gluefinger Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) I've collected a series of small civilian aircraft made by Bandai called Weekend Wing Series if anyone is familiar with them. I'm trying my best to get the most fun out of them and thought about lighting them with navigational lights using this. I paid less than two dollars for the toy and can't lose that much for trying. My idea is to make a powered base, getting rid of the batteries and having to get into the plane to change them. That removes half the battle getting it to size. I believe the mini LED's can be desoldered and relocated on their own and then the card can be trimmed some more. It can't be trimmed too much because the electrical pattern and chip is imbedded into it like a wafer. Hard to actually see where it is at. Any tips on not destroying this or keeping as unintrusive as possible with working with it is welcome. Anyways my idea is to light all the points steady with its own circuit along with this unit being used to add strobe effect. The tiny spring and the plate are the contacts and it lights for about 30 seconds and shuts off. Holding down on it does not make it run steady. Not sure if it's possible to change that. I am thinking running large diameter fiber optic to the wingtips. Not sure. Never enterned into trying to light a model like this. All I have is some soldering experience and patience. Let me know your ideas how to get the most out of something like this if you can. I'm a nOObie. I also need help understanding navigational lights themselves as far as which ones should blink and which ones should stay steady for each kit. Is there a general rule of thumb on this? Edited January 17, 2014 by gluefinger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheFlyingDutchman Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Hey, Nice idea! As far as I know, these are the standard lights for civilian aircraft: -two static navigation lights (green on the right wing tip, red on the left) -A white strobe on each wing tip next to the static nav lights (I don't know if these are mandatory for GA aircraft but they are on airliners), and sometimes a white strobe on the tail end -A red strobe on top and a red strobe on the belly Bear in mind that there are two types of strobes: a rotating beacon which has a mirror that rotates around the bulb inside the casing, and more modern strobes that actually have flashing bulbs. For rotating beacons you should use LEDs that progressively turn on and off, like in your youtube video. You should maintain a frequency of about 1,5 to 2 Hz. greets Jelle Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lancer512 Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) Almost... Red and green lights on the wings, and a white steady light on the end of the tail, or on the ends of the wingtips. Varies with each type, and is required if the aircraft is operating at night. I have seen aircraft without Nav-Lights, therefore they may not be flown in the dark. Each wing light can be seen from a 110 degrees angle (from straight forward to just aft of the wing), and the light on the tail at 140 degrees angle. The sum of all three angles is a full circle. The red beacon is either rotating (Bonanza) or flashing (Cessna 150) with less than 1 flash per second. However, this can be modified to have flash tubes (strobes) instead, still flashing red. The only aircraft of the listed kits with an upper and lower beaon is the Bonanza. Again, not all aircraft do have beaons. But there are also white rotating beacons, and white strobes for the same purpose (not on the mentioned kits). Strobes... I'ld guess the Mooney has them, but could be modified to the other a/c as well. It's a short burst of light, with another burst every 1.5 to 2 seconds. Normally installed on the wingtips. I think if it has a stobe on the tail, no additional beacon is required. Edited January 17, 2014 by Lancer512 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
majortomski Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Hi, great idea. US registerd aircraft only need four lights: solid green on the right wingtip solid red on the left wingtip solid white on the tal pointing aft then ONE (or more if needed) blinking/flashing anti collision light somewhere on the plane. This can be red or white. Cessna's in the 70's had just a red covered light on the top of the tail the blinked electronically. See the rules below. http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=14:1.0.1.3.10&idno=14#14:1.0.1.3.10.6.102 You've got a great colletion there, the Aero Subaru and Mooney Mustang are getting hard to find. The other kits are all avalble through Minicraft. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
markmarples Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 im reviewing / building a lighting kit, this may help http://s15.zetaboards.com/Mainly_Military/topic/7529023/3/#new Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ace Combat Zero Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 optical fiber might work too Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gluefinger Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 (edited) Thanks everyone, you all helped get me going in the right direction with all this. I've broke up my instruction sheets into two-view drawings to work with and designed a key for myself to map out the lighting. This will help me understand it as a whole what I am up against and should come in handy counting LED's and drawing out the wires. I educated myself a bit on LED's and Fiber Optics with videos and shopping. One thing I did learn was to be careful buying color fiber optic strands. I investigated a seller's offer and learned only the strand was externally colored. If one was to cut it, they would find it is clear. The color only comes from the two uncut ends. You are stuck with the length unless you want to weaken the color by cutting one end. It is however handy knowing you don't have to buy clear when buying a mixed bag of colors. I will leave things at this and continue my build thread under prop planes on this project. Feel free to drop in anytime. My link If anyone wants to throw in some ideas have at it, remember I've never tried any of this. I'm still going to try and stay close to using the cheap flash unit as I can. After seeing a few flashing circuits built, this has them beat hands down on simplicity, size and cost even though it is not programmable. It is fine that it stays "toy like" for me. Enjoy! Edited January 18, 2014 by gluefinger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DrGlueblob Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 (edited) FWIW, I know the Science Fiction spaceship builders use flashing LED modules on their stuff. There's a site at Culttvman that has kits for lighting them. http://www.culttvmanshop.com/#sthash.7xtky5sy.dpuf Edited January 19, 2014 by DrGlueblob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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