Looking for guidance on LEDs, resistors, and how to power it

SuperDave · Post by **SuperDave** » Fri May 09, 2014 9:29 pm

I want to build the Moebius Viper Mk II, and I want to light it up. A steady light in the cockpit, some fiber optics for the instrument panel, and flickering blue ones for the engines.

Lighting this up is totally new for me. I've been doing a little research but I'm admittedly still very confused. I don't know what I will need to use for a power source and not sure how to determine what I will need. It will need to power all three engines (I've read that three 5mm lights will be needed for each engine, and of course I'll need some for the cockpit but not sure just what I'll need yet. I do have the Paragrafix photoetch set that will be installed. Oh yeah, and I think I'll bewanting to install blinking nav lights on the wingtips.

I figure I might as well go with battery power so that I can display it at a contest and can't guarantee I'd be able to plug it in.

Please forgive my total lack of knowledge regarding the electronics. I've built cars for years but only dabbled in sci fi subjects, and that was years ago. Eventually I also want to build and light up a Mk I Viper as well as an X Wing fighter.

SuperDave

brt · Post by **brt** » Fri May 09, 2014 10:02 pm

On the cheap, get a 9 volt battery and some pre-wired LEDs that have resistors already in them. I have bought some from this site.
http://lighthouseleds.com/pre-wired-led ... wired.html
Saves on doing the math and soldering.

Madman Lighting · Post by **Madman Lighting** » Sat May 10, 2014 5:06 pm

I make a kit for that model that does what you want and its pretty easy to use.

http://www.starshipmodeler.biz/shop/ind ... ng-kit.cfm

You wont have to calculate anything or solder anything, except maybe the power supply. That can be a generic Radio Shack wall power supply, or you can use my pre-wired power kit.

http://home.comcast.net/~johndavidcook/ourproducts.html
(scroll down a bit)

There's a few other kits out there too from my worthy competitors but mine is the easiest to use.

If you want to do it all yourself, you'll need to learn some basic electronics.

thanks.

Brucebruce · Post by **Brucebruce** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:03 am

Not too long ago I was in a similar position to you!

I got a bunch of cheap leds off of ebay, a pack of various resistors and a solderless circuit board and just youtube'd my way through it.

It seems super complicated at first but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad. I still can't do anything fancy and I'm sure there's much easier ways of doing some of the stuff I do but it's working for me so far!

I had no background in anything electronic btw.

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Tue Jan 27, 2015 1:19 am

Brucebruce wrote:Not too long ago I was in a similar position to you!

I got a bunch of cheap leds off of ebay, a pack of various resistors and a solderless circuit board and just youtube'd my way through it.

It seems super complicated at first but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad. I still can't do anything fancy and I'm sure there's much easier ways of doing some of the stuff I do but it's working for me so far!

I had no background in anything electronic btw.

This is a bit late, and I don't know if you'll even see this message. But reading this post of yours has given me quite a confidence boost to try tackling this myself.

Grumpy Popeye · Post by **Grumpy Popeye** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 6:47 pm

This fellow here does some pretty innovative stuff with lighting and (pic)microprocessesors, he has a spot where he heas a primer on LEDs and running basic circuits. He also uses current blocking diodes in place of/ in conjunction with resistors, pretty clever.

http://dorobou.blog.so-net.ne.jp/

You will have to run his site through Google translate (Well maybe not TVGM

) to find his primer, or if you can wait a few days until I'm in port again I can edit this post and add the link directly.

(ONE WEEK LATER)

There we go,

http://translate.google.ca/translate?sl ... 00760518-1

...in the meantime, enjoy the pretty pretty pictures! (The work these guy do is inspsiring!)

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Sun Feb 01, 2015 9:00 pm

Yeah, I've met the guy in person actually. He gave me the Rick Deckard head he sculpted himself for his Blade Runner Spinner project. He did such a fantastic likeness of Harrison Ford. Sometimes I wonder if he's one guy or actually a group of guys.

