Search found 260 matches
- Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:23 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Remote Controlled Model Lighting
- Replies: 9
- Views: 8839
Sparkfun has lots of stuff that would be helpful for this type of project. If I were to do this (and wanted wireless control) I'd probably go for infrared, because it's a dirt-cheap way to control something. All you really need is an infrared sensor and a microcontroller programmed to listen for re...
- Fri Dec 02, 2011 4:17 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: where to find 32 awg stranded wire?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 5156
Mouser has it. Just go through the catalog system - find single conductor wire, set the wire gauge and filter it to exclude the non-stranded stuff, and you'll see a bunch of options . It's not exactly cheap (around $40 or more for a 100 foot spool) but it's well worth it if you need to wire up somet...
- Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:19 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Planning a project-To Arduino an Enterprise-C
- Replies: 22
- Views: 27407
I've also heard that the Arduino solution is somewhat overbuilt and that it can be stripped down to the microcontroller proper pretty easily. Do folks have any links to projects that proceeded that way? The extra bits on the Arduino (that is, the stuff you might frequently not need) would be the vo...
- Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:54 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Planning a project-To Arduino an Enterprise-C
- Replies: 22
- Views: 27407
Have you thought about building the ATMega as a standalone rather than using the complete Arduino board? All it needs (apart from 5v) is a couple of small caps and a crystal. It doesn't even need those. You can skip the crystal if you use the ATMega's internal oscillator. (The internal oscillator's...
- Tue Nov 22, 2011 3:53 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Planning a project-To Arduino an Enterprise-C
- Replies: 22
- Views: 27407
Thanks for the response. From what I've seen it seems like Arduino's can pass wall wart 9v current along as well as the onboard 3 and 5 volt options. I haven't checked the amperage yet, but I assumed that the board would pass the properties of the power supply along mostly unmitigated. Is that fals...
- Tue Nov 22, 2011 2:49 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Planning a project-To Arduino an Enterprise-C
- Replies: 22
- Views: 27407
You can take this with a grain of salt, bearing in mind that I've never actually completed a lit starship model: One thing you might need to consider is the limits on output current. The ATMega can (IIRC) source or sink a maximum of 40mA for each I/O pin, with no more than a total of 200mA for all t...
- Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:13 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Madman Lighting Kits
- Replies: 101
- Views: 379803
The one thing I'm still unclear on, though, is the limits of the power supply needs. I picked up a 12V adapter to use that has a 500 mA capacity. I know I read elsewhere in this thread that your sets use about 100 mA each. So (cost to me aside), is the 500 mA adapter too much, and do I risk frying ...
- Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:18 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: series wiring?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2788
I would stay away from wiring in series. If you lose one component, you lose the entire circuit, think old-style Christmas lights. Not entirely true. LEDs, when they fail, tend to turn into short circuits. They pass greater amounts of current at lower voltage, and fail to emit light. This is unlike...
- Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:28 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Sparkfun teaches us about the 555
- Replies: 0
- Views: 9508
Sparkfun teaches us about the 555
I know a lot of people still use 555's for flashers and things, and there's various resources for showing us how to use 'em in different ways... Anyway, I'm a big advocate for understanding these sorts of things in more depth. Sparkfun is a shop for electronics hobbyists, and they've been doing a vi...
- Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:26 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: LED Problems
- Replies: 14
- Views: 10740
Let's say an overloaded bridge collapses. The cars approaching the bridges divert to the remaining bridges -- increasing the load, thereby causing another collapse... Actually, from what I've heard, when an LED burns out it tends to become an easier current path, not a harder one. Let's take this b...
- Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:54 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: LED Problems
- Replies: 14
- Views: 10740
Re: LED Problems
Ok. What am I doing wrong I wire up 4 led's in series and they work fine with a 470ohm resistor and either a 9v or2aaa batteries. soon as I add a fifth led I get nothing everyone say's wiring is relatively simple but I am pulling out what hair I have trying to figure this out. I've watched the yout...
- Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:58 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: LED switch.
- Replies: 6
- Views: 4200
- Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:52 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Attaching 12 volt wall wort to mad man board
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3426
- Mon May 23, 2011 10:08 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Best Color for Dispersing Light
- Replies: 2
- Views: 2967
If you want to disperse the light, flat white should be the best choice. Silver would get you more of a specular reflection (i.e. light coming at the surface from a single angle would bounce of at a single angle, like a mirror) - while flat white would scatter the light everywhere. Coatings of black...
