rhysduk

Hi Guys.

Im an avid RC Flyer flying both IC and SS and also Heli's.

I have a new plane in the making, and would like to add a lighting system to it. Nothing to complicated, just a few simple leds here and there to simulate a real plane.

Here's what i would like:

• Tail Light. (Flashing)
• Wing Tip Lights (1 on Each wing)
• Landing Light.

For the Wing Tip Lights, one will be BLUE and the other RED.
The Landing Light (which will be situated under the nose of the plane) is ideally going to be the brightest of the lights.
I was thinking of using a small 6volt 10watt Halogen Capsule. With this running of a set of 5xAAA 1000mah 1.2volt Rechargeable Batteries. This should give me around 40 or so minutes of running time from the HALOGEN CAPSULE alone.

I'm hoping to run the leds off of this source aswell, seeing as this a RC plane, weight needs to be kept to an absolute minimum.

If there are any other RC enthusiasts on here, they will know that I could run 5 or more leds off of the Rx (Receiver) battery for many hours without even worrying about the battery failing, if it did, thats one lost model.

So guys and gals, any suggestions and tips etc?

Im having trouble sourcing high power leds at a 6volt source.
Could some recommend a mcd value please?
Especially if you think i can get away with one of a very high brightness a few 10 thousand mcd's!

The key is brightness (hence my thought of using a halogen capsule for the bottom landing light.)

Many thanks guys
Rhys

Sceadwian

Is this supposed to be day/night visable? Generic 20ma LEDs are blatantly visable at night, not so much during the day. The halogen bulb will draw 800ma's so you're not going to get the full rated capacity out of the pack. Maybe 10 minutes and the brightness will drop. The Mah rateing of batteries are usually at low current rates.

Matching the LED(s) to your voltage is a tricky bit because their brightness is so dependant on voltage (along with current) You'll never find a 6 volt LED, even white/blue LED's are only about 3.1 volts. Red's are closer to 2. For a battery pack and consistant brightness/blinking rate you'll want an LED driver IC.

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rhysduk

Thanks for the reply Sceadwian.
Ah sorry.
Yes and No to your question.
Being virtually impossible to fly an rc model at night, without very good lighting, the model will be flown at dusk.

With the lights giving it that little bit of a virtual trump on other models flying at the same time of day.

Apologies fort he confusion of the voltage against led bit in my above post.
What i meant to get over to you was that it was ok to run the leds from a 6volt pack. I think

audioguru

I calulate that a 10W/6V halogen bulb draws 1.67A, not 800mA.

At www.energizer.com they have datasheets for all their batteries.
Their AAA Ni-MH cell is rated at 900mAh at 180mA and is shown to produce about 850mAh at 900mA and about 800mAh at 1.8A.

Ordinary LEDs are focussed to a very narrow angle. They are difficult to see when they don't point directly at you. Use very high power wide angle LEDs from Lumileds.

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Uncle $crooge

Sceadwian

Sorry audio, s'what I get for using a calculator =) Typed in the wrong number, 5watts instead of 10. LED's can be diffused relativly easily, I've had decent results just sanding the outside of a water clear lense on 5mm LED's. Diffuses the light dramatically without a lot of loss. These are likley going to be viewed at from the side so a reflector on the top and a sanded or diffused casing should make them visable at a good distance at night. Blinking would be better because you can pulse quiet a bit more current than steady state, but the drivers are a problem for someone that doesn't have experiance.

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audioguru

I have some solar garden lights that have a clear LED that has nearly a 180 degrees angle and they are very bright for their fairly low current. Some are white and others have red, green and blue colours with an IC inside that fades them slowly between the colours.

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Uncle $crooge