This is a project from back in winter of 2006 that I wanted to share with you...

The winter is coming to Sweden fast,
When I go to work in the morning; Its dark
When I go home from work in the evening; Its dark

I cant see in the dark so I needed to work around this, this is why I started this project.

step one: Night-blades!

An old pair of 500mm woodblades will do fine




I used my dremel to cut out for the leds on the tip's




Time to cut out for the wires that is going along the whole blade


It's there, it's just hard to see


We need LiPo power






Flatening the ends on the LEDs that is going to be on the tip


Cuting out for the LEDs that is going to be on the leading edge


I used CA to glue the leds and the wires down, and later Im going to fill it with epoxy


Fitting the leds on the leading edge


I sanded the leds sharp to make the light reflect better


Ahhh, You got to love the smell of epoxy




I sanded the epoxy down using fine sandpaper(400-1000 grit)


Fitting the LiPo's and connectors


I calculated that I needed a 10ohms resistor to not fry my leds and giving me the maximum use-time (4-6h)




The jumper I made to turn on the leds. To charge the battery I simply plug in the charger on the middle and left pins.


The reason I shose Blue and Green is that both had the same specs. 3.2-3.4v (max 3.8V) and 20mA typ.






Total wheight of one night-blade.


And one stock blade.


Step two: The leds on the heli


LM317 type constant current boards that I got from work.