Connecting aircraft navigation lamp set to Arducopter

I got around to connecting the Hobbyking Aircraft Navigation Lamp Set to my APM 1.6 clone board today, here’s a run through of the wiring guide for connecting each LED to the distribution box as well as placement for an X-frame quadcopter. There’s also a guide for controlling the lighting modes with the Turnigy 9XR transmitter and a dummy list of available lighting modes.

What’s included

Included with the Aircraft Navigation Lamp Set is the following:

• 5 x white LED’s with 2-pin micro moxel connectors
• 2 x red LED’s with 2-pin micro moxel connectors
• 1 x green LED with 2-pin micro moxel connector
• 8 x plastic LED grips for mounting the LED to frames
• 1 x distribution Unit with micro molex connectors for the LED’s
• 1 x servo cable with 3-pin micro molex connector for powering and controlling the LED’s

The total draw of the LED lights and distribution unit is less than 100 mAh and is self-powered from the receiver channel it is controlled from.

Available lighting modes

You can choose from the following lighting modes:

1. Coloured arms always on, strobes and beacon flashing, landing lights fade in/out
2. Coloured arms, strobes and beacon flashing, landing lights fade in/out
3. Coloured arms flash twice on each arm
4. Coloured arms flash twice on each arm at higher frequency
5. Coloured arms and strobes always on, beacon light is flashing, landing lights fade in/out
6. All lights flashing at high frequency
7. All lights flashing at slow frequency
8. All lights on
9. All lights off

Guide to connecting LED’s to assigned connectors

1. Strobe light on front-right arm
2. Landing light on rear-right arm
3. Beacon light on front of main frame
4. Strobe light on front-left arm
5. Red light on front-left arm
6. Landing light on rear-left arm
7. Beacon light on rear of main frame
8. Green light on front-right arm

Controlling the lighting modes with the Turnigy 9XR transmitter

Ensure you’ve connected the supplied servo cable from the AUX connector on the distribution unit to an available channel on your receiver (I chose channel 8) before proceeding.

1. Power on the Turnigy 9XR
2. Hold the Menu button for a second to open the Menu screen
3. Switch to the Mixer screen on tab 5/11 by pressing the right arrow button
4. Using the down button only highlight ‘100%’ on the available channel on your receiver that you connected the distribution unit to (I chose channel 8 so went down to CH8)
5. Hold down the Menu button to display the Edit Mix screen for this channel
6. Ensure the Source is set to FULL
7. Press the down button only to highlight the Switch option
8. Using the left and right buttons only change the value to TRN
9. Press the Exit button only to return to the previous screen
10. Press the Exit button repeatedly until you are on the initial status screen

You’re done! Connect the LiPo battery to your quadcopter and flick the TRN switch on the far-right of the Turnigy 9XR controller to switch through the lighting modes.