hi all
hope this is not a silly question.
has anyone ever fitted led light strips to a phantom drone for night time
flying and if so was there any problems with radio signals ect.
or could it cause problems doing this

thanks

We have Club  parties that often are spread over a weekend with night flying of various models.

One of our club members fitted a strobe to his Pro .... and near lost it !! It was fine till he switched it on ... then the VPS went nuts !!
When we looked at it and thought about it - of course it was after ! - it was obvious that any extra lights / strobes would need to be aimed so the VPS would not have anything hit the sensors.

We have since lit up P3's and it works ... paying attention to the VPS !!

Nigel

thanks nigel
hope his drone is ok.
the drone i was thinking of using was an old phantom 2 so no vps on this one
it was just a thought as a lot of foamy models at our club fly with leds on them
they look good in the dark

i would use a separate small 1300 3s lipo fitted underneath as close to the c/g as possible
to power the leds and leave the phantom battery for the drones power

LED's take very little power in fact ... I have LED nav light packs for models and I run those of the balance plug. Makes little or no difference to flight time.

Yes - we have some really spectacular shows at night... we light up 3D models and all sorts ...

One guy who scratchbuilt a balsa framed 3D machine ... has the LED strips fitted INSIDE the wings and fuselage shining through the clear iron on film.

Really looking fwd to some photos you may take when you do it ...

Nigel

I've seen some YouTube videos of people who bought cheap, battery operated LED lights that do different patterns, and flew them at night.  Basically all they did was use either zip ties or clips to hold them in place.  Here is a video link to one sample:  

looks good easy to fit wonder how they would affect the flying characteristics
being on the arms of a phantom 2 or 3  

https://drive.google.com/open?id ... E1BNmFHWkJ6aHh2WHBn    All this is running off a 9 volt battery.  Very easy to setup.  Let me know if you're interested in how and materials.

thanks hward51 yes please if you could P/M me with all the details
what type of 9volt batter was used was it a lipo battery

And remember you're not supposed to fly 30 minutes after dusk unless you have a COA. Might get away with it in a remote area, but I'd be careful in more  populated area.

is that for usa only?

edifier Posted at 2017-11-11 08:21
is that for usa only?

I would not recommend you mount the led light on your drone for its safety. It will add the weight of drone and affect the flight performance.

Anytime you add a mod to a copter you need to see whether it may effect the copter; carefully double check. I've sometimes used the Cree strobe lights; super bright and light weight.

what is a coa?
i have done a test flight with them fitted and a small lipo battery fitted in the middle underneath
it flew ok, except it drifted when using yaw as though in atti mode
all the rest of the flight was ok. Kept it at low level and not far from the home point

edifier Posted at 2017-11-9 15:16
thanks hward51 yes please if you could P/M me with all the details
what type of 9volt batter was used was it a lipo battery

Hi,

Sorry this took so long.  Here is everything I purchased to achieve this. 1. Weatherproof LED light strip.  I think I used about 12 feet.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0 ... ts/1573c3fd539af51a

Regular common or Alkaline 9 volt battery:

Lower left is what I have.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0 ... er/15750d01e76edb56

You'll also need some small zip ties (about 6 - 8 inches long.  As you can see, I let me prop guard stay on and wrapped it as well.

Many of us here, including some of the forum mods have been using Lume Cubes.
They make mounts for most of the DJI products.

http://www.lumecube.com/164.html

You light up my life...


RedHotPoker

hward51
please upload you pictures on here as i don't use google mail


thanks red hot poker