Wiring up lighting

[Hai-Lee]

Luckily I have a need for a new extension plug for one of the repairs I have in progress, (to fit a supplementary UBEC to drive flaps and retracts.

I will construct one in a few hours as flying starts here in about an hour and I am starting to pack up for the field. Will try to get some pics of the process and the completed item and post them after flying.

Have fun!

 

[Hai-Lee]

Firstly I appologize for the quality of the photographs as I am technologically challenged, (do not have access to a smart phone or a decent camera.

Anyway here goes:

photo below shows the 2 donor batteries and the UBEC as well as a voltage alarm and the "Puffy" HR setup battery that I use for bench test setups.

Remove the donor balance plugs and safely dispose of batteries.

Remove the 2 center wires and sockets from one of the donor sockets

Trim the wires to length and fit the removed sockets to the center 2 wires on the second plug, (blue and white) First glimpse of the donor paperclip.

The sockets previously removed reinserted into the original socket ensuring that the colour sequence is maintained or the same. The red wires are twisted together and tinned as are the 2 black wires. The UBEC is prepared with the provision of heatshrink, (Sorry I am out of black).

UBEC wires soldered to the socket wires, (red to red and Black to Black) heatshrink positioned and shrunk ready to go. 4 Pieces cut from donor paperclip ready for insertion.

the 4 paperclip pins fitted and everything ready to be connected and tested.

Test setup showing UBEC power light on and the Battery voltage alarm also cycling through its displays.

The whole process took only 65 minutes. 5 minutes to do the wiring soldering and testing and 60 minutes to take the photos, download them to the PC and write this post.

I hope this helps!

Have fun!

 

[sprzout]

See, this is why I LOVE FT - we get started on one topic, and then we get to a couple of solutions, and the community is more than willing to share how they've done something that will benefit others!

Hai, you rock, man.

 

[Bricks]

For lights I use the balance plug lead and for the wire to keep my small foamies light I use wire that is used for rewinding our small electric motors. It is coated and easily soldered I can run all the wire I want and weight is negligible.

 

[rockyboy]

Firstly I appologize for the quality of the photographs as I am technologically challenged, (do not have access to a smart phone or a decent camera.

The whole process took only 65 minutes. 5 minutes to do the wiring soldering and testing and 60 minutes to take the photos, download them to the PC and write this post.

I hope this helps!

Have fun!

Very neat approach to this! And a safe one too I think.

I'm pretty sure those particular battery alarms have voltage protection in case it's put in backwards - at least the cheap clones of that design I have in my tool box have been OK when I've put them in backwards. And there is no backwards danger from the LEDS - it will either work or it won't.

If you do use a FrSky lipo sensor be very careful as they do burn up if plugged in backwards. The only other thing I could see to watch out for with this setup is if for some reason the connection comes loose at night you could lose visibility. Just make sure the components are snuggly fit in the plane so they can't shift about and pull the connection. Even if that happens, the outward pointing pins are never live with power so as long as you can see the plane to get it down, it won't burst into flames in the sky on you.

 

[sumone]

Mabey this has already been explained but just to clarify

If i want to use a 12v led strip sharing the main 3s battery and want to connect using the balance plug only I need to tap into just the red and black wires of the balance lead and ignore the white,yellow wires correct ?.

If so that would be good for me as i have a bag of 3s female balance plugs floating around some where that i could solder to my led strip.

 

[ElectriSean]

I don't think there is a standard for balance plug wiring colors, but you most likely want the black and whatever is furthest from it. Verify with a volt meter if possible.

 

[JimCR120]

I am curious about the XT60 & 30 connectors. Is that for versitality or do you use the extra for an auxiliary circuit?

 

[kilroy07]

Allow me to shake things up just a tad... You might want to consider at least one more color of LEDs to help with orientation.

<Misleading comment deleted>

I was mesmerized by the night action at FF! I was thinking about a project... anyone know if there's been anyone who's tied an Arduino to control the lights?....

 

[kilroy07]

I am curious about the XT60 & 30 connectors

I think he mentioned that's for his bench battery (I have something similar) when one cell goes a little flakey it's no good to fly on, but you can use it to center servos, check motor rotation, stuff like that.

 

[Hai-Lee]

There seems to be a great mystery or at least serious misunderstanding as to the connections of the balance plug.

For a 3S1P battery pack there are 3 cells. They are stacked in series and from the zero voltage reference rail the first cell can supply approx 3.7V. The second cell is connected in series in that its negative terminal is connected to the positive terminal of the first cell. So from the zero voltage reference rail the second cell has its negative terminal at 3.7V and its positive terminal is at 7.4V. The third cell is stacked on top of the second cell with its negative terminal connected to the positive terminal of the second cell in the pack. So the third cells terminals will read when measured from the zero volts reference rail, Negative terminal - 7.4V and the Positive terminal - 11.1V.

This is the physical facts of a 3 cell pack and the 3.7V per cell is chosen as a representative voltage for each cell in the storage condition.

NOW, the balance plug has, (for a 3 cell battery pack), 4 wires. The connections are simply the zero reference voltage point, the connection between the first cell and the second cell, the 3.7V point, the connection between the second cell and the third cell, the 7.4V point, and the final connection is the remaining connection or terminal of the third cell, the 11.1V point.

Unless you disconnect or break the inter-cell connections of the battery pack connecting any of the balance wires together will result in smoke and possibly even a fire! If the balance plug had all positives connected then again the balance plug wiring would short out a number of cells. And similarly if the balance plug had all of the negatives connected together a number of cells would likewise be shorted out. There are no a common positive or negative cell connections at the balance plug!

Just clarifying things in the interest of safety!

Have fun!

 

[kilroy07]

connecting any of the balance wires together will result in smoke and possibly even a fire!

Ah! Well... Good to know!!

Just clarifying things in the interest of safety!

I edited my prior post so not to mislead anyone.

Thanks for clearing that up!
See you can learn something new every day.

 

[ElectriSean]

I was mesmerized by the night action at FF! I was thinking about a project... anyone know if there's been anyone who's tied an Arduino to control the lights?....

I haven't done it on a model, but I've played with it on the bench. Check out the FastLED library for Arduino, it's amazing

 

[Hai-Lee]

Ah! Well... Good to know!!


I edited my prior post so not to mislead anyone.

Thanks for clearing that up!
See you can learn something new every day.

It was not an explanation for any specific persons beliefs as there are many myths going around BUT rather to dispel all myths and hopefully even allow those who are experimenting with making their own battery packs or those trying to repair battery packs to better understand what is a normal set of battery pack internal connections so that then are able to fit their own balance plugs which will work on their balance chargers.

Have fun! (Safely!)