Tecate with HID and LED's

[Xpress]

Is that you flying? If so you are pretty good, actually very good. My3-D stuff is rusty as I haven't flown much the last 3 years. Going to the NEAT fair next weekend where we have the night time balloon popping contest. That is what my Pheonix 100 with Demension engineering lights is for. I don't remember all the specifics because I set it up a few years back, but I think I draw close to 1amp. I use a separate BEC to drive the lights, off my flight pack. I purpose built that plane to compete in the contest. There can be as many as 30 planes trying to pop one balloon at times, and my plane can take the beating. Last year I had like 5 mid-airs, and a few encounters with the balloon string, and she kept right on flying.

Yes that is me flying. That airplane didn't last long. Some crazy guy around here was walking his dog in the school, and came up to me to talk about it. He let his dog off the leash, who then immediately lunged for my airplane, destroying it.. If I couldn't get them for cheap then it would have been an entirely different situation (the guy was also trying to get me to let his daughter fly it, because she is "good at the video games" ).

Hop onto RC Groups every once in a while, tons of info on everything radio control.

There are some pretty intense LED's you can get off ebay for cheap. I was thinking of tricking out my trike with LED's for headlights, and under the plastic. was going to hide the LED's in the number plate.

I was looking at some of the feeBay specials too, but the specs don't seem all that great. I have personal experience with the Vision X lights so that's why I am partial to them.

[atc007]

Very cool plane xpress! What's a setup like that run,lights and all,the way it sits? Thanx!

[Afrothunderkat]

wow... this is wicked....

only if it was green!

[Xpress]

^It's in the plans! I wanted a color to match the fenders, so it will be red for now. If I ever stumble across another set of green fenders, or another group buy comes around, I'm going green.

Very cool plane xpress! What's a setup like that run,lights and all,the way it sits? Thanx!

It's a DW Foamies Flite Light kit:

http://www.dwfoamies.com/index.php?p...art&Itemid=343

It seems expensive, but when you have a problem, the customer support Mike offers is second to none. He fully backs and supports every product he offers, so it's worth it alone.

[Xpress]

Excuse the crudity of this diagram, but it shows how everything is wired up basically.



So it's 2 strand of 5 RED LED's, each strand is wired in series then both strands are paralleled together into the HID lines. Installed a switch between the positive lead before the lights and then plugged it into the battery. Like I said it's not that difficult to do but it is time consuming because of all of the soldering.

[KASEY]

so why not use these???? already 12 volts,, 50 led's ,,waterproof,, simple to mount and CHEAP!!!

[Xpress]

^I was thinking of buying LED strips, but I wanted to try it with the individual bulbs first.

Don't ask me why, I have no idea why I think of the more complex routes first Where did you get those? What current do they draw?

EDIT: now I remember. Those bulbs cost me $7 shipped to my door. I bought some of the 5mm Piranha bulbs (Red, Green, Yellow, and blue, 32 of them total) to try out as well, $16 to my door.

[TecateDan]

Any update on how the battery worked with the 55W Hid and the battey. Did it stay charged or did you have to go to a 35w setup