-=Project: 550 NightFligt=-

[dadde]

Ok! Here we go!

The winter is coming to Sweden fast,
When I go to work in the morning; Its dark
When I go home from work in the evening; Its dark

I cant see in the dark so I needed to work around this, this is why I started this project.

step one: Night-blades!

An old pair of 500mm woodblades will do fine


I used my dremel to cut out for the leds on the tip's




Time to cut out for the wires that is going along the whole blade


It's there, it's just hard to see


We need LiPo power




Flatening the ends on the LEDs that is going to be on the tip




Cuting out for the LEDs that is going to be on the leading edge


I used CA to glue the leds and the wires down, and later Im going to fill it with epoxy


Fitting the leds on the leading edge


I sanded the leds sharp to make the light reflect better


Ahhh, You got to love the smell of epoxy




I sanded the epoxy down using fine sandpaper(400-1000 grit)

[dadde]

Fitting the LiPo's and connectors


I calculated that I needed a 10ohms resistor to not fry my leds and giving me the maximum use-time (4-6h)


The jumper to turn on the leds


The reason I shose Blue and Green is that both had the same specs. 3.2-3.4v (max 3.8V) and 20mA typ.








Total wheight of 1 night-blade


Wheight of 1 stock blade


Step two: The leds on the heli

I used these circuit boards, that is used for somting totaly diffrent but will work like a charm for me


The chematics of the boards looks simply like this:

its a basic constant current driver
Iout=1,25/R



I switched out the surface mounted leds to 5mm leds that I cut the ends off.

[dadde]

Exept for the ones on the tail, witch I wanted to be white.


















Exuse the mess :o




To be continued...

[kgfly]

Nice work, looks great

Do I spy an A123 pack peaking out of the top of the canopy ? If so, I'd love to hear a little more about your setup (motor/esc/pinion), flight style and flight times

[dadde]

Indeed it is a 7sA123

My setup is
Stock Gaui ESC
Align 600L motor on 14/61 gears

Flyingstyle is "Noob3D" and flighttime the last flight was 5 minutes 26 seconds.


I have redesigned the pack since this pick but it looks pretty mutch the same.

[kgfly]

Thanks. Nice homemade battery mount too, clearly you are talented mechanically as well as electrically Looks like a Hercules BEC underneath the ESC there running off the 7s A123, is that right ?

[dadde]

Thanks!
The BEC is a Hyperion Titan BEC good for 40V
Works grate, it can hande all the digital servos mutch better than the stock gaui one.

[spork]

Very nice! You've got to post some night flying pics. The only question/concern I have is the battery attachment to the blades. With them aft of the bolt-hole they may cause your blades to lead and be less stable. I'd be tempted to use the bolt-hole to secure them with an aluminum bracket.

But maybe I'm over-thinking it. Let us know how it goes.

[dadde]

6m/s here in sweden, nothing more than hovering.
Film will come when the wether does.

spork: I dont belive there is any problem having the lipo on the blade but a bracket would work, whatever makes you sleep at night

[dadde]

The weather wasent to bad yesterday:

FILM

[StatiC]

Nice DIY job!

It kinda looks like that pack is giving the bird to anyone or anything in front of the heli with that odd number cell up .