So whats needed`?

[felborn]

I live in norway, and currently it gets dark around 16:00 leaving no room for flying helis outside of the sim. I have looked into setting up my Trex450 V2 for nightflying, but im not sure whats needed.

I know I need a pair of blades, but do I need tailblades with light as well? Also I need 2 or more glowwires running around the canopy and tail, and a driver for this. But how do I power them? Do I connect it into the main battery, or do I buy a small extra batterypack for the nightlighs as well? Any other tips or advice before I order up the various parts?

[TheBum]

Check the stickies, especially this one:

http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=44419

[aballen]

I recommend these two items

http://www.align.com.tw/shop/product_info.php?cPath=22_72_82&products_id=1567

http://www.align.com.tw/shop/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=cold+light&x=0&y=0

also the tiniest lipo you can find, I have a 200mah from csrc, but I've heard of 150 or even 100 mah batteries.... it takes almost nothing to run the cold light driver, but the driver apparently creates a lot of radio noise, so you definitely don't want to just tap into your rx.

K&B also makes glow in the dark tail blades for the 450, the only ones know of.

[p00rboi]

Another option to power the cold light driver is to connect it to the balancing taps of the main pack.

[xStatiCa]

but the driver apparently creates a lot of radio noise, so you definitely don't want to just tap into your rx.
I use a DX7 which is less likely to have glitching and plug directly into the AR6000 rx. I do run a ferrite ring on the glow driver power cable that goes to the rx though just to be on the safe side. I have never had an issue with that configuration for almost a year now. I would have been more concerned though if not using a 2.4ghz rx. The amp draw is minimal with the glow driver.

[flyinfool]

The type of interference that is caused by plugging the driver into the RX has nothing to do with whether or not you are on 2.4 or any other frequency, The ferrite ring may be saving you or your driver may be fairly clean or combination of, but I still would not plug an oscillating power drain directly into the RX.

[xStatiCa]

I see your point. Thanks for the correction. All I know is it has been working fine for me for a years worth of flying with both the Align 35 amp esc and the Jazz 40-6-18 esc with 4 (maybe 5) wraps on the ferrite ring. So far no issues or glitches of any kind.

[the_aviator]

Another option to power the cold light driver is to connect it to the balancing taps of the main pack.

The cold light driver has a JST connector, right? So where can I buy a JST to balance connector?

[TheBum]

I think you'd have to build one. You should be able to scrounge up a balance tap adapter and a JST socket somewhere. In order to get enough voltage, you need to use wires that tap off the opposite poles of two adjacent cells, i.e. the first and third or second and fourth wires.

[the_aviator]

Thanks for the info. I'll try to make one soon. I noticed that the required voltage for the driver is 5-8v, while the 3s lipo is 11.1v. No problem with this?

[TheBum]

Each cell is 4.2V fully charged, dropping to 3.7V fairly quickly. By tapping across just two of the three cells, you're only getting 8.4V initially, dropping to 7.4V. The short time that the voltage is above 8V is not going to harm the driver or the light string.

[the_aviator]

OK thanks! :)

[xStatiCa]

Some people like Anubis328 are running it off of 3s lipos directly without issue on the Align driver. The strings are much brighter too. How much this degrades the strings over time compared to lower voltage I don't know though.

[comeflywithme]

I have been powering my align driver off the ballance tab on my lipo using the full 3 cells ie 11.1V. I 've had probably 20-30 flights and they are going as strong as ever. I simply used and old ballance connector and soldered the outer two wires (red and black on FP) to the corresponding colour on a chopped off JST plug.

The driver using two 1M glow wires apparently uses something ridiculously low like 20mah so no need to be too concerned about unballancing lipos if you only use two cells.