- Wed May 18, 2011 4:28 pm
- Forum: Scratchbuilding
- Topic: Looking for How to scratchbuild Moveable Joints
- Replies: 17
- Views: 31421
- Wed May 11, 2011 12:33 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: NOOB powering a FM millenium falcon
- Replies: 9
- Views: 8509
As a simple and straight forward system that doesn't include bying anything off the Bay, just put a 9V battery in series with two AAs. 9 + 1.5 + 1.5 = 12 volts. The problem there is the 9V will discharge before the AA's do. You'll basically wind up wasting a lot of the power of those AA's. It's bes...
- Wed May 04, 2011 4:51 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: powering a large number of LEDs
- Replies: 4
- Views: 7653
Note that even though you are using all the voltage in the 9 runs of 4 - I'd still put a minimal resistor on it - say a 10-20 ohm - to prevent any minor fluctuations - there will be near zero effect on the light output A minimal resistor is also going to have minimal ability to linearize the voltag...
- Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:29 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: LED help needed from the Experts!
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2661
Thank you tetsujin, that was awesome. But, it was over my head on the technical side. So, let me ask this question. Could you use one of your boards to mount momentary switches to it, and have it control 5 LEDs? Push one button and one LED comes on, push again and second comes on, push the other bu...
- Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:57 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Rotating Bussards On TOS Enterprise
- Replies: 2
- Views: 3103
- Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:46 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: LED help needed from the Experts!
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2661
I designed a small microcontroller board: the goal of the project was to develop something that I could conveniently fit into any model or prop. Raven controller board Raven installed in a Sonic Screwdriver The board hosts a 14 pin TSSOP PIC (16F688 or another PIC with the same pin layout) and break...
- Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:46 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Chris's noobie electronics questions
- Replies: 13
- Views: 7939
After having spent the last few weeks learning more about electronics, I have discovered that I can wire up the 12v to positive and the 3.3v to the negative (ground) and this will give me a current of 8.7v, which is good 'nuff. 8.7 volts is not current ... Not meaning to nitpick exactly but to me a...
- Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:18 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Looking for small 6v lithium battery
- Replies: 6
- Views: 4850
Radio Shack sells some small batteries - stuff for pet collars, garage door openers, etc. Smaller than an N cell (I think 2/3 AAA or 2/3 AAAA size, or even smaller) and 6V and 12V capacities... As for battery holders - they pretty much suck. Any battery holder you can buy off-the-rack is going to ad...
- Wed Jan 26, 2011 7:07 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Power Sources
- Replies: 30
- Views: 104615
For compact / mobile applications, there are a new generation of Lithium Ion batteries. You need a charger, however, to recharge them. And the point can't be stressed enough. If you charge these batteries incorrectly they act as very effective incendiary devices... US modelers interested in LiPO ce...
- Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:28 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: A plug for Miniatronics
- Replies: 25
- Views: 30965
- Mon Jan 24, 2011 7:11 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: A plug for Miniatronics
- Replies: 25
- Views: 30965
- Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:47 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Battery source and lighting configuration
- Replies: 4
- Views: 5206
Re: Battery source and lighting configuration
1) Are the calculations for the resistors and circuit correct? For the 9V, seems like it's correct, yeah. For the AAA's - no. You said you were going to be using three cells, but you still show the LEDs being wired up in series... That would mean the LEDs wouldn't get enough voltage. (2 * 3.3V > 3 ...
- Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:10 pm
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: A plug for Miniatronics
- Replies: 25
- Views: 30965
- Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:55 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: Concealing portable power supplies in small spaces
- Replies: 9
- Views: 11693
I'm going to connect the electronics in the base to the kit using a deans plug or similar. I'm wondering if I can use a mux so will be doing research. I know the MUX will reduce the number of data combinations I can use but I need to constrain the number of wires going into the model. I'm not sure ...
- Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:44 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: A plug for Miniatronics
- Replies: 25
- Views: 30965
- Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:48 am
- Forum: Lighting & Electronics
- Topic: A plug for Miniatronics
- Replies: 25
- Views: 30965
I'm not entirely sure (since the Radical RC link is the only link I have that shows those Deans plugs with a ruler for scale - and they're using a non-metric ruler) but I think the spacing on the Deans plugs is 2mm. The spacing on the Miniatronics connectors (based on measurements of the ones I have...