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Flyleds (finally!) does landing lights

SOLD OUT???

Just checked the website for the Combo Landing/Taxi Light - SOLD OUT!
Won't let me place an order...

Says "Coming Soon"

Paul, how can we get our name on the list for a pair of those?

If we pay up-front, you can bring them to the states and then ship them from Oshkosh - for those of us not attending.

Let me know if this is workable. I'll supply shipping address, etc.
 
I've made them available directly on the website now. I think you'll like the $1 shipping.:)
As per below, they should (I hope!) be available for the first time at the show.

 
Ordered!

Thanks Paul,
Just ordered two units.
Looking forward to good night lights with much less amperage draw.
 
Awesome!

As soon as the "Batwing" upgrade is available, I'm a buyer. Thanks Paul! Was going to roll my own with the Squadron Pros, but this is perfect.
 
Install in Progress

I'm installing the works on my RV-8. Making good progress and hope to have it completed tomorrow. Here's a photo of the wingtip (off the airplane obviously) while test fitting the completed lights.

I decided to paint the boards to match. Masking was a time consuming process but I'm happy with the results.

For me, the biggest part of the job has been the wiring. I'll have a full report once the install is complete.

Randy

IMG_2346-L.jpg


IMG_2341-L.jpg
 
Paul,

You hit everyone's sweet spot with offering the Combo landing/taxi lights separately. Perfect product for Experimental builders.

I'm am ready to buy now but would like to confirm a few questions.


1.Will this unit fit in the old batwing style tips on an RV7A?

2 What wire gauge and quantity of conductors are you recommending for the lights?

3. Do you require shielded wire?

4. Any possibility to have this product wing wag?

Thanks

Ken
 
Nice work Randy!

As recommended to Randy, we suggest using low-tack tape to mask the smaller position LEDs, and try to attach it to the body of the LED. We had to replace a few LEDs on our hangar mate's plane that had their lenses ripped off along with the masking tape post painting...
 
Hi Ken

We have the Batwing and the RV-9 versions of "The Works" kit on its way, hopefully by the end of the week.

You (and anyone else) can order the leading edge Combo lights along with "The Original" Flyleds kit, which is position and strobe lights only in the wingtips, and I will include the newer control board with the kit. That way you get the wigwag function for the landing lights, and it will wigwag the strobe LEDs in sync as well if you'd like it to.

I need to make a stand alone wigwag unit to go with the landing lights but just haven't had the time...

We know of one flying installation using standard unshielded wire for the strobe LEDs, but given that we need two wires out to the wings to drive the strobes plus a third for the position LEDs, using shielded wire is a simpler and neater option, and guarantees you zero headset noise. We recommend 3 wire 22AWG (or 20 or 18...) shielded cable for the wingtips.
The wire that comes with standard Whelen xenon strobes can be reused as well...

For the landing lights standard 18AWG is recommended. Even though it's only 3 amps draw, with our simpler current regulator the spotlights prefer the slightly higher voltage delivered over 18AWG, versus the 20AWG the wire charts suggest is suitable.

All of the kit build and installation instructions are available for download on our Info page if pictures help! Click the logo below.

 
RV-7/8 wingtip Landing Lights

Paul,

Again - good job putting out the right product for the RV market.

A few questions for putting two lights in the RV-8 wingtips (similar to the Van?s MR-16 landing light kit):
- The double LED spotlight looks like the easy way to go, but I?m guessing if I want one aimed for landing and the other for taxi I?ll need to do individual lamps. Is this correct?
- You sell the screws and springs with the lights. My assumption the only thing needed for me to add is an aluminum mounting plate to go on the fiberglass wingtip cutout. Is this correct?

Thanks,
Carl
 
- The double LED spotlight looks like the easy way to go, but I?m guessing if I want one aimed for landing and the other for taxi I?ll need to do individual lamps. Is this correct?
- You sell the screws and springs with the lights. My assumption the only thing needed for me to add is an aluminum mounting plate to go on the fiberglass wingtip cutout. Is this correct?

Correct and correct!
You'd just need to ensure that the lights are positioned so that their beams don't get obstructed by whatever you were planning on using for strobes and position lights. They will occupy a significant amount of the space provided. Using a double LED spot for landing and a single for taxi, for example, would likely have half of its light blocked (which equals an interesting shadow) by a conventional xenon strobe head.

The Works kit will give you all of (more than!) the required light output from the strobe and position lights, and three spotlights worth of forward lighting that again is unobstructed by anything in its path, apart from the wingtip itself.

 

So, is this landing light going to be available separately? The one I see on the website has four lights. Below images from FlyLED site.

851705646.jpg


If the three light system is available I would buy those. My original plan was to install the Baja Design lights in both tips like this.

