Setting up LEDs on your flight controller

[@obxphillyfpv7435]

Thanks I appreciate you going over all the most commonly used LED modes. Building my first plane that isn't a PNP. Going RC Dolphin and bought some led strips and now I want to order an LED ring for the motor.

[@MrD]

Nice. I do like the LED rings around motors. I think they look cool.

[@petebuttons210]

Really useful. You are the only one that I know of that is showing the "programming" side of the hobby it seems. Thank you.

[@MrD]

Thanks Pete. I’m trying my best. I just try to think if the videos or information that I couldn’t find easily when I first started. Then try to make it easy to understand. If there are any topics you’d like covered, please feel free to drop me a message, and I’ll add it to the list.

[@Stubbsyfpv]

Great thx Darren, very useful tutorial 👍👍👍

[@MrD]

Thank you 🙂

[@alloutofdonuts3998]

Awesome vid. Easy to understand, now I can get mine working the way I want!!! Thanks very much for this vid!!!

[@MrD]

No problem. I’m glad it was helpful.

[@SILVIOFRANCO1]

Arwing Pro will become fancy

[@MrD]

Light it up Silvio 🙂

[@emmanuelsab1095]

ahh Daren i m falling in love with you....r pedagogy; every video is a piece of cake; thanks once again for the time you devote to us poor sinners....

[@sams9716]

Great video! Wish you didn't need to keep a chain going. Would be easy to set up navigation lights.

[@MrD]

It is a little inconvenient. But I did it with my S1100. I think for most things going forward, if I want nav lights, I’ll just use the flytron strobon LEDs. They’re really bright and switchable.

[@WickdPerfekT]

Thank you.

[@MrD]

You’re welcome

[@stealthwingsrc1094]

Highly useful buddy. Thanks

[@MrD]

Thanks Arthur 👍🏻

[@MiniatureWorld_01]

Hi ... how much curent they will drawn let say if Im using 32 bit leds. 16 on each side of the wing ? It concern me for long range.

[@MrD]

Approximately 1.34A per hour. Without knowing the exact LEDs this is approximate; based on the standard 5050 LED boards or strips. 32 LEDs at 0.21 W each = 6.72 watts Running at 5v = 1.344Ah Running at 12v = 0.56Ah This is of course, with all LEDs on all the time. I’d they are fading or alternating, they will use less energy.

[@MiniatureWorld_01]

@@MrD thanks

[@MrD]

You’re welcome

[@fellpower]

I tried the LED stuff for hours (ws2812) - not working - then i saw, that u need to connect the lipo, to make them work....:/

[@MrD]

Yeah, it kind of helps if they have power 😄

[@emmanuelsab1095]

how can you display the autolaunch mode? i mean, when you arm the wing, i would like to get the information that autolaunck is ready to use. is it possible?

[@MrD]

It shows the state of autolaunch in the system messages.

[@AK2I47]

😂that is sickkk!! 13:47 I can already see the fun I would have with this.

[@AK2I47]

Question: is it possible to change WS2812 behaviour from transmitter?

[@Freebird_67]

I have the Heewing T-ranger and I can’t get the lights on both wing tips to work. Everything is connected properly to Matek F405WMN board what am I doing wrong!

[@MrD]

Sorry I don’t have one of those yet. I believe the PnP and kit versions had different LED setups. One needed an extra board that HeeWing sell to work in some cases. But I don’t really know much details. You’d be best asking in a HeeWing or T1 group.

[@holaperrito2554]

Great video!!! Any reason why you started at the bottom of the grid? Does it matter where we start on the grid?

[@MrD]

No, you can start anywhere on the grid. I usually like to lay them out on the grid as they are on the plane. Then it’s easier to know where you are.

[@Indonesia01ian]

Hi how to make the LED Blinking fast like a beacon?

[@pampfpv]

hi @Mr.D is it possible to connect 2 led strip in parallel ? ty

[@MrD]

Yes, you can connect as many strips as you like in parallel. Just be wary of the power requirements, as it may be better to use a separate 5v BEC if the amp draw gets high.

[@gliss0724]

Hey question about the matek 405 wing flight controller... Fc working fine until I flashed the newest firmware. Now it will connect to I nav but it will not respond to the set up tab. When I move my Fc it doesn’t move on the screen? Any ideas why this would be?

[@MrD]

Try reflashing. Make sure you’re selecting the correct target. I have an F405-WING as my test flight controller. It’s been fine on 2.6.1.

[@rparts1]

thanks for video just what i was looking for !

[@MrD]

You’re welcome Ralph.

