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Tip: Glare Shield LED strip comparison

The Elcheapo dimmers that Van's sell work just fine as a LED dimmer. They cost only a couple bucks more than the sum of the parts if you tried to build your own.
 
FWIW, for anyone not wanting to order online, my local Autozone store has a Alpena Flex LED 36" light strip in a cool white #77503 for $29.99. Apparently they are also made in red and blue, but the store only carried the white. I couldn't find the 36" version listed on the autozone.com website though, just in the store. The Alpena website (http://promos.marklyngroup.net/comersus/store/LEDpromo.asp) indicates that this is a 3528 version, which is apparently not as bright as the 5050, but given the look of the pictures above, it looks like 5050 maybe brighter than necessary anyway, especially if it has to dimmed almost all the way down while flying.
 
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5050 and KICK dimmer

Great input from all on the LED lighting subject. I can remember when IP lighting was a big investment when all that was available was the certified stuff! I built my 9A with a led strip from Stein, and a dimmer from Vans, and it worked great, except it was a little wimpy during the twilight hour, and I wish that it were a bit more powerful. Looks like the new 5050SMD strips solve that issue for sure. And for 18 bucks...

As for dimming, may I suggest the KICK PWM dimmer. Available on Ebay, shipped, for another 18 bucks, or direct from the company. It works great with my 5050 strip, providing a very linear control of the intensity. This little dimmer is made in the USA, and is used by many lighting contractors for big LED lighting projects. It also has a nice "feel" to the control, with a very positive click.

And...My panel will be lit for 36 bucks total!!

Hope this helps....Link below
Chris

http://www.kicklighting.com/PWM-dimmer-switch-for-LED.htm
 
Connectors

They come with one attached, but it doesn't hurt to order a few extras, I did.
 
I wonder, can I put LED strips under my wings to pimp my ride?

Seriously though, how are folks mounting the strip under the glare shield?

Jekyll
 
I got mine at Autozone...

They are bright white with sticky back side. I will wire to ACS pwm dimmers. I have a set for the glare shield, cabin and baggage areas. Panel and cabin lights wired to hot aux bat feed to front fuse block with 1A ato fuse.

No dimmer for baggage area and switch near baggage door wired to aux bat hot fuse block with 1A ATO fuse.

Of course I will have to make sure those lights are off before leaving the plane or the aux battery will end up dead. One reason I did not hook up to main 27 ah battery. Sure will be nice to be able to turn on lights without anything else on.

If the sticky back lets go there are many adhesives to choose from down the road.
 
Green

So white or green is the best... Does anyone have an example of green LED lighting? I think it could actually look sorta cool :D
 
I purchased the blue strip from Stein:

http://www.steinair.com/images/store/blueledstrip.jpg

Installation instructions say to hook directly to 12v source or a regular rheostat.

I hooked it up to my rheostat last night to test my panel. It didn't work for a bit but finally came on for about 10 seconds. Then the strip fell 1 foot and nothing worked. The 1 amp panel fuse blew and the LED strip is dead. Makes me wonder how this will tolerate vibration.

Did more troubleshooting and discovered I have a problem with my EGPAVR rheostat from Perihelion. Eric said he would fix or replace it even though the warranty is long gone.
 
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Dim on Tx

Pat,

Were you able to shield the dimmer switch to get the dimming to stop when you Tx. I am just getting my electrical panel finished up and doing some Tx/Rx tests and one set of LEDs will blink when I transmit even though the POT is in the off position. I have two other LED sets that do not behave this way so I am not sure what to do. My dimmers are not even in a cover, the circuit board just hangs from the switch mount. I have been chasing down lost of gremlins from radio transmissions.

Thanks

Pat Hatch said:
I finally got a night flight in last night to try out the new LED lights and dimmer. I wanted to mention a problem I had with the dimmer for those following this thread. It wasn't a huge deal, but when I transmit, the intensity of the lights will vary (dim) when you push the mike button. So obviously RF is affecting the dimmer circuity in some way. I might try shielding the dimmer as it's in a plastic box now and enclosing it in aluminum might help. QUOTE]
Click to expand...
 
For anyone who used the light strips from ledlightsworld.com...

From the pictures posted by Pat Hatch and others above, it appears that the SMD5050 18-LED/foot strips is way more than adequate. I just inadvertantly purchased the SMD 5050 9-LED/foot (36" in pure white). I'm happy that the overall power consumption is half that of the 18-LED version, but will the 9 LED's/ft be enough light for the panel?

