I’ve started gathering all the parts I will need to make my LED wingtip navigation lights. I want to keep them as simple as possible, so that means using resistors to lower the current instead of a driver. Not knowing much about these sorts of things, I ordered a bunch of different resistors, 7 cyan K2 LEDs, 7 red K2 LEDs, and a bench power supply. While the plan is to put 6 LEDs in each wingtip, I ordered one extra of each color just to play with. At $7 per LED, they’re not cheap, but I won’t be upset if I burn a couple out while trying to figure things out.
Today, I wired up one red and one cyan LED to the power supply. For the red LED, I used a 20 Ohm resistor, and I put a 12 Ohm on the cyan. This supplied approximately 500 mA to the red LED and a bit over 700 mA to the cyan. At these currents, both LEDs are being under driven, but they are still super-bright…and I mean don’t stare at them bright!!! To be perfectly honest, one of these LEDs is brighter than any nav lights I have ever seen on a Cessna 172. Six of them in each wing should be visible from a long way away!
Wiring the LEDs seems like it will be easy. This was the first time I ever soldered anything, and it was much easier than I thought it would be. The only problem I may have is that both the LEDs and the resistors get very hot. I’ll have to play with them a bit more, but I’m wondering if the resistors will stay cooler when six LEDs are connected vs. just one since that should mean less voltage to dissipate.
Six K2 star red LEDs
All 12 of these LEDs will be going into my wingtips (6 per side). The pen is there as a size reference.
This single red LED, running at a hair over 500mA, is brighter than any nav lights I've seen on a Cessna 172.
Just for fun, I wired up a red and a cyan LED and took a picture with the room lights off. I had trouble getting the camera to convey how bright they are, but it hurts if you stare directly at them!
