DIY Night Blades in progress

[waveydavey]

Hmm...just bought all the bits to make some of these night blades. Best put it on the list of things to do....must be about number 1,000,002 at least

Make sure to al least coat the blades with some sort of fuel proofer or lacquer. Not because they will get fuel on them but the copper film lifts off the sticky backing, especially at the blade tips.

[nobbycopter]

Cheers Dave will do, I've got some car clear lacquer

[nobbycopter]

Got all the bits for the night blades. Should be able to make a few sets with the amount of bits I've got! Aiming to have a go this weekend making some 450 ones, if they turn out ok then I'll do some 550 ones. Have to say the LEDS and resistors are miniscule, I now realise that I probably should have got some larger ones as I seem to have got the smallest you can get!!
450_Night_Blade_Bits.jpg

[nobbycopter]

Just finished the first blade...
http://youtu.be/b5eJd50QnrI
Boy are those SMD components fiddly. I found the best way to hold them was to superglue them in position. Just mind the fumes as you solder them! The 5 min epoxy over the led and resistor does make them more visible. Now to make the other blade, balance them and then clearcoat them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nobbycopter]

Slow progress this, life keeps getting in the way...last night for instance was grouting the bathroom tiles Anyway did a bit more soldering/epoxying just now and ony got 4 more LD's/resistors to do. Trouble is that I dropped the last of my 82 ohm 0603 resistors on the carpet (so no chance of finding it!!) so I can't complete the second blade until I get some more. I'll be getting the 1206 series next time as they're bigger and easier to solder!
night_blades_450.jpg

[panosg]

Slow progress this, life keeps getting in the way...last night for instance was grouting the bathroom tiles Anyway did a bit more soldering/epoxying just now and ony got 4 more LD's/resistors to do. Trouble is that I dropped the last of my 82 ohm 0603 resistors on the carpet (so no chance of finding it!!) so I can't complete the second blade until I get some more. I'll be getting the 1206 series next time as they're bigger and easier to solder!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]69061[/ATTACH]

Get the hoover out, give it a good clean ( that will impress the wife lol ) and hoover the carpet where you think you dropped it.
Definitely worth a try mate.

Blades look great Neil. Dont mind give it a go making some my self soon.

[nobbycopter]

Get the hoover out, give it a good clean ( that will impress the wife lol ) and hoover the carpet where you think you dropped it.
Definitely worth a try mate.

Blades look great Neil. Dont mind give it a go making some my self soon.

Cheers mate.....don't look too close then as my soldering leaves a lot to be desired! Still as they're meant for night use you'll not see so who cares and with a bit of practice I should get better! I've ordered another 200 from fleabay so that should keep me going for a while also the 0603 series SMD items are 1.6mm (L) x 0.8mm (W) x 0.8mm (H) so no chance of finding it really

[waveydavey]

You might want to spread the top and bottom out, they blend into 1 in flight. What colour are you using, you don't need the resistors with blue or green or white only the red/yellow and orange need stepping down

[nobbycopter]

You might want to spread the top and bottom out, they blend into 1 in flight. What colour are you using, you don't need the resistors with blue or green or white only the red/yellow and orange need stepping down

I might put an extra LED nearer the root in that case? I'm using green on the top and red on the bottom with white at the ends. The green also needs a resistor according to the below table as their forward voltage is 2.2V max. I used the 4.2V value for working out the resistance so 4.2-2.2/0.02 = 100R and the nearest resistor I have is an 82R one so I've used that as if I used the 56R resistor I have then it's flipping bright and I'm not sure how long it would last and I don't want to be scraping off epoxy and trying to unsolder the LED and re-solder a new one if I can help it!

LED Colour Forward Voltage Current Rating
Blue 3.0V - 3.4V 20mA
Green 1.8V - 2.2V 20mA
Red 1.8V - 2.2V 20mA
White 3.0V - 3.4V 20mA
Yellow 1.8V - 2.2V 20mA

[waveydavey]

It must be the size then Lee the 1206 I used are defo 3.3 and in terms of brightness on 1s they're bang on.

No it's the type, here you go, great service and delivery

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SMD-SMT-LE...item8bb6174e53

[nobbycopter]

Well apart from balancing and clearcoating (or the other way round!!) the first set of blades is now done I will possibly put another LED nearer the root as you suggest Dave, not sure yet as I just want to finish them off now and fly them to see what it looks like

Night_Blades_450-1.jpg

[moyesboy]

Nice to see folks picking this thread up!
Rachael put different colours on each blade to get a mixed colours of pink and purple I think.

Its certainly night flying time...

I found it really important to balance the intensity of the blades and the lights on the model.

Also on my blades I have a slight leakage current so the battery will run down over a few months. This might be conductivity on the blades surface, or in the 2pack lacquer.
So I am charging them every few weeks to keep the batteries happy.

I've done some 425 and some 600. I only put the epoxy lenses on the 425 and it makes a hell of a difference. I need to clean my 600s and do the same on them. But opportunities to fly 600 nitro after dark are a bit rare.

[mrechte]

Hello,
Interesting thread. Have any of you been able to measure the current drawn by each LED ? Putting LEDs in parallel may put a lot of stress to the ones with the lower Vf. Also having LEDs connected directly to the battery without any resistor may overload them (again the ones with lower Vf) ?
Thanks

[nobbycopter]

Hello,
Interesting thread. Have any of you been able to measure the current drawn by each LED ? Putting LEDs in parallel may put a lot of stress to the ones with the lower Vf. Also having LEDs connected directly to the battery without any resistor may overload them (again the ones with lower Vf) ?
Thanks

All my LEDs have resistors as I didn't want to stress them when the lipo was fully charged at 4.2V, only drawback I can see is that they will dim sooner. I've not measured the current drawn, I might do if they dim too quickly but they are cheap blades and components which are easily assessable so not sure I CBA unless you tell me a really good reason that I should?

[mrechte]

I wonder whether a LED driver such as LM3410 (http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm3410.pdf) would be appropriate. With a single lipo cell, it could easily drive 6 LEDs in serial. Drawback is the 3 external components required, including an inductor.