Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

those green leds say max voltage of 3.6 volts. 5 Volts will be bad for them, if you connect them in series so they want 6.4 volts 5 volts will probably power them up and they will last for many years (+led-+led -). You will need to test the power supply, some of them are not well regulated. plug it ...

Depends on the weight of the ship, you could try press contacts, a pad on the station presses against a pad on the ship. If the ship was held in place by a magnet it will allow you to pull it off and re-seat it as needed, even if you have to tack it back in place between trips to contests. here's a ...

Last time I went to order some SMT LEDs I was annoyed to find digikey out of stock on most of the ones I wanted to try. So I found out you can order direct from one of the companies: http://www.kingbrightusa.com/ They're in the us so shipping was pretty fast. Best to use solder paste with SMT LEDs a...

yes you can always use a larger than needed power supply, To those who think its a good way to 'protect' the circuit in the model, you should not be using the power supply's max output rating as a limiter for your circuit. The power supply will be running at max load and tend to burnout and or surge...

Piece meal on the ordering, 20 bucks for the warm white led/light pipe end cap, 4 bucks for the rigid 100mm light pipe. not sure what else is needed, an end cap to reflect the light back down the pipe. . .not ready for general consumption is my vote on this. But their catalog shows lots of great app...

Ya have to see if these are out, if they are generally available to more than just OEM digikey should have them. . . Right now looks like their distribution is limited (they are out of Europe). You can get them from Newark with a hefty $20 per order surcharge, http://www.newark.com/mentor/1321-1400/...

http://www.elma.com/Admin/ProductionFil ... -Tubes.pdf

Something to look at for those using 'cold cathode' tubes in their lighting projects.

source of regulated 'wall worts'

http://powerstream.com/ac-2809.htm

For use with the trekman 1/350 Enterprise lighting system.

Good/bad news...I found the link, but its out of stock until the end of the month. I would go ahead and order it as the shipping was pretty fast and it was pretty hard for me to find one with the correct output/current draw/plug size dimensions. http://powerstream.com/ac-2809.htm You need the PST-A...

If you have ICs or other chaigng outputs resistors cannot be used as a voltage regulator. Resistors are calculated for static (constant current) circuits, ICs that are changing their outputs will be constantly varying their current draw so a resistor should not be used. Also please consider that a r...

Ya! did you use the air brush on the secondary hull avionics bay?

Please be aware of some basic ohm's law for simple circuits. Current is cumulative in parallel hook ups and voltage is constant. If you daisy chain (serial) LEDs (wired them plus to minus plus to minus) then voltage is cumulative and current must be equal through all the components, that is all the ...

Air brushes blow cold air, having to do with air pressure/volume changes....It could also help dislodge any bits of wire or solder that floating across connections though. Make sure you at least have a moisture trap on the line. Hate to add water to the interior.

Sounds like the confusion is, what wires are coming out of the unit that tell us you need a separate 12 volt and a 24 volt supply. There must be at least 3 wires coming out of the device. there could be 4. But there cannot be less than 3 if it needs 2 different DC voltages. Are you sure it is 12 vol...

before aves' it test again, if possible leave them running will clamping and gluing, since its the clamping that's likely to gouge or pinch a wire bundle.

Inspect for wires that were pinched hard enough to be cut, depending on the gauge wire , you can pinch cut them with a plastic edge. Ribbon cable like what is used for older Internal hard drives, I have personally seen pinch cut while dry fitting models together.

I have big problem here. Everything was working perfectly when I installed all the electronics, sealed up the model, puttied and wet sanded all the joints, -snip-. My guess is that was the step that bit it, some bundle of wires got pinched in the process of snapping major subsections together, and ...

Hook up the batteries as you expect to use them, leaving the wiring leads for the 12 volt and 24 volt system unconnected but clearly marked (mayeb in a polarized connector of sorts), then measure them out. you probably have a common negative/ground. If you have more than one ground going into the de...

Maybe on the next model, but not for this one. I am following the KISS principle here (You wanted the best, you got the best). :twisted: If this doesn't last too long with the AAA batteries, I'll go AA on the next build. AAA have a very small current rating! If you are really drawing 1.8 Amps of po...

Yes that's right, I was thinking RCA brand or something...

the rca jack is probably your best bet, they mak heavy duty 1/4 phones, for electric gutiar hook ups if you need to support a heavy model. One other option is if you want to set the model on a pillar style base, you can have brass etch pickups. on the ship and pin contacts on the base. The model lig...

Electronics gold mine and jameco to mention a few already listing in the sticky have tri color blinking/flashing LEDs, that always flash. You will need a 3 volt power supply with varying max current, this means you need a voltage regulator and not a current regulator.

I still have some ultra bright whites from Active. . .most them went into the TOS Star Trek C57D space station project though.

Don't forget to hit it with a coat of primer every-once-n-while. If you started to add detail then noticed it don't look right, hit it with primer to re blend everything before peeling stuff off. Then decide if you need to strip it and rip it. This tip brought to you from Tony :idea: Tony you forgot...

don't use resistors to fix mis matched power supply needs for multi color flashers, it won't work. Resistors work for devices which turn on and run constant, no changing current usages. Multi color flashers draw varying amounts of current as the colors vary in which colors are on and at what brightn...

OMG I just had a round with those LEDs!!!! Here's how it works, it is completely undocumented form rat shack: One leg is common power I think can't remember now: One leg will activate a blinking tri color sequence, that lasts about 30 seconds. ONLY after the 30 seconds has passed and if the other le...

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=K330-ND $30 bucks US from digikey covers 24-32 AWG wire. PM me if you need assistance getting it shipped to you. Consider some of the air powered or electric wrapping guns if you will be doing production run boards, ebay does have ...

Don't forget to sand the lenses off too, most LEDs are built with a lenses on the front to direct more of its light forward.

Active Electronics? They closed their brick and mortar in the US but stayed open in Canada.

http://www.active123.com/

They had a great store here in Schaumburg IL

Stranded will take moving and pushing a little better, the solid can be broken off through metal fatigue pretty easily. If you want stranded you should look into getting a wire stripper that can strip it properly though. Nicking the solid wire while stripping it will eat into its durability as well....