FlyLEDs Nav-only review

I already had the strobe power pack and wiring installed in my plane but I didn't have a nav light solution. I contacted Paul at FlyLEDs and he agreed to make me a kit that only had the nav lights (no LED strobes). He put it on the website and I bought, built, and installed it. This is my quick review.

The kit is very complete and high quality with good directions (you can get them on the website). You get 4 white circuit boards and some bags of parts. The first think you do is shape the boards to fit the wingtips. This took just a few minutes on my bench sander.


Next you have to do a bit of soldering, but the instructions are good. The LEDs are surface mount but not tiny and Paul provides a tube of heat sink compound to keep them running cool. There are a few resistors and connectors to add then you are done.


To mount my strobe tube, I located a place in the center of the board that didn't interfere with any of the traces for the nav lights. One Unibit hole later and my strobe tubes have a home.


Next was a bit of dremel work to make the tips accept the boards.


Finally I used exterior grade double stick tape to mount the boards in my wingtips.


Here is a look inside the wingtips:


Here is the final product:


They are VERY bright! The picture doesn't do it justice. The boards and LEDs run cool to the touch after a few minutes.


I highly recommend FlyLEDs for anyone interested in building their own nav lights. The kit was easy to build, very well priced, and I think it will work well. Now I need to do the lenses

Thanks for the pirep

I was on the fence about buying the Flyleds. Since they are a new company there user reviews are sparse. Your pirep pushed me over the edge and I ordered the set of three position and strobe lights.

Brian

Why the strobes and not LED strobes

I am curious that you did not use the LEDS that FLYLEDS supply for the strobes as well.

Was there an operational reason? Other?

I have the FLYLEDS system installed, including the strobes, and they are brighter than my mates "certified" strobes. Super bright. In addition the current draw is extremely low.

I have been using them for over a year and cant fault them. Great kit and great customer service.

Another review with both Nav/Strobe

I'd like to add to the review with the excellent service and product I received from Paul at FlyLEDs. As with many vendors, I received a confirmation email with tracking number shortly after I placed the online order. What surprised me was to also receive an email from Paul when the package made it to the US. Apparently he was tracking the package as well.

The kit was well organized with the parts for each nav light packaged in their own bag. This was helpful since the red and green lights use different resistors. The white strobe lights are in another bag with their resistors and the components for the control board are separated in yet another bag. This makes finding the correct parts very easy and kept me from putting the wrong parts.

The instructions for the kit are excellent. They were exactly what this novice needed. The surface mounted LEDs were fairly easy to install as were the rest of the wing tip components. I did have to use my superman vision (bifocals) to see the tiny +/- symbols on the position LEDs. A simple test with a 9v battery showed they worked as planned.

The control board was a bit more of a challenge but was easier than I anticipated. I sharpened the tip of my soldering iron and got to work. I had to use he magnify app on my phone several times to ensure I didn't bridge some of the terminals as they can be fairly tight, especially for someone like me who's only soldering experience is connecting a few wires together. Another test using the 9v battery showed success. Definitely a testament to Paul's instructions and well planned kit.

A couple of things I noticed while assembling the kit. There are redundant circuits for both the nav and strobe lights. No single component will bring down the entire light, a nice improvement over the single incandescent bulbs. By placing the control board under the seats I will only need to run four wires back from the panel (ground and positives for nav/strobe/wig wag). One reason I bought this kit was to use the strobes as the wig wags instead of my landing lights. Hopefully this will extend the life of the HID bulbs. I also ordered the tail nav/strobe light. It comes pre-built and is the easiest part of the kit.

I highly recommend the FlyLEDs kit.

Brian

Aiki_Aviator said:

I am curious that you did not use the LEDS that FLYLEDS supply for the strobes as well.

Was there an operational reason? Other?

Click to expand...

I guess the reason is twofold: laziness and traditionalism.

I already have the power supply mounted and high voltage wires run so it was easy to leave it in.

Also I'm a sucker for vacuum tube technology! Love the Xenon!

Paul did try really hard to get me to buy his strobes, and I'm sure they are great.

Another happy customer for FlyLEDs !!

The lights are extremely bright and look awesome! This was a good way to get my wife involved in the build that is something other than driving rivets. It took us 4 hours total to finish everything. She did all the soldering. It was a fun project, and a good way to spend the hot part of the day inside.

We had a few minor issues (all our fault / learning curve), but Paul was there with very quick replies from the opposite side of the world to get things straightened out.

wives and soldering

That "sparked" a memory. In my first year of marriage, I bought a Heathkit Amber computer monitor. Green was the norm and amber was soooo cool.
I taught my wife to solder and she did most of that. I identified the parts and did the through hole and lead clipping. She is still with me 33 years later.
On the weekend, she crawled under the panel (shorter than me) to put an L bracket on the NAVWORX EXP box. What a trooper.
We should check with Paul, to see if there is a significant other at home that can solder.
I am so glad to see more low cost LED installs in the RV community. Can't say I don't get the tube nostalgia. I have an antique radio collection... with vacuum tubes. But the LED (Cree in particular) are just amazing.
Nice write ups on FLYLEDS.
I hope this vendor stays around for a long time.

wives and soldering

That "sparked" a memory. In my first year of marriage, I bought a Heathkit Amber computer monitor. Green was the norm and amber was soooo cool.
I taught my wife to solder and she did most of that. I identified the parts and did the through hole and lead clipping. She is still with me 33 years later.
On the weekend, she crawled under the panel (shorter than me) to put an L bracket on the NAVWORX EXP box. What a trooper.
We should check with Paul, to see if there is a significant other at home that can solder.
I am so glad to see more low cost LED installs in the RV community. Can't say I don't get the tube nostalgia. I have an antique radio collection... with vacuum tubes. But the LED (Cree in particular) are just amazing.
Nice write ups on FLYLEDS.
I hope this vendor stays around for a long time.

flightlogic said:

That "sparked" a memory. In my first year of marriage, I bought a Heathkit Amber computer monitor. Green was the norm and amber was soooo cool.

...We should check with Paul, to see if there is a significant other at home that can solder.

Click to expand...

Nick, I'm officially jealous. An amber monitor, and the fact that you made it. WAY cool!

If only we had Heathkit here in Oz. As a kid I remember seeing ads for Heathkit stuff somewhere, and I couldn't believe that you could build your own things that looked just like store bought items. We've always had electronics magazines and kits available from some retailers, but the end results usually looked very home-made in their plastic boxes.

I'm impressed by how many couples and families build their planes together. I'd just assumed that building planes was a good excuse for the blokes to keep out of the house and stay in the shed!

The aim of the Flyleds kit, and the tone of the instructions, was to encourage anyone and everyone to have a go at soldering. More than a few self-nominated "rookies", and sometimes their kids, have successfully completed their kits, which is great to see.

(My better half usually says "Gee you're so clever..." when I show her the latest creation, and then resumes whatever it was I interrupted her doing! So no, no interest there!)