DX6i screen backlight!

[BigDave76]

Hello fellas, I just purchased a "do it yourself" DX6i backlight kit and cant wait to see how it all works out! It looks like its much nicer than using actual LED lights.

It involves a lil' soldering, plugging and unpl.... well, theres actually a video on the whole installation process.


I'm glad i found this, because its tons cheaper through this guy than through other sites that sell similar kits on the net. But like I was saying, heres the link to the video, and I'll post as soon as I get mine in and start slappin' it all together.

http://www.rc-help.com

[kavic5150]

Good to see you bought the one with the el panel. The led backlight kit looked cheesy. Guy said that white leds were too bright and washed out the LCD display so he had to use yellow LEDs. Weak.

I just saw a backlight kit, I think it was here, anyway, guy used something called lumitex or luminex. Basically its a fabric made of plastic fiber optics. Looked really cool, but the only website I found that sells this stuff is in europe. France or italy, It was a late nite when I found this stuff so I'm fuzzy on the details.

Heres a link to the vendor:

http://www.lumigram.com/catalog/prod...products_id=89

Looks like fun, but I think I'll wait for the price to drop a bit.

Anyways, not trying to hijack your thread. Show us some pics when you get the dx6i lit up.

[greatbrit]

Originally Posted by kavic5150

Good to see you bought the one with the el panel. The led backlight kit looked cheesy. Guy said that white leds were too bright and washed out the LCD display so he had to use yellow LEDs. Weak.

I just saw a backlight kit, I think it was here, anyway, guy used something called lumitex or luminex. Basically its a fabric made of plastic fiber optics. Looked really cool, but the only website I found that sells this stuff is in europe. France or italy, It was a late nite when I found this stuff so I'm fuzzy on the details.

Heres a link to the vendor:

http://www.lumigram.com/catalog/prod...products_id=89

Looks like fun, but I think I'll wait for the price to drop a bit.

Anyways, not trying to hijack your thread. Show us some pics when you get the dx6i lit up.

I found this on EBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...:X:AAQ:US:1123

It's made by Lumitex, I emailed the seller and he said the size is 5" X1.5". I am awful with electronics, so don't know if this will do the job for a DX6i. It says it runs on 2V so I don't know what will happen at 6V, and I don't know if it can be cut, or rolled up, or if it will fit flat at 5" long. If anyone does know, I'd love to give it a try.

[kavic5150]

Its fabric so Im guessing it can be trimmed to a shorter length. Not sure tho. As for voltage, you can find the correct resistor using this:

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

Just remember to use the maximum value for voltage ie fresh nimh cells fully charged or brand new energizers. It will make a significant difference in brightness.

The ebay item comes in that awful amber color, maybe I could solder in a different color LED.

[greatbrit]

Thanks very much for the reply. I used the calculator you pointed to. Sorry for my ignorance, the spec is: 2Vdc, 20 to 30mA power, so to get it at its brightest I should use 6,2,30?

In vseries post with awesome instructions ( https://www.helifreak.com/album.php?albumid=2470 ), he went with amber, which will work for me (especially as I wouldn't have to mess with the already included LED), but I don't think it would be a problem to replace the bulb (blue is my favorite), so I might consider that once I see how it's put together. I did read in one of the posts that white might be too bright as it washes out the screen.

[BigDave76]

I would personally suggest you go with the one I got. Its made specifically for the DX6i, and is shipped to you ready to drop in the DX6i wired to its own dedicated power supply (powered by 2 AAA's) and on off switch. No soldering required if installed as received.

heres the link: http://rc-help.com/backlight.html

You can opt to have the backlight be powered by the Dx6i's power by soldering two wires to the motherboard.

It also comes with about 6 different color options. You pick the color you want the backlight to be out of the included color sheets, and stick it to the backlight. I chose orange.

It is a lil pricey, $45 shipped, but it is a perfect backlight upgrade, made specifically for the DX6i, and it will look like what a real backlight is supposed to look like. Not like a cheap LED experiment gone wrong, LOL..

[kavic5150]

I think big dave is right. And from what I saw on that (french? Italian?) website, the lumitex doesnt seem to give off an evenly distributed glow. An el panel will however. Electroluminescent wires/panels create almost no heat, and do not interfere with 2.4ghz signals. And even though it is called white light, it will have a slight blue/green tint to it. Very cool looking stuff.

If you want to go with the lumitex product and want to know what your input voltage is, just take a new, fully charged AA NiMh battery, check its voltage and multiply by 4. Or measure the voltage of whatever wire your splicing into in your dx6i.

[BigDave76]

Holy CRAP! I just installed my backlight kit and its AWESOME!!!!





I think it's WELL WORTH the $45 shipped to my door!

[kavic5150]

Can we see a pic without the flash?

[BigDave76]

Sure, just waiting for it to upload, its taking for ever... But honestly, it looks about the same. its a bit brighter than its showing in the pictures. I opted to remove the silver backing on my screen to make it as bright as possible.

The seller said it gives the best results, as he did it on his, but is not a necessary step in the installation process. He actually advised me NOT to remove the silver backing layer because it may very possibly ruin the DX6i screen permanently in the process if i were to pull up the darker film underneath the silver backing. I took the chance with full knowledge of possibly ruining my screen. The seller doesnt want to claim any responsibility for anyone ruining their DX6i's.

[BigDave76]

Also, if you ever use your Dx6i with the Phoenix Sim, the TX has to be off to work with the sim, but since the kit comes wired with an on/off switch and its own power supply, you can still switch the light on for use with the sim! I'm loving this kit!!

[BigDave76]

Sorry it took so long, but heres that pic you requested. My camera just isnt picking up the intensity of the color. I actually matches the orange on the face of the Dx6i.

[Rago]

Here is mine, done with a fiber mesh. The mesh cost me 15.00 from ebay and I got an LED and resistor from Radio Shack for less than 5 bucks. Unfortunatly all I have is my phone to do pics ATM and it really does not do it justice.

[Rago]

Here is a vid as I could not get my camera to take a decent picture.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQAAQHJB66M[/ame]

[greatbrit]

Just a quick update. I successfully installed the lumitex solution, it looks awesome! (I ended up dumping the included amber LED and going with a high capacity blue which looks just like as in Rago's video). There are some faint vertical lines like the ones in vseries' tutorial, but you can't really notice them from a foot or two away. I had one very slight install issue of not getting the LCD panel exactly straight when I glued it back on, so be careful with that. One difference from Rago's install is that I discovered that you can cut the lumitex weave to shape, so I was able to get it to the exact length, so didn't need to remove the left side LCD support and was able to glue the LCD to that.

I no longer see the EBay lumitex panels that Rago and I bought, but it might still be possible to get the free panel that vseries got from lumitex.com (you have to hunt around a bit to find the free sample request). The only issue I see with that one is it's a bit too narrow, so the display lighting is cut off top and bottom. But as a cheap solution it can't be beat (free panel, one pack of resisitors @ $1, one LED @ $4)

[Katch]

Can anyone work out how this guy did this?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2NPKuqPbl8[/ame]

He's got the backlight wired so it comes on when the scroll wheel is used.

[mavrick500_69]

Looks Awesome!!....Where did you get the kit?