Has anyone added navigation lights to their drone? What did you use?
I find when I’m flying once its 100 ft away I have no idea what the orientation is. Lights will help.
Thanks!
Mark
Navigation lights recommendations?
jax200
#2
There are various choices for lights, both wired and unwired. Many are not very visible during the day which is when I assume you want to fly. If your goal is to have better control of the drone orientation, I might suggest these two options:
1 Elechawk switch and light -
You can add a high intensity white LED to the front of the drone connected to this switch which can be programmed to turn on and off from your transmitter [https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Controlled-Electronic-Switch-Relay/dp/B08FLVGTXQ]
In one option you can connect the switch directly to the receiver which can be programmed to a switch on your transmitter. Here is a video using the FrSky X8R, but there are others you can try -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST9LON1-Bvg&ab_channel=Painless360]
One bright LED is this
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019FD678G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1]
Power to the light is provided by the main power source or a separate, smaller LiPO. Or a more simple solution is to buy the light and add a simple on-board switch which you turn on prior to flight, albeit this will continuously consume power during flight.
During flight you can use the yaw control to visualize the front LED to get a handle on its orientation.
2 Use Simple / Super Simple flight modes
You can program one or more of your transmitter switches to either of these modes which allows for better control regardless of orientation, useful when learning to fly. They will allow control of the drone irrespective of vehicle orientation.
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/simpleandsuper-simple-modes.html
With either or both of these options you should be able to gain better control from a distance.