DIY Night Blades in progress

[WildWake]

DIY Night Blades in progress

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56926[/ATTACH]

Here's a dioagram of how I arranged my latest blades to help one of the members on here who is making some now.

Nice drawing, it was a while back I made a set, on the LEDs the is a marking on the back to show the neg/pos connection.
On the ones I have it either has a "tee" or "arrow" symbol, is it the point of the arrow and bottom of the tee that positive side?
Do the resistors go on the pos side of the led and do the resistors have to go a certain way around ?
Thanks.

[rachel]

it's me making some :-) they are awesomly bright and not so complicated to do , But .................................
the surface mount Led's are the size of a flea !!!!!!!!!!!!!! and have to be soldered down to a track on both ends !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so far my MDK (murder / death /kill ) rate on leds is over 50% but then I am not renowned for my soldering skills !!!

Thanks Gordon you are an awesome help :-)

[moyesboy]

My blades generated a bit of interest at RCHA fly in on Saturday night.
My latest 425 blades are really nicely finished in 2 pack lacquer by Rachael and look a lot nicer in the daylight
Something well worth doing is putting a blob of clear epoxy over each LED when the blades are complete. As well as making the assembly more robust, this acts as a diffusing lens and increases the viewing angle. Result is the rings you see when flying are a bit fatter and more visible at different disc angles.
On my 500 I've gone away from the light string and gone for the strip LEDs that are much brighter. I must do that on my 600 as well.

It would be nice to have some time to fly...

[Vikki]

For anyone who's going to make some you work out the LED resistor this way. (V-Vled)/Current. So you have a 3.3V battery (arbitrary value). Your LED will have a forward voltage associated with it (get it from the spec sheet, let's say 2.2V).

Take Vled from V and divide by the current you want. Let's say 10mA.

(3.3 - 2.2) = 1.1V. Divide that by 0.01mA and you get 110R. Resistors come in 'preferred' values so closest is 100R or 120R. You can afford to go up a bit in current so choose the 100R.

To answer another question I saw. LEDs are polarity sensitive, they have to go the right way round. Resistors are not and can go anyway round. It doesn't mater which side of the LED you put the resistor.

Since you are using small batteries of less than 5V you can not damage the LED if you connect it the wrong way round, it just won't work. LEDs have a maximum reverse voltage of 5V. Go above that and the LED won't thank you. You're more likely to damage it by unsoldering it to turn it round (assuming you're using surface mount LEDs).

Hope that is of some help to prospect lighted blades makers

Vikki.

[moyesboy]

Farnell part numbers

1 1218868 5 SOCKET IC, SIL, 10WAY 0.4 2
2 1716766 10 LED 0805 SUPER BRT TRUE GRN 0.133 1.33
3 1716767 10 LED 0805 SUPER BRT YELLOW 0.185 1.85
4 1716768 10 LED 0805 SUPER BRT RED 0.154 1.54
5 1716764 10 LED 0805 SUPER BRIGHT WHITE 0.154 1.54
6 1716765 10 LED 0805 SUPER BRIGHT BLUE 0.144 1.44
7 1887251 25 RESISTOR, 0805, 82R 1%, 0.125W 0.038 0.95

Only the red and yellow LEDs need the 82 ohm resistor in series, the others connect straight across the single cell lipo.

Something else for everyone who has made these - on both my sets of blades there is a very small leakage current from the battery. After 4-5 months on the shelf all the batteries were down to 10% charge. So best to charge them every couple of months or the lipos might not live very long. Perhaps those little lipos run down on their own anyway and its not the blade circuit?

If anyone has identified a G switch that is up to the job I'd be interested. The ones I tried packed in very quickly, so don't try the ones I listed earlier in the thread.

[helimadness]

Keen to build a set of these for my 500 for the winter.
Looking at those LED, some range in brightness from 100 MCD to 400 MCD. Do you notice much difference in reality?
Also do you only need the resistor because some are 2.2v and not 3.2v ?

Cheers

[waveydavey]

Yes to the resistor question

[helimadness]

Sorry one more. What thickness copper tape do you use. I see everything from about .1mm up. Was thinking .3 or so x a few mm wide. I think earlier it said he split 1/4 just not sure the thickness.
Guess fairly low current so just about anything will do.

Cheers

[WildWake]

It's thinner than insulation tape, imaging tin foil with a sticky back, we used 1/4" wide and split it down the middle,

[waveydavey]

There must be a knack to soldering the LED's, please share with me, at this rate and my soldering isn't too bad I'll be flying on Saturday with some glow sticks

[rapidgaz]

There must be a knack to soldering the LED's, please share with me, at this rate and my soldering isn't too bad I'll be flying on Saturday with some glow sticks

A very bloody steady hand. Lol


Sent down the wires from home

[waveydavey]

Got the steady hand and a magnifying glass but as I attempt to add heat the copper strip lift, that sort of thing. Anyone tried using conductive glue of some sort

[waveydavey]

Done and looking quite good, really difficult to tin the LED's and resistors but it all looks okay. Hopefully get some pics on saturday night once I've finished rebuilding the heli and got them fitted.

One way of testing the LED's just in case anyone gets a bit stuck is to use the diode tester on a multimeter, touch the probes to each end and the LED will light when the probes are the correct way round.

[WildWake]

One way of testing the LED's just in case anyone gets a bit stuck is to use the diode tester on a multimeter, touch the probes to each end and the LED will light when the probes are the correct way round.

Nice tip Dave, off to find my multimeter now to test....

Edit.. tried it didn't work, But then I realised I'd not turned the meter on...

[nobbycopter]

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