Wiring up lighting

[sprzout]

So my field is going to be holding several twilight/night flying/camping events this summer, and I've taken to building a plane or two that is equipped with LED lighting.

Right now, all I have is one strip in the wing, that runs along the inside edge, and will be connecting in to a JST connector that I'll be wiring up to the ESC side of the XT60 connector from the battery.

I'm curious, though, as to how others might have done their wiring; do you split it all out from one central place, or do you daisy chain your LED strips? Advantages/disadvantages? I'm open to any suggestions, as I'd love to have something clearly visible in the sky for others to see...

 

[thenated0g]

I always just connect them to each other. The advantage is less wiring needed and maybe a cleaner look as you dont have to hide as many cables. Less weight if thats a concern. If you wanted to use a lighting controller to turn individual lights on and off than you would want to bring them all back to a central location. Cant really think of any negatives really, its more just a choice of what you want to do. The amps are usually pretty low on led but i guess it could be possible to overload thin wires if it supporting a ton of lights. But that is easy to check by checking the total amp draw and looking at a amp/wire gauge chart.

 

[PsyBorg]

Pure color led's draw 20 ma EACH. Blended colored can draw up to 60 ma each. This is directly off the spec sheets for the 2812 series leds which are the most common programmable 5v lights. I would not be powering leds in parallel to anything involved with flying the aircraft unless its like minimal marker lights for scale looks.

Something like this would be a good way to recycle the old and unsupported F1 flight controllers as they have the led drivers built in and you can program them thru the gui. I had done a bunch of them on the versa copter before I realized how much flight time was ate up powering them. I had head lights, tail lights, directional signals, arming status, forward and reverse status. It was fun but Id rather have the flight time.

 

[sprzout]

I always just connect them to each other. The advantage is less wiring needed and maybe a cleaner look as you dont have to hide as many cables. Less weight if thats a concern. If you wanted to use a lighting controller to turn individual lights on and off than you would want to bring them all back to a central location. Cant really think of any negatives really, its more just a choice of what you want to do. The amps are usually pretty low on led but i guess it could be possible to overload thin wires if it supporting a ton of lights. But that is easy to check by checking the total amp draw and looking at a amp/wire gauge chart.

Fortunately, it's not a ton of LEDs; I bought a strip of 300 LEDs off of Amazon, all a blue color, per my wife's suggestion; the entire length is roughly 16 ft of lights, but I'm going to use MAYBE 4-5 ft? I think I've used 3 ft of it for the wingspan, and I was going to put one more run down below the body, headed from the battery cavity back to the tail.

As to what you were saying about the draw for the lights, Psy - yeah, I'll have some draw, and it'll shorten my flight times - but I don't plan to fly all the time with the lights on; it'll be more during these few night flight sessions, so I can simply unplug them when I'm flying during the day. I figure, for the amount I'm running, I'll get maybe a minute less flight time out of a 10 min. flight? To me, that seems fairly adequate - but I get your point.

 

[thenated0g]

If they are the 2835 300led rolls, than 5 feet would be 18.w or about 1.5 amps on a 12 v system. So thats pretty low amp draw, you probably dont need to worry about it. A 2200mah 3s pack would run that for about 90 minutes, so probably not going to shorten your flight time too much unless your on a very small pack.

 

[sprzout]

LOL I'm not too worried about the loss of flight time for how much I'll be using. Yes, it'll lessen it, but I've got either 2200 mAh or 3200 mAh 3s batteries that I fly with. If I get 6 minutes, at my field, with a bunch of 3D pilots who I'm constantly watching out for that pirouette over the runway? LOL I think I'm doing good just not having a plane go down with the distractions.

 

[thenated0g]

i think at 18.5 watts would use up like 150 Milliamps over 6 minutes. If my math is right. I have a few calculator tabs open lol.

 

[ElectriSean]

i think at 18.5 watts would use up like 150 Milliamps over 6 minutes. If my math is right. I have a few calculator tabs open lol.

