Lighting the X wing Pro shop

Ask and answer questions, share tips and resources for installing lighting and other electronics in your models.

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azdave
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:01 pm

Lighting the X wing Pro shop

Post by azdave »

I have never worked with LEDs and fiber ops. Is there a tutor or a good book to walk me through it? I went to my local electronics store and they weren't much help. They did have all of the parts needed. Lights etc.
Thanks,
Dave
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Tchail
Posts: 4331
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2003 8:40 pm
Location: Nowhere in Particular

Post by Tchail »

I see that no one's replied, so I thought I'd offer a few suggestions.

The first tip I can offer is to learn something about basic electronics. While the concepts are not necessarily difficult, you will need to know something about the difference between wiring components in series and in parallel, and the difference between an LED, a capacitor, and a resistor.

Check out this site:

http://www.science-ebooks.com/electroni ... ronics.htm

Tip #2: Learn how to solder. At any electronics store, you can buy a soldering iron. Also buy soldering braid for soaking up the extra solder.

There are web sites out there that sell kits, with printed circuit boards and all the needed electronics. Buy a few to get some practice with. Certain electronic components (such as integrated circuits and LEDs) are sensitive to the amount of time that a soldering iron is used.

Tip #3: Check out this website:

http://ledcalc.com/#calc

LED's need a resistor applied to them, either in series or in parallel. Although the resistor is generally placed on the negative side of an LED, it really doesn't matter.

Tip #4: Another website:

www.fiberopticproducts.com

This is a good source for all sorts of useful things, such as LEDs and fiber optic. I've always had good results using them.

Without knowing something about your knowledge of electronics, it's impossible to offer any more specific advice.

But this discussion forum is a good resource, and members are generally very helpful.

Best of luck,

-Tchail
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