Madman Lighting Kits

[Madman Lighting]

Im using the republic destroyer kit. Im having trouble lighting 5 leds wth one 12v battery.  Itll work wth  
3 leds but when when i add 2 more i have to use another 12v. Is that  
normal or did i hook it up wrong?  Also the diagram shows mini  
jumpers, will i need some, what are they use for?  Thanks alot

Hi, thanks for buying my product!

This product is broken up into 4 "channels", each can drive up to 3 LEDs, and no more than that. It should NEVER be powered with more than 12VDC, if you try you'll blow it up for sure.

To drive 5 LEDs, you need to split them up across two "channels", the last page of the instructions shows how to hook up multiple LEDs with a nice graphic.

You dont actually need the jumpers, and its my mistake that they are shown. Basically ignore the jumper and connect the RED wire where the jumper would go, on the blank side of the board. This will bypass the need for a jumper.

Hope that helps!

-John

[battlestar90]

Thanks alot. Ill give it a go and let you know if i was victorious. Thanks again. Greatly appricuate it.

Andrew

[battlestar90]

John

it worked perfectly. Thanks alot. I would of figured it out in a million years lol.

[battlestar90]

Madmam,

it would be awsome you could develop a running lights kit for the Landing pods of the Moebius Galactica thats due out later in the future. And maybe a kit for the Moebius Cylon's eyes. Just a thought.

Stay mad.

[garry15]

That's awesome. Thanks very much for the information regarding lighting. Learn new things from here

[jj92000]

Hello,

I'm currently trying to use the Deluxe 8 Led kit to light my MF falcon.
With the kit I've only had 15cm of wire, and i've tried to find similar product here in france but I couldn't, like for the wire wrap tool. I've used regular electronic wire, with a bigger diameter.
So i've attempted to solder my LED's to the circuit but it's been difficult, now I have two channels that seems to be dead due to overheating the pins, resulting in melting part of the circuit.... I know i'm a dub welder... I think the circuit's been damaged, and I'll order a new one, but I wanted to know if you had an alternate solution to connect the wires than wire-wrapping or soldering, or if any forum member had an idea ?
I also wanted to know if I could purchase the circuit only ?

Thanks

Jerome

[Madman Lighting]

Hi all,

By now you all know about my three newest kits:

Dual Torpedo Launcher

Fighter Lighting kit (fits Moebeus Viper kits)

Klingon Lighting Kit


I''m working on a major overhaul of my website that should be out in a few weeks. This will list all my products, their features, prices, etc. It will also have the correct email address! (Unlike the current one! )

If there's things you want to see, think I should add, etc, I'm all ears at this point. My helpers are busy designing the page now and feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

-John

[Madman Lighting]

We finally have a new website!!

http://www.madmanlighting.biz

It has my correct email address on it and you can download all the instructions for all my products, including the article "Light the NX-01" which explains in great detail how to light a big model with LEDs and fiber optics.

Its still a bit rough so no complains please but the downloads page is all done and working.

Thanks,

-John

[ryoga]

Hi Madman

Your new site is more user friendly Forgot to ask you earlier for the starship (and big starship) lighting kit - what do you use to power the unit?

[Madman Lighting]

Thanks! I actually hired an unemployed English teacher (and friend) to do it, I think she did pretty well.

To power my kits (all my kits) you can use a pack of 8 batteries in series to make 12VDC or you can use a 12VDC wall transformer. 8 AA batteries will work, or to last a month, 8 D cells will work really well!

To size to supply is easy. Each card draws about 100mA, so the BIG kit, with 3 cards, needs at least 300mA, and all the other kits each need 100mA.

Yes, you can combine all my kits and run them all on the same power supply. Just connect the power leads in parallel, ie: all the Red power wires to the same post and all the Black power wires to the same post.

I also sell power supplies that will work. Email me directly pls.

[Madman Lighting]

AT LAST!!

