Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Hahaa, I have the mobile arcade version of that kit! Funny thing is that it still has the kitchen and lantern parts. I'm planning on using a Tiny Cylon kit to have some random blinky lights: http://www.makershed.com/products/tiny-cylon-kit I'm also toying with the idea of adding arcade sounds and pl...

Hi Jkiker, you can snip the leads on both the LEDs and the resistors pretty much as short as you want, good call on using the mini copper jaws as a heat sink to draw the excess away from the diode as for your second question, I generally wrap the wire around the resistor/ LED leads, or wrap the resi...

This fellow here does some pretty innovative stuff with lighting and (pic)microprocessesors, he has a spot where he heas a primer on LEDs and running basic circuits. He also uses current blocking diodes in place of/ in conjunction with resistors, pretty clever. http://dorobou.blog.so-net.ne.jp/ You ...

Hm, that's entirely possible, I've only ever seen ceramic or wire wound resistors

I was looking at a fellow's lighting setup for his 2199 Yamato and he has diodes in line with his LEDs. Why is that? LEDs themselves are diodes and will work in only one "direction" so why bother with an extra diode? I've noticed this same thing from a few different builders in Japan too b...

I started to film my build of the 1:500 Space Battleship Yamato, I got through most of the main lighting and was just about to get into the Madman lighting kit when my responsibilities in the RCN took me back out to sea. If you look for John Beaulieu in Youtube you will find my build quickly enough.

Major Focker wrote:will getting the chip from tea candle leds work?

I did that for my Stargazer Serenity build. Swapped the amber and yellow LEDs for white ones and tinted them blue.

By the way, the boards will handle 9 volts with no problems, just change out the LEDs first.

Major Focker wrote:will getting the chip from tea candle leds work?

I did that for my Stargazer Serenity build. Swapped the amber and yellow LEDs for white ones and tinted them blue.

By the way, the boards will handle 9 volts with no problems, just change out the LEDs first.

Tena Controls has exactly what you're looking for

http://www.tenacontrols.com/

I haven't used their products yet but Boyd over at Scifi Model Action is a fan

Check out Badgrendels YouTube channel, he has some very comprehensive lighting tutorials.

(Not quite what you were asking, but it doesn't get much simpler than his 4060 IC tutorial)

When you guys refer to a chaser kit, do you mean those all included "educational" kits you can get at most electronic supply stores?

Watching Star Trek '09, I noticed that the white marker lights on the saucer do a double blink, has anyone attempted to duplicate this effect?

another thing you can do is just get white LEDs and tint them with clear red/green/blue ect.. that way you can save the headache of working with different voltages.

also, this site has a handy calculator to help with figuring out resistor values

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

thank you for the video, I went ahead and ordered one. one question though, where did you get the speakers? I plan on doing it as well. The speakers were purchased from an electronic hobbyist store that is near my place. I suppose if you wanted to really boost the sound you could wire up the card t...

Fokker Ace wrote:The best free audio editing program is Audacity.

That's the one Big Dawgs recommends! super easy to use!

and now for the video I promised earlier

http://youtu.be/5pb1f6GEPHw

Hope this is helpful!

I bought an excellent sound module from Big Dawg Greeting on the `bay. You can choose what type of card (USB download, built in microphone) how many pushbuttons for different sounds and how many seconds of recording. The one I bought has five buttons, 200 seconds of recording time and connects to yo...

Most online electronics stores also have kits for beginners, here`s one example, from Electronics Goldmine http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/departments.asp?dept=1059 I like how they set up their page so that people of all skill sets can find something! Another online merchant is the makershed h...

Probably safer in the long run to boot!

Looks like I may have to add another battery in parallel, a full light test gobbled up a single nine volt in no time flat!

Ok, I have a two string of LEDs, two LEDs in series per string. My source is 9 VDC. Being lazy, I punched the numbers into an online resistance calculator, which gave me 150 Ohms. No problem. Out of curiosity, I connected my ammeter to the circuit, and I am getting 16-18 milliamps. Then I got to thi...

I buy the bulk of my LEDs on ebay these days. The only time I don't is when I'm in a pinch, then I'll run out and buy them in town. The reccomendations the others have provided is sound, check the seller feedback and if there are negatives, have a look at what the most recents are, sometimes it's as...

The high end heat guns you find at electronic stores can be expensive. I found that for the amount I use it, this was a better option, a crafter`s heat gun: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EmKZllgfd9I/Tl-MDNEGkzI/AAAAAAAAAKk/jHdb80BNV90/s1600/Heat-Gun-RCY3001-.jpg you can find them at most craft stores fo...

How about these?

http://www.thefiberopticstore.com/purch ... -Fiber.htm

A guy i know got better success with clear epoxy when he started mixing twice; first he'd mix the two parts in one cup, then pour it into another cup and mix it again. There's always some unmixed liquid adhering to the sides of the cup; pouring it into another cup prevents that unmixed bit from get...

Hopefully this batch sets up, I don`t think I can pull the gobby resin out a third time and not destroy the window frame!

...although, if I do, at least I have a negative mold of the whole thing!

Has anyone else used this stuff? I picked it on a whim and am using it for casting window inserts on my SB yamato kit. Right now I'm looking at a less than 60% success rate. :( The first attempt never hardened, just sat as a gooey mess on the kit part. I stripped it out, cleaned the parts as best as...

Stu Pidasso wrote: Also, this might sound weird, but if you have something that... ahem... vibrates in the house, it won't hurt to place that against the mold, that will also bring bubbles to the surface

I've rested an old electric toothbrush against the side of a mold to good effect.

So, I decided to use wire wrap wire to start, and after toasting about 8 SMD LEDs, I went back to using magnet wire, got it right on the first try thereafter!

Thanks!

Here's the deal; I'm lighting my space battleship Yamato and due to the small size of some of the components (yardarms, captain's cabin, engine fins), I'm using SMD LEDs for lighting. I was planning on using magnet wire to run power to these lights, but I'm worried that even with my current limiting...

I bought a Dremel Stylus last summer and it has become one of my favorite power tools!