Brantel
Well Known Member
****EDIT**** If you are new to the idea of rolling your own LED nav lights, several have reported issues using the constant current LED drivers talked about in this thread. It seems these things are terrible RFI noise makers and will render your aircraft radio next to useless. All attempts at sheilding/shunting this noise has failed that I am aware of. Most have decided to just use the tried and true method of a voltage dropping resistor instead. If someone had the time to work this out, I am sure that a solution could be found but most of us have bigger fish to fry in other areas of the aircraft build. Use the constant current LED power supplies at your own risk.
UPDATE: Bob Knuckles makes a filter now that works great!!! http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=34987&highlight=filter
The mail dropped off my K2 Stars yesterday. Bought them, the drivers and some thermal grease from LEDSUPPLY.
Hooked them up temporarily and did some test.
Man these things are bright, you cannot look at them too long....
I am planning 6 K2's per side. Running at 500mA by using a two parrallel runs of three in series. I am using a 1000mA wired Buck Puck driver. The drivers are smaller than a quarter and make no heat.
This is 250mA less than the recommended max for these K2's so they run slightly cooler and a little less bright than at a full 750mA.
I tested this combo with a variable power supply and from 20v all the way down to 10v on the red and 10.5v on the green, there was no change whatsoever in the output of the emmitters. Once the voltage drops below that, the driver can no longer provide the constant current and the emmitters start to dim. Should be no problem for a typical airplane.
Tonight I will start working on the base plate/heat sink and mount the K2's. The mirrored plexi will be here Wednesday from a vendor on Ebay.
Other than a minor difference here and there, mine will be built similar to the other examples that others have done already.
UPDATE: Bob Knuckles makes a filter now that works great!!! http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=34987&highlight=filter
The mail dropped off my K2 Stars yesterday. Bought them, the drivers and some thermal grease from LEDSUPPLY.
Hooked them up temporarily and did some test.
Man these things are bright, you cannot look at them too long....
I am planning 6 K2's per side. Running at 500mA by using a two parrallel runs of three in series. I am using a 1000mA wired Buck Puck driver. The drivers are smaller than a quarter and make no heat.
This is 250mA less than the recommended max for these K2's so they run slightly cooler and a little less bright than at a full 750mA.
I tested this combo with a variable power supply and from 20v all the way down to 10v on the red and 10.5v on the green, there was no change whatsoever in the output of the emmitters. Once the voltage drops below that, the driver can no longer provide the constant current and the emmitters start to dim. Should be no problem for a typical airplane.
Tonight I will start working on the base plate/heat sink and mount the K2's. The mirrored plexi will be here Wednesday from a vendor on Ebay.
Other than a minor difference here and there, mine will be built similar to the other examples that others have done already.
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