Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

If anyone has written a code that controls the LEDs for a model starship, could they post it? (please, please?) I have an Arduino Mega board, but have never programmed before. I can make one LED blink. Sure, it's pretty, but not quite enough to light the NX-01. :P Now try and make that led fade in ...

counters yes, but they would run syncrounous of only 1 timer is used. I need to come up with a routine to make the lower AT-AT cannons fire at a slower pace than the side cannons and i cannot use the same timer for that, because they have to cycle asynchronous. And then i have to switch each cannon ...

What i have in mind is quite simple, i basicaly just put a random value in a counter register and enter a loop in which i increase or decrease the pulsewidth with a constant value untill the counter reaches zero meanwhile checking that it goesn't go below the 0.5 ms or above the 1.5 ms and then put ...

Ok, i got it i think. a servo has 3 wires, 1positive, one negative and 1 lead which receives a pulse from an external device (microcontroller, receiver etc.) internaly a potmeter is connected to the the arm. It generates a pulse internaly, controlled by the potmeter and compares it's pulsewidth to t...

Thanks Aimee,
That will help me some.

On my F-toys 1:144 At-AT i want to make the head move left to right and back randomly. I could use an electromotor with gear and a concentric wheel to push a rod (piston rod?) A microservo might be smaller, neater and easier to put in there though. However i never took time to figure out how to driv...

The mitsubishi 250µM multistrand jacketed plastic fibreoptic cable is produced in China. It's used in Philips Medical Systems equipment amongst other things. Like all other countries, China produces good quality stuff and bad quality stuff. The only way to get a good estimate on the quality would be...

seam-filler wrote:...and if you're in the UK there's Precision Microdrives with speeds as low as 20 rpm.

Not only in the UK, they will ship throughout the EU

that is so cool, i like the musical scanners and HD (and i don't mean high definition) speakers a lot too

And other things, like: are you going to do pressurecasting. Will you make the molds yourself (quite an art as i discovered) an so much more.

I found something usefull again in what you would call a dollar store. Screwdrivers with compartments for bits. I took 4 of them with me for 6 euro's. I can see engines again or even a trek type engineering hul and plenty other stuff. the second picture has one with the compartments open, one closed...

I already looked on both sites, but no pictures, so i don't have a clue what connectors they are describing.
And i don't know what these tiny freaking things are called.

I'm looking for realy small connectors, 2 or 3 pin, like the tiny ones they use on fans for graphics adapters.
I need females and males and one of the 2 may be for printmounting.
Any ideas of where to get them?

All don't accept paypal, so it will cost me at least their charges of $30 and $ 25 respectively for wire transfer + another €25 that my bank will charge for a transfer outside EU. So not useful. Ordered 20 holders with cover and switch from a seller in hongkong on evil-bay. at approx €1 a piece incl...

Does anybody have an adress for battery holders for 3 x AAA?

I can get 3 x AA and 4 x AAA over here, but no 3 x AAA.
I need a few to put in bases for my lit easykit pockets which need 4.5V.

My favorite solution for the nacelles still is 2 bright white leds, 1 at each end of a sidelight fibreoptic with a blue transparent foil around it. No high frequency convertor needed and even spread of the light. And i can keep the voltage at 4.5-5 volts. Also i think the nacelles shouldn't give off...

If you look at the refit startup sequence in STMP and TWOK and other footage you can see that the color of the refector dish when powered down is a metalic grey color with maybe a bit of light blue in it. no lights. When the ship starts up it is lit up from inside with amber/gold/copper and when imp...

I don't think it's wise to try and develope a board dedicated to a single purpose or model, the market is too small. Not with these cheap programmable tiny boards around. Basicaly you can just solder a few leads from such boards to a Led driver, or directly to a LED-resistor pair. in most cases you ...

(Interesting that it appears "down below" is toward the "outside" of the station.) That is logical, since the centrifugal forces of the rotation would be directed outward so things are actualy being hurled outward which would make the inside of the outerwall apear to pull all ob...

I guess you are looking for something like this. http://www.conrad.nl/goto.php?artikel=242535 Unfortunately i cannot find them on the english site and the datasheet is in german. dimensions: 23.5 mm x 15.2 mm (width x heigth) torc: 2 Ncm power supply 3-6V (they also have them in 1.5-3V) reduction 48...

I don't use LEDs in serie anymore, so i give each led it's own resistor anyway, so the current usualy is stable enough, the highest current LEDs i ever used use for models are 30mA and i hardy use those at all. My bright whites (10000 mcd or 12000 mcd, depending on the color) use 20mA typicaly at 3....

Um, Kitty? I've got some LED display devices that have been plugged in, with a wall mounted power supply - a "wall wart", that have been running continuously for a third of a century: well over 33 YEARS constantly. The often mentioned "Life" of an LED is something like 100,000 h...

I dont't think deader is a word :
There is no deader than dead or deadest for taht matter.
dead is dead, there are no gradations of dead.
Oh he is dead , but just a little, it will pass in a minute

or : the corps on our left side is deader than the one on the right, but only by 10%

If you want to light a model, you usualy close the model when you are done, i.e glue it all together. Since your model is made of plastic and since you usualy have no access anymore when done you would want to reduce the heat emission and not use LEDs in series, since that would mean that when 1 led...

breadboards come in all sizes and sorts. The bigger ones are designed in such a way that you can stick in a chip in DIL package (two center lines horiizontaly these center lines have connectors that are connected to more holes located verticaly The reason for that is that you can connect more than 1...

OK, I'm a little impressed but there's more to the story. $15 gets you a bare expansion board with no parts and no microcontroller. If you want the small version that is the same size as my board and has a micro on it, thats $50 and you still dont get the LED drivers I have on mine and you have to ...

If Kitty can invent, build and sell it for $15, I'll be pretty impressed. Look at this: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/11/aduino_gift_guide.html You can find complete programmable boards there for $17.50, that can do a lot more than just the torpedo sequence. If the torpedo sequence is all y...

I use only createx auto-air colors and base coats, and it's realy hard to mess it up. As long as you use the auto-air reducer instead of alternatives you practicaly cannot make puddles, even if you want to :) And the pearls and metalics have extremely fine pigments. I like this line and it has all t...

A small board just for the torpedo launch for $15? That should be easy enough, you can do it with less than $8 worth of components (including the PIC), leaving $7 for the pcb. Al you need is a microcontroller with a counter , 2 PWM outs and some memory for the program There are 8 pin Pics that can d...

I don't etch boards myself anymore for environmental and health reasons. Having a small board (5x3 cm) for 7 leds, 8 resistors and 1 transistor with vias made will cost me about 15 euro's per board. Not to mention the costs involved in a more complicated and larger PCB. Besides, i just cannot assemb...