First attempt at lights

[jerry56]

Ok I have this light switch
https://www.banggood.com/LED-Lights-...r_warehouse=CN
I hooked it up like this.

I can't get the single light to light up, I tried it like this with one battery and I tried it with a two batteries hooked up one to the light controller and one to the motor neither way worked worked. I have it on my flyskyi6 on switch A assigned to channel 6 so it's just an on/off but I get nothing, no power to the output. Do I have to use a second battery for this controller ??? and if I do do I need to pull the positive wire out of the connector at the receiver

[frizzen]

If i'm reading their engrish correctly, it's more like a "Battle Switch" than just a light controller.

I have No Clue what they mean with 3 switchable modes.

It's needing the switched power input on the Female plug. It can work with 2.5v to 25v.
Led power output is on the male plug.

Run jumper wire from RX lead black wire to Female jst black, and another RX red to Female jst red.

Then throw a "current limit resistor" on one leg of Male jst before you solder up your leds. If you just tap Rx volts, 100 to 400 ohms should get you lit without smoking the led.

Check out me 'LED Lights for the Back of the Class' thread, it may answer some other stuff.

[9W Monighan]

The receiver wires only actuates the switch. Add power to the connector you don't have anything attached to, then your LED should light.

[jerry56]

Frizzen.... lol I know those "instructions" are hard to follow....I've read thru that thread and I'm just trying to get this "what I think should be a receiver activated switch to work, I'll use that information later as I get more involved
9W...That's what I thought too...but I hooked a battery up to it wired just the way it is and got nothing....I assume I don't have to have a resistor inline if I use the switch am I correct....if not then I need another light..lol

[frizzen]

From the 2a rating of the switch, i'd guess it's got big transistor or tiny relay. I would think you'd still need a current limiter put on there to keep the led from getting a tiny bit brighter for fraction of a second then never working again.

Might also just be on the wrong throw of the channel. Try reversing the channel / or putting it on a 3pos to get it working?

[jerry56]

I'll try both...resistor and different channel.

Ok the switch sends a full 7.4 volts to the bulb....you have to have a resistor or current limiter ... scratch one LED...but whats crazy is it won't work on a 2 position switch only on the 3 position switch...and it's on in 2 positions...and I think it's supposed to have 2 or 3 different "settings" but I haven't figured out how to get to them...I tried turning it on and off..... for $6 what can you expect, for now I just want it to turn head lights and tail lights on and off....I have this coming... hopefully by Christmas...
https://www.banggood.com/12-LED-Ligh...r_warehouse=CN

[frizzen]

If you're good with a soldering iron, you could take the power input plug off and have those wires tie in at the board solder pads where the RX connector hooks up. That should get you to 'rx voltage' 4-6v from the bec, instead of full 'battery voltage' you were putting in.

If you're bad with soldering iron, splice a servo lead onto the input plug wires, so it can connect to an empty slot in rx, probably remove the signal wire so it's easier to remember it's not the control plug

I haven't found a video on that thing yet, since that seems to be the only way to find out how these 'Orange chicken with fried rice' brand parts work.

This seems to be the light controler that you have coming
https://youtu.be/85woXq-5OGg

[9W Monighan]

Another idea is use a cheap ESC. Then you could limit the output to your LED from the transmitter servo travel settings.

[jerry56]

Thanks guys... I never would have thought of doing it like that.... I will probably just use this on on the current project as is, I'll just put the resistors in, or use a current limiter...
or.....
Frizzen in your first idea I would end up with 2 connection to the receiver, one for power and one for control is that right...
9W Doing it this way I could do away with the current "switch" correct, I wouldn't even need it, then I could put it on a 2 position switch... in theory...
Oh by the way 9W I have a rock wagon like the one you did a few years ago....that's on the list of things to build.... so I may ask for some pointers on that too in the future...

