Position lights

[swampfox201]

After 4 hours of soldering and several burnt fingers I got my lights mounted. There are four of them. A white landing light behind the cowl under the fuselage, a red one on the left wing, a green one on the right wing and a flashing red one on top of the fuselage just ahead of the tail. They are all LEDs. Right now they turn on when the battery is installed but I need to install some kind of switch to turn them off when flying during the day.

[altitudejunki]

That's Amazingly Beautiful! I just got my Cub last week and have been wanting to do this since the weekend. If you don't mind my asking, what LEDs did you use? did you need to use drivers too? I'm want to convert the X-whatever plug/switch on the Tx unit to control the landing lamps, but the switch seems to disable my motor when pressed, does this happen to anyone else?
-Scott

[swampfox201]

Thanks for the compliment. I didn't use the x-port connection on the bottom of the plane. I branched off the power wires where it hooks up to the battery. Here is a link to a site that talks about how to power LEDs and where to buy them. I bought the ones recommended. I spent about $20 on lights, resistors and wire.

www.rc-cam.com/led_info.htm

The thing that confused me the most was that you have to add a resistor for each LED to keep it from burning out. That means getting the specs from the LED manufacture and then finding the right resistor using the resistor calculator at the above link. Also I used a voltage regulator to drop the 8.4v from the battery to 5v. That way they stay the same brightness even after the flight is over.

The easiest way to add lights to you cub is to buy the LED x-port module. I don't have it but I think the lights change pattern when you push the button on the transmitter and yes the engine will die when the button is pushed. I thought about doing it this way but I wanted the plane to look more realistic. I really wanted to put the blinking red LED on top of the tail but that was going to be a pain if I had to replace the tail.

If you or anyone else wants to try this let me know and I can post some more pictures of the wiring and how I ran the wires.

Todd

[altitudejunki]

Hey Todd;

good call on the information. I'm going to try and put some lamps into my plane soon, but I want to make it near scale...I'll be certain to upload some photos as soon as I do it.

if it helps, I think the blinking light should normally go on top/bottom of the fuse and then a red positional lamp goes on top of the aerial followed by a white lamp off the back of the tail...or at least, for commercial aircraft it does. from pictures I've been searching today, it appears there's two landing lamps coming off the port side, leading edge wing....I'm toying with some smaller leds from Luxeon and a seperate energy source - AAA's or something.

www.lumileds.com/products/family.cfm?familyId=19

-Scott

[swampfox201]

Yea I'm sure mine isn't totally realistic but thats ok. I just wanted it to look cool and be able to fly at night. I thought about putting a white light on the back of the tail but I got to thinking about flying at night and was concerned I would get confused on whether the plane was flying towards or away from me as I would have a white light on the back and front. In the cameras forum I talked about how to use a x-port drop module to trigger a digital camera. Maybe something like this could be used to trigger the landing lights?

Good luck and yes please post some pictures!!

[altitudejunki]

swampfox201 said:

Yea I'm sure mine isn't totally realistic but thats ok. I just wanted it to look cool and be able to fly at night.........In the cameras forum I talked about how to use a x-port drop module to trigger a digital camera. Maybe something like this could be used to trigger the landing lights?

Absolutely todd, you certainly have covered the cool aspect.

I want to use the X-port, but does you're cut out the motor when you press it? mine does, and this could be a show stopper if so... otherwise, I'd like to replace the momentary switch with a spst type switch, allowing the landing lights to be controlled.

-Scott

[swampfox201]

Yes on my plane when I push the x-port button down the motor will cut out for as long as the button is pushed down. I guess I'm not familiar with a type spst switch. If it is a toggle switch of some kind that would work with the camera drop module mod I did. I used a relay switch on that project and if used that way the lights could be turned on/off by holding down the button but the motor won't run that way.

If the spst switch is a toggle then hitting the button for a second to turn on and off lights isnt' that big of deal and I think it would be pretty cool to be able to turn the landing lights on and off.


Todd

[swampfox201]

Oh yea another thing is since the plane is foam I can see the wing lights from below even though the lights are mounted on top of the wing. You call also see in the picture how the landing light makes the front of the plane glow.

[lawndart63]

Swampfox,
That is so cool. A simple resistor + capacitor circuit may aid your need for a FLASHING BEACON on top. Is the diode on the the front high intensity? It has such a good pattern. Due to my late working hours this would be a help, now I just have to light up the trees on the glidepath.
Andy

[SCC]

swampfox201 said:

If you or anyone else wants to try this let me know and I can post some more pictures of the wiring and how I ran the wires.

I would like to see that.

Good job on the lights Todd.

[swampfox201]

Swampfox,
That is so cool. A simple resistor + capacitor circuit may aid your need for a FLASHING BEACON on top. Is the diode on the the front high intensity? It has such a good pattern. Due to my late working hours this would be a help, now I just have to light up the trees on the glidepath.
Andy

Hi Andy,

If you go to this link... www.rc-cam.com/led_info.htm the LED I used for the landing light was RL5-W6030 from Super Bright LEDs. And the light on top of the fuselage does blink. Super Bright LEDs offers a LED that blinks without having to add a capacitor

[swampfox201]

I tried some night flying out tonight. I wanted to go out just before dark so I could still see the plane somewhat. Unfortunately wife had dinner ready then so I went out later when it was pitch dark. Flying at night was a lot harder than I expected. Kinda scary really. I kept it fairly close and low so I could see the lights clearly but even then I had a couple times where I wasn't sure what it was doing. One time I got confused when the plane was banking hard and it looked like the plane was upside down....it wasn't. The lights looks good though and the landing light would cast a nice white circle on the ground even from 15 feet up.

For what it worth here is my advice for anyone wanting to try this: They are called position lights for a reason. Make sure to mount the lights in a way that allows you to see them the majority of the time and to use colors that are easy to tell apart. If someone were to use all white lights I'm fairly certain the plane would crash because it's just too confusing.

I will post some pictures of the wiring.

Todd

[SCC]

If i got into night flying i would try 4 white lights. Instead of them looking away from the SC i would rig them looking at the SC. Two on the bottom looking at the underside of the wings, the white of the wing will bounce light onto the fuselage and two on top strategically placed. Maybe all four at the tips of the wing looking down the line of the wing.
The lights may have to be flagged so the light source is concentrated on the SC.

[swampfox201]

Yes I think that would work. I think it would look nice too. On mine I couldn't see the plane at all just the lights.

[SCC]

Found this on youtube.
youtube.com/watch?v=xIIHsr2w_iQ&mode=related&search=