I'll take a look at his site when I am at home (blogs are blocked here at work). I need to find out where he buys stuff here in Japan so that I won't have to import stuff from overseas.

But no, I can't read Japanese all that well, when it comes to technical speak. I use the Rikaichan add-on in Firefox to translate the words I don't know. It works better for me than Google Translate.

I want to learn how to put together basic circuits. I understand that there's something called a 5555 timer that's required for flashing LED circuits. I know there are such thing as flashing LEDs, but I've only seen ones that are one one second and off one second. I want to learn how to wire a circuit to blink on for a second, and be off for two or three seconds.

Believe it or not, I just don't see anything like Radio Shack here in Japan. People assume that Japan must be some sort of high tech super utopia, but in reality, people just aren't like that here. Most people here think I'm some sort of genius because I can buy computer components and put together my own desktop computer. Japanese people usually can't even use a computer very well, much less build one. My best bet is to buy resistors and the like online.

brt · Post by **brt** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:28 am

http://electronicsclub.info/555timer.htm

Scroll down to 555/556 Astable. Read about resistor 1 and 2 values to give you the on / off times that you want.

Get yourself a breadboard kit. Some LEDs, resistors, small capacitors and a few 555 timers to play with. Lots of references on line. I have federation style nav and strobes worked out

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:48 pm

Thanks for the reference! Strobes are also of interest to me.

brt · Post by **brt** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:11 am

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan wrote:Thanks for the reference! Strobes are also of interest to me.

I used the link below to build breadboard my nav and strobe circuit. You can use 2 555 timers or a 556 timer which is just 2 555s in one. The pin layout was a little harder for me to deal with on the 556, but I got there.

http://electronicsclub.info/555timer.htm

I used the 1N4148 diode as recommended about half way down the page to provide the strobe effect.

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Wed Feb 11, 2015 10:15 pm

You know, I was worried about how to find a breadboard in Japan, not knowing what the word was in Japanese. So I just looked up "breadboard" on the Japanese Wikipedia, and it turns out that they just call it a "breadboard" (converted into the simplistic Japanese phonetics in a predictable way). Maybe getting into this sort of thing won't be so difficult here after all. The problem is that I know of no equivalent to Fry's Electronics in the town where I live. I've only seen this sort of stuff in Tokyo's Akihabara district. I know of no equivalents to Radio Shack in my town. I could always just mail order from Yodobashi's website or Amazon Japan. Between the two, I have found LEDs, fiber optic wires, etc.

This will be a challenge to either excite me or infuriate me. I want to learn this stuff, though.

Alpha41 · Post by **Alpha41** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 10:47 pm

Perhaps reach out to any local Amateur Radio clubs in your area. If the club is big enough they may even offer classes for a nominal fee, or even free. Circuits are circuits, scale models or radios.

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Fri Feb 13, 2015 12:23 am

Good idea. Thanks. I'm not sure how to go about doing that, since I'll have to learn the terminology to even know what to search for. But I will keep that in mind.

brt · Post by **brt** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:25 am

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan wrote:Good idea. Thanks. I'm not sure how to go about doing that, since I'll have to learn the terminology to even know what to search for. But I will keep that in mind.

http://101science.com/Radio.htm

free basic electronics course / resource

Tracy White · Post by **Tracy White** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:34 pm

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan wrote:Most people here think I'm some sort of genius because I can buy computer components and put together my own desktop computer.

Depending on what you want to do and "type" of comfort with building things, something like an Arduino might also be an option. I would say it's overkill for just a blinking circuit, but If you want to build more complexity into your projects it's worth looking into.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnPPoetX0uw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlHbrI_9Qy4

brt · Post by **brt** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:17 am

You will need to learn coding for Arduino if you want more than just basic lighting fx.

DonMoss · Post by **DonMoss** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 10:15 am

I am just getting into lighting ships. I was wondering if there is any sort of LED/resistor "basic kit" that one should keep in stock. To get started, what LEDs and resistors should I stock up on and have on hand?

