Night flying setup, how to do?

[PDC]

Hi!

Want to try flying during the dark hours. What do I need and how do I mount the wires?

Guess I need some glow wires and night blades, but which will be the best for my e-Raptor 50? can I use rechargeable cells for the main blades? And who have a good offer for a good night kit? what kind of power source can be used for the glow wires?

Can I get night paddles and night tail blades as well?

Anything special I need to now / be warned against?

Thanks!

Paul

[chilipepper]

I've been contemplating the same issues since it already is getting dark around here at 7 and daylight saving is ending soon. So my after work 'quickies' are soon coming to an abrupt end. :^(

Sorry I have no advice to offer but I appreciate you posting the question and look forward to the discussion and recommendations.

[flyinfool]

I just got into night flying this summer myself with a R50se.
The best package that I have seen so far is from Glowire.com (http://www.glowire.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=Super60H&Category_Code=H).
Get the super 60 size heli set.
The glow wires are designed around a 9V battery, you could use a 3s lipo.

The wires are mounted using the smallest size of white (cosmetic, my preference) cable ties.
You will want to set up a canopy just for night flying so that you can drill holes to mount the wire.
Spend a lot of time planning the wire routing before you start drilling holes.
Leave the canopy white, it will make the wire look brighter.
I would recommend that you mount the batteries and inverters to the canopy for an easier conversion between day and night mode. This way you only have to put on the canopy and wrap the one wire around the tail to make the change.

For starters use two different color chemical glow sticks, one on each skid.
Add a set of MS night blades and you are set.

For your first flight plan on just hovering and some slow forward flight till you get used to the look.

Make sure that it is as dark as possible and avoid exposure to any white light for at least 15 min before your flight.

Night flying is not harder, just different, and actually may be easier once you get used to the look.

Once the bug has bit good you can go nuts with lights. My R50SE now has 13 circuits of lights, and plans for more (if it will get more off the ground).

Light her up and go at it.

[PDC]

Thanks Jeff!

Now I have something to start out with. Have checked the MS blades, and they look to be of a good quality, and rechargable.

At 3Dmasters there was a heli with some special blades there could be programmed to show a text. Anybody who know anything about these blades?

Have also seen people use the glow pins you can use for night fishing, maybe they will be good to mount on the skids?

[flyinfool]

The programable blades are still in prototype stage as far as I know.

The glow pins for fishing may be to small/not bright enough.
I use an LED powerd glow stick that I get from WallMart in the sporting good area by the flashlights. The switches in them do not last long on a heli then it gets dark.
The most reliable thing that has been found so far is the 6 inch (150mm) chemical light sticks. The 6 hour ones are brighter than the 12 hour ones and the 30 minute ones do not last long enough but are very bright..

[R-4-L]

this is great info! thanks guys, Jeff could you post a picture of your heli with gear installed?

[flyinfool]

We might be doing some night flight this weekend if the weather holds. I'll try to get some pics.
Will has a poor quality vid of me doing a boom strike at night 150' high, if we can get him to post it. :wink:

[R-4-L]

no I mean the heli with the gear on the bench! so we could see your setup ! if thats ok with you :mrgreen:

[flyinfool]

I will try to remember to get some pics of the setup and the effect tonight.

[Janek]

A BIG word of warning, make sure you get the Glow Wire driver as far away from the Rx and aerial as possible, the driver converts 9V DC to high voltage AC, thus generating quite a bit of RF noise.

Make sure you do a range check, in the daylight, with everything fitted and switched on, also test fly in daylight as well, much easier to resolve any minor issues while you can still see properly :wink:

[flyinfool]

OK you asked for it.
Heres pics in the daylight.

Some notes
Each color of wire is 10' long with its own inverter.
Each 9V battery powers 2 inverters.
The glow sticks on the skids are LED each with its own battery and switch.
The lights on the ends of the skids are motion activated LED and each has its own battery.
Notice the the fuel tank is also lit so fuel level can be seen in a flyby.
The wire that goes to the tail is routed along all of the edges of the fins.

I still have more whacked ideas in the works. :twisted:

http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/d60c44afe84de2edf00eb639c0538363.jpg
http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/df156abc571a4d30d99cfb847e3a182e.jpg
http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/80f71bd2f1dd0eaca280ebc4b1a872a0.jpg
http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/57597ce0414e3ba29cee8007357dbe39.jpg
http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/ef0bd2bed1b760aa3aa06605a8435b44.jpg

[R-4-L]

Jeff this is some serious stuff! looks very complicated but your notes clears it out..

did you get all the gear from glowire.com ?

nice pics! thanks for posting them jeff.

