Airframe Lighting Tips

[fliteadmin]

When your at a fantastic event like SEFF the flying doesn't end when the sun goes down.

Flying in the dark sounds like a bad idea, and it is! Unless you adorn your plane with all kinds of lighting tech first.
Here we equipped the Kraken with some internal LEDs and some electroluminescent wire (or EL wire) on the wingtips.

To go the extra mile we filled the bomb bay with radioactive waste!

Actually we just filled it with a ton of these cool little light up helicopter toys.

Here is the basic internal setup for the LED strip.

We used two 9 Mode Multi Colour/Multi Function LED Strips from Hobby King. One for each wing.

These things come with a control unit which allows you to pick through 9 pre-set "animations", from solid color, to blinking solid, to cycling colors, and others.

All you need to do is remove the sticky backing on the strip and wrap it around both sides of the spar.
To get the best effect, give the light room to dissipate. In other words, don't have the LED facing directly into the foam. From the outside you will only see little dots of light instead of the nice even glow.
But, if this is the type of effect you're looking for, experiment with it!

This is a setup with a basic single color LED strip. Just remember if you need to solder the ends of two strips together:
POSITIVE = POSITIVE
NEGATIVE = NEGATIVE

Remember, most LED strips require 12 volts of power to work properly. Less power and they will not glow as well. More power and you can actually damage the LEDs. Be aware this might vary depending on the brand you go with, so check with the manufacturer.
Use a 3 cell battery when powering your lights. If you also want to run the motor off the same 3 cell (instead of trying to fit two batteries into the plane,) you can always pick up a basic balance connector.

We hope this episode gave you guys some inspiration to get out there and be a night owl!
How do you like to make your planes glow? Let us know!

 

[bitogre]

Can we get more information about the LED strips being used? How bright are the individual LEDs (usually measured in Lumens, lux, or candles) and how many LEDs per meter were on the strips being used? Or is there a model number of the LED strips that were used so I can look up these specs for myself (BTW, The HobbyKing website does not provide this information)? I know I'm asking a very technical question but it is helpful in making sure that I get an equivalent or brighter LED strip. I really liked how well the Kraken and I want to make sure my lighting is at least as bright.

Also, I know that they were lighting up a Kraken that had no pigment on it (paint or non-transparent tape/decals). Does anyone know how different ways of decorating the plane for daylight flying effects using this technique for lighting planes at night? Are there methods that are better than others (a method with minimizes the impact on the internal lighting)?

Finally, has any one used LED strips that are individually addressable for more interesting effects?

I'm looking to build a FT Cruiser with lights and custom sensors (G and airspeed sensor using a Arduino processor connected to a FrSky X8R receiver). I'd like to get as much information as I can before building it so I can put the right types of lights in it. I would like to minimize the number of LED strips I buy and also the cost of the LED strips and I want to get it right the first time (I do not see a way of replacing these strips after you have finished building the plane) so any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jhitesma]

Finally, has any one used LED strips that are individually addressable for more interesting effects?

I've played with one, but haven't put it on a plane or multi yet. NoRegret has put some on a Tri in the multi section though:
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthre...-for-nightflying&p=99022&viewfull=1#post99022

I've just used mine for light painting - but have been thinking about putting it on my next versa:
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthre...-for-nightflying&p=99049&viewfull=1#post99049

 

[CrashRecovery]

I know this may seem cheap but I saw some colored and white ones down at autozone that are cut to fit. Best part is they have a demo button so you can see how bright they are. I'm sure if you wire them into your battery they will be brighter then a couple aa batteries

 

[bitogre]

I've played with one, but haven't put it on a plane or multi yet. NoRegret has put some on a Tri in the multi section though:
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthre...-for-nightflying&p=99022&viewfull=1#post99022

I've just used mine for light painting - but have been thinking about putting it on my next versa:
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthre...-for-nightflying&p=99049&viewfull=1#post99049

Cool. Do you know how bright they are compared to the LED Strips used in the Kraken? If you do put them on your Versa, please post pictures and/or video.

 

[rcspaceflight]

Hopefully I can actually try night flying this year. I know exactly what airframe I'd use and I'm building a new one soon. I wonder how bad of an idea it is to buy one big LED and mount it in the center of a hollow wing. And one at the nose in the hollow fuselage.

 

[jhitesma]

Cool. Do you know how bright they are compared to the LED Strips used in the Kraken? If you do put them on your Versa, please post pictures and/or video.

I've never seen the RGB strips used in the Kraken in person. But I've used the single color strips from HK that they used in the video and those are very similar in brightness to the individual addressable RGB's I got off ebay. Which is to say pretty darn bright.

In fact for the light painting they're almost too bright as it was very hard to balance the exposure - shorter exposures worked best since the LED's didn't over-expose then...but it was hard to move the strip fast enough to output the message - and I had it set to blink out the columns as fast as the code I was using could without rewriting it. My best shots actually had a neutral density filter in the lens to keep the LED's from overexposing - but then the rest of the scene was plunged into darkness. If I was going to keep using these for light painting I'd probably have to add some PWM to them to dim them a bit.

There are also at least two popular chips used for controlling the individually addressable RGB's. The ones I have I believe use one chip while NoRegrets is using the other chip. Which is better is hotly debated. The one I used may not be able to handle updates quite as quickly but is easier to program. Of course since there are libraries for both that abstract the programming how hard it is to control doesn't really matter to the end user.

Hoping to build a blunt nose versa soon with a flight controller for stabilization and to feed an OSD for FPV now that I have FPV gear (didn't have it yet when I built my first two versas) - will probably try to integrate the RGB LED's into it as well. When I get around to building it I'll be sure to share...but I'm really not in a big hurry.

 

[Craftydan]

Speaking of light painting . . . a Long exposure shot of the Kracken in night bowling (taken by Mark Murdock's wife -- from the Pecan Patch):



Took a few times through her pictures before I realized that the plane making a rainbow streak was the only one changing color . . .

 

[rcspaceflight]

Took a few times through her pictures before I realized that the plane making a rainbow streak was the only one changing color . . .

I LOVE that rainbow look.