My math says 154mAh over 6 minutes. Either your math is good or we are equally bad

 

[Hai-Lee]

There is an old school path of simplicity in running lighting in your plane for night flying and that is to fit the LEDs where required and have a separate TINY lighting battery with JST connector.

The advantages are;

The lights are easily disabled when flying in daylight and quickly connected for night flying
The small battery means NO drain on flight battery or extra current drawn from the BEC/ESC
When fitting the lighting the tiny battery can be located so that the original CG location is perfectly maintained without re-positioning the flight battery.
Lights remain lit when you swap out the flight battery for a second or subsequent flight.
If you have a flight battery failure, ESC failure, battery ejection, or a crash the plane will still be illuminated and the crash location more easily discovered in the dark.

Old school, simple, a little heavier, and easier to balance the model.

Have fun!

 

[sprzout]

There is an old school path of simplicity in running lighting in your plane for night flying and that is to fit the LEDs where required and have a separate TINY lighting battery with JST connector.

The advantages are;

The lights are easily disabled when flying in daylight and quickly connected for night flying
The small battery means NO drain on flight battery or extra current drawn from the BEC/ESC
When fitting the lighting the tiny battery can be located so that the original CG location is perfectly maintained without re-positioning the flight battery.
Lights remain lit when you swap out the flight battery for a second or subsequent flight.
If you have a flight battery failure, ESC failure, battery ejection, or a crash the plane will still be illuminated and the crash location more easily discovered in the dark.

Old school, simple, a little heavier, and easier to balance the model.

Have fun!

Any suggestions on batteries for the TINY lighting battery? I'm not opposed to it, just curious as to what you recommend...I'm open to pretty much any suggestions on this, because I'm thinking of multiple different methods of wiring this sucker up, and so far, none have been a bad idea.

 

[Hai-Lee]

The battery size can just be what you have to hand. I have a number of 370mA/hr 3S packs that I use in old 12V RC transmitters which are quite good though very bright in 12V LED installations. You could substitute 2S pack of similar capacity or even lower if you wanted less intensity subject to the requirements or abilities of your LED installation.

A left field installation can be the recycling of an old set of LED Xmas lights along with the dry cell controller and battery pack.

Have fun!

 

[sprzout]

The battery size can just be what you have to hand. I have a number of 370mA/hr 3S packs that I use in old 12V RC transmitters which are quite good though very bright in 12V LED installations. You could substitute 2S pack of similar capacity or even lower if you wanted less intensity subject to the requirements or abilities of your LED installation.

A left field installation can be the recycling of an old set of LED Xmas lights along with the dry cell controller and battery pack.

Have fun!

Those are some good ideas; only problem I might have is where to put the batteries for the CG to stay proper/slightly nose heavy in the Bushwacker. I've built one already and killed it (ESC shut down due to heat protection, and the "landing" ripped the landing gear off and tore up the front of the nose a little bit), and trying to fit 2 batteries up in the front near the motor might be difficult at best. Maybe I'll just run it off of a connection to the main 3S battery after all.

 

[Hai-Lee]

Your plane, Your experience, your choice, Just providing a few suggestions,

Final suggestions:- A long range belly tank, as fitted for some bush aircraft which is located directly or slightly forward of the current CG position and between the landing gear can house a tiny Lipo and be made as a removable item which can be replaced with a small hatch when the battery is not required.

Have fun!

 

[sprzout]

Your plane, Your experience, your choice, Just providing a few suggestions,

Final suggestions:- A long range belly tank, as fitted for some bush aircraft which is located directly or slightly forward of the current CG position and between the landing gear can house a tiny Lipo and be made as a removable item which can be replaced with a small hatch when the battery is not required.

Have fun!

Ok, I might have to try that; Just gotta figure out how I'll attach it. Maybe just use one of the velcro battery straps to hold the tank on, the small battery, AND the large battery inside the fuselage.