[@JokoKangaroo]

Help to understand please, there is a ring on the plane.. with 16 LEDs. i can't figure out how to make it work the same way when you increase the gas stick as you have in the video

[@MrD]

Sorry for the late reply. It should be exactly the same as in the video. You would just add the 16 LEDs for the circle instead of the 8 that I have used.

[@SergioNayar]

Awesome video, thanks 👍

[@MrD]

Thanks Sergio

[@sleepingbearffg5008]

Great video and greet Help! I'll he recommending your channel! 💪💪👊👊

[@MrD]

Thank you, I really appreciate that. But more so, glad the video helped.

[@mikebradshaw3102]

Thanks for your INAV vids! My plane has navigation LEDs (one color, non-addressable). I would like them to blink when INAV is armed. Can this function be made to control non-addressable LEDs?

[@MrD]

Thanks Mike. Unfortunately not. You would need a blink circuit between the power for the LEDs and the LEDs themselves. The iNav LED feature is only for addressable LEDs.

[@mikebradshaw3102]

@@MrD Thanks for your reply Mr.D! It's crazy that a flight controller can't make a couple LEDs blink! On my (H743-WING V2) I believe it has a switchable 5V output on the Vsw pin. I think switchable means that the Flight Controller can switch the voltage on/off? Maybe I could connect my LEDs to this Vsw output and set up some logic in the programming tab to blink the LEDs when armed? Do you think that can be done?

[@MrD]

No problem. The flight controllers can make LEDs blink. They just need to be the right kind on LEDs ;) Unfortunately the logic conditions won't help either. There is no timer logic that could do this. If you're using OpenTX, EdgeTX, or ETHOS; you could use the logical switches and timer on there to change a channel from -100 to 100. Then have that channel operate the USER mode that switches the Vsw on and off. But I honestly think a little timer circuit or even ESP32 or nano Arduino would be the better solution. Depending on the LEDs, they may pull more amps than the Vsw pad can handle.

[@mikebradshaw3102]

Yeah, I would like the extra functions addressable LEDs would give, and I have some of those LEDs lying about. I just didn't want to tear apart the preinstalled wiring and LEDs or install extra hardware. I now have the arming channel also controlling the USER mode to switch the Vsw on/off (but doesn't blink LEDs). I could put it on a different channel and setup the timer circuit in EdgeTX. I have two channels still free (until I purchase and install a Pan/Tilt camera setup.) I might do that if the programming logic can't control Vsw. I appreciate your help!

[@mikebradshaw3102]

Using inspiration from your suggestions, I was able to get INAV to blink the LEDs without any more hardware. I checked the current draw of the 4 LEDs, and it was less than .2 Amps, so I opted to power it off the Vsw output. In INAV, under Programming I set up timer logic (using your above video and a video from Pawel kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZ61hHycfsSbba8). When armed, the timer overrides CH16. Under Modes/USER, I setup CH16 to control the Vsw output. Here's a link to how it works: photos.app.goo.gl/R7i6KkTzyvxXVsYT8 Thanks again for taking some time to help me with this!

[@gajufpv9032]

Do you know what is the use of the LED orientation (N, S, E, W, U, D) in the configurator ?

[@MrD]

Honestly, I don’t really know. I guess it would be based on the compass. It’s not really something I could see being useful for fixed wing, so I’ve never really investigated it.

[@emiledubois9949]

Nice video! Just a question, can you adress a UART-port to a LED-port? My FC doesn't have a pad for led.

[@MrD]

Thank You Emile. Unfortunately not. Well, not just by using iNav. You could possibly do it by making your own firmware target and reassigning something to be an LED output. But I’ve not really looked deeply in to this.

[@emiledubois9949]

@@MrD Thx for answering! It'll be a plane without led's 😅. I don't have the know-how to make my own firmware.

[@MrD]

The other option is to use an external LED controller, like the MudDart MudLED module.

[@johnchurch2321]

Good evening! Hey will INAV 6 allow you to program more modern LEDs like the SK6812s?

[@MrD]

No, it is just using the WS2812 standard.

[@johnchurch2321]

@@MrD thanks bro, you saved me

[@exoops]

Does this work on arduplane?

[@MrD]

To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t even know if arduplane can control LEDs. I would imagine if it can, the wiring would be the same, and there would be some settings in that giant parameters list. I am looking to try arduplane at some point. As I think it will be worth learning. But last time I gave up as the MissionPlanner UI is badly designed, and the guide on the ardu wiki was wrong. But I will try again.

[@exoops]

Arduplane is real good now you should give it another try. I am glad I took my time to learn it and the new firmware is a breath of fresh air. I do not look at inav anymore. However this led thing is tempting. I have some leds lying around) But there is no information if those leds can be supported and controlled via Arduplane