Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Agreed on all counts. Prices could be better. Easier for a newbie to use than the Digikey phonebook. Yeah, but there's a whole lot of viable stuff in between those two extremes. There are lots of electronics shops on line that will sell you the stuff you need for model lighting, and aren't overwhel...

Now I know where to go if I have $10 burning a hole in my pocket and I want to buy exactly one LED with it...

I love their micro-mini connectors (and have put a fair amount of effort into finding affordable alternatives) but their prices are steep...

The inside is quite small and I need to squeeze a battery with enough voltage inside to at least light the engines and the cockpit. http://au.element14.com/renata/vbh2032-1-lf/holder-battery-vertical-for-cr/dp/1216359 What is your question? I've attempted enough battery concealment in relatively sm...

I like the idea of microcontrollers, but I'm on a rather tight budget and would rather get some cheap ICs and hook them together to get the result I want than spend $$ on the interface necessary for a PIC. It really doesn't cost much: The $30 figure I quoted before was a guess... Sparkfun's USB-int...

Gotta go with an AVR microcontroller for this one. :) You could also use an Arduino if that's easier. To do this with lesser circuitry... the easiest way would probably be to use a counter - just have it constantly cycling through its options and stop when you press the button - wherever it lands, t...

To me, the spots that have no possible source are merely errors and shouldn't necessarily be reproduced in the model. As for real spots vs. fake spots: Personally I am more interested in using real spots to the extent possible. I think the bleed-through method is a great effect but I'm not so fond o...

Short of using metal foil - personally I've found silver paint to be more effective than black or white paint at blocking light.

something like this should work. would have to have one for each led or cluster of leds, and would have to calculate all the values, but wouldnt be hard at all. Should power up and down in sequence great. http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x342/lightfantastic42/shieldsupcircuit-1.jpg So it relies ...

Blender is good, can't comment on its stability, though, didn't use it enough, maybe I should. I've used Blender for a while: here is the full list of defects I have personally encountered with it: There was a bug on Mac for a while which would cause text rendering to fail (i.e. buttons and everyth...

Usually I add a few drops of thinner when I finish painting. this replaces the amount that evaporates when the bottle is open. I also add thinner as soon as I notice the paint is getting thicker in the bottle. Adding thinner really saves money since the bottles don't dry out Really? I'd heard that ...

You want affordable? http://www.makerbot.com/ I'm actually thinking about building something along these lines (but probably RepRap, 'cause the print bed is significantly larger) - but it's an expensive proposition ($1000 or more, most likely) - and if the results from professional fabrication mach...

Anybody tried an Arduino for this? I've never used them but I've heard they're really easy to use and get started with. IMHO, this is definitely a microcontroller project. I have an Arduino - if you'd like to tinker with it sometime you can borrow it. Just take good care of it if you do. :) It is v...

I will be having a new email soon! Tomorrow Comcast is coming and I will move all my IP services to them and be rid of Fairpoint. That means that my old website will go away entirely and my email (johndavidcook@myfairpoint.net) will soon be something else. I will post what it is when I know and I w...

I picked up several 0603 SMDs with an eye towards using at least one of them on an Enterprise-D model. But I'll be buggered if I can figure out a way of soldering those tiny things (1.6mm x 0.8mm x 0.6mm). I work with 0603's a lot... In fact, immediately after my total failure with the ten 0402 LED...

I haven't but you've given me a reason to try it. :D I will be appropriately impressed and inspired if you succeed. :) For most stuff I used 30 AWG stranded wire - the only reason I was using magnet wire was because it was the only stuff thin enough to fit two strands through my metal tube. There's...

Why not stick them down with some double-stick tape to a surface to work on them? The heat on the terminal would melt the tape's adhesive enough that the LED would stick to the soldering iron instead of the tape... I think so anyway. I tried a couple with whatever tape I had handy (not double-stick...

Hiya! So I use 0603-size (1.6mm x 0.8mm) surface mount LEDs a lot in my projects - they're great 'cause they can fit almost anywhere... I've gotten pretty good at soldering them. But I thought I'd relate my experiences trying to solder the next size down - 0402 LEDs (1.0mm x 0.5mm)... Basically, I f...

Tchail wrote:I just bought a 9V Wall-Wart for use with my lighted Enterprise-D model.

How do I determine the polarity of the plug?

Put the meter in DC voltage mode (it is a DC 9V wall-wart, right?), plug in the adaptor and hook it up. If you get a negative reading, switch the terminals around.

One trick I learned from the Gundam Scratch Build Manual for this sort of thing is to get a metal protractor from the hardware store (the kind with a rectangular plate with angles marked on it, and a swinging arm used to measure angles relative to the bottom edge of the plate) - attach a blade to th...

I'm not sure, but it seems like it probably is... Google searches for "picc lite" turn up mention of HI-TECH, which leads to the current HI-TECH compilers on Microchip and on HI-TECH's website... (at any rate - if it's Microchip's recommended compiler, it's probably a good one to invest yo...

Personally, I'd for a wall-wart (wall mounted, plug in transformer) Second best - Batteries other than 9v If the 8 LED's each draw 20ma (standard draw for most LEDs) then the power reserve/lifespan of batteries are as follows (assuming standard alkalines) 9v - 500ma - 3.1 hours AAA - 1000ma - 6.25 ...

So I get that if I connect batteries in series, they will add up in voltage (two 3 volt batteries will equal 6 volts). But what about in parallel. My understanding is that they will still equal the same voltage (assuming all batteries connected are the same) but that they will have more current or ...

The user-submitted reviews for the item on Radio Shack's website seem to provide a few useful descriptions of how the LED is used - along with numerous complaints about the fact that Radio Shack didn't provide that information themselves. :) It seems like kind of a gimmick to me. I mean, it can fade...

The math, if you're interested: The base of the conic section has some circumference "a" (diameter times pi) - as does the top of the conic section (let's call it "b")... And there's the distance "l" of the edge of the cone section, measured top to bottom along the edge...

Is there a way to test or calculate the current of an LED? I bought some super bright 8 mm LEDs fom American Science and Surplus. The package stated 4.5 v but not the mA. Get yourself three AA Alkaline batteries and a multimeter. Set the multimeter to current reading mode. Hook up, in series, the t...

The Diode (D1) is in there to give a less than 50% duty cycle - normally, with 555 timer circuits, your LED has to be ON at least 50% of the time By putting the diode in parallel with R5, you invert the duty cycle making it less than 50% Alternately, you could just hook the other end of the diode t...

The two big benefits to a dedicated airbrush compressor are (or should be) quieter operation and a lack of pulsing. and absolutely no chance of oil in the air. Yeah, I kind of knew all that already. As far as I know the old CH never gave me trouble with oil in the supply... It's just the Craftsman ...

Still pretty much entirely lost in this whole compressor decision... I have no real basis for deciding one airbrushing compressor is better than another, and to some extent I'm not entirely sure an airbrushing compressor is what I want (for the last several years I've sprayed with a small utility co...

Point is, do it as an adapter that can be moved from one model to another as needed rather than trying to force everything to be universal from beginning to end. I'm not sure that's right for what I'm trying to do. I want to be sure I don't hook up a model to the wrong power source by mistake, as t...

What and how many LED's are you using? What are your voltage and current values? The wattage rating of any resistor can be calculated by Ohm's Law. If you are using 12 volts at 20mA, you can calculate the wattage with Power(W)=Current(I)*Voltage(V). Using the values above, 12*.020=.24W. So you are ...