programmable lights?

[mattox]

Im looking for some led lights that i can somewhat program but i dont want to spend 230$ on the dalcon that bobby watts designed. is there any other alternitive? to make my lights blink and do cool stuff?lol

[The Dude II]

Guessing you want more than just a few channels of brushed speed controllers!


ATMEL and a whole bunch of time.

Looked into this ~ year ago to see...maiden was Jan 22, 2011 and has flown ~ 20 more times (1 was XFC while setup was underway after the rain) and has been rock solid.

YouTube

YouTube

At $230, what Bobby has done is great...I was projecting mine to be a bit more...and since the economy for me has gotten MUCH better...making LED controllers & night blades is way-back on the "to-do list".

When this idea was "hot" under my belt...a feeler was put out here on the forum to see interest - ZERO response.
To R&D a product, bring it to market then sell & support ...needs more interest.

The implementation(code & hardware) is not that hard and makes for a great "advanced" DIY project.

Dimension Engineering makes some cool, simpler stuff too...
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/

[mattox]

so its only good on 2s?

[The Dude II]

so its only good on 2s?

Correct...DeLight Controller isn't designed for 3S operation.

[mattox]

is there one that is?

[The Dude II]

Not that I've seen.

[kavic5150]

Dimension engineering also makes a voltage regulator that will convert 3s to the necessary 2s input power for the DeLight controller.

http://www.dimensionengineering.com/AnyVoltMicro.htm

Looks like the DeLight controller handles only 250ma max per channel. The normal 1 meter 60 LED strips use 400ma each, so you'll have to stick with shorter LED strips.

[Dan E]

What the dalcon gives you is something that's simple to use and ready to go and by the looks of it some great software to program light sequences with.
If you're feeling keen and like a challenge (or know how to program and have a bit of experience with an arduino) have a look at these: http://www.adafruit.com/products/332

The lights themselves cost a bit (edit: you're looking at 200 or more to cover a 600-700 size), but they run off 5 volts so with a simple regulator you can run them off a 2s flight pack.
I do have a set but the controller is still using a beta bootloader and it failed for me. I'm awaiting the arrival of an avr programmer so I can re-load the bootloader. They've fixed the issue so it should be all good.

The cool part about it is because the whole led strip is individually addressable you only need 1 controller to do the whole heli.
Soon as I get my controller running I'll put some pics/vids up of what the system can do.

[leedawg]

+1 on using an ATMEL that is how I would set it up to virtually anything you want to do with the LED's. YOu could build your own controller and board for very little money like 20 bucks program it and off you go. Another great place to start if you want to learn more about microcontrollers and the fun projects you can do with them is www.nerdkits.com unlike adurino products these guys will teach you down to the very basics of programming the micro controller itself in C and not using the adrunio boot loader. This opens tons of options for you.

Good luck.

[midniteflight]

http://www.dimensionengineering.com is a sweet site, nice video!