Flashing lights suggestions required for poor eyesight.

K

khellio

Member
Hi
I'm pretty new to this sort of thing but bought and assembled a quad copter a couple of months ago.My problem is that my eyes aren't as good as they once were and I have problems with distance site and orientation.

When my bird is up against a blue sky background, I'm having difficulty determining which way the front is pointing. I have painted the 2 leading arms yellow and placed a piece of yellow plasic tubing with a yellow ball in the center across the front of the front 2 arms and while that has made a terrific difference, I want to furher enhance the view with small flashing lights of different colors for the back and front arms.

Initially I thought about having 1 light on the end of each arm but I'm now inclined to think that having a row of them down each arm which would permit the seeing of at least 1 of them from every aspect when in flight.

I thought maybe orange or bright yellow on the front and maybe green on the back in order to contrast with the blue or grey sky.
I have no idea of how to go about doing this or what I need to buy so any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 

FlyGirl

FlyGirl

Member
khellio said:
Hi
I'm pretty new to this sort of thing but bought and assembled a quad copter a couple of months ago.My problem is that my eyes aren't as good as they once were and I have problems with distance site and orientation.

When my bird is up against a blue sky background, I'm having difficulty determining which way the front is pointing. I have painted the 2 leading arms yellow and placed a piece of yellow plasic tubing with a yellow ball in the center across the front of the front 2 arms and while that has made a terrific difference, I want to furher enhance the view with small flashing lights of different colors for the back and front arms.

Initially I thought about having 1 light on the end of each arm but I'm now inclined to think that having a row of them down each arm which would permit the seeing of at least 1 of them from every aspect when in flight.

I thought maybe orange or bright yellow on the front and maybe green on the back in order to contrast with the blue or grey sky.
I have no idea of how to go about doing this or what I need to buy so any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Have you tried different color props too? Helps me some!
 

CdA D

CdA D

Member
You can find some LED strips on the internet. They have different colors. I use Green on my front arm and Blue on two of my back arms. I fly an Octo. You might need a UBEC to meter your voltage if your battery voltage is above 12v. The LED's run on 12v. The strips are about 36 inches long and you can cut them down to the size you need. They have sections of 3 LED'S per. and each light uses .02 amps so you use .06 amps per section. You will need to figure how many lamps you are going to have to know what amperage UBEC you'll need to run the strips. Hope that wasn't to confusing.
 

K

khellio

Member
CdA D said:
You can find some LED strips on the internet. They have different colors. I use Green on my front arm and Blue on two of my back arms. I fly an Octo. You might need a UBEC to meter your voltage if your battery voltage is above 12v. The LED's run on 12v. The strips are about 36 inches long and you can cut them down to the size you need. They have sections of 3 LED'S per. and each light uses .02 amps so you use .06 amps per section. You will need to figure how many lamps you are going to have to know what amperage UBEC you'll need to run the strips. Hope that wasn't to confusing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion and I have seen those advertised but didn't know how to use them.
As I mentioned, this is all new to me as is the terminology. So what's a UBEC?
At the moment I'm using a 3s 11.1V 4000mAh battery but thinking about getting a 4s for the extra flying time but I believe they are also a higher voltage.
 

CdA D

CdA D

Member
Utimate Battery Eliminator Circuit this is us to reduce the voltage from your battery to the LED's or anything else that uses 12v. Your 3s 4000mAh battery would not need this, because it is 11.1v . A 4s battery is 14.8v and you might want to use a UBEC. The LED's will work with higher voltage batteries, but they tend to heat up a bit and don't last as long. Staying at 12v keeps the heat down. Search this forum for Multi-Rotor Heli Abbreviations for a little help with the lingo.
 

K

khellio

Member
CdA D said:
Utimate Battery Eliminator Circuit this is us to reduce the voltage from your battery to the LED's or anything else that uses 12v. Your 3s 4000mAh battery would not need this, because it is 11.1v . A 4s battery is 14.8v and you might want to use a UBEC. The LED's will work with higher voltage batteries, but they tend to heat up a bit and don't last as long. Staying at 12v keeps the heat down. Search this forum for Multi-Rotor Heli Abbreviations for a little help with the lingo.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. It's just what I needed to know.:tennis:
 


Q

Quinton

Active Member
Droider said:
I use these. Very good VERY Bright. You can see them in action on my youtube channel

http://www.braincube-aero.com

Dave
Click to expand...

They look just the ticket as I am also on the lookout for lighting system now.
I know you are supposed to put the red light on the left and green light on the right, but do people have them setup for front/back?

Also are the landing lights controllable, like if your landing gear comes down the white beacon can come on?
Where is your Youtube channel?
 

rotorvista

rotorvista

Member
yes Quinton you can, I have the braincube lights on mine and have the landing gear light to come on when the legs lower, i can also turn the landing gear light on and off
 

CdA D

CdA D

Member
Note: In order to know the amount of amperage needed for the LED's you multiply the number of lamps, 3 per section, times .02 amps. That is .06 amps per sec.
 

