Night Flying for EP200?

[J-Heli]

Anyone heard of any night flying gear for the EP200 yet? I've live in Hong Kong in an apartment, and the only place I can fly, within an hour cab ride is my school's field/gym. If I could fly at night, then I could just walk downstairs and hover in the walkway when no one was there.

[Gr4yb3ard]

I'm setting up one of my larger heli's with lights for this exact reason.

Hmm, with a 200, we're not going to find off the shelf lighted blades, at least anytime soon.

Engineering wise, I guess it's possible to run a slip-ring connection and wire some led's in the bladetips using copper tape conductor ,maybe... but that's a stretch, the wires would have to feed up through the head, and everything would have to hang on at 3000rpm. I don't really see enough room for a slipring and a place to mount the brushes.

As far as position (navigation) lights go, sure! The kits now are pretty light and power-efficient. They're about $25. I forget the vendors name(s), but I'll get back on that one.

Cold-light strings, well, maybe in small amounts.

I think it first boils down first to whether we can design a setup to give the pilot orientation, without being able to implement bladetip lights.

Maybe that would do the trick, if not bladetip lights would be the second step. Shucks, though, it'd think the rotor lights would be half the fun!

Maybe a hearing aid battery and small led glued into a recess milled into the tip? We could shove a piece of paper under one contact, or just remove the battery to turn it off. But again, if anything let's go, that hearing aid battery would take off like a pellet rifle, and the heli is probably doomed.

Cold-light string set into a milled knotch in the blades leading edge, mount a small battery on top of the head? This might be better. Laser diode pair in the head and some kind of reflector on the tips? But the tips will flex, hmm

For now, any way I look at it, seems like a bunch of work
Lemmee chew on this one for a while....

Gr4yb3ard

[J-Heli]

Big cities suck :thumbdown:! Yeah, I wasn't sure that it was very practical because of it's size, but I'm desperate for stick time, without having to go all the way across Hong Kong Island to fly my Gaui, and if I did that I might as well just fly my T-Rex. Oh well, life is like a box of chocolates, half of it is good, and the other half sucks! Couldn't resist :P.

[stoatnchips]

Gr4yb3ard, i like your thinking here... for something this small we are gunna need some 'out of the box' thinking! Heck, no one makes CF blades for the 200 yet... let alone Night blades!!! Again, coz i'm still kinda new to all this, i can only go on my gut feeling for the engineering on night blades. It seems that the manufacturers of the blades solder lipos, LEDs and charging sockets together and then set this into CF resin blades. This is gunna be hard to control final blade weight... and so preserve good balance. On a 200, this problem is just exagerated!! So what about something completely different for night flying... As the 200 is so small, we do not need a massive flight arena... and also lets say that Cuzz or other pilots wanna practice hovering or 3D in a confined space... UV could hold the answer!!

The PC modders use 1" UV heatshrink in different colours...
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1842/ele-193/1_Blue_UV_Reactive_Heatshrink.html?tl=g35c181
...so cover each blade in a different colour UV tube and then spray paint the top of one blade matt black and the bottom of the other, to get a different disc colour for each side of the blade hub. Next spray the canopy and tail fin with UV paint or wrap UV lace around it for illumination. Finally get a coulple of cheap tungsten halide floodlights and fit UV lamps to them like this, to Flood the flight area with UV light:
http://www.uvgear.co.uk/product/product144.htm

can't see the setup going above $250US to illuminate a small area... the up side is replacement after a crash is really cheap... standard wood blades with new heatshrink and a repainted replacement canopy.... whatcha think? mileage in the idea or another off the wall crazy stoat idea? :)

[J-Heli]

I think it would be cool to try just to say went through all that trouble to fly 10 total minutes a t night instead of waiting until the morning :smokin:. Actually, if you really wanted to fly at night with the little Gaui, it wouldn't be such a bad idea ;). Keep chewin' guys.

[Gr4yb3ard]

Stoatster,

That's really out of the box, good idea! No, that's brilliant!!!

I'm going to pour a little water on it though, probably about three or four hundred watts minimum for the "illuminator", maybe 20 to 30 feet range, at a guess, but...

We also may not need any special stuff, I think there's uv paint for this, that's lot's lighter than special coverings, not to mention batteries and such.

This one makes 'ya think, it could be simple and rather spectacular! And, just possibly, imagine <invisible> night markings! And anywhere, anyplace on the entire heli!

I'm starting to look at lamps and paints tonight.

Whoop! Whoop!

Gr4yb3ard
"...I really like this place, they think, they question..."

[Gr4yb3ard]

Guys,

I'm stoked! I think it will work. It's just possible that we may have just launched an industry here.

Big moola ? Sorry, I'm tired of start-ups, and the market is to small for the amount of work involved... ;-(

Yet behold! I, Captain Gr4yb3ard,plant a flag in the ground at this time and date. If this idea works, and is accepted, forever will an illuminator be referred to in slang as a "Stoat", and the paint/covering/art on the heli referred to as one's "Cuzz!

And... the first vendor to provide this equipment to the market owes credit to these names and never-ending free supplies to the genious behind the idea.

Gr4yb3ard
"...cap's doin' a jig on the foredeck, what gives?... ...that hinternet witchery 'o his most like..."