I'm not negating completely any of these ideas, just trying to figure out how to make it work while also not messing up the way the plane flies...

 

[rockyboy]

Just to add my 2 cents to the LED power ideas, on planes where I'm not using battery cell voltage telemetry I power my LED's from the balance plug. No separate battery to control, and they are only on when I want to plug them in.

 

[sprzout]

Just to add my 2 cents to the LED power ideas, on planes where I'm not using battery cell voltage telemetry I power my LED's from the balance plug. No separate battery to control, and they are only on when I want to plug them in.

I'd thought about that; only (admittedly minor) problem I have is that I don't have a female balance connector plug at the moment. I've got plenty of JST connectors, though!

 

[rockyboy]

I'd thought about that; only (admittedly minor) problem I have is that I don't have a female balance connector plug at the moment. I've got plenty of JST connectors, though!

I got a pack of 10 balance extension leads off flea-bay for $3 a while back that I chop up for these. Much easier than soldering the female balance plug connector. I seem to have 3s systems on all my night flyers so far....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Pcs-JST...800649&hash=item33cbbe2c05:g:5gUAAOSw3utY4a-b

 

[Hai-Lee]

To easily tap into the balance plug to power things such as lighting, or even the fitting of a supplementary UBEC I use a simple method that is so simple that it is almost an open secret.

When you are forced to retire a battery you are required to make it safe prior to disposal by fully discharging it. After discharge I normally remove the plugs and short out the balance charge wires permanently for disposal.

The removed battery plug can be used to connect motor leads to the ESC on future planes and the balance plug can have a few pins inserted into the sockets and then used to connect an accessory to a live battery's balance plug. The pins I use are either short lengths of a paperclip or offcuts from a music wire pushrod.

Where I need to run multiple accessories I make up a small harness from the removed plugs, ("Y" harness is the most common), In my case the use of a battery voltage alarm and a supplementary UBEC . You need to exercise a little care as there is no reverse polarity protection in this system but a single inline diode can protect items such as a BEC from accidental reverse polarity.

Have fun!

 

[rockyboy]

Especially make sure to put a diode in if you're experimenting with the bare / reversed plugs. With LEDs if you plug it in backwards the lights just won't come on. If you plug in backwards to a voltage telemetry sensor like the FrSky mini lipo sensor, the magic smoke comes out and you have a nasty smell - and no more sensor. Ask me how I know.

 

[sprzout]

To easily tap into the balance plug to power things such as lighting, or even the fitting of a supplementary UBEC I use a simple method that is so simple that it is almost an open secret.

When you are forced to retire a battery you are required to make it safe prior to disposal by fully discharging it. After discharge I normally remove the plugs and short out the balance charge wires permanently for disposal.

The removed battery plug can be used to connect motor leads to the ESC on future planes and the balance plug can have a few pins inserted into the sockets and then used to connect an accessory to a live battery's balance plug. The pins I use are either short lengths of a paperclip or offcuts from a music wire pushrod.

Where I need to run multiple accessories I make up a small harness from the removed plugs, ("Y" harness is the most common), In my case the use of a battery voltage alarm and a supplementary UBEC . You need to exercise a little care as there is no reverse polarity protection in this system but a single inline diode can protect items such as a BEC from accidental reverse polarity.

Have fun!

Hai, do you have any pics of this? I'm trying to envision it, and can't picture it, unfortunately. Sounds like something easy to set up, though. As for a battery, I've got one I am in the process of retiring - it's a 3S that I somehow damaged one of the cells to, and that cell won't charge anymore. I'm just using the battery at the moment for startup checks (i.e., do I have everything wired up properly? Are my servos reversed? Does my motor spin the right way?) and trying to drain it down to empty. Once that's done, I'm going to drop it by my local Lowe's, as they have a lipo recycling box - after I clip that balance lead off!