Is that too broad a question? I know there are lots of LEDs and resistors out there!

Thanks,

Don

brt · Post by **brt** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:18 am

Get a breadboard, a 555 timer chip, some 3mm LEDs and at least some 330, 470 ohms for some LED protection and 10k and 15k for flasher timing on the chip. Then check out some tutorials online unless you have some experience already, then play with the stuff on the breadboard. Get some 24 gauge (wire I think) for breadboard connections. You'll probably want 30 gauge when you get to wiring your ships.

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:55 pm

brt wrote: and 10k and 15k for flasher timing on the chip.

Pardon my ignorance, but what are "10k and 15k"? Thank you for your guidance. I appreciate it.

brt · Post by **brt** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:17 pm

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan wrote:
brt wrote: and 10k and 15k for flasher timing on the chip.
Pardon my ignorance, but what are "10k and 15k"? Thank you for your guidance. I appreciate it.

Oops, left out the word "resistors". So 330 ohms resistor, 10,000 ohms resistor etc. since k represents 1,000 you get 10k.

330 ohms to 470 should protect your led if you keep the voltage modest, or
get an led calculator from a google search to figure out your values.

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Wed Oct 07, 2015 12:46 am

OK, thanks. I understand that the resistors control how fast the flashes will be with the 555 chip. I would want the strobes on the Enterprise to be as fast as a finger snap, but the other lights should be maybe a second on, and three seconds off. I assume that it's possible to have two different 555 chips controlling two different flash rates along with regular "always on" lights on one circuit and there should be no problem, right?

I'll have to just buy a bunch of stuff at the electronics store and start experimenting on a bread board. I just need to go there when they aren't closed (and when I'm not broke).

DonMoss · Post by **DonMoss** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:57 am

brt wrote:Get a breadboard, a 555 timer chip, some 3mm LEDs and at least some 330, 470 ohms for some LED protection and 10k and 15k for flasher timing on the chip. Then check out some tutorials online unless you have some experience already, then play with the stuff on the breadboard. Get some 24 gauge (wire I think) for breadboard connections. You'll probably want 30 gauge when you get to wiring your ships.

My breadboard arrives today - LEDs are a few days out, along with 4060, 4017 and 555 chips.

Thanks!

Wug · Post by **Wug** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:41 am

There's nothing quite like google translate.

"The person you are crunchy illumination is, I might be tiring article, properly so you want to put it described as such that I thought always, please Relationship regards m (__) m
In addition, articles of this illumination is several times lasts Mars (^ _ ^;)"

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Sun Dec 13, 2015 11:21 pm

I finally got around to checking out that electronic component store in my town last week. I bought a breadboard, some 220 resistors, a switch, a 9V battery pack, plug-in jumpers, and of course some LEDs. I followed an easy how-to guide I'd found on TEH INTARNETZ and made it a father/daughter science experience. She really got a kick out of it. I put in another LED with another resistor and I suppose that is just how you can daisy chain LEDs. It just has to go in a circle. Red goes to the power, which goes through the circuits, and then the black goes back out to the battery pack. I'm sure I can easily just solder these lights together onto wires and be able to light a kit. A circuit board should be necessary for the more complex stuff, like having the kit light up for a duration of time before shutting itself off, or having blinking lights.

The store does not have anything fancy like SMDs or flickering LEDs. I'll have to order those instead. But it was a fun experience.

brt · Post by **brt** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 1:15 pm

I just have the wires run down the brass tube of the stand and into the breadboard for my d-7. 2 nav lights, one steady general for windows and a trim pot for the torpedo tube that I can fade up at any speed I want to.

NCC1966 · Post by **NCC1966** » Wed Aug 24, 2016 10:52 am

I suggest to use a small power supply instead a battery. Batteries can run out very quick depending on the amount of LEDs hooked on it.