474658002.jpg
 
My Understanding

From previous posts from Paul, my understanding is that three of the lights (bottom) are for Landing and the fourth light (top) is for Taxi.
The adjustment of the Taxi being more pronounced for those choosing to drag tail.

If the adjustment is significant enough, I plan to use that fourth lamp as one more available for landing, but on a separate CB so I can turn it on while on the ground and not use the other three. (I bought two units - one for each wing in my 9A, so I will have six lamps for landing and two lamps for taxi / landing.)

By the way Mike, please confirm for me where Joseph is. I may just have to investigate your local airport this summer. I am home-based at Albany S12.
 
Hi Michael
Yes, we sell the individual spotlights. There is a two spot and a one spot version. (Link here)
exploded-view-Small.png

When I began this landing light journey my first design was for three spots on a single circuit board, but I quickly worked out that the geometry wouldn't work as well. There'd be some long screws and springs involved, and the lights would have been mostly hidden inside the wing due to the angle of the light face.

The four spot design evolved from some other requests I was also getting for a leading edge light. It might just fit into a W-715-1 (newer RV-7&8) wingtip but there's be no room left for anything else!

 
Completed Installation

6A9vDr8tQW%20jZ1JWtFBqmg-640.mp4


I completed my FlyLED "The Works" installation today. I replaced my existing landing lights (2x50 Halogen per wing), 2 wing strobes, and tail position light with Paul's system. I could not be happier with the results. For the instant gratification crowd, here's a link to the photos - https://randyking.smugmug.com/FlyLEDs-The-Works-Lighting-System

The system I replaced was adequate at best but, because there was no strobe in the tail, it wasn't night legal. The stock 50x2 halogen landing lights in each wing had been replaced by the previous owner with low wattage Home Depot LED bulbs. The landing lights were worthless. And, replacing them with halogen bulbs was not desirable. I've seen the amp draw on four of those bulbs and it ain't pretty! So, I was looking for an LED solution for the landing lights and 360 degrees of strobe coverage. I looked at a lot of potential solutions but nothing came close to touching the $800 price point for Paul's system.

I received the kit from Paul and began the project. Building the boards was very straightforward. Just follow the directions closely and use a good quality solder system. I use a SMD workstation but only because that was the cheapest route to a decent, temperature controlled soldering iron. It only cost $60 bucks. An excellent investment if you plan to do any serious solder work.

You have to pay close attention when soldering the components to make sure you put them on the right side fo the board. Paul's boards are reversible so you have to make sure you get left and right correct and solder stuff on the correct side.

I broke one of the strobe LEDs while bending the tabs. It was the last one that I installed so I though I had it down. Maybe I was moving a little too fast. Paul didn't quibble, he just sent me a new LED. And, he found it somewhere close by on Amazon and shipped it direct to me - in just a few days.

That was really the only issue with building the boards. I was able to bench items them all successfully before moving to the airplane. Having a decent 12V power supply comes in handy here but you can make do with a 9v battery and some jumper wires with alligator clips.

The majority of my time went to making the aircraft modifications and installing the necessary wiring. I decided to pull the existing wingtip and tail light wiring and replaced it with wiring that Paul sent me as part of his harness kit. You could quite easily make up all the wiring yourself but, for $80 Paul's kit makes it easy and he includes a connector for the board that is of better quality (inserted dsub pins instead of soldered ones) than the one that ships with the basic kit. I had to remove both wingtips, all the underwing access plates, all the floor panels, the baggage panels, the tail access panels, tail fairing, and a couple of the side panels to route the wires. Finding a place for the controller board was also a challenge. I ended up mounted it under the floor on below the pilot seat.

Trimming the boards to fit and modifying the wingtip coves takes some time but isn't overly difficult. I decided to paint the board to match my wing color which greatly increased the construction time required. But, I think it also greatly improved the looks of the system. Masking for painting isn't difficult but does require some care, good tape, and a sharp knife.

My airplane had a wig-wag system already but I eliminated it to use the much better system provided with the kit. I also installed a switch to enable the Taxi Flood feature.

Everything works very well. I'm exceptionally happy with the final product and with the quality of the kit.

I highly recommend FlyLED's THE WORKS system!
Randy
 
FlyLEDS lights

Folks,

I visited Paul at FlyLEDS in Melbourne today. After meeting, we figured out we met years ago while he was working on a mutual friend's RV-10 down here. I ended up buying 2 of the dual and 2 of the single landing lights assembly's from him, as I already have the position/strobe units installed in my tips since I started flying my plane 7 years ago. I always wanted to find something that used way less power than the little halogen lights I installed and these are going to fit the bill.

He also showed me one of the tip assemblies he is building up for someone else and boy are they bright and will make your aircraft highly visible. These are very nice units and he has done a really great job with them.

