Night Light Payload Bay

[sl98]

I had a creative burst during the lock down and came up with these lighted payload bays. They will fit BT-50(24mm) tubing. They are designed so you can just swap out the original nose cone on a BT-20 kit and fly the lighted payload bay instead.

I have enough parts on had to make more so I will be willing to sell these if there is interest. Send me a PM if interested.

All parts are new, including the battery. Battery has only been used to test the lights.

Lights flash in red, blue and green. Flashing pattern is a slow to fast.

All electrical connections are soldered.

Balsa block, nose cone base, and light array are held in place with 5-minute epoxy.

Hardwood dowel was glued into the bottom of the balsa block for the eye-hook. The eye-hook is as surrounded in epoxy to keep from twisting out.

Balsa block soaked in thin CA then sanded smooth. Additional sanding with fine sandpaper may be necessary.

Nose cone is secured to nose cone base with removable plastic rivets.

Battery is a 3.7v, 220 mAh, 1S Lipo. Battery is held in place with Velcro. You will need a 1S charger to recharge. Battery can be recharged in place or removed.​

Night Light Payload Bay (NLPB)

• 24.2 g
• 8.75” overall.

NLPB with Nose Cone Illumination (NCI)

• 25.7g
  
• 8.75” overall

 

[BEC]

Those are seriously cool. I especially like your use of the nose cone base as a cell holder.

However, seeing as they're shown on an Alpha III and a Phantom Blue I think you meant BT-50....

Care to share a parts list or source?

 

[sl98]

However, seeing as they're shown on an Alpha III and a Phantom Blue I think you meant BT-50....

Yes. Typo corrected.
Videos re-linked.

Care to share a parts list or source?

Nose cone, clear payload bay, and balsa block are all Estes parts.

Parts for light array are leftovers from another project and procured from various eBay vendors. The center support is wood covered with conductive copper tape. The LED's are fast flash RGB 5mm LED's. The NCI is a 3mm green LED soldered at the top of the wood support. Micro JST PH 1.25 battery connector. Heat shrink. R2648 size rivets.

 

[BEC]

Thanks. I was most interested in info on the LEDs. I have most all the rest of what I need (save, maybe, for the plastic rivets you used) on hand.

What controls the flash rates/color changes of the those LEDs....or do they each just do that on their own? That asked, I see on Amazon some LEDs that seem to have this capability built in. I haven't looked at eBay yet.

What I like about this idea is the ability to make a pretty small and light night flyer that still is visible enough to be semi-readily recovered. Being a Nova Payloader guy, this would apply perfectly in addition to your two examples.

 

[sl98]

Info sent re: LED's. No controller needed for these LED's.

 

[BEC]

Yes, got it. Thanks! Have been looking at LEDs and thinking about how I might approach it, both based on what you've done and with a couple of other thoughts. Fun stuff.

 

[sl98]

BT-60 variant. LED’s slowly change colors. 18 LED’s total.

 

[BEC]

I've followed your lead to make an LED array for the payload section of an Estes Ghost Chaser, trying to take some advantage of the translucent blue parts. I've also arranged one white LED so that it will (hopefully) shine on the open parachute during descent).

Will post pics tomorrow. I'm working on lighting the translucent lower section but here I think the power, at least, will have to be external.

 

[sl98]

I've followed your lead to make an LED array for the payload section of an Estes Ghost Chaser.

Looking forward to seeing pics. The Ghost Chaser looks like a neat rocket to illuminate especially with all of the translucent parts.

 

[BEC]

Here we go. First shown are the "guts" of the lighting system for the Ghost Chaser, alongside the payload section it goes in. The bottom two LEDs and the top one are white. The four in the middle are the flasher type. The lowest one (on the left) goes through a hole in the base of the transition, as shown in the second picture. The third shows the top of the transition opened up to provide access. The next picture shows the bits in the payload section, then a view showing the bottom white LED poking through. As I said, the hope is that this will shine on the parachute during descent.



I'd attach a video, but the .MOV from my phone is a big file. I'll probably need to export it in some other format to attach here. It looks like your videos are hosted somewhere else.