The old Madman site is disconnected from Madmanlighting.com and all traffic for any Madman.XXX domain will now go to

HTTP://WWW.MADMANLIGHTING.BIZ

AND IT HAS MY CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS ON IT IN TWO PLACES!!

AAAGGHHHH!!!!!

[Shizman]

Hi John,

I like the new site. My only constructive criticism is with regards to your hyperlinks being dark blue on a light blue background. It makes it really hard to read the text of the links. I had to highlight them all so that their backgrounds were white and then I could read the blue text.

Other than that, it's much better.

[Madman Lighting]

I will be having a new email soon!

Tomorrow Comcast is coming and I will move all my IP services to them and be rid of Fairpoint. That means that my old website will go away entirely and my email (johndavidcook@myfairpoint.net) will soon be something else. I will post what it is when I know and I will update my profile here, and the address on my site.

Thanks!

-John

[tetsujin]

I will be having a new email soon!

Tomorrow Comcast is coming and I will move all my IP services to them and be rid of Fairpoint. That means that my old website will go away entirely and my email (johndavidcook@myfairpoint.net) will soon be something else. I will post what it is when I know and I will update my profile here, and the address on my site.

Maybe you should get yourself a domain name... Since the website URL is changing anyway, now is the perfect time.

[Madman Lighting]

OK, I'm D-I-G-I-T-A-L now!

My new email, which will work from the "email" button here is:

JOHNDAVIDCOOK@COMCAST.NET

As of today, the old is unplugged and no longer effective!

-John

[Madman Lighting]

Hi and thanks for buying the Republic Cruiser kit.

For that kit you should follow the kit instructions on hooking up 3 LEDs. The last page shows exactly how to do that. You wont need jumpers.

Your kit has the older Delux-8 card which can drive a max of 3 LEDs per output, so hook up 3 LEDs in series and hook them to the card as shown.


Our newest kits, released at Wonderfest 2011, use our new Delux-24 controller card. There are no jumpers in any of those kits, we simplified the hookup so all LEDs are connected in series all the time. We also doubled the number of LEDs you can drive per output, now you can drive up to 24 LEDs in four series strings of six. (use 18VDC for 24 LEDs)



Soon we'll have the new instructions on our site for anyone to download and view.

[taliesen]

I have somewhat of an 'electical noobie' question - I have the lighting kit for the FM Falcon, and it's really nice. This will be my first lit model, so I'm looking forward to getting it up and running in the kit. Since the kit itself is nowhere near ready to go, I did wire it up to make sure I understood the wiring and that everything works. I was also able to add a couple of additional 3mm white LEDs to it and can get them all lit, no problem.

The one thing I'm still unclear on, though, is the limits of the power supply needs. I picked up a 12V adapter to use that has a 500 mA capacity. I know I read elsewhere in this thread that your sets use about 100 mA each. So (cost to me aside), is the 500 mA adapter too much, and do I risk frying the board or the LEDs with this? I don't know if overloading the circuit is due to voltage or amperage (like I said, electrical noobie).

So, short version of the question - Is there a maximum amperage to run a single Madman Lighting kit with two extra LEDs?

Thanks in advance!

[tetsujin]

The one thing I'm still unclear on, though, is the limits of the power supply needs. I picked up a 12V adapter to use that has a 500 mA capacity. I know I read elsewhere in this thread that your sets use about 100 mA each. So (cost to me aside), is the 500 mA adapter too much, and do I risk frying the board or the LEDs with this? I don't know if overloading the circuit is due to voltage or amperage (like I said, electrical noobie).

Current ratings on power supplies are upper-bound limits. Greater than that amount and you run the risk of burning out the supply.

The amount of current a circuit will allow to pass is usually a function of the voltage supplied to the circuit. Voltage is a measure of the electro-motive force that moves charge (current) through the circuit. So different sources with the same voltage will have the same effect on a circuit, regardless of the maximum level of current for which the source is rated. A 12V source is a 12V source*, so long as it supplies the amount of current you need.