He was getting a bunch of units ready, and I think he will have some for sale at Oshkosh, so if you are interested, check them out. You won't be disappointed if you install his units. They are designed to be a direct replacement for some of the RV's, so check out his website and see if he has the ones for your tips.

Brian
 
I have flown this new system......I have a video and a "Review" to post shortly.

Bottom line is these are AWESOME.

YOU WILL BE HAPPY.

:D:D:D
 
I might be the first one to do some night flying with the new "THE WORKS" system, so I have done a video review for everyones benefit.

It runs 12 mins so it contains photos, video and commentary. Sorry i babble on so much :D

These are exceptionally bright even during broad daylight, like today. I landed mid morning today and a couple of people came over to the fuel pump to comment on how bright they were even on a cloudless bright sunny day.

I am happy, did I mention that?

Video Review here;
https://youtu.be/SEgquI4qjbU
 
Put me down for a set..

For those of you lamenting the fact that you cut your leading edges already, don't! It's a fantastic spot for lights to go.
So if you already have some metalwork in there from Team Aerodynamix or Duckworks, how about this then?
PAR36-concept-2-1.jpg

Designed as an oversized board so that you can trim it to fit your application, but the larger circle around the spots is 100mm diameter and represents the hole size of a PAR36 globe. In other words, it'll drop right into place.
Note the top LED is adjustable for angle. That one can be a flood lens for taxiing, especially suited for you non -A drivers.
It exists on the computer only for now, but we should have some in time for Oshkosh where I'll be hanging out with the awesome crew from Flyboy Accessories, right behind the Van's display. :)





I want a set of those. Inquirng minds that can?t get to OSH this year want to know.
 
Happy Camper

I installed FlyLEDs dual-lens landing light just a couple days ago. I had no idea two LEDs could make such a difference. I now have the new three-lens landing light ordered. The video is a comparison between the dual-lens FlyLED and the 55w halogen bulb, both in Duckwork's mounts.
The performance-to-value ratio is hard to beat. Thanks Paul!

GQd7kd6uHJRCPJBu6

AF1QipPDGWRcYToYwArbB1HqTAb7-79owSAPtEC08sN_hTaBfJw1hEWp5nrGR0XuTIBoNQ

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ADNudxTi9dYHM4o47
 
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FlyLEDS - Any noise issues reported

My biggest concern when installing things like this on my plane has to do with EMI or noise. Has anyone experienced any noise in radios or intercom after install. Typically generated by the power circuits driving these kind of devices.

Very interesting solution i'd like to consider on my new build.

Thanks!
 
Anybody have cost of shipment on these units??

Coming out of OZ to the USA, could be rather high. Or is there a US distribution center?

Rough figure OK, not looking for exact dollar amount.
 
Anybody have cost of shipment on these units??

Coming out of OZ to the USA, could be rather high. Or is there a US distribution center?

Rough figure OK, not looking for exact dollar amount.

Flyboy accessories carries them.
 
Noise?

My biggest concern when installing things like this on my plane has to do with EMI or noise. Has anyone experienced any noise in radios or intercom after install. Typically generated by the power circuits driving these kind of devices.

The landing lights by themselves have no special power circuits. These are not like the HID or halogen lights that require step-up power supplies. The LEDs are powered directly by a 12v connection.

Installation & wiring instructions can be found here: https://flyleds.com/info/

I have Paul's "Works" boards in my wingtips, with landing lights, position lights, and strobes. I wired them according to Paul's instructions, and have had zero issues with EMI or noise.

The strobe section of the Works installation guide says:
When strobed, each wing draws approximately 6 amps of current for the duration of each flash. This is a very fast rise- and fall-time current, which has the potential to cause radio or intercom noise. To eliminate the possibility of noise, the Strobe circuit to the wings and the tail should be run using shielded wire. 18 to 22 AWG, 2 3 or 4 core shielded wire may be used.
 
My biggest concern when installing things like this on my plane has to do with EMI or noise. Has anyone experienced any noise in radios or intercom after install. Typically generated by the power circuits driving these kind of devices.

Hi Mark

For our strobe and position lights we used simple resistors for the LED current limiting. That's a one component current limiter which complies with the KISS principle and is easy for people to solder the kit together.
We recommend using shielded cable with the strobe kits firstly because it conveniently puts all the required wires in one place, and second because it eliminates the possibility of any noise being induced into other systems. Even so, we know of a few flying installations that went with standard unshielded wires with no issues.

For our spotlights I went a little more high tech and used a four component linear regulator design. By definition, linear regulators do not generate any noise, instead they regulate the current by turning the extra power into heat.
(And yes you only need to use standard unshielded wire with our lights.)

Our competitors advertising here on VAF will be using switching regulators, and they will have needed to take the extra time, expense, engineering effort and added components to make sure they don't emit any noise (and I have no doubts they achieved that!). The advantage they gain is that their products will work on 24 volt systems, whereas ours won't, and they might draw half an amp less current.

