This post is about how to use high lumen 3000-5000 lights on your drone without having them get hot and drop their lumen output.

[Don Testme]

High intensit small high lumen lights ,aka EDC Lights, are great for drones. They are extremely bright, much brighter than those lights specifically made more drones as spotlights. These high intensity EDC lights have temperature regulators in them and will drop the lumen output from 3000-4000 lumens to a mere 1000 lumens in a few minutes when temps exceed a certain level.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO is put the lights on the sides of the drone but sticking out from the sides so they can be under the props. THEY SHOULD NOT BE ON TOP OF THE DRONES LIKE THOSE PRODUCTS YOU SEE ON EBAY OR AMAZON. There is no prop wash to keep them cool when put on top of the drone. They instantly heat up and dim themselves.

I use skid landing gear for increasing the height the drone is from the ground. I attach the lights to the skids. The skids stick out to be just under the edges of the props and allows the lights to be exposed to the prop wash. THIS WAY THE LIGHTS STAY COOL TO TOUCH AND DO NOT REDUCE THEIR LUMEN OUTPUT. The temperature doesn't rise enough to trigger the temp regulator as long as the lights are being cooled by the props. Aside from that, the faster you fly, the cooler the lights get.

Also, If a light were to fall off it would not hit the props and cuse a crash. Putting anything on top of your drone is a risk. If it were to break or fall of it would go into the rotors and crash your drone. I don't put anything on top of my drone. One, there is the risk of it falling off and causing damage to the props and TWO, putting anything of significant weight on top of your drone messes up the balance and makes the drone top heavy. This makes the drone harder to control.

Comments welcome

 

[Don Testme]

SOMETHING LIKE THIS: Just don't use the one on top.

 

[Frank Dracman]

What is the weight of that setup?

 

[dave canada]

i have a set of those in the picture and I,m not to proud of them very dim lights

 

[Don Testme]

What is the weight of that setup?

I fly a mavic 3. It handles 20 oz (10oz lights) of lights just fine. at 20 oz I lose 10 minutes of flight time.. The setup you see is just an example. It's probably much lighter and doesn't have very bright lights. I would just use the harness and attach EDC high intensity lights inside the harness. lowest light lumens I use is 3000 lumens per light. 4000 lumens works better, but the more lumens, the higher the lights begin to weigh.

 

[Don Testme]

i have a set of those in the picture and I,m not to proud of them very dim lights

3000 lumen EDC lights are usually round and may fit into the harness. The weight capacity depends on what drone you are using. I use that skid landing gear. I put velcro across the suppots and attach the lights to that. They protrude away from the drone and extend a bit under the props, keeping the lights cool , thus keeping the temp regulator from dimming the lights.

 

[dave canada]

I fly a mavic 3. It handles 20 oz (10oz lights) of lights just fine. at 20 oz I lose 10 minutes of flight time.. The setup you see is just an example. It's probably much lighter and doesn't have very bright lights. I would just use the harness and attach EDC high intensity lights inside the harness. lowest light lumens I use is 3000 lumens per light. 4000 lumens works better, but the more lumens, the higher the lights begin to weigh.

i,ll have to do a little browsing see if i can find what lights you are talking about it only took me a couple of front leg breaks to go to sleds,I even modified a sled to go with the harness you just put them on the sleds ,smart

 

[Don Testme]

i,ll have to do a little browsing see if i can find what lights you are talking about it only took me a couple of front leg breaks to go to sleds,I even modified a sled to go with the harness you just put them on the sleds ,smart

I recently changed my setup for lights. I did try the 3 light holder for the M3 as shown above. The only lights you can put in the holder are too small and are very dim. It's a great idea though.

My new setup consists of 2 small lightweight balsa wood cubes each attached to a tactical 3000 lumen light. The tac lights are partial thrower and partial wide beam (Fenix PD36 Tac) lights. I find that they stay the coolest under the prop wash and maintain a high output. I have bought over 10 different tac and or edc lights looking for the best weight and light output for an m3. The PD36s worked the best so far. Each light weighs just under 7oz.

The blaso wood cubes are 1/4-1/2 inch width away from the side of the drone are glued to the tac light with heavy duty hot melt glue. I then apply 10 lb test industrial Velcro to the outward facing block and the same to the side of my Mavic three without the wood. The block makes the lights stick out under the front drone prop wash, while the tails are angled upward above the rear prop wash.

It's ok if the tails of the lights don't get cooled, as most of the heat is produced by the LED in the head of the light. Here is a diagram: front -- / -- rear. The slash mark is the light, the dashes are the props. The light is not angled nearly as much as the diagram implies. The velcro allows me to angle the lights and position them in such a way that the props don't hit them.

That 3 light plastic light holder for the mavic three doesn't allow quick, easy adjustments to the light angle.

Note: my balsa wood cubes are a max of 1.25 inches long. They stick out from the side of the drone about 1/4-1/2 inches. I just cut them too fit onto the side of the drone and sized them for ease of movement or angle changes.