9-LED version
http://www.ledlightsworld.com/smd-5050-flexible-led-strip-lights-with-9-leds-p-134.html

18-LED version
http://www.ledlightsworld.com/smd-5050-flexible-led-strips-18-leds-p-135.html
 
RVG8tor said:
Pat,

Were you able to shield the dimmer switch to get the dimming to stop when you Tx. I am just getting my electrical panel finished up and doing some Tx/Rx tests and one set of LEDs will blink when I transmit even though the POT is in the off position. I have two other LED sets that do not behave this way so I am not sure what to do. My dimmers are not even in a cover, the circuit board just hangs from the switch mount. I have been chasing down lost of gremlins from radio transmissions.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Mike,

I found a better LED dimmer. I have since replaced the one that I got from LED LightsWorld with this one and it has been in the airplane for several months now without a problem. I think I paid $16 or so for it:

http://www.kicklighting.com/PWM-dimmer-switch-for-LED.htm

It is much simpler and lighter than the other one, nicely built and potted. I added some Shoo Goo under the pot to support it from vibration where it mounts directly to the panel. Sorry I missed your post from last March, but better late than never...
 
Hey, for tip-ups...how'd you guys run/protect the wires from the strip forward/down on the tip-up frame, in order to get it routed to your switch/dimmer on the panel (or other accessible location)?
 
1 or 2 Channel switch

I am putting in the cool LED light strip under the panel. It is red and white. This I guess requires some way to control each color.

Is there a way to dim and control each color with a single switch? The switch I saw in the Spruce catalog is a two knob assy. and big.

I have these lights
11-05511.jpg


and this single channel switch
pilot_light_ecommerce013001.jpg


Perhaps I need this 2 Ch switch
pilot_light_ecommerce013002.jpg


What I am hoping to have though, is some way to use the single CH switch or even better yet, a single switch that is a 3 way, rheostat red or white light position. Has anyone found such a switch? I think I could put a toggle switch in and connect it to the dimmer, but then I have two seperate switches to essentially run one light source.
 
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Has anyone used the RGB tri-colored LED strips?

I was thinking about using a DPDT switch wired to a PWM dimmer to change between white and green. White should be all three wires from the strip connected together, and green would be just the green wire to ground.

A 16 foot strip was just $20.

Will that work?
 
Bob

Read through this entire thread and you'll find an very good dialog discussing color choices. Bottom line, white is best, even at night.
 
Bugsy said:
Bob

Read through this entire thread and you'll find an very good dialog discussing color choices. Bottom line, white is best, even at night.
Click to expand...

Bugsy is spot on.

I read through this thread last year when I was finishing up my -6A and went with the single row white LED strip. It's perfect at night - no complaints - and is plenty bright enough. I'd do it over again without a second thought.
 
Just my 2 cents. I've purchased this light strip couple of weeks ago for a try and I was quite impress by the light output and by the simplicity of its construction.
LightStrip_zps17419605.jpg

I've bought it from Aircraft Extras who offers 3 different colors.

One big upside for these strips is that they can be cut to length with a simple pair of scissors. Besides, they are dimmable with a PWM dimmer.

Really like it.
 
EL Tape

I just installed a strip of electroluminescent tape like Marc's. I got it even cheaper through a source I googled up. No pireps yet because I have not flown at night, but it was very easy to install under the glareshield with the sticky backing already on the tape. I did check to make sure there was no RF noise from the little converter box, and there is none. It does look cool in the dark hanger: no shadows.
 
Just my 2 cents. I've purchased this light strip couple of weeks ago for a try and I was quite impress by the light output and by the simplicity of its construction.

I've got this same strip in my -7 tipup...works great on the ground and in flight make sure you use a dimmer!.... it puts out the light when full bright mode, glued up under glareshield:)
 
We stocked and sold differing color EL strips for many years but also quit using them years ago...the truth is they are inferior in a number of ways to LED's. they do work, and they are dimmable, but they are still AC powered through a comparatively noisy inverter that is significantly less reliable than LED strips (which can also be trimmed with a scissors). EL strips had their time and do work OK, but LED's are just better all the way around.

Just my 2 cents as usual.

Cheers,
Stein
 
Concur with Stein

Concur with Stein, and in addition In military aviation we use EL lighting exclusively for Night Vision Goggle compatibility. It provides great ambient light when looking under the goggles.

However for normal viewing with the Mark 1 eyeball the color spectrum of the EL light is inferior.

Military uses White LED for non NVG systems and so should we.