 

[Greg Furtman]

I bought a Quest Courier last year at a hobby shop in Duluth, MN when I heard it was closing down It's the same shop that I bought my first rocket back in the mid 1960's. It must have been old stock beause the egg lofting nosecone is transparent. It would make a perfect nightflyer. Could you message me with the LED info? I'd love to make it light up at night!

 

[Greg Furtman]

Parts for light array are leftovers from another project and procured from various eBay vendors. The center support is wood covered with conductive copper tape. The LED's are fast flash RGB 5mm LED's. The NCI is a 3mm green LED soldered at the top of the wood support. Micro JST PH 1.25 battery connector. Heat shrink. R2648 size rivets.

@sl98 I have a question about the wood center support. Does it have conductive tape on both sides with one side being negative & the other side positive? Where can I buy a small amount of this tape?

 

[sl98]

Does it have conductive tape on both sides with one side being negative & the other side positive?

Yes. I soldered one battery lead to each side and just tacked each led to the copper tape. I used a popsicle stick, put the tape down first, then trimmed the stick to width.

The smallest roll I've seen is around 25 yards. Not sure where you can by a smaller amount.

 

[BEC]

Greg,

In my case it's copper foil tape on both sides of a piece of 1/16 inch balsa from the scrap bin. Sometime ago I originally bought a small roll of the copper tape to use to deter slugs from the garden. It was a 15 foot roll sold by Corry's and available at our local hardware chain (McLendon's). After we used the first roll up I found copper tape on Amazon, as it's also sold to repair circuit boards and got a much longer roll (66 feet) for about the same price ($3 more) as the one from the hardware store. A few inches of this were used for my arrangement. (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B071JKLFXX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

You asked about LEDs. sl98 sent me some eBay links and I found some that sounded similar on Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C19ENG4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Both the multicolor flashers and the white ones I am using are on this page. Since they came in bags of 100, I will have 96 of each left after this particular project is done

These LEDs seem fairly happy to run directly off of a single lipoly cell even though their rated forward voltage is 3.0-3.2V. I haven't actually measured the current draw of that seven-LEDs-in-parallel array yet, but I'm hoping that 100 mAh cells will keep it running long enough to launch and recover the model, perhaps twice, in an evening of night flying. With a little luck I'll find out next weekend at the Blue Mountain Rocketeer's launch over in eastern Washington.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Greg,

In my case it's copper foil tape on both sides of a piece of 1/16 inch balsa from the scrap bin. Sometime ago I originally bought a small roll of the copper tape to use to deter slugs from the garden. It was a 15 foot roll sold by Corry's and available at our local hardware chain (McLendon's). After we used the first roll up I found copper tape on Amazon, as it's also sold to repair circuit boards and got a much longer roll (66 feet) for about the same price ($3 more) as the one from the hardware store. A few inches of this were used for my arrangement. (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B071JKLFXX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

You asked about LEDs. sl98 sent me some eBay links and I found some that sounded similar on Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C19ENG4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Both the multicolor flashers and the white ones I am using are on this page. Since they came in bags of 100, I will have 96 of each left after this particular project is done

These LEDs seem fairly happy to run directly off of a single lipoly cell even though their rated forward voltage is 3.0-3.2V. I haven't actually measured the current draw of that seven-LEDs-in-parallel array yet, but I'm hoping that 100 mAh cells will keep it running long enough to launch and recover the model, perhaps twice, in an evening of night flying. With a little luck I'll find out next weekend at the Blue Mountain Rocketeer's launch over in eastern Washington.

@BEC Thanks for the info. I found those same LEDs yesterday & checked with sl98. I also found a single roll of 12mm wide copper foil tape. Here's what my Quest Courier looks like.

 

[bibbster]

You can also find tape with conductive adhesive backing at Hobby Lobby and Michaels stores. It is in the stained glass section. The width is ~ 1/4".

I have used it for building wood slot car tracks over the years.

Don't forget your coupons!

