minutes from them. I don't really know, I try not to use them unless it is starting to get dark and by the time I am playing with lights, I don't keep track of time. When I change one set of batteries, I change ALL of them at one time.
On my larger foam planes, I have 3 sets of power. One pack (or two) for the motors, depending on if I have 2 or 4, and one pack dedicated for the receiver and one pack dedicated for any extra's such as lights. That way, If I burn one pack out (use up the last electron) then it wont affect control or power. Overkill? prolly, but having been 22 years in the army with the last 7 in special missions, I believe in segregated systems so one failure doesn't kill the whole mission.
If you actually read all the way thru this long book of an answer AND are interested in HOW I did my lighting systems, I would be happy to get you the details of what parts I use and how I chopped them apart and tailored them to our RC hobby.
If you want lighting and control, that is my life. I also work arduino for my green house. I control my lighting, I control my pumps for the Aeroponics and hydroponics and I control other features of it all with arduino and LED's and such.
As for RC aircraft, I am pretty much new/old stock. I did a lot of scratch building of Balsa planes and a few foamies back in the mid 80's to 1991 when I went into the Army. Then in 2006 I became a SUAS (Small UAV) operator in the Army before special missions. Outside of that, I am only now getting back into the hobby as I am trying to use some of the STEM ideas to introduce my daughter to the sport. Not just for Aero and my love of Aircraft and the EAA, but for the automation, remote controls, remote video and telemetry as well as working with microprocessors (Arduino) and robotics/automation.
I am sure I will be full of questions about all of the new radio functions and receivers and protocols but not here...