DIY Night blades

[Magnumeng]

Got bored

[kavic5150]

Very impressive work.

[Stephen Hoover]

I am getting ready to do my trex 500x blades so I can fly after work. I ordered the LEDs and resisters from Lighthouse LEDs.
20 cents a piece for led and 10 cents for the resisters.
I'm getting the copper tape from ebay. If its not too hard i'll try cutting it in half.

Any suggestions on the light pattern.
I ordered green,blue,white,red,yellow,and orange. ya it's overkill but gives me options

I was thinking white at the tips and two separate colors on both the top and bottom side. Maybe a additional white on the bottom to help with landing?

Did anybody use a regular servo connector as a jumper to turn led on and off?

[Magnumeng]

Glad to see someone making there own blades... color wise, i always try to keep the colors that blend together (red and orange) separated by like a blue... also i put one or two extra on the top... again so i can easily tell the difference between top and bottom...

[KSHeli]

You can get centrifugal switches from Key that are very small relatively inexpensive, so the blades only light when the blades are spooled up.

Originally Posted by Stephen Hoover

I am getting ready to do my trex 500x blades so I can fly after work. I ordered the LEDs and resisters from Lighthouse LEDs.
20 cents a piece for led and 10 cents for the resisters.
I'm getting the copper tape from ebay. If its not too hard i'll try cutting it in half.

Any suggestions on the light pattern.
I ordered green,blue,white,red,yellow,and orange. ya it's overkill but gives me options

I was thinking white at the tips and two separate colors on both the top and bottom side. Maybe a additional white on the bottom to help with landing?

Did anybody use a regular servo connector as a jumper to turn led on and off?

[JWeber]

I put the warm colors on top and the cool colors on the bottom. The most recent set I made I put a white-yellow-orange-red on top and it kind of looks like a flame. On the bottom I alternated blue and green. Makes it really easy to tell top from bottom.

[TheBum]

My typical scheme is red on the tips top and bottom (DANGER!), blue on top (sky) and green on the bottom (grass).

[Guapo131]

I like to follow the convention of full scale helis, partially explained here with pic. So my canopy has green on right, red on left and tail. I don't do the "strobing thing", but I do make solid white lights visible from everywhere, like the tail, and the underside of the canopy. This convention generally follows the phrase "red right return". If you see red on the right, you are getting closer to danger. This is true of of an aircraft, a helicopter, and marine (boats). Also true of marine navigation beacons (keep red on right when returning to land).



Regarding the lights on the blades, I would put red (or at least red-ish, or mostly red) on the top. This would signify that the aircraft is heading towards you. And you can put whatever color you want on the bottom side of the blades.



For me, it all comes back to "red right return".

[smittylube]

This is an old thread.

Many links have gone away.

What is a good source for making my own these days?

I need batteries, connectors, foil tape, resistors, colored diodes.

Has anyone done tail blades? I have a tri tail setup that might be nice to try out. (E700, logo 550 se)


I’ve setup a canopy and heli pretty nicely using some RT blades on my logo, but I’d like to setup my p380 for night fun.

[clkandcjk]

I have not made night blades in a very long time. I have moved on to fpv and quadcopters. I would try Amazon for supplies. I know they have the foil tape in the illusive 1/8th width. For resistors, I bought a large combo pack from Radio Shack back in the day. For batteries and connectors, I used the same batteries an connectors that are used in small 1s helicopters

I hope this helps. I know it was hard me the first time I tried to make mine

[fastflyer20]

I found all my supplies on Amazon and Ebay. Tails are tough to make from a balance/weight perspective. I would buy tail blades or just light up the tail fin.

[Magnumeng]

Agree tail blades are difficult to make. Finding a battery small enough fit on and give you a long enough “burn” time is tough. I made a set with the same process as main blades a few years back... lost one battery in flight.

I am relooking at the idea again... this time going to try with reflective tape on the tips and a led on the tail pointed in the direction.

[smittylube]

I’ve found the premade adhesive led tape. That works ok, but obviously not on a blade.I was not able to find the 1/8 copper when I looked.
Radio shack in town has gone away.
I might still have some old 1s pack. I’ll look

[JWeber]

You can search DIY night blades on Youtube for some info. Tellarotor podcast also did one on them, but it's a bit hard to follow. However, there are some useful links on the Podbean page.

https://tellarotor.podbean.com/e/epi...-night-flying/

But you're right, most of the info is fairly dated.

[smittylube]

Made my first diy set yesterday, finished them and balanced today. 553 edge blades to use on my 516 stretch.

Hovered it Today and it stayed together.
Way brighter than my rt 530’s
Barely uses any power.

Has anyone tried more leading edge or trailing edge placements? If so what worked best?

I found since these are surface mounts at eye level I see both sides leds.

Next set I’m going to try notching slots for the leds then clear epoxy over.

Thinking of possibly drilling through the tips and placing it there then clear epoxy over it.

Tested it for 25 minutes and they stayed lit! 200 mah old eflight batteries.
Plugged in to the charger and the packs were still 4 v after 20 minutes!!!!! YES!

[smittylube]

Ok further testing.
I was able to use my Dremel and the cutting disc to slightly notch the blade, I then put the copper tape into it with a slight gap, tinned the tape, dropped in the LED presto. Clear 5 minute epoxy over the LED and it is now almost flush with the original surface. This technique to mount them was far easier for me and the finish is far better, and the epoxy brings more light. Also the leds are inside epoxy and not just surface mounted. That will help to prevent damage in transport and storage.

I was getting a weird double-disc from the LEDS being surface mounted at the wide point of the blade before and hopefully, this will solve that.

[smittylube]

Found an even better way to fix the LEDs on my next set of blades.

Saw a utube video how the guy tinned the led mounts, then pushing on the led touch the iron to the solder.this sets the one side, then same to the other, then hit the first one while pushing and it settled flat.

So I took my 1/8 copper tape, cut it to 1/16 about 3” long. Lift the center of the copper and cut a slight gap. Tin the tape, mount the led. Now you can place it wherever you want. I tested to be sure they work and marked polarity so when I run the copper strip positive on one side negative on the other, I can just notch the mounting spot and connect and poof. Then epoxy and fly!

Also put up a quick hover to 30’ in my front yard with my 550’s this time with my rt led tails and I can see it far brighter than my rt 530’s with the nickel cells. Big win for me for a first attempt. Very excited.

Thanks for all the help in this thread.

[smittylube]

My latest. One red led in the tip edge 3 more on top 2 on the bottom. Went with brighter on the bottom to help see the ground.
Test hover in my front yard.
Tried to go more similar colors top and different colors bottom so it is easier to tell the difference.

556 Rails

[myxiplx]

Looking nice. Gotta love night blades for seeing the disc :-)

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