Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

If you've not yet bought a PIC, compiler or programmer than check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/PIC-Microcontroller-Project-Book-Compliers/dp/0071437045/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1340037496&sr=8-13&keywords=picbasic by John Iovine. This uses PicBasic Pro and a programmer from meLabs...

Doomgiver - that did the trick. I put a 350k resistor between the Gate and ground and all works fin with the BS170. Thanks!

Thanks Mr. Engineer. Are you saying that using the IRF640 MOSFET did not produce a noticeable difference or that you didn't check?

A new wrinkle using a 2N2222 transistor ... the duty cycle of the flash is different than when driving directly from the output pin of the PIC. A programmed a 2nd 12f629 chip with the same code as the one hooked up to the 2N2222 (which has a 10k ohm resistor between the output pin and the 2N2222, bt...

I've now got the circuit working with the 2N2222 transistor powering up to 4 LEDs, but something doesn't look right with the flashing and it may be a limitation of the design. The code on my PIC microcontroller has instructions to fade in the LED to maximum brightness using a PWM command inside a lo...

Thanks!

Yeah, it all works fine without the BS170.

I also used to use the 2N2222 but I've lost my notes on how to use that - do you have an example?

I'm working on a circuit to drive 4 LEDs of various colours (red, green & 2 white) in parallel and I'm pretty sure that the PIC 12f629 micro controller can't drive that much current directly, so someone hear recommended using a BS170 mosfet as a current booster. I've used it successfully in the ...

I think he means the blinking circuit is wired up in parallel with other, non-blinking LEDs.

Yes, you need a voltage regulator. Batteries won't do it. You can build your own, but a wall wart which is specifically tagged as regulated voltage is your best bet.

I'm about to experiment with using CCFLs in the nacelles of my 1/350 Refit, and I'm wondering if there are any good reference sites for using them. I'm specifically wondering if you can extend the leads (I would want the inverters to be on the outside of the ship) and if the common wires from the tw...

Indeed, I'm the one responsible for the worldwide LM3909 shortage. When I was working on the board with Don many eons ago, I mentioned that a local surplus store (Active Surplus on Queen W in downtown Toronto) had a bunch of 'em; I scooped them up and sent them to Don. What I loved about this chip w...

3909 is the strobe chip; I think it's an 8-pin IC but I can't remember which ones are the + and - outputs. From the web, I see: Fit the LED to pins 6 and 8. The short LED leg (cathode) goes to pin 8. The long LED leg (anode) goes to pin 6. Make sure you are getting around 1.5 VDC between those two p...

Not to be picky, but that's "Waddell" Only mention it as Don named it after me as we worked on it together.

Do you have a voltmeter? Can you see if any current is on the output of the 3909 strobe pin?

Bad Don - it's Waddell :wink: The problem in my circuit is that each output from the 4017 drives 3 LEDs on each nacelle, so 6 in total (It could be 5 LEDs/output so 10 in total - been a long time). If you mix LED voltages on one output then you need to wire different resistors in series to each LED ...

James - if the gate is connected to the output pin of the PIC, what is the base/emitter connected to? One of the circuit diagrams posted by macfrank has '1/2/3' nomenclature, but that still doesn't tell me which is which.

I'm using some aluminum window screen material on a kit, but when you cut it the edges tend to fray when handled, since the individual wires are not really attached to one another.

Can you solder aluminum wire? I tried super glue but no luck.