Flourescent light skid pipes (CCFL)

[kavic5150]

I have 2 CCFL lights in clear acrylic tubes as skidpipes. They are every bit as bright as LED strips on 3s and come in different colors. You will need the Quick UK High Strength Landing Gear Set, some separate acrylic tubing since the tubes that come with the CCFL kits dont fit in the raptor 90 struts. Unless you want to bore them out a bit, I didnt want to bother.

I know its a bit of a prodution, but its a very unique look and as long as you dont do any hard landings its no problem. I did crash once with these installed and only broke one so they are not too fragile. If you look close at the third pic, you can just make out a bit of packing peanut stuffed into the open back end of the skidpipes. This keeps the CCFL lamp from rattling during flight. I also removed the inverter from its plastic housing and shrink wrapped it ESC style to save a few grams.



Oops, I thought those were raptor 90 landing gear. After closer inspection and some googling I found them to be these:

http://www.readyheli.com/QUK-030-Quick-UK-High-Strength-Landing-Gear-Set--Black_p_35796.html Check around, those come in several different colors.

The acrylic tubing I used is 3/8 in O.D. and 1/4 in I.D. and found here:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=44019&catid=440

CCFL lamps are kinda hard to find in 8" lengths, they are usually 6" or 12". Xoxide.com has them here:

http://www.xoxide.com/coldcathodes.html

If you want 2 different colors, just get the dual cathode kit and a secondary cathode, that way you have an extra inverter. Remember to have both CCFL lamps plugged in before connecting them to a 3s lipo. They are rated for 12v and I think one of my inverters blew a fuse when I had only one CCFL and a 3s connected to it.

I have a separate 3s 1000ma lipo to power both CCFLs and 3 LED light strings. I can get 3 7 minute flights without going under 11v.

Check out my vid in the night flying videos section.