Blinking vs flashing LEDs

Thrusterhead Jones · Post by **Thrusterhead Jones** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:45 pm

I plan on installing a couple of anti-collision lights on my Stargazer Orion II shuttle. Two options I'm considering are a pair of 3mm super bright blinking reds (the ones that have the flasher built into the LED) or a pair of LEDs driven by a small PCB. The advantage that I can see with the former is that it takes up a whole lot less space, or with the former the ability to adjust the flash rate for the two LEDs. I dont't really want the LEDs to flash sequentially.

I can disguise the 9v battery as payload in the cargo bay, too.

What would be my best bet?

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:06 pm

Personally

The small PCB

The blinking LEDs suffer two drawbacks

1) Lower lifespan - you'll need to replace it sooner
2) Non-adjustable blink rate - you're stuck at what the factory set up as the rate

With the PCB route, you can customize the blink rate and the LED's will last longer

As an example

This schematic yields this result

Thrusterhead Jones · Post by **Thrusterhead Jones** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:06 pm

Thanks for the input. I'm assuming though that the flash rates can be independently adjusted.

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:21 pm

The schematic is to drive 1 or more LEDS at the SAME blink rate

If you're talking different rates for each LED - then you'll need a copy of the circuit I showed for EACH LED

Another way - which I'm not familiar enough with but others are - would be to program a PIC to drive different outputs at different rates

Someone with experience in PICs want to chime in?

Bueller??? Bueller??

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:25 pm

A well-programmed PIC (or AVR, for that matter) can do this easily. I once programmed a PIC to flash 8 leds, all at different rates. (This was for a Police-type lightbar.)

Shamrock_Don · Post by **Shamrock_Don** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:49 pm

Atlantis - excellent work.

Care to share the schematic for your bussards?

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:50 pm

Shamrock_Don wrote:Atlantis - excellent work.

Care to share the schematic for your bussards?

Ask and ye shall recieve

Bussard Schematic

Bussard in action for those who haven't seen it yet

And putting it all together, including FO window lighting, glowing impulse engines and the rear end-caps of the nacelles

Fully lit

Shamrock_Don · Post by **Shamrock_Don** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:29 pm

thanks dude...

starmanmm · Post by **starmanmm** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 6:06 pm

Nicely done!

Thrusterhead Jones · Post by **Thrusterhead Jones** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 2:50 am

The plan now is to illuminate a whole bunch of LEDs (9 standard whites, 2 white super-brights, 2 super bright reds, 3 standard reds, and one green) with batteries. The 2 spuper bright reds will be on 1 or 2 flasher circuits. I could get away eith powering it with a wall wart but I don't want to have a wire comming out its butt and I'd like to have the option to hang the thing from the ceiling. the flasher pcb(s) would end up being probably 1.2" sq. which should fit into the aft section with out any problem, and some kind of perf board with an array of current dropper resistors, but anything bigger than a standard 9v battery may take up too much room. Any suggestions?

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:14 am

Thrusterhead Jones wrote: The plan now is to illuminate a whole bunch of LEDs (9 standard whites, 2 white super-brights, 2 super bright reds, 3 standard reds, and one green) with batteries. The 2 spuper bright reds will be on 1 or 2 flasher circuits. I could get away eith powering it with a wall wart but I don't want to have a wire comming out its butt and I'd like to have the option to hang the thing from the ceiling. the flasher pcb(s) would end up being probably 1.2" sq. which should fit into the aft section with out any problem, and some kind of perf board with an array of current dropper resistors, but anything bigger than a standard 9v battery may take up too much room. Any suggestions?

I'd suggest going with AAA's myself - 9v batteries have a horrendous lifespan - you'll be replacing them much too often

Look at the MA rating on the battery

Most 9v's hold between 300-600 ma - 16 LED's at @20ma each is 320ma total - or 1-2 hours from a 9v

AA or AAA on the other hand hold 2000+ma - or 7+ hours per set to light those LED's

I'd still prefer a wall-wart and some way of getting the power to the model

My TOS-E, I modified the engineering hull to use a brass rod as the stand, then run a power cord up the center of that - the connection between the model and the rod is a standard 2-conductor mini-plug/jack. The jack is glued to the engineering hull, the plug to the top of the brass rod - putting the model on the stand plugs in the power

Rod design

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:04 pm

Take a look at the announcement on power supplies:

viewtopic.php?t=52577

In a nut shell 9 volt batteries are simply a pack of Quad A (AAAA) cells and can only put out 15 Ma of current before they start to warm up.

starmanmm · Post by **starmanmm** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:04 pm

SCC-7107 USS Atlantis wrote:

My TOS-E, I modified the engineering hull to use a brass rod as the stand, then run a power cord up the center of that - the connection between the model and the rod is a standard 2-conductor mini-plug/jack. The jack is glued to the engineering hull, the plug to the top of the brass rod - putting the model on the stand plugs in the power

Working on this sort of problem now... do you have any shots of the jack and plug setup?

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:47 pm

starmanmm wrote:SCC-7107 USS Atlantis wrote:

My TOS-E, I modified the engineering hull to use a brass rod as the stand, then run a power cord up the center of that - the connection between the model and the rod is a standard 2-conductor mini-plug/jack. The jack is glued to the engineering hull, the plug to the top of the brass rod - putting the model on the stand plugs in the power
Working on this sort of problem now... do you have any shots of the jack and plug setup?

Ask and ye shall recieve

Rod with jack and plug inserted into engineering hull

Inside engineering hull showing power to board wiring

Joined together

This model has been torn apart since the vid was made - problem with fit and such

I'm currently working on the Mark-II using a fresh kit - the parts from the old one may eventually be used for kit-bashing

starmanmm · Post by **starmanmm** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:01 am

Thanks

It looks like you used aves or something similar to attach it to the engineering section.

Funny thing is... I really don't recognize either type of plugs you used.

Any more info on that?

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:23 pm

starmanmm wrote: Thanks

It looks like you used aves or something similar to attach it to the engineering section.

Funny thing is... I really don't recognize either type of plugs you used.

Any more info on that?

Actually, that was Milliput White to create the 'hump'

The plug and jack are standard Sub-mini DC power connectors

Radio Shack calls them 'Size M'

starmanmm · Post by **starmanmm** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:31 pm

Giving me good info to get me back to building the conversion.

Thanks!