Q

Quinton

Active Member
rotorvista said:
yes Quinton you can, I have the braincube lights on mine and have the landing gear light to come on when the legs lower, i can also turn the landing gear light on and off
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, Droider and Rotorvista.
I have managed to convince my wife to purchase the quad ones for me for Xmas £90 ;)
Will give you a shout if I have any probs setting them up....roll on xmas!
 

gtranquilla

gtranquilla

RadioActive
IMHO - based on what I have read here from others as well as some personal longer distance flying experience, i.e., 550 yard fairways etc.

1) Best to always have GPS mode active when flying at a distance as it gives you several safe return options that are otherwise not available to you such as RTH and IOC Home mode.

At a distance in bright sunlight even superbright LEDs on your MR will not be obvious even if you choose green LEDs for starboard and Red for port side. So as you practice at increasing distance, try the following.....

While the following strategy will work in any mode, it is your only remaining option in the event that you are not flying in GPS mode.
If, when moving your joystick to the right, the MR tends to move to the right, then your MR is heading away from you.
If, when moving your joystick to the right, the MR tends to move to the left (mirror image response) then your MR is heading towards you.
Should you glance away from your MR and not be able to see it when you look back, but know that it is not too far away, don't panic, it may be hovering just below the horizon, so increase it's altitude. It becomes immediately visible again when it gets above the horizon or tree line.

Should one motor or prop fail, your MR should be able to remain in level flight but will naturally spin cw or ccw. In this case you will not be able to bring it back home by visual control..... In such a situation you must ensure your MR is returned to GPS mode but also activate IOC Home mode. This mode will bring it straight back to you even while it spins. RTH might not work well or at all under motor/prop fail conditions.

It is also recommended that one not rely too heavily on Attitude or GPS flying modes and gets a lot of practice flying in manual mode. While manual mode flying can be very challenging, it will hone your skills making it more possible to regain control of your MR in almost any situation.
khellio said:
Hi
I'm pretty new to this sort of thing but bought and assembled a quad copter a couple of months ago.My problem is that my eyes aren't as good as they once were and I have problems with distance site and orientation.

When my bird is up against a blue sky background, I'm having difficulty determining which way the front is pointing. I have painted the 2 leading arms yellow and placed a piece of yellow plasic tubing with a yellow ball in the center across the front of the front 2 arms and while that has made a terrific difference, I want to furher enhance the view with small flashing lights of different colors for the back and front arms.

Initially I thought about having 1 light on the end of each arm but I'm now inclined to think that having a row of them down each arm which would permit the seeing of at least 1 of them from every aspect when in flight.

I thought maybe orange or bright yellow on the front and maybe green on the back in order to contrast with the blue or grey sky.
I have no idea of how to go about doing this or what I need to buy so any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Q

Quinton

Active Member
OK what is the general consensus on which lights should go where?

I have just watched a couple of videos from Kopterworx, and they have the red lights at the back and green at the front.
Droidworx has the red booms to the front, and real aviation standard lights should be red lights on the left and green lights on the right and white one pointing forward.
So what is the "proper" position for lights?
 

PeteDee

PeteDee

Mr take no prisoners!
For lights I always but my tail/brake lights at the back, so red in the rear, whatever other colour in the front.

And prepared to be disappointed, even the best LED's are hard to see in good light.

Pete
 

gtranquilla

gtranquilla

RadioActive
The convention for boats and aircraft is green = starboard and red = port side. In the case of aircraft there is also a white strobe on the tail. If the green appears on the left of your MR during flight, then you know that the nose is aimed towards home.
But since the MR is fully symmetrical I typically fly backwards to get back home..... never got 100% comfortable flying nose towards home.
While super-bright LEDs are much brighter than regular LEDs, they are still hard to see at a distance in bright sunlight so making them flash off/on helps somewhat.
Quinton said:
OK what is the general consensus on which lights should go where?

I have just watched a couple of videos from Kopterworx, and they have the red lights at the back and green at the front.
Droidworx has the red booms to the front, and real aviation standard lights should be red lights on the left and green lights on the right and white one pointing forward.
So what is the "proper" position for lights?
Click to expand...
 

Q

Quinton

Active Member
OK my lights came today and seem to work well.
Couple of problems maybe someone can help me out with..

First off, I didnt realise the cables were only 30cm, nowhere near long enough so I need to get extensions.
Im forever buying cables these days, and just wondering if anyone knows in the UK where I can purchase a crimping tool to make my own length JST cables and servo cables?

Also can anyone explain how to setup the landing light when the retractable legs drop, is there channel mixing or something, I am using a Futaba receiver.
I am sure I will get there in the end, but any help would be appreciated.
 



Q

Quinton

Active Member
CrashMaster said:
It is a very simple soldering job.
If you are near Brentwood, Essex I can do it for you in a just a few minutes and I wouldn't even charge you.

Otherwise look it up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVpDzbND8sY
A bit over kill but just what you need.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer, I can solder (a bit) but I like things to have connectors so I can easily put them together or change them around when needed.
I'm an anti soldering person :) I like connecting/disconnecting stuff.
 


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