Plus EL lighting is way more expensive.
 
Update on the light strip posted few weeks ago. I'm still impressed with the light output but I've run into some kind of problem. Although the strip is "dimmable", it isn't with any kind of dimmer.

For instance, I've coupled the strip with a PVM type of dimmer (like this one: http://www.dc-dimmer.com/12-volt-dimmers) and it happens that it isn't compatible with the strip. The light output is fine at full impulse but starts flickering the moment you turn the dial. So much that you would never tolerate the kind of flickering which is resulting.

At first I thought the dimmer was at fault and tried it out on a regular incandescent light bulb. Perfect. No issue there. So the dimmer was working fine. The light output was quite linear and steady. Then I hook it up on a true LED device and again, the LED was delivering light output as expected. Then I thought the strip was at fault so I wrote to the manufacturer. Unfortunately, I was told that the trip is especially "incompatible" with PVM dimmers. :( Too bad. I'm due to change for another type now.
 
Mark,
If you're using an EL strip, use a linear regulator based dimmer. The LM317 types will work.
 
I had a STC'd light strip similar to Marc's that I installed in my Sundowner. It came with a dimmer, 3-way switch, and a 9v battery connector. I could select the power to come from the aircraft buss or 9v batt. It worked great and very reliable.

I decided to try going LED on my RV so I ordered a LED light strip from Stein. Unfortunately, I had it for a year or two before I actually tested it and found out that too many LEDs were not working. Just moving the strip would cause other LEDs to cut off or blink. I decided not to install nor did I return to Stein given how long I had it. Still looking for a reliable solution.
 
LED Panel Mounting

For those that have done this, how secured is the sticky end and how easy will it be to remove it when the time comes to replace the lights. Are there other better ways of mounting that look like factory installation?

Thanks
 
The instruments that need attention all produce light. That's how they work. Old data is no longer relevant. A skinny metal needle painted white is not what we reference any more. Use purple led lights if you think they are pretty.
 
flintstoneflyer said:
For those that have done this, how secured is the sticky end and how easy will it be to remove it when the time comes to replace the lights. Are there other better ways of mounting that look like factory installation?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The adhesive on mine didn't hold up at all in moderately hot or cold temperatures. I ended up using a very thin line of E6000 adhesive and it's shown no signs of moving in midwest winter freezes or summer heat.

I have the Classic Aero glareshield cover, which has a small lip on the bottom. The LED strip is snugged up close to the lip. Sitting in the seats, you can't see the LED strip itself. It sure does light up the panel nicely though.
 
EL Strip

I have flown at night a few times with the green EL strip I posted about back in March. It works great, and makes no shadows, since the light comes continuously from under the glare shield. Total cost was about $25.

If I do much night flying, I will put a dimmer on it. For both EL and LED strips, you should only have enough light to see your instruments. Any more causes a loss of night vision. Most of these products put out far more light at full blast than we really need.
 
Dimmer

This is the dimmer I use: http://www.periheliondesign.com/egpavr.htm

It works well. I bought a 5 meter roll of red LEDs fom dx.com and installed it under the glare shield. I also put a strip under the throttle quadrant - just in case I dropped something... which I have done!

Hope that helps.
 
n18pf said:
This is the dimmer I use: http://www.periheliondesign.com/egpavr.htm

It works well.
Click to expand...

I'll second this vote - for a single channel dimmer, this one works quite well.
For a 4-channel dimmer I'm using this one:
http://www.fdatasystems.com/lc-lighting-controllers/
So far I'm not impressed with this unit as it drives my audio panel crazy with noise and it causes flickering of the Honeywell rocker switch backlighting. Will likely replace it with 4 each the Perihelion dimmers.
 
I just started farting around with LED strips yesterday I got off Amazon. Cheap enough that I got strips of blue red and white (.....or maybe I should have said red white and blue haha). Anyway, I thought blue and red would be good for just the panel, and white for the cabin, but just for loading bags and ground work etc. I used this PWM motor controller module for dimming duty

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15A-6V-90V...003090?hash=item1a335ed6d2:g:IasAAOSwZElZl5F3

.....and its way overkill for just LED strips, but I'd bought it previously to control some avionics fans I also bought, but went a different way on avionics cooling. BL: Any PWM motor controller will work, and theyre build way beefier than the LED controllers and less expensive by far.

Unfort for me I didnt think to look here on VAF first for info on night colors (just defaulted to military training)...duh. Oh well, LED strips are cheap. Sure beats filament bulbs!
 
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