[frizzen]

First idea was just cutting the power input wires about 1" long, and bridging them on the switch pcb with the solder pads where red & black wires from RX connector mount. So you keep 1 rx plug, 1 output

Second idea was if you put another servo lead connection onto the power in wires, you'd have 2 plugs to mount into rx. Original 3 wire plug to whatever channel, 2 wire to empty channel or bat / vcc.

To tag on to 9ws suggestion, If you've got any junk or cheap servos, and 2 matched value resistors you can do the same switching as an esc in smaller footprint.

[jerry56]

Ok I get what your saying.... I'll have to look at the pcb to see what I have to work with the way it is now I have to either use a "Y" cable or 2 batteries.
This thing was cheap but not sure it's worth the hassle. I looked at that link you posted, He has a switch in another video that was what I thought this one was.. just a simple switch for on and off.....live and learn....

[jerry56]

Ok I went with Frizzen's option "B" since the switch was already wired like option "A". All I had to do was change the plug, it still only works on a 3 position switch but I don't have to have a second battery or "Y" cable....and only sends 5 volts to the switch you still need resistors though... but it works...Thank you both for the help...

[Wombii]

If it's made for 3 pos switch, it's probably off at center (1500) and on at up or down (<1300 or >1700)? You can try limiting one of the endpoints for the 2 position switch in the transmitter to up and center instead of up and down. I don't know the menus of the flysky radios, but I bet frizzen does.

[jerry56]

well...it's on at center and up... off at down... either way I figured out how it works.. sort of so I can use it, I know what I'm looking for now and will get a different type next time I have this one coming
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[frizzen]

Took a while to get time to write this while next to my Flysky fsi6

Long hold 'OK' to Menu
Go into 'Functions Setup' with Ok

If you go down and hit 'Display' you can verify Ch 6 works with Sw A, and see if it's working Left-Center or Right-Center

If you hit Reverse you can OK across to 6, then Up/Down to toggle that one, long hold Cancel to save & exit

Then if you go back to 'Display' it should have swapped the Left / Right throw from earlier

[jerry56]

Ok I got the lights working sort of. I can turn them on and off with the switch, I'm using this current limiter
https://lighthouseleds.com/20ma-led-...er-driver.html
and I can hook up my red tail lights and my amber parking lights in parallel and they work.... but if I put the white headlights in parallel with them the headlights won't come on but the other lights will... if I reverse the pos-neg the white lights will work but the red and amber won't. I tried reversing the leads on the white lights but they won't come on if the red and amber are in the circuit.. the red and amber are 2.2v and whites are 3v all 20ma... I even tried using a resistor and get the same result... Is it not possible to put white/red/amber all in parallel on the same circuit ... do the white lights have to be on their own circuit...

[frizzen]

Usually i'd want want to split each color of Led into a seperate parallel branch circuit from power source, then tune each of them with a resistor

Easy fix would be get another one of those limiters, put white seperate.

Their site suggest running it all as a Series stack, but i don't think you're pushing enough volts to do that. 2v (limiter) +2.2 (red) +2.2 (yellow) +3 (white) = 9.4v or more available

Can you draw the circuit, to take a picture?

You need to add resistance on the red and yellows, so that it's closer to resistance through white (it's more about raising the forward voltage available to reach what white needs to operate).

You could also try to stack another led in Series with them. I try not to get too deep into how to do series leds, it leads to a lot of confusion for everyone with Series/Parallel circuits. You can try 2 or 3 reds in Series, then Parallel those to a White.

If you keep each part all Parallel, then something around these values should get it running. It's not an absolute value at all, it's just a safe area. You can Add resistance to Dim, and Lower resistance for Brighter. Go too bright and it WILL smoke the led.
150 ohm White
220 ohm Yellow
400 ohm Red

[jerry56]

Sounds like the simplest way to do it would be just run the whites separate with another limiter...
So do White LEDs always need to be run separate . Because even if I just connect one red and one white in a test circuit the white won't light up ...I can connect 4 red and amber and they all work or 4 whites...just not the two colors together....is it the voltage difference... 2.2 vs 3...
I wanted to use the current limiter so I could avoid the different resistors but ....