 

[BEC]

Frame from the video I took Saturday.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Frame from the video I took Saturday. View attachment 419815

Cool

 

[Greg Furtman]

I ordered the 5mm fast blinking LEDS, 12mm copper tape, & some 1S 220 mah LiPos yesterday.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Yesterday & today I built my Night Flyer Payload for my Quest Courier. For the wood support structure I used a 3/4" wide mixing stick and I super-glued two 3/8" wide "Popsicle" sticks on each side so I'd end up with a cross shaped structure. I then applied the copper foil tape and soldered on the LEDs. Being cross shaped I ended up with 2 positive runs & two negative runs of copper. I soldered a couple of wires at the top to join positive to positive and negative to negative.

I cut out a disk of 1/2" ethafoam to fit into the lower area of the nosecone (it is a 2 piece egg lofter type nosecone). I cut a cross into the center of the ethafoam for my wood structure to slide into. The LiPO sits below the foam. Here's a link to a video I shot of it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IhJm0JHqyF8XWDYy9bmD92v-9AQYShdP/view?usp=sharing

 

[sl98]

Yesterday & today I built my Night Flyer Payload for my Quest Courier. Here's a link to a video I shot of it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IhJm0JHqyF8XWDYy9bmD92v-9AQYShdP/view?usp=sharing

Looks great.

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Yes, got it. Thanks! Have been looking at LEDs and thinking about how I might approach it, both based on what you've done and with a couple of other thoughts. Fun stuff.

I used the same LEDs when I converted my big saucer to night flight in 2011. These are also the fast version.

 

[BEC]

Quick update on mine. Here is a still from a short video of the whole thing. It is interesting to see how much the white LED that's there to hopefully shine up on the 'chute after deployment shines through the top of the body tube.

There are three 3mm LEDs inside the fin cane and another 5mm color-changer glued to the outside of the body above the fin can. A second 100 mAh cell is just taped to the outside to run these four LEDs. Some sanding on the housings of all four of these was required. On the 3mm LEDs inside they needed to be sanded on both sides to both fit against the inside of the fin can and still let the motor get in. The one the outside was sanded on one side over a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a BT-50 so as to get it to conform to the body, making it easier glue it on in such a way that it should stay on.

A test flight during daylight went pretty well. It tipped off a bit to one side...but I don't know if that had anything to do with the stuff stuck on the outside. I'll just have to try it again. I've had bigger stuff on similar sized rockets (key fob video cameras) not have much effect on flight path. My un-adorned Ghost Chaser flies pretty straight with just a bit of roll going up.

Informal current measurement gives me ~180 mA for the seven LEDs in the payload section and ~140 mA for the four on/in the body. So it'll last around half an hour on a fresh charge. The flasher LEDs' draws fluctuate, so that's sort of an eyeball average value from my multimeter.

 

[sl98]

. The next picture shows the bits in the payload section, then a view showing the bottom white LED poking through. As I said, the hope is that this will shine on the parachute during descent.

I sewed some reflective tape on the underside of my night chute. I’m hoping my light in bottom of coupler will make it glint as it comes down.

 

[BEC]

I flew the lighted Ghost Chaser in the daylight yesterday (flight was nice and straight this time) and noted that the payload section was hanging at about a 45 degree angle below the 'chute as it was coming down....so the LED on the bottom of the payload section won't illuminate the 'chute that way. I suspect that's from the body, trailing below, pulling on the same attach point. Oh well, it will be out where it can be seen, anyway.

 

[the random rocketer]

Adafruit just introduced foil squares 12"x12" 3 mil thick for $4.95.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Adafruit just introduced foil squares 12"x12" 3 mil thick for $4.95.

What are these called & what do they do?

 

[the random rocketer]

Self adhesive copper foil to make circuit boards with. They are an alternative to the foil tape sl98 is using.

 

[Handeman]

Self adhesive copper foil to make circuit boards with. They are an alternative to the foil tape sl98 is using.

So how do you make the runs and pads for components with that?
Back in the day on a copper clad board I just used rub-on pads and runs and drew anything extra with a sharpie and etched the rest away with Ferric Oxide(?). I'm not sure it would work with surface mount today, but it was fine for the IC chips and components in the '80s and '90s.

 

[BEC]

No pads. I just ran the tape on the balsa strip and soldered the leads of the LEDs and the wires for the battery connector right to the foil.

How you'd use it for circuit board-making (rather than this application) I don't know.