Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

One thing you have to watch out for is differing Voltages LED's usually come in two varieties - 2v and 3v Bad Things happen if you try to mix the two in a single string Not true. If you wire up 2V and 3V LEDs in series , what will be constant through that circuit is the current - so long as the amo...

This is nothing particularly new, right? I mean, there have been self-luminating watch dials using tritium for a while now... It sounds like all they did was scale it up, maybe work out new ways of applying it... (For those not aware - basically tritium goes through a radioactive decay - it is this ...

I don't know ANYTHING about wiring LEDs. Don't you need to solder things and know something about circuitry to do stuff like that? A little. But the solution there is to learn a little and rely on outside help for the rest... But since electronics knowledge is the problem I guess it might make some...

Wouldn't it be simpler (and less wasteful, and quite possibly no more expensive) to just buy LEDs?

Hm, don't know how much help I can be but I'll take a crack at it... I'm assuming this is hardware store lacquer thinner... that stuff can be pretty harsh, so I usually reserve it for cleanup rather than thinning paints. I don't know if Alclad has their own thinner - if not maybe you should try Mr. ...

Atlantis... this same site has got to have one of the smallest LEDs I think one could soldure tiny teads to: Nano Super-White LED http://www.ngineering.com I'll be wanting to be buying a few of them as they will be the actual spotlights I would want to use on top of a NX-01 model. :idea: That form ...

Nice! (guessing based on the measurement of the circle template...) It's not for the 1:1000 scale Enterprise, right? Here's what I really like about this work: You got 12 LEDs in there - the proper number IIRC... (Mine only has 10) Your choice of LEDs - it seems like you chose the right component fo...

All you need is to branch off the 12v main connection inside the model into two, then take one of those and put a resistor on it to bring it down from 12v to 9v. Not sure of the math of what size resistor though. It depends on how much current the 9v circuit is drawing... This presents a bit of a p...

My advice kinda depends on what you're used to... Old white LEDs, and cheap white LEDs like the LED Christmas lights in Target, etc. are extremely bluish. By today's standards I don't even consider them white LEDs. Most white LEDs I buy these days are much better in that regard - though probably sti...

DX-SFX wrote:How long is a piece of string?

249.7mm

Next question, please...

I've used rather a lot of Pic-type controllers. What do you want to know? I'd like to know a) the most cost-effective PIC(i.e., the most bang for buck), b) how they are programmed, c) how many LEDs can the aforementioned PIC support, d) how small they can get, e) can the aforementioned PIC control ...

I'm a bit fuzzy when it comes to op amps and their use. Basically, it works like this: The op-amp has two inputs, + and -. The voltage on those two inputs is compared: if + is higher, then the voltage at the op-amp's output terminal increases, if - is higher, then the voltage at the op-amp's output...

I know about Priss from Bubblegum Crisis. Not so much a mecha as a girl in a hardsuit. To state what may be obvious, people who are not experienced in electronics (soldering, especially) should probably avoid surface mount leds (or surface mount anything else). I have seen listings for them in 0402...

Sparky wrote:A good fact sheet is up over here under solder tips:
http://www.n0ss.net/index_general.html

Hm, well it sounds like your knowledge of soldering may be a bit better than mine - I hope my advice is helpful nonetheless...

For halloween I plan on doing an original BSG cylon jackolantern. What would be the easiest/cheapest way of doing the roving eye effect. Thanks You know there's one of those in the Make Magazine Halloween special ? It's worth checking it out... Basically, their circuit includes not only the cascade...

http://www.us.kingbright.com/ Holy crap! I feel behind the times now - I didn't know there was another LED size smaller than 0603! I'll have to pick up some 0405's one of these days... To the list of suppliers I'd add Mouser.com and EBay. David: If you decide to use SMD LEDs (which I think would be...

But that one has hot-spots. The spots are OK for thrusters but for a nacelle grille it might be less attractive... That's easy enough to solve... point the LED along the surface instead of at the surface. The Fiberfill will collect and diffuse the light to fill the space. WHat it comes down to is y...

But that one has hot-spots. The spots are OK for thrusters but for a nacelle grille it might be less attractive...

The fiberfill technique looks interesting - but it also looks patchy. It'd be interesting to see the effect on the finished model - without light leaking through the rest of the nacelle, etc.

Actually, its for a student film- with the intent of redressing it as needed for later low-budget films. If we had the budget, we'd run flat panels. I'd actually be looking at getting some laptop 'replacement' displays and wiring them in- I remember somewhere that had adaptors to be able to feed th...

There are ways of achieving this. cheap: frost the inside of the clear parts using clear flat or sandpaper That alone won't do much, unfortunately: you have to think about where the light is going and at what point in 3-d space the light is getting diffused. Most of the LED light will still go in o...

Hi, all. I'm very new to this hobby, and to this site. I've recently obtained some LEDs and plan to light my first model, a PL D7. I have a few questions about using them, though. I notice that they are static-sensitive. Do I need to take any sort of precautions when handling them, such as one of t...

Scott Hasty wrote:Hey Duck!

How many LED's did you get in the 1/1000?!?!?! From what I gathered, it was over TEN?!?!

Yeah, you just gotta buy small enough LEDs, you know? Check it:
Enterprise

Okay, I found some old voltage regulators in a drawer and was wondering if someone could give me specifications based on the info on the casing: Tx C1173 O 5:D I just need to know the outputs and I can't find a decent reference to them on the net. "Disable Smilies in this post"... (This i...

the dropping resistor will need to a a 1/2 watt resistor dispating 0.5 watts of heat into the model. Yeah, I'd realized that earlier but forgotten... I'm a bit concerned about battery life given that the circuit's gonna run around 3 Watts... I think you're right about using a voltage regulator. If ...

Hey, Normally I feel pretty confident in my ability to make good decisions about LED circuits - I'm generally the play-it-safe type, driving LEDs at lower-than-maximum currents using reasonably stable voltage sources and series resistors - but I'm working on something where that kind of strategy wou...

TREKKRIFFIC wrote:All the literature I've seen says the resistor shoudl be attached to the negative cathode of the LED. The short leg in other words.

It doesn't matter which side of the LED the resistor is on. A series circuit is a series circuit.

The numbers are a measure of viscosity. The lower the number the thicker it is. MS 500 is thick and soupy, almost a runny paste. Good for filling in scratches and pinholes. 1200 can be airbrushed, when mixed with about 40% lacquer thinner. I airbrush 1000 on all my projects - and on my current one ...

I worked with "Programming and Customizing PICmicro Microcontrollers" - great book, but I can't recommend trying to get the included PIC programmer circuit board to work (you need to buy something like $20 worth of parts to add to the board to make it work, plus a DC voltage source of abou...

I'd like to recommend asking this question on cosplay forums, too - people here are very knowledgable about a wide variety of things, but for this particular application, cosplayers may have something worthwhile to add to the discussion. Personally, I'd just use LEDs - the main problem in my mind is...