{"id":2688,"date":"2009-09-14T08:50:23","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T14:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2015-02-05T09:01:53","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T15:01:53","slug":"6-9-overhead-plenum-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/14\/6-9-overhead-plenum-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"6.9 Overhead Plenum Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 32 of 42 in the series 06 - Fuselage<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Soon, I’ll be installing the overhead fresh air plenum. I’ll need the have the lights fitted before I get to that point. I looked at Oshkosh for some good LED map\/courtesy\/flood lights. I found a bunch but as is the case with many things aviation, just because it goes in an airplane, you can usually add a zero to the price. What should cost $12 ends up costing $120. <\/span><\/p>\n

$110 lights
\n$130 lights<\/a><\/span>
\n$145 lights<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

See what I mean? But just like the door linkage…\u00a0 Something I know about.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s what I did. I found a light for boats. A Perko 12v light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-17<\/a><\/p>\n

I bought 4 of these at a marine supply store. Now this fixture has a 12volt incandescent light inside (I’m going to have a 28v electrical system). But that didn’t matter because I just wanted it for the plastic. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-17<\/a><\/p>\n

I removed the bulb, mounting hardware and wires. <\/span><\/p>\n

I purchased a dozen high intensity white and red LEDs at (of all places) superbrightleds.com. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now I was venturing into uncharted territory. To have circuit boards manufactured would have cost me about $100. I discovered a way to make them myself. I created the layout using a free PCB (Printed Circuit Board) design program I found on the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-21<\/a><\/p>\n

Now here’s a neat trick: If you print the layout on slick, shiny paper, it transfers to the circuit board better. Finally a use for all those clothing catalogs my wife gets in the mail.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-21<\/a><\/p>\n

I picked up a blank copper clad circuit board and Radio Shack.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-21<\/a><\/p>\n

Then I put the paper on the circuit board and using a regular clothes iron, transferred the ink to the card. The paper comes off by soaking the whole thing in water for a couple minutes and then it goes into an etching solution (purchased at Radio Shack) for 20 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

I cut out the individual, circular PCB and epoxied it to the back of the light fixture. Then I drilled the holes for the LEDs, resistors and leads and started soldering. <\/span><\/p>\n

This first one was a “proof of concept” prototype. I just wanted to make sure the design worked. So I pretty much slapped it together and installed some test points instead of wires.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-22<\/a><\/p>\n

I SAID it was a prototype. It’s not SUPPOSED to look pretty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-22<\/a><\/p>\n

Red<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-22<\/a><\/p>\n

White<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-08-22<\/a><\/p>\n

WooHoo!<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing I didn’t like was when I soldered the components in the solder would run all the was along the trace. On real PCBs there’s a “solder mask” that contains the solder. Then I discovered that you can create a poor-mans solder mask using glass paint from the hobby store. This is paint that you can use on glass to create a stained glass effect. After painting it on, you bake it in the oven to cure it. After that, you got a solder mask.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s a “production” model. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"2009-09-14<\/a><\/p>\n

\"2009-09-14<\/a><\/p>\n

Total cost for the for lights: About $50.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entry is part 32 of 42 in the series 06 - Fuselage<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Soon, I’ll be installing the overhead fresh air plenum. I’ll need the have the lights fitted before I get to that point. I looked at Oshkosh for some good LED map\/courtesy\/flood lights. I found a bunch but as is the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"series":[30],"class_list":["post-2688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-6","series-06-fuselage"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2700,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions\/2700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2688"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}