Thx,
Much appreciated!
John
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So cool! Can you share some pics of how you wired this and built it? One thought, might be more effective if you had all of them blink at the same time, certainly would be more visible to aircraft as if you are slightly turned they may not see some of the blinks.
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The frequency of the blinks on any one arm match a typical airplane strobe so it’s not a concern if one arm gets hidden from view. Plus, there are very few angles in which even one of the LEDs gets blocked to where it can’t be seen.
The LEDs are controlled using an Arduino mounted on a custom PCB which is all powered from the system BEC and can be programmed to strobe in any pattern we want. The arm tips are 3D printed with clear PETG and house a custom PCB with the LEDs attached.
Awesome work!
I only say that because my Pipistrel aircraft strobes on the wingtips and tail strobe are all synced and blink at the same time.
Can you post some pics of the tips you printed with the led’s?
I plan to make another version of the circuit board that I can mass produce and share with you guys.
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Love this! Do you think acrylic would work? I have a laser cutter that can cut acrylic, but not lexan. I looked them both up on McMaster, and they both have similar tensile strength and are both listed as semi-rigid.
Acrylic is really brittle! The only thing that’s good for is displays. The 3D printed version would be much better. If you insist on using a laser perhaps Delrin would be better.
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@GliderPilot did you put the two capacitors first in series before you put them parallel over the ESC? Or is each capacitor parallel over the ESC?
Did anyone adapted the slider already for 7S (batch 4) bonka batteries?
The capacitors are each in parallel with each other so capacitance is maximized.
7S Bonkas are the same width as the 6S (same size cells). I used those sliders on a batch 4 that I built for a friend.
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Paul,
You are a real asset to the community and thanks for the great and inspiring work.
I am getting ready for a Batch 6 build and carefully going over your mods and starting to 3D print. A question - It looks from the original design of the pre-charge knob wiring that the 22 ohm resister is in the line of the orange wire. In this new design the 10 ohm resister has a totally different shape. How did you install it or am I totally mistaken on this?
Thanks,
Mark G
Thanks, happy to share!
You need a wire from one threaded post of the switch to the resistor, from the resistor to the pre-charge switch, then from the pre-charge switch to the other threaded post.
This way the initial current travels through the resistor before the main switch is activated.
I hope that answers your question.
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Thanks - just to be clear - your current resistor is the automotive square shape with both pins on the same side as it seems from the URL you provided. (Note that the manufacturer says there is a 37 week lead time!)
Any 10 ohm resister will work regardless of the shape.
any specific wattage? that power resistor looks like way overkill for a precharge.
The amps are extremely high but for a very short amount of time so you could probably get away with lower watts.
based on those mountains I think I live like 30 minutes south of you. I also live about one mile from the base of the mountains. My current plan is to get trained early summer so I can get flying. I can’t wait to go fly all over those mountains!
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Who are you planning to train with? I recommend you get paraglider training if you plan on flying anywhere near those big mountains. Very important to thoroughly understand thermals, ridge lift, canyon winds, and especially rotor.
30 minutes south of me is Bountiful. There’s a nice paraglider launch there.
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