Mobile Multirotor LED Driver Board
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Keith Brown. I'm a husband, a father, an RC geek, and an electronics enthusiast. I'm always working on taking electronic stuff apart, and creating new devices with the parts. I've even had the opportunity to provide technical support for a movie featuring radio controlled aircraft.
I'm sure that if you're like me, there just doesn't seem to be enough time during the day to squeeze in flying time with all of my other responsibilities. This project is the sum of what little free time I had/have.
The purpose of this project is to develop a LED driver board for RC aircraft, specifically multirotors. LEDs are a great way to personalize your aircraft, offering dazzling in-flight light displays. Some pilots also use them maintain orientation during flight. But, rarely do you see a pilot switch from “Display Mode” to “Orientation Mode” in mid-flight. You will be able to achieve this with my project using your transmitter and control other features of your LEDs in real time using your Bluetooth enabled mobile device.
In the past, the programming of LEDs was hard and took cumbersome equipment not necessarily meant for RC flight; the pilot needed to “hack” each device to provide power, or if lucky, control the display and/or color. Often you could switch through a couple pre-programmed displays, pre-flight and that was it! Later, they became easier to control, but you had to take the time to learn a bit of programming and even some basic electronics to produce something worth the HOURS of time spent on the project.
Not being satisfied with the simple single color LED's, I came up with a way to use a BlueTooth chip to allow the pilot to customize the colors and patterns the LED's emit via a mobile application that I developed.
As you can see, the project was a success, and I was so happy with the way it turned out that I'd like to share it with the RC community, but I need your help.
As functional as my prototype is, it's not what you'd call consumer grade. If I can raise $2000 dollars, I can have my LED driver professional printed making it a nearly plug and play item for the pilot. The ease of use will mean less time trying to program, and more time enjoying your hobby in whatever spare time you can find.
I'd like to conclude by saying thank you for your time, and your contributions. With your assistance, I hope to have this product available by the end of April. Keep up to date with the progress of this project at my Go Fund Me page for more updates. Or follow the project on Twitter @keithbrown .
Prototype V1 (seen in the video). This was my first proof of concept that plugged into an auxiliary channel of the receiver.
I'm sure that if you're like me, there just doesn't seem to be enough time during the day to squeeze in flying time with all of my other responsibilities. This project is the sum of what little free time I had/have.
The purpose of this project is to develop a LED driver board for RC aircraft, specifically multirotors. LEDs are a great way to personalize your aircraft, offering dazzling in-flight light displays. Some pilots also use them maintain orientation during flight. But, rarely do you see a pilot switch from “Display Mode” to “Orientation Mode” in mid-flight. You will be able to achieve this with my project using your transmitter and control other features of your LEDs in real time using your Bluetooth enabled mobile device.
In the past, the programming of LEDs was hard and took cumbersome equipment not necessarily meant for RC flight; the pilot needed to “hack” each device to provide power, or if lucky, control the display and/or color. Often you could switch through a couple pre-programmed displays, pre-flight and that was it! Later, they became easier to control, but you had to take the time to learn a bit of programming and even some basic electronics to produce something worth the HOURS of time spent on the project.
Not being satisfied with the simple single color LED's, I came up with a way to use a BlueTooth chip to allow the pilot to customize the colors and patterns the LED's emit via a mobile application that I developed.
As you can see, the project was a success, and I was so happy with the way it turned out that I'd like to share it with the RC community, but I need your help.
As functional as my prototype is, it's not what you'd call consumer grade. If I can raise $2000 dollars, I can have my LED driver professional printed making it a nearly plug and play item for the pilot. The ease of use will mean less time trying to program, and more time enjoying your hobby in whatever spare time you can find.
I'd like to conclude by saying thank you for your time, and your contributions. With your assistance, I hope to have this product available by the end of April. Keep up to date with the progress of this project at my Go Fund Me page for more updates. Or follow the project on Twitter @keithbrown .
Prototype V1 (seen in the video). This was my first proof of concept that plugged into an auxiliary channel of the receiver.Organizer
Keith Brown
Organizer
Palmyra, NJ
