Roll your own LED Nav Lights

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 3:00 pm

Was just going through my construction files. These are articles and tidbits that I collect while planning the airplane build. I ran across this article sometime back and thought it was really informative.

http://www.eaa724.org/TechnicalStuff%20.html

tmbg · Post by **tmbg** » Wed May 23, 2007 4:49 pm

read through that article... I'm not crazy about the way they go about the calcs for dropping resistors for LEDs. For one thing, they give the calcs to size a resistor to set current at 0.35A, then say 'use a 1/2 watt resistor. it will get hot.' Well sure it'll get hot; ohms law also says that Power = Voltage * Current, and 7V * 0.35A is almost 2.5W! That's a bit excessive for a half watt resistor, dontchathink? Also, powering LEDs like this is a bit wasteful... lots of power goes to heat.

Anyway, I'm just being grumpy, but it got me thinking about designing a central LED lighting system, which would handle DC/DC conversion to drive the LEDs as brightly and efficiently as possible, and maybe it could be designed to use Luxeons or something similar as strobes, and handle the wig wag. I've got a fair amount of experience designing stuff that drives LEDs using microcontrollers and powered by switching DC/DC supplies. Take a look at http://www.z-toys.com/ for an example of something I designed.

Would there be any interest for something like this?

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Thu May 24, 2007 12:57 am

I'd be interested but not if it's yet another pair of $150 - $300 nav lights. I understand that developing these things cost money but not a WHOLE lot of development time goes into designing LED circuits. That's why I was considering just building my own. Not that I'm the best at electronics by any stretch! If I could buy a set for closer to $100 I'd probably go for it. I'd be willing to pay more for some really nice looking LED lights. The ones that look like a circuit board with a hole in it look kind of geeky. Well, I am kind of geeky myself but I want my airplane to look slick. If I were designing some LED nav lights I'd make the look closer to what Jeff sells. (I think Chad.. uh ... the Subaru Evangelist posted some picutres of Jeff's LED lights on his wingtips. They are the nicest design I've seen.

Really looking forward to seeing more competition out there. Best of luck!

JOHN TIPTON · Post by **JOHN TIPTON** » Thu May 24, 2007 4:50 am

Hi Guys

How about

http://www.creativair.com/lights-kits-c ... 999ebba997

they look great to me and good on price

Best regards - John (PPL - RV-9a wings)

Bob Barrett · Post by **Bob Barrett** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:46 pm

Remeber to check the FAR regulations for legal navigation and strobe light requirements. As of December 2006, I don't believe there were led nav lights that met the FAR reulations in the U.S. The lighting requirements for aircraft are very stringent and the fact that the airplane is experimental doesn't allow lights that do not meet the FAR requiremnts. I would ask for a written guarntee of some sort that pay at least 5 times the costs of the lights if not compatible with the FAR regs.

jim_geo · Post by **jim_geo** » Thu May 24, 2007 10:50 pm

Bob, I've been putting a pair of the Creative Air lights together as I get motivated hence it's taking me forever. I believe however that their lights do meet the requirements, there is a lot of attention to pointing the little LED's in appropriate directions. I also know of at least one aircraft using them.

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Thu May 24, 2007 10:57 pm

Here's a link to the page on my website with pics of the Jeff Bordelon LED's I am using. These things ARE the SWEETEST one's out there that I've come across...

http://www.chadandbrittne.com/November% ... 013-06.htm

tmbg · Post by **tmbg** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:48 am

those look pretty nice... I'll look into them.

Bob Barrett · Post by **Bob Barrett** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:04 pm

You did nice work on these led position lights! I like the looks of them but I am going to wimp out and use the nav, strobe and white light units sold by Van's

cnpeters · Post by **cnpeters** » Sun May 27, 2007 11:15 pm

The LED nav lights are not hard to make. Luxeon's (I or III's) work great. You can either add a resistor to provide for a voltage drop equal to voltage input (eg 14 v), or keep adding LEDs until their cumulative voltage drop balances out. Check out http://www.theledlight.com/LuxeonLEDs.html , http://www.lumiledsfuture.com/products/ . You can also use a power regulator/driver - all these are pretty cheap, like $15-40 for a driver (pennies if you do the resistor method), and $5-8 for each LED (need about 2 or 3 of the 3W Luxeon III's to match the candela of the FAR requirement). For light dispersion and direction, I will use Luxeon's extensive spec sheets to calculate and extrapolate, but will not make direct measurements with a light meter unless I can borrow one. There are a couple more details such as heat conductive adhesives, heat sinking, mounting reflector (piece of Alclad woks fine). When I get to them and finish, I promise a writeup. I just finished a xenon HID conversion of the 100W duckworks reflector, and tested it outside. Works great, though the tight beam par36 reflector that Don sells at DW coupled with the recessed light and the cutout make a less than ideal pattern for taxi, but good for landing. I even modified the DW mount plate and moved it forward 2 inches (in the -9, Don has those sitting further back than any other RV). I also put the skin cutout close to one rib, so the lens can slide sideways out of the way. Those 35W HID stinkers are way brighter than the 100W halogen bulb I tried. I will post a writeup on this soon with pics.

RivetBangers.com

Roll your own LED Nav Lights

Roll your own LED Nav Lights

Remember the FAR's if it is to be licensed in the U.S.