As a household analogy: a 110V power outlet can be used to power a variety of things. You could plug a refrigerator into it, or you could plug a little night light into it. The circuit breaker and the wiring itself could be rated for 20 amps or more - but if your night light only draws a couple miliamps, that's fine too. The problems occur when you draw too much current - but a device made for 110V won't draw too much current when it's plugged in to 110V.

(* Actually there is a difference between "regulated" and "unregulated" 12V power adapters - the latter may supply more or less than 12V depending on how much current is being drawn. They're best reserved for circuits which themselves contain a regulator.)

[taliesen]

I believe I understand - to put in terms of this project, if I need 100 mA to power my lighting, but my adapter was rated at 80 mA, I would burn out the adapter. But if my adapter is rated 500 mA for the same lighting, no problems - I just don't use the full capacity of the adapter.

I will double check it to make sure it is a regulated 12V to be sure of it - I think I did when I picked it up, but better safe than sorry. . .

Thanks for the input!!

[Sparky]

Its a good idea to leave overhead in the power supply too. Sometimes you see a power supply says 500ma what they mean is that's the max power it can put out for short periods of time, running it at that level for say an all day contest will cause it to loose regulation and start to fail. If it fails gracefully no problem but if it starts spiking voltage it could toast the electronics in side the model. So make sure you're power supply is over powered for your project. Really depends on the manufacturer and their marketing teams practices.

%50 to %80 normal load is probably a good rule of thumb.

[Madman Lighting]

What they said!

[apsilon]

Quick question re the delux-flasher 24. Can I assume it's the two channels shown as the engine LEDS on the last page that are controlled by the flash part of the circuit? I assume they can't have a different flash rate on each circuit?

[Madman Lighting]

Correct on all counts.

LEDs that are marked as "flickering", "blinking", "strobing" or doing just about anything except being on all the time are controlled by the flasher circuit.

In all truth, if you've got a flasher controller card, ALL the outputs are under the flasher's control. Some flash for some effects and some don't. Its all under software control. Since there is just one speed control push button, they all are affected by it.

[iloverum]

Hi Madman quick simple question which is is there anything you would have to add/alter on your starship lighting kit for it to be used on the PL 1/000 Refit, thanks!.

[Madman Lighting]

You'll need a power supply, 12VDC at at least 100mA. Thats about it.

[iloverum]

Which of these 12v batteries could i use please (under products~PS 5-10 yr) http://www.power-sonic.co.uk/standard-range.php, i'm guessing the PS-1212 would be alright but like your confirmation.

Thanks for your help.

[Madman Lighting]

Well....

You certainly can use the PS1212 for this project. Lemme see here, that one is rated at 1.2Ah and one of my cards uses about 0.1A of current. That means you could power one of my cards for 1.2 / 0.1 = 12 hours on a single charge.

More than enough I would say.

FYI: those are heavy lead-acid type cells. You might consider some much lighter lithium-ion type cells.

-John

[Madman Lighting]

To my valued customers:

Madman Lighting has been hit by the October Noreaster snowstorm and has been without power for 4 days. We apologize to those waiting for projects and will try to be back up again as soon as a large oak tree is removed from our power lines. We expect this to happen sometime within the next 4-6 days.

Please be patient while we recover, we have not forgotten you and you will get your kits.

Also, please do not email me until I announce I'm back online, until I get power and Internet back, I have no home email or Internet.

I will announce here when I'm back.

Thanks.

-John Cook

[Madman Lighting]

Were back!

As of Friday Nov 4, all our services are back and we are digging out from a pile of emails. I'll be spending tonight and all weekend getting caught up, some orders that were pending will be going out tomorrow.

Thanks!!

[iloverum]

Hi there, i read earlier that a 9v battery will work just not at full capacity, i have a 12v one coming but need something to power the kit right now so i can build and i have some 9v ones in my house, heres the datasheet just want to be safe than sorry! .
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/6LR61PL_EU.pdf