[flyinfool]

All of the glowire came from Glowire.com.
All six lights for the skids came from WallMart.
The led to light up the fuel tank came from RadioShack.

[PDC]

Thanks for the help, have been out in the dark tonight for the first time with my electric electric lighted Raptor, and it is just great fun and looks very cool.

Any problem if I take the power directly from a channel or two in my receiver as it is only a very low current there are drawn. ? Will it make extra radio noise if the power source are the receiver?
At the moment I just have a small 340ma 2p lipo battery.

Thanks!

http://www.rc-unionen.dk/nytforum/uploads/Paul/2005107214155_nat1.jpg

http://www.rc-unionen.dk/nytforum/uploads/Paul/2005107214234_nat2.jpg

http://www.rc-unionen.dk/nytforum/uploads/Paul/200510721438_nat3.jpg

[PDC]

And some Video

http://foto.mfk-falken.dk/fotoalbum/pauls/nattepaul.wmv

[flyinfool]

Hey there PDC, Lookin good.

I would be leary of powering the Glowire from the RX.
For one thing it is designed for 9V and the rx is at 5-6v depending on your setup.
That will cause weak output of light. Powering a few LEDs from the Rx is no problem, just watch where the wires are being routed to avoid picking up RFI.
I spoke to a tech at glowire and was told that it is OK to use a 3s lipo to power the 9V F2 inverters.

The other thing that I would worry about is electrical noise comming back from the inverters to the RX. I never did get around to measuring the current draw of the inverters to know how much extra draw the regulator for the RX would be asked to supply.

[PDC]

Hi Jeff!

Thanks! Yes, have been thinking about it aswell over the last days, and got to the same conclusion. Even that it could be nice just to take the power from the receiver, it is not worth the risk of possible radio noice back in the receiver etc. Then its better with a small lipo battery for the light.
But, if one want to controll the lights from the transmitter, it should still be possible to use the receiver to controll some digital on-off switches, there then could switch the power on and off. In this case there would be no significant load on the receiver, and no radio noise back in the receiver.

As I have seen with my setup, the current draw from the glowire and the diodes are minimal, so guess the possible radio noise risk are what should worry people most with using the receiver as a power supply.

[WillJames]

Can you send me the link to your night video again please Jeff. Thanks for all the inpout on this thread, YOU ROCK MAN!! Sorry to drop the ball, been super busy with the real job, and also sick.

[flyinfool]

Real job???
Where are your priorities? :mrgreen:

[voyager-e]

Nice pictures.
Have also one, it´s not a Rappy but very nice to fly.
http://www.helis.de/helis/shop/images/show-01-el-lights-s.jpg

[flyinfool]

Ok I learned something new, AGAIN.
With the temps dropping as fast as the sun these days, the chemical lights on the skids do not work well. Colder temps slow the chemical process that creates the light.
With temps only down as far as low 50°'s F the chemical lights are almost not visible in the air.

If you can find the LED glow sticks from Wal-Mart, they do not seem to be affected by temps that we have seen so far. The LED light sticks only last for 10-15 flights before the switch starts to fall apart but that is still less cost than the chem lights.

[PDC]

Nice heli voyager-e.

If anybody finds these LED glow sticks for the skids, then please send a link. Think they might last longer on a vibration free e-heli :-).

Thanks!

Paul

[flyinfool]

The walmrt lightsticks are very fragile.
I'm currently researching some other brands that are claimed to be more durable.
Once I get some and evaluate them I will post a link.

[mhn]

PDC, check these out.

http://www.garritylites.com/site/retail_details.php?recid=87

Got a few laying around. Haven't tried them out yet on a heli.

Michel-Henri

[scrogerio]

I install the glow wire in front of my heli, together with my receiver and battery of receiver, the 2 driver and 2 9v battery. With about 10 minutes, my heli lost the command and crash. The radio don´t work. Anyone have one problem with this?
Has any interference in install the driver and driver´s battery together with receiver? I install in total, 4 glow wire. 1 on canopy, 1 on tail bomm, 1 in ski and 1 in suport of tail. I´m use the deans micro antenna.
Please help me. I will post tomorrow, pictures of my heli and the installation.