Night Flying with GPS

[Fruitbat]

I am in the process of seting up my Logo 500 with "glowire" (electroluminescent wire that runs on 2S pack via a driver with an output of approx 120V AC @2000Hz) and night blades to extract a few more flying hours out of a week.

In order for the GPS to work properly, will I need to turn all the lights etc on and re-do the compass swing?
I plan to have a "self contained" night fly canopy. Once I have installed it and done the compass swing I will need to use this night fly canopy with the glowire turned on from now on, won't I?

I was hoping to have an entire night fly rig that is a clip on, clip off in 2 minutes setup so I can fly weekends as normal and mid-week at night, but I don't think it is as easy as that is it?

Or am I setting myself up for failure with this particular type of lighting and should go to a LED light strip arrangement at a lower voltage?.
I reckon I can get about 1.5-2 inches separation from the glowire to the GPS unit by running it along the carbon tail supports rather than the boom. Will that be sufficient?

Thanks
Dave

[georgi UK]

=] as it's the GPS you are concerned about, build the rig and test the outcome in daylight. try it without a fresh compass swing initially to see the effects, if any? at that point it should answer the rest of your questions.

and some pics would be great also!

[Fruitbat]

Thanks Georgi,
I finally got organised and completed the install. Without a fresh swing I am getting a magnetic field strength of 0.59 with everything switched off, and 0.60 with all lights etc turned on so I think I should be good to go and try it.

Because I was a bit unsure how it would affect the compass I made sure that there is no HV cables or glolight lead within 20cm of the GPS unit, which means that I have a tiny 2s pack and transformer for the lights out on the boom under the horizontal stabiliser.... time will tell if this is a good spot for it or if I will have to move it into the pod. They both weigh almost nothing but it is a long way back from the CG, maybe a main pack adjustment will be enough. LED mains and tail blades are in transit, hopefully here by the end of the week.

Ill let you know how it goes

[georgi UK]

=] that's looking well good! any disorientations will be covered by a gps rescue, cunning!

[Fruitbat]

So I tried it out last night. Since it was a crash rebuild re-maiden I had a couple of test hover flights just on dusk. A little tail wag was evident, I think due to the extra weight of the glowire driver and battery out on the boom. No problem, it tuned out OK and on to night flying.
The only problems I had were

-I connected the glowire for the canopy lights to an empty port on the Rx, which is regulated to 4.8V. This means it gets switched on and off nicely when I arm the heli. Trouble is, the glowire seems a lot dimmer than advertised. Sure enough, re-read the specs and its designed to be connected directly to a 2 or 3S LiPo.
So tonight I am going to try connecting it direct to the Rx 2S pack and see if I can get some extra brightness.

-Speaking of brightness... the ultrabright LED for the GPS is ultra ultra bright at night, too bright in fact. I have moved it under the canopy now so I am hoping that it will create a nice glow around the canopy edges, as well as providing some downlight for landng.
Is there any limitations on the length of the wires to the LED?
I am considering extending them and putting the LED in a shielded spot under the frame, which will light up the landing gear and ground better when coming in to land.

Thanks
Dave

[georgi UK]

=] good to hear Dave, I don't see a problem going longer on the led cables, you are having fun!