1/350 refit shuttle bay landing light question

bjblasko · Post by **bjblasko** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:11 am

This question is for anybody that installed an LED chaser circuit under the shuttle bay for landing lights. My question is how did you attach the FO to the LEDs? I saw a you-tube video that Helipilot27 did, and it looks like he had some type of cap on the top of the LEDs to hold the FO. I tried small pieces of a plastic soda straw filled with clear silicone that sat on top of the LEDs, but the FO pulled out when the FO was bent to fit in the small space under the bay floor where I mounted the circuit board. Anybody have a working approach to this that they would share?

mgoldcha · Post by **mgoldcha** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:30 pm

i cut 3mm tubes (or 5mm tubes depending on the size of the LED) about 3mm longer than the LED and hot glue it to the LED. Then I use the same glue gun to fix the FO to the LED/tube combo. As long as the glue gun is set to a cool setting it shouldn't melt the FO. You can get the tubes that fit the LEDs from any hobby shop that sells model rocket launch lugs. They fit perfectly!

Doomgiver · Post by **Doomgiver** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:59 am

I made a board with 10 LED and a cover of black styrene with small holes, to put the fiber inside.
http://www.doomgiver.de/downloads/bilde ... se_002.jpg

Here you can see the fiber.
http://www.doomgiver.de/downloads/bilde ... se_068.jpg

FlyAndFight · Post by **FlyAndFight** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 11:18 am

I believe that Helipilot27 used shrink tