Ouch my eyes

[dlb]

Just playing
10 watt RGB LED, mounted in a 4" x 20" fiberglass tube.
I think I'll be able to see it!

 

[SwingWing]

10W? how much heat build up do you get ? What battery are you gonna use?

 

[blackjack2564]

Man that hurts MY eyes just looking at the expanded pics

 

[Rocketjunkie]

What is the viewing angle (outside the tube)? 3A at 3.5V?

 

[SwingWing]

What is the viewing angle (outside the tube)? 3A at 3.5V?

It looks like the LED is inside the translucent tube, making the whole (large) tube light up. It would be like a giant florescent tube in the sky.

 

[r2kordmaa]

you should make 3 phase pwm driver for it so you could have it smoothly flashing through the entire spectrum during flight. that could be awesome, someone might mistake it for ufo

 

[dlb]

What is the viewing angle (outside the tube)? 3A at 3.5V?

Start off with Heat, there is some heat but I'm under driving them right now, not a problem at this point. now driving them at 250 MA, so when I get MA up to 350 ma , it's going to be brighter yet.

Voltage used is 12 volts, the LEDs are series inside the package.
So :
RED - 6.3 to 7.8 volts @ 350ma
GREEN - 9.6 to 11 volts @ 350ma
BLUE - 9.6 to 11 volts @ 350ma

Viewing angle is 160 degrees , but I would like to close that down a bit, say somewhere around 40 or lower , so I can project the light farther up the Fiberglass Airframe. My 3 watt version has a 18 degree and works great.

 

[dlb]

It would be like a giant florescent tube in the sky.

:wink:
That's the idea

 

[dlb]

you should make 3 phase pwm driver for it so you could have it smoothly flashing through the entire spectrum during flight. that could be awesome, someone might mistake it for ufo

The unit is run by a PIC processor and all programs are running PWM outputs, so far there are 20 different Patterns pre-programmed. I have pan, fade, flash, pulse, phase and sleep. Starting to work on it also would have Timer output ffor controlling other things like : sounds, air-starts or chutes, but that is later.

The PWM outputs are 10 bit per color, RED, GREEN and BLUE for a total of 1,073,741,824 Colors are availble. I may drop that back down to 8 bit, less colors , but faster.

The controller rides under the LED board and has a outputs that are good for 10 amps each hold or 30 amps peak. Theres a select button on the side to change patterns.

Last thing I'm trying to add is Accelometer to interact and change programming during flight conditions.

 

[Moldie]

Last thing I'm trying to add is Accelometer to interact and change programming during flight conditions.

I am very interested to see how that pans out. That is a great idea.

 

[ClayD]

The unit is run by a PIC processor and all programs are running PWM outputs, so far there are 20 different Patterns pre-programmed. I have pan, fade, flash, pulse, phase and sleep. Starting to work on it also would have Timer output ffor controlling other things like : sounds, air-starts or chutes, but that is later.

The PWM outputs are 10 bit per color, RED, GREEN and BLUE for a total of 1,073,741,824 Colors are availble. I may drop that back down to 8 bit, less colors , but faster.

The controller rides under the LED board and has a outputs that are good for 10 amps each hold or 30 amps peak. Theres a select button on the side to change patterns.

Last thing I'm trying to add is Accelometer to interact and change programming during flight conditions.

i would like to see some of the stuff your doing, i would like to build some led stuff with my son...

 

[dlb]

here's a short video show a fast PWM fade though 7 different colors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv1fqL2VXBI

the camera does no justice, sorry, it's old!

 

[Handeman]

One of the guys at our last night launch put a light in the base of his 7.5" translucent nose cone. It lit up great. I bet that light would work fantastic there.

Now if you can only get the car battery in the rocket to power it!

What kind of battery are you using that will put out that many amps and how long will it run the light? I would think you would want an hour of runtime, at least.

 

[dlb]

8 "AAA" batteries in a longer pack.
They have a 1200mah life and most of the patterns run about 350ma to 500ma, so I should get about a 2+hours of life.
This is only met to use in a larger rocket, 3" or above and have 54mm motor mount.
This unit will go on my 4" Thor-Glo for the stack-on payload bay. Thor-Glo has 100 LED's with in it already and uses (3) 9volt batteries to power the rest of it, not counting the AV bay stuff.

Total mcd count will be around 1,000,000 mcd, very, very, very bright and lights up an area 30 feet from the rocket. Will launch at Red Glare or Freedom Launch this year if possible.

For smaller rockets , I'll use a 3 watt or 1 watt RGB LED's, they can run on 4 to 9 volts.

My saucer runs on 9 volts, pictured in my Avatar

 

[Handeman]

Is the saucer run from a PIC processor too? Do you program the processors? If so, how, what H/W S/W? What are the output circuits?

If you haven't noticed, I'm very interested details of the controller and circuits to run the lights.

 

[SwingWing]

I'm interested to know about the LEDs you are using. I have dabbled a bit in homebrew Mountain biking lights. I have two x 200 lumen x 12 degree lights I run on my helmet and a similar (single) light on the handlebars. (all white, of course) At 600 lumens, I am one of the dimmer guys (that didn't sound right) riding at night on the singletrack.
I know the high power emitters can put out a huge amount of heat, requiring metal housings and air movement.
My battery packs are SeriesParallel NIMH AA batteries, 2600 mah cells yielding 5200mah for the pack 7.2V running 2 emitters with a 3.7Vf at 1000ma, I get well over 2 hours light. Most people are running 18650 LIon cells, 2S2P, getting close to 6000 mah in a much lighter pack.

 

[dlb]

Is the saucer run from a PIC processor too? Yes, the same controller

Do you program the processors? Yes, with a Pic type programmer


If so, how, what H/W S/W? Pic 12F683 micro for now and Microchip's Editor/assembler

What are the output circuits? NFET's that handle a good amount of current. With current limiting at the point of use.( LED board, etc.)

 

[Handeman]

Thanks. I'll have to dig into that. I have a number of ideas for lighted rockets.

 

[dlb]

Displays and controllers

These are some of the single led setup I have

lots of single and multi led setup have been done over the last few years.

one have a good look down inside the 1.5 watt LED board.

The controller operates all my units and can operate many led boards.
you can see the button on the side that selects different LED patterns.

pic with (3) LEDs in it, is a 10watt, a 3watt and a 1.5watt board.