Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Correct, if one LED ever burns out you will only lose that one if in parallel. If in series, you will lose the whole "string".

You're obviously in good hands here with Sloucher, but I just want to insist that you need a small capacitor between pin 5 and ground. Otherwise you will see massive fluctuations in frequency and kind of "blinking". And if you have more than one circuit in your ship, all of them will start...

I assume you resistored your LEDs based on a voltage of 4.5V then? If that is the case, just buy a 4.5v power supply that exceeds 1.4 amps. You can probably find one that goes from 3V to 12V and just select 4.5. I you can't do that you could buy a voltage regulator and use a 9V/1.5 A power supply. T...

For precision, the pin vise. But for some projects you will need a Dremel. I'm lighting a DS9 kit with several hundred windows and there is no way you'll ever be able to do it by hand. So I would say get both and the Dremel will be great at many other tasks, too!

In my experience, CA will destroy your fiber n a matter of seconds. Styrene cement also will, eventually so make sure you don't let it touch the fiber... Ad hot glue, be careful because when the gun gets hot you will melt the FO. Light might still pass, but it will be tinted a yellowish shade (with ...

flyfort17 wrote:Do you have an Ikea near you?

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90074483/

Was there a few weeks ago and as soon as I saw it I thought: Paint Booth! Works great and pretty cheap too...

thefiberopticstore.com is in my opinion the place to shop for fiber. And anything to do with Tom (modeler's brand) is guaranteed to be top notch.

It's working! I was simply given the wrong information about how to hook it up and was shorting all the time. In the end I figured it out and got the drop from 4.5 to 3.3v as you can see in the picture. http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w437/andretonelli/Starship%20Modeler/1000th%20TOS%20E/022b190...

I went out and got all the supplies: a multimeter, TS1117 voltage regulator, etc. At the store I was told to connect the positive from the battery pack to the left pin of the regulator, and to come out from the regulator at the right pin again with the positive to continue on. the middle pin accordi...

Yes the answer here it's to add one large resistor to the negative post of the battery box. This will drop the voltage from 3.6 to 3.2. A problem with this approach is you're dropping a relatively small amount of voltage (0.4V) with a fairly large amount of current (20mA for each LED - I don't know...

Steam, I tried your suggestion with 8 LEDs at 20mA each, 3.6 power supply and 3.2 forward voltage. I got as a result a 2.7 ohms resistor. Is that right? I don't know much but doesn't that mean that a resitor might not be necessary after all? Whether you need a resistor depends on the "equivale...

Steam, I tried your suggestion with 8 LEDs at 20mA each, 3.6 power supply and 3.2 forward voltage. I got as a result a 2.7 ohms resistor. Is that right? I don't know much but doesn't that mean that a resitor might not be necessary after all?

Yes the answer here it's to add one large resistor to the negative post of the battery box. This will drop the voltage from 3.6 to 3.2 . Then the resistor on the red led will drop the current for that led to what you Calculated before. To figure out the resistors value add all currents for all the ...

Well, the thing is that I have been using 2AA batteries for a total of 3V. That is a bit below the 3.2/3.4V suggested for my LEDs. But it works. The problem is that as I add more less I am noticing that I would like a bit more light. I don't have a 3.4V power supply and I would like to know if there...

Yes, you got it. Thanks anyway for trying to help1 If anyone knows, please feel free to illuminate us!

I know how to calculate resistors for a parallel or serial configuration, but I am not sure how to go about adding the resistor between the power supply and a parallel circuit already built. In parallel you want one resistor per led, but as I explained above, I can't do it. It will have to be one re...

But how do I figure out what resistor to use? I have all these leds in parallel that in theory would require each their own resistor. Hope this makes sense. Do you happen to know the formula to find the appropriate resistor to use in such a situation? Thanks!

Hey all, I've been working on my 1/1000 TOS E for the past few days and all is going smoothly. I will end up running quite a few LEDs when all is said and done and thought I would try to use 3 AAA rechargeable batteries instead of 2 AA. Now the AA batteries are rated at 1.5V and so run a bit lower t...

Thanks Tom, just had a bottle brought to me from NY. Looking forward to trying it. Have you been using it? I decided not to use on this current model as I don't want to introduce an unknown into the situation this late in the game. Too much risk. But when I've had time to test it out, I am sure it ...

Id really appreciate everyone's help. I've got an Aztek 320 and would like to upgrade to a better airbrush. I usually paint with enamels, mainly do 1/1400 and 1/1000 scale starships, and i'd like a gravity feed able to do hairlines. I'd also like to stay in the $90-130 range if possible. I've been ...

ModelMan wrote:http://www.pledge.com/en-US/Products/Pa ... shine.aspx

I got mine at an Ace Hardware store.

Thanks Tom, just had a bottle brought to me from NY. Looking forward to trying it. Have you been using it?

ModelMan that's the stuff. They changed the label those filthy little bastards! It's impossible to find here in Spain. I bought an alternative one that people say is the same and made a mess of my airbrush! A friend is traveling to NY next week and I'll ask him if he can get me a bottle. Could anyo...

Wow! I'm definitely getting the Ultra-smooth LED tap for my 1:350 Refit's nacelles! I was concerned about hot spots when using LEDs, but this has convinced me. Now we'll see if I remember to order them when the time comes to light my nacelles . . . :wink: Are you working on your 350? Is there a thr...