Night flying

[EBCooper]

I'm looking to get my T Rex 450 set up for night flying but haven't figured out the best way to power the light strings. Can you just plug the strings into the driver then run power to that from your main battery by just tapping off the battery wires that run from your battery to the ESC? Or is it better to run a seperate battery?

Second question. Are the new Align night blades any good? The look to be about half the cost of the Venoms.

Thanks in advance.

[Wa11banger]

I forget what those little connectors are called I think J something.. But I just put one on the esc side of the main battery connector and plug the align driver straight into there there when I get ready to fly.

I cannot comment on the night blades I havent used them but the ones we make although a bit expensive cannot be beat. IMO the best blades on the market..

Rick

[PG 378]

We have been flying a T Rex 450 SE night setup for 7 months now. We have 3 strings running on a 2 cell lipo. Using a stand alone battery has been great. We fly it all the time, even in daytime, with everything installed. No problems at all.

Here is a link to see a day flight http://creationseminar.net/heli_videos.htm

We don't have a filming at night. Maybe we should do that.

Also, the Align night blades are fine. Thats all we use. They hold up for several flights before recharging.

Do it.... you will be glad. :mrgreen:

[busted blade]

i tap into the power coming from the bec on the esc (rx power) to power 2 light strings on my trex 450's. the strings and driver dont even register any amp draw on my data logger although i suspect its around 1-2 one hundreths of an amp. they are plenty bright on 5-6 volts. i used to run a seperate battery for them but found it wasnt needed. i have never had a problem doing it this way.

[sbmon]

I use a small separate 350mah 2 cell lipo for 2 light strings and it is very light and works very well. I just velcro it to the bottom of the frame with the driver. I was thinking though that the ideal method for powering the light strings would be to just tap the power from the main flight battery by making an adapter that would plug in to the balance port (it would be 3s power though). I have not heard of any issues running the light strings on 3s even though 2s is recomended. As far as night flying it is a blast and the align night blades work really well.
shawn

[busted blade]

i tried running them of the main battery and smoked 2 drivers

[Bill Sanford]

i tried running them of the main battery and smoked 2 drivers

Hook a LED in series with the Align driver on 3S and it will work fine. The LED will drop the voltage and give you a bright LED to light up the heli...

I put two super bright white LED's in parallel and hooked the two in series with the driver. I used the two LEDs under a white plastic canopy to light up the entire canopy. Worked great!!

Bill

[Trooper Sam]

Nice idea! I'm still running a ghetto setup, using a regular ol' 9V alkaline to run mine.

[busted blade]

Bill, thats too bright :)

[bambamm00]

I will have to take some pictures of my bird for you guys some time...... I have my T-rex 450se set up with the yellow light wire on the tail fins and boom then I have the orange outlining the canopy, I have three led finger lights, one on the front of each landing skid then one on the rear horizontal fin poiting at the tail, and toping it off are the night blades..... it's pretty cool looking especially doing inverted at night......... My light wire runs off of one 350 mah Apogee 2 cell lipo that weighs maybe 5-6grams.......