Latest Video of my Practicing

[dp106]

Latest video of me practicing on my new 450 quad

450 Size Quad Copter

Shot over couple of days. my confidence is slowly building, hopefully it won';t exceed my talent too often :)

[Gaza07]

Looking good your flying well 

[dp106]

Looking good your flying well 

Thanks :-) My accidents are mostly when I lose orientation of the quad which is frustrating. Having the camera on the front actually helps though :-)

[Gaza07]

Bright leds on the arms are very good for orientation 

[teslahed]

I wouldn';t fly without LEDs;

http://youtu.be/H9GzptqAP0g

I find 2 colours works best - one for the front and one for the back.

[dp106]

Yeah leds are on my to do list, still trying to work out how I';m going to connect them with as little soldering as possible :-) I';d like to use something like this http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__23133__JST_XH_to_JST_LED_Power_Distribution_Lead_4_JST_.html to power them from the balance plug but I currently have a voltage alarm plugged in to it which I don';t really want to lose. I might buy two balance cables and attempt to combine them so I can hook up both.

[AM556]

You could splice the new cable into your existing alarm cable.
Either.....
a) Cut the alarm cable, slip on some heatshrink (out of the way for now), solder all 3 ends together then heat the heatshrink tube over the joint.
b) Cut the insulation from a very small section of the alarm cable, blob some solder on it, strip the end of the LED cable and blob that with solder. Hold together and solder, then wrap with insulation tape or preferably, self amalgamating tape.

[teslahed]

Honestly i think the simplest way to attach LEDs is just to solder directly to the solder pads on the tape and take power from the nearest two 12V / Ground contacts on the quadcopter.

On some of my quads i have the LED tape for each arm taking power from the input side of the ESC on the same arm. On some i run the wire from the LED tape to the power distribution board.

I use thin 24awg wire - it carries enough current to power the LEDs and if something does short circuit somewhere the thin wire will melt and fuse and hopefully prevent a lipo fire.

[AM556]

@ Teslahead
I have mine as you do but I';m sure the OP doesn';t have accessible solder points and doesn';t want to mess with the ESC plugs.

[firey1]

Another way you could do it (as i run the same jst splitter for my fpv gear ) is to solder a jst pig tail to the outer most pins of your lipo alarm this will give you total volt reading only but will enable the alarm to warn on low voltage and will give 3 extra 12v outputs for whatever you like

[dp106]

Another way you could do it (as i run the same jst splitter for my fpv gear ) is to solder a jst pig tail to the outer most pins of your lipo alarm this will give you total volt reading only but will enable the alarm to warn on low voltage and will give 3 extra 12v outputs for whatever you like

Cool that sounds like a good idea. I';m not so worried about the individual voltages just want the alarm to go off when it';s low.

@ Teslahead
I have mine as you do but I';m sure the OP doesn';t have accessible solder points and doesn';t want to mess with the ESC plugs.

Correct :-) My esc';s already had bullet connectors so I';d prefer to leave them alone rather than replace them with potentially dodgy joints of my own.

[rickp]

I find 2 colours works best - one for the front and one for the back.

I go with the traditional red/green - red on port, green on starboard. I find doing it fore/aft very confusing and most unlike aircraft

[steve fh]

I added LED';s to mine last night.  I went Red and Green on Port and Starboard as that';s what i';m used too.

I think a single bright white on the front shieldied so you cant see it from the rear will be the icing on the cake to then distinguish front from rear

[AM556]

As like around 15% of the male population I am red/green colour blind. I prefer red on the rear (brake lights) and white on the front but only in the front and rear "V". I have also added strips facing down which are a great help.

[dp106]

As like around 15% of the male population I am red/green colour blind. I prefer red on the rear (brake lights) and white on the front but only in the front and rear "V". I have also added strips facing down which are a great help.

I';m still trying to remember which is port and which is starboard :-) 

[teslahed]

Correct :-) My esc';s already had bullet connectors so I';d prefer to leave them alone rather than replace them with potentially dodgy joints of my own.

Fair enough. I realise that soldering is not everyones cup of tea.

However, many people find that factory soldered bullets are soldered badly and sometimes fail in flight resulting in motors stopping in mid air. I';m not saying it';s common but it does happen.

Hand soldered joints are likely to be better than factory soldered ones. Especially if you use leaded solder - they are now using unleaded in china.

I';m still trying to remember which is port and which is starboard :-) 

There';s some red port left in the bottle (green is right).

But when i used red and green on my quad for left and right i found it confusing. I never mix up left and right anyway - but front and back is much easier to mix up. So whilst it may seem counter intuitive i ended up using red and green for back and front instead of port and starboard and it does seem better that way.

Personal preference will come into it as well of course.

[dp106]

There';s some red port left in the bottle (green is right).

But when i used red and green on my quad for left and right i found it confusing. I never mix up left and right anyway - but front and back is much easier to mix up. So whilst it may seem counter intuitive i ended up using red and green for back and front instead of port and starboard and it does seem better that way.

Personal preference will come into it as well of course.

I have to agree, I think in the heat of the moment I am more likely to struggle with whether green means its flying to the left or the right.  If I have red at the back I';m going to think brake lights so that';s the back of the quad