DIY Night blades

[mr70ss]

i really like them, they were such a hit at the local club, it looks like i'm going to be building a few sets for my buddies... yea they are pretty bright, i get about 35min of runtime out of them. they have a 160mah 3.7 cell. I'm building a second set (rotortech 610's) and they will have a 350mah 3.7 cell.

[mudbogger2]

They look good! Glad to hear they worked good for you.

[SB]

I've been using these parts for years. never thought to put them on blades :oops:
i got all this stuff in my basement. I'm gona cut apart 2 2S1P LiPo's and make some Thanks for the idea :lol:

[cropduster]

Where can I get the LED's??? Radio Shack doesn't have them. Anybody got a part number??
Thanx.

[mudbogger2]

The led's are 0805 surface mount led's They are pretty hard to find in small quantitys.

If you e-mail these folks ----sales [at] lsdiodes [dot] com ------

They still have some in stock they are selling off.

[cropduster]

Thanks a lot for the LED part number!! I googled it and found:
http://www.us.kingbright.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=LED&category%5Fname=0805+2%2E0x1%2E2mm&product%5Fid=AP2012EC
Minimum quantity of 1 on all of them.
They even have 2 color ones.....

[TheBum]

Another source for small quantities is Digikey (http://www.digikey.com/). I bought a lot of parts from them in the 80s and 90s. See Section O, page 2304 of their current catalog.

[legobrains]

I e-mailed sales [at] lsdiodes [dot] com and this is what they said:

Since I'm liquidating, I'm only selling these in quantities of 50+. The prices would
be $0.15 off:

0805 white $0.45/each
0805 blue $0.30/each
0805 green $0.30/each

Regards,

Sales @ LSDiodes.com

I only wanted like 10 of each color.
I'm going to check out Digikey and http://www.us.kingbright.com/product...%5Fid=AP2012EC now.
Thanks for the links guys.

[legobrains]

New update.

I e-mailed sales@lsdiodes.com and told him I can not buy that many (50 quantity's), and asked if he could sell me 10 lights of each at normal price.

So he did that.
I got 10 white (.60 each), 10 blue (.45 each), 10 green (.45 each) for with $2 shipping for a grand total of $17.

[mudbogger2]

Be sure to post some pics when you get done.:thumbup:

I grabbed 50 of each color from him. Should last me a while.

[mudbogger2]

Updating with more detail.

I have all the required items to make a set of Radix 600mm night blades shown here.

[mudbogger2]

First step is to clean the blades. Especially if they have been flow before.
Mount the lipo on the blade. Use the double sided tape to stick the lipo to the blade. Face the battery tabs in to the grips. I use a piece of electrical tape under the tabs as an insulator. This is only for extra preotection and is not a requirement.

[mudbogger2]

Nex is to mount the connector and wiring to the battery.

[mudbogger2]

Now we work on the main wiring.

Each side of the blade will have a strand of wire all the way down it for a main wire. One side will be positive and the other will be the negative side.

[mudbogger2]

Now to mount the led's. The #11 xacto blade gives you an idea of the spacing on the wires.

I apply the solder to the wires first. Then put some flux on the led and place it on the wires.
Heat the solder and the led drops into place. It takes a few tries to get it right so don't get too frustrated if you screw up a couple of led's trying. I did :D. Secure the led with CA when you are sure it is working properly.

[mudbogger2]

Once you have the led's mounted be sure to test the led's. I usually test each one as I go. Don't forget to solder each jopint where the copper circuit tape meets!

If everything is working put the heat shrink over the battery. Cut out a hole for the connector and balance the blades.

[mudbogger2]

Now you can use the male deans connectors as on/off jumpers. Also get another one to make up a charge lead. Test out in the daytime then have fun with your new night blades!

[Raven_darkcloud]

My first attempt is done. I replaced the deans with sip (single inline package) sockets to fit standard chargers and connectors. the cell is a 220 mah from my lhs. just slightly larger then the 90mah fall river cells. you can get the sip sockets at digikey they come as a strip that has scoring to pop off the length you want. I have extra if some one wants a pair or 2 for night blades. I got the leds from lsdiodes.com I now have planes to use some of this stuff for scale lighting so I will be ordering more diodes.

[siavreg]

I just want to make sure I do this right, the resistors go on all the lights. Its hard to see in everyones pics how this is done. Can someone post a close up of the resistor and how its soldered?
Thanks

[mudbogger2]

You only need a resistor if you use a red colored led. The White, blue and green led's do not require a resistor.

Just solder the resistor inline with the led on the power side if you use a red led. Also be sure to use some CA on the resistor to make sure it stays put.

[siavreg]

Thanks

[iflymyhelishigh]

can i do this on my 450 woodies :P

[mudbogger2]

Yes you can!
A smaller battery is better. 45-50 mah works well. Only use 2-3 led's.
Some have built the led's into the wood for a cleaner look.

[cdrking]

I have tried a couple of different types of these DIY blades and found that too many lights is not the way to go. It is too distracting inflight to have several BRIGHT lights spinning around. Keeping it simple is the way to go IMO.

Also are you guys checking spanwise AND chordwise CG when building these blades?

Thanks,

Jeff

[siavreg]

I didn't check chord balance just overall balance and they fly perfect. Not saying this is the right way to do it but they seem to fly fine for me.