[rotorhead58d]

i just have a chick shine a really bright light on it at night. the heli......:YeaBaby:

[crabfu]

I fly nights often as well. Seems like most people get the gaui to fly in the backyard, at least I did... I'd assume that there is a strong market for night setup. Put me down on a pre order or whatever contraption you guys come out with :)

-Crabfu

[Gr4yb3ard]

Well,

I'll take it as a vote of confidence that both the best and the worst have commented on the project!

Gr4yb3ard
"... ;-) ...."

[crabfu]

Someone did this for the walkera 52 on rcgroups: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8280899#post8280899

-Crabfu

[mjr_larkin]

Someone did this for the walkera 52 on rcgroups: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8280899#post8280899

-Crabfu
Very neat! I think the obvious answer for night flying is to attach a video camera and transmitter and fly FPV with a lcd visor with the cam in night exposure mode :smokin:

[J-Heli]

Add me to the pre-order list :YeaBaby:! You guys are geniuses! All there's left to do is GIT-R-DONE!

[stoatnchips]

I'll leave Gr4yb3ard to monkey around with the UV idea... its by far the best solution IMHO. But if anyone else out there would like to try an easier solution and take a small hit on the aerodynamics then Gr4yb3ards original 'slip ring' idea is still valid. Look carefully at your hurricane and you'll spot the handy little slip ring thats built in already and a quick visit to Radioshack(US)/Maplin(UK) and build your own :)

3V regulator - with JST conectors to tap into the lipo esc line
some ultra bright surface mount LEDs
some multi core cable
thin copper sheet - like 'cut with a pair of scissors' thin!
regular sticky tape about 15mm wide

Strip 10" of the multi strand coper wire and seperate the tiny strands of copper. Make up 4 'eared' washers from the copper sheet to solder the wire too. Put 1 washer under a M1.4 bolt on the central boom to provide a ground that runs up the main shaft. Put the next washer on one of the M1.6 bolt holding the balls on the lower swash, the 3rd on an upper swash plate bolt and the final one on the M1.6 bolt through the Rotor Yoke. Solder some of the copper strands to the surface mount LEDs (gotta have good eys and a steady hand!). Then carefully lay the strands/LED down a length of sticky tape, being careful not to short them and the stick the tape to blades... effectively sandwiching the copper strands and LED between the tape and the blade. Then just finish soldering everything together!
Its not elegant, and the LEDs will probably flicker slightly as youre using bearings to carry the voltage but it'll work... unless they are using ceramic bearings... best to check continuity with a multimeter first!! ;)

[rotorhead58d]

Add me to the pre-order list :YeaBaby:! You guys are geniuses! All there's left to do is GIT-R-DONE!

please tell me that china is not infected by rednecks.....git-r-done, in hong kong? we are all doomed!:arggg:

[brandon_8]

please tell me that china is not infected by rednecks.....git-r-done, in hong kong? we are all doomed!:arggg:

:lolol

[Gr4yb3ard]

HAH!!!!!

You guys never cease to amaze me!

One problem I realized though upon awakening.... Young Master Heli-Cuzz may not have an outlet available!!! Go check on this dude.

However, I will prototype, a bit. I plan on starting with about 100watts indoors (easy guys, I've got my left kidney on eBay so I can just get my 600 batteries...).

I vaguely remember some transparent markers that emit in UV, that's my first bet, everyone please keep your eyes open! Markers, paint, tape, etc.. This will also be a good excuse for me to pick up a little, disposable indoor heli. Any suggestions on that?

Gr4yb3ard
"... he's actually a 247yr old Zoratian Jedi, died twice in the clone wars, don't mess with him, he'll rip your lungs out..."

[stoatnchips]

For anyone who foolishly bought their Mrs. one of those pointless, carcinogenic toys known as a Sun Bed... we just found a far better use for it!!! Drag it out into the back yard, open her up and wait for the sun to go down!! 2500Watts and parabolic reflectors built in - Wohoo!!! ;)

[Gr4yb3ard]

EERRF!

...have you ever heard of "soda-pop through the nose syndrome"?

You guys are a menace to society, a threat to decent pirates everywhere, actually.

If I laugh any more, I'm going to the E.R., okay?

I'm going to log off now and try to do some honest work for a while...

Gr4yb3ard
"... PORT UPPER, CHAINSHOT AT THE DECK! FIRE AT WILL!!!..."

[rotorhead58d]

what about using black lights, with flouresent paint? :dontknow

[stoatnchips]

Rotorhead, i thought 'Black Light' was Ultra Violet light??:confused:

Gr4yb3ard... I think my sister summed it up best...

Many.... i mean a few..... years ago, when i were a nipper... the whole stoat family was sitting down to a meal and my folks asked what i had been tinkering with in the garage all day. I expalined whatever it was to them and most of it went over their heads!!
Not understanding a single technical detail of what i had said, but with the typical motherly pride we all know; my old dear said "You've always been full of bright ideas!!"....
...to which my sister replied... "well... he's always been full of something"

[J-Heli]

please tell me that china is not infected by rednecks.....git-r-done, in hong kong? we are all doomed!:arggg:

I think that the term, in context of a chinese or asian person would be yellow neck :smokin:.

[rotorhead58d]

:cheers

[mjr_larkin]

I think that the term, in context of a chinese or asian person would be yellow neck :smokin:.
no it's still redneck,.

[J-Heli]

no it's still redneck,.

Nope don't think so :thumbdown:! I would know since I live there.