John Lee Posted December 31, 2024 Share Posted December 31, 2024 A Clubmate told me about these lights which work out at £1.25 each with no additional electronics required. They work off 12volts so can be directly connected to a 3S LiPo. To test I hot glued and blendarm taped a couple onto my Mpx Tommy and again taped the wires along the wing and connected a a balance socket to plug into the LiPo balance lead. All of 15mins work. I programmed them, which just involves quickly connecting and disconnecting to cycle through the options, to flashing red on the port wing & green on the other. I flew them yesterday and they were very effective in the winter gloom, naturally most visible when looking directly at the bulbs when they are very bright but also have decent illumination for about a 90 degrees coning angle. I haven't measured the current consumption but being flashing they are only on for a fraction of the time & they had no noticeable effect on the LiPo usage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted December 31, 2024 Share Posted December 31, 2024 With white foam they're also very effective if pointed into the foam rather than outward, it disperses and the whole thing glows 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lee Posted December 31, 2024 Author Share Posted December 31, 2024 👍 I'll try repositioning them vertically so that one LED points outboard and the other illuminates the interplanetary strut. I ordered them Friday, they arrived Saturday & I just did a quick lash up with a couple of them to try out Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted December 31, 2024 Share Posted December 31, 2024 Instead of wires, dolls-house tape works well, its like self-adhesive trim-tape but copper. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305499689085 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Thanks for the link John, mine arrived this morning and they're great fun to play with! I've no plan as to what I might use them for yet... they're very bright even on 2S, so bright I could see the afterimage for a couple of minutes ☺️ The alternate red/blue flash might be handy clearing a path in traffic!!! Might try them on a Wildthing just for a bit of fun, I'll probably make an inline sequencer that does on/off and colour selection from a spare rx channel 😉 Cheers Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavin Mack Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 from same company order 10 plus use voucher code wintersale15 for extra 15% off works out at £0.85 each 10 x W5W T10 501 LED Strobing Flash Sidelight Interior Canbus Bulbs Multicolour | eBay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Bargain Gavin 😉 On 31/12/2024 at 09:53, John Lee said: I haven't measured the current consumption but being flashing they are only on for a fraction of the time & they had no noticeable effect on the LiPo usage. I just checked John, at 12v its 130mA for continuous white, and about 90mA for the other solid colours, flashing reduces it to just over half. They're really neat ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Can you identify any voltage dropping circuitry on them that could be easily modified to make them suitable for 5V working Phil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyinFlynn Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) 18 hours ago, Gavin Mack said: from same company order 10 plus use voucher code wintersale15 for extra 15% off works out at £0.85 each 10 x W5W T10 501 LED Strobing Flash Sidelight Interior Canbus Bulbs Multicolour | eBay Is that order 10 sets for the discount or order 10 bulbs? Another offering. Not quite the same but worth considering if you are into playing with lighting These ones don't remember the last used sequence but are remotely controlled via IR Or these... Edited January 5 by FlyinFlynn add second option 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavin Mack Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Apply code when checking out, price drops by 15%. Discount might apply to the 4off version Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 (edited) On 04/01/2025 at 22:11, Martin Harris - Moderator said: Can you identify any voltage dropping circuitry on them that could be easily modified to make them suitable for 5V working Phil? Hi Martin, I had a closer look, its an unmarked processor (could well be a canbus chip) that runs at 3v3 via a zener, and a 24LC02N eeprom with small fet drivers via simple SMD ballast resistors to the RGB leds. The resistors are 1k for one colour (red?) and 750Ω for the other two. The whole thing does work at 4.8v with much reduced brightness and my guess (not tried it) is that if you drop the resistors to (say) a 470Ω and two 390Ω's the brightness will be restored at 4.8v 😉 Maybe even a 390 & two 330's. I'll give it a try tomorrow. Just a thought, if these are to be permanently mounted as nav lights, you wouldnt need to change all three resistors, you'd only need to change the red resistor on one and the green resistor on the other :) Edited January 6 by Phil Green 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 (edited) Believe it or not those tiny 2300's are 30v 3.6A mosfets! Also, now I have a close-up, the smallest is 100Ω rather than 1k as I thought and the larger ones are 75Ω. That makes much more sense - eyes getting old and its not well lit in my shed :) I'll try 47Ω and 39Ω if I've got them. Edited January 6 by Phil Green Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lee Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 § On 31/12/2024 at 09:58, Phil Green said: With white foam they're also very effective if pointed into the foam rather than outward, it disperses and the whole thing glows 🙂 So I tried this today on my MPX TwinStar (the one on the left as you look at the photo), you can just see them mounted under the engine cowl with one light pointing out and one in, with the alternating red/blue flash... On 31/12/2024 at 12:48, Phil Green said: Instead of wires, dolls-house tape works well, its like self-adhesive trim-tape but copper. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305499689085 ...and I wired them up with this tape, so much easier than wires with a retro fit. Again it was just another 15mins to fit them with hot glue, and a few dobs of solder and flew them this afternoon. I need to pop another one or two on top as in a banked turn those underslung ones are, of course, obscured. Nevertheless all in all very successful, thanks for the tips Phil. The other TwinStar belongs to another Phil who put me on to these lights in the first place. I'm going to order another batch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Given their intended usage, would I be correct in assuming that they are polarity independent? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 3 hours ago, John Lee said: So I tried this today on my MPX TwinStar One of our club members did a scale Britten Norman Islander paintjob on a Twinstar, changed the fin, it was quite convincing :) 2 hours ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said: Given their intended usage, would I be correct in assuming that they are polarity independent? You would expect so wouldnt you, but no! No harm done by reversing, they just dont work. I wonder if they get a lot of returns from car enthusiasts who dont know about leds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lee Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 (edited) 15 hours ago, Phil Green said: One of our club members did a scale Britten Norman Islander paintjob on a Twinstar, changed the fin, it was quite convincing 🙂 At the risk of thread drift I'm afraid an electric Islander can never be convincing. The full size was renowned as being one of the most efficient machines ever invented by man....................... of converting AvGas into noise 🤣 Actually I think it was the Trislander with its fin mounted engine that was the origin of the joke, but that would not work in this context. And it is just a joke, I'm quite a fan of electric twins. Edited January 9 by John Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wihtgar Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 They (B-N) have just received an order for 13 hydrogen/fuel cell Islanders according to the news. Yes, the noise level in the rear seats of the Trislander was originally above the safety threshold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 (edited) Update for Martin. I dont have many 1210 resistor options in stock so piggyback-paralleled the same values, so each resistor is half its original value. Red & green are now nice and bright at 5v but the vf of blue is just too high, its completely out at 4.6 volts. You could try a very low blue resistor but I dont have any in 1210. Upping the supply to 6v restores the blue level but for 4.8v/5v operation it looks like red, green & yellow are the only realistic options. Still useful though 🙂 Edited January 11 by Phil Green 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Thanks for that Phil. Mine arrived a couple of days ago and I’ve ordered some 36 and 51 ohm 1210s and will experiment with the blue feed (is it the bottom 75 ohm?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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