Experimenters here playing around with torch/flashlight heads will either get very lucky or have to work on adding extra filters and chokes etc. EMI is not a design consideration for a switching regulator in a handheld torch so the makers don't make any effort to reduce it.
(Thinking up an even bigger number for the claimed light output is more their primary concern... followed by extending battery life :))

So the short answer is, there is no electrical noise being generated by a Flyleds light! Ever.

 
Zero noise

My biggest concern when installing things like this on my plane has to do with EMI or noise. Has anyone experienced any noise in radios or intercom after install. Typically generated by the power circuits driving these kind of devices.

Got mine at the Oshkosh Flyboys booth last year and replaced my Vans halogens in September. Easily four times as bright (subjective observation) and the power draw went from 15 amps per pair to less than 2 amps per pair. Zero noise with these. With the halogens there was a barely discernible hum. Easy direct replacement for the Vans wing tip kit of landing and taxi lights on the RV8. Very happy I got these.
 
Similar experience as those above. Put them on my 8 and notice no noise. The 6a had the landing lights in the wing, and they were just ok at night. I?m still in phase 1 so no total night flights yet but the other day landing at dusk, these were worlds better.
 
How ironic that this old thread was revived a few days ago as that I am trying to figure out what lights to put in my leading edge.

Do these do wig-wag?
 
Do these do wig-wag?

With the addition of our wigwag module, yes.

About the size of a box of matches, it is easy to hide behind the panel. It has eight different flash patterns as well.

Unique to Flyleds, you don't even have to replace your existing (possibly hard to replace) panel switch!
It can be set so that the first activation of your panel switch turns both of your lights on as normal. Then a quick Off-On again of your switch activates the wigwag mode. No new holes, no new switches.

Of course if you want separate switches it can be wired that way as well. Click the picture to see a variety of circuit diagrams.

 
With the addition of our wigwag module, yes.

About the size of a box of matches, it is easy to hide behind the panel. It has eight different flash patterns as well.

Unique to Flyleds, you don't even have to replace your existing (possibly hard to replace) panel switch!
It can be set so that the first activation of your panel switch turns both of your lights on as normal. Then a quick Off-On again of your switch activates the wigwag mode. No new holes, no new switches.

Of course if you want separate switches it can be wired that way as well. Click the picture to see a variety of circuit diagrams.


BUT.... What you haven't stated is that when you use the single switch implementation, the current load for each light is cut in half (per the instructions)...
 
BUT.... What you haven't stated is that when you use the single switch implementation, the current load for each light is cut in half (per the instructions)...
Hi Fred
For the first modules we made with the green circuit board, yes that was a limitation. That prompted me to redesign the module using a different switching method and that is now no longer the case.

If you're switching more load than just your Combo lights please drop me an email and I'll send you a new one.

 
To do it with a progressive switch (off-on-on) would require some extra blocking diodes out of the switch, which gets ugly pretty quickly.

However it can be done easily with a DPDT centre-off switch:

Diagram-C-Custom.jpeg


Kind of like a landing gear switch really... Up for when you're up with a :), down for when you're down with a :( !

 
Thanks Paul for the Info. However, your picture shows a dedicated circuit for the Wig-Wag (the small red board)? Or is that the normal main board?

Also I am interested in the blocking diodes solution. Do you have any schematic with an OFF-ON-ON?

BTW... the flyleds kit was great. Was fun and easy and went together very well. The quality of the instructions is better than what i know from many manufactures of certified equipment. Well done!

Kay
 
Thanks Kay! I'm glad you enjoyed putting your kit together.

The conversation above referred to our separate Wigwag module.

For your Flyleds The Works kit, yes you can easily use a "2-10" progressive switch to control the landing lights and wigwag functions on one switch.
There are two ways shown in the switch information sheet:

Works-WW-and-Landing-sm.jpg


 
Fly leds

I picked up the "works" kit at Oshkosh. Had a great conversation with Paul who answered all of my questions. Finally got around to installing it this week. Very straight forward install. It took a while to understand how to interface the switches and wiring from the Vans landing lights and Whelen strobes that I was replacing but everything worked on the first try! Very bright.
 
Update, I did some night landings to try out the new flyleds. They work great! I really like the flood option, when flaring for a three point landing it really lights up the area visible to the side if the plane.
 
Update, I did some night landings to try out the new flyleds. They work great! I really like the flood option, when flaring for a three point landing it really lights up the area visible to the side if the plane.

Just a caution - on most RVs the strobes are the only anti-collision lights (assuming there is no tail beacon). In the US you?re supposed to have anti-collision lights for night ops, so you probably shouldn't be operating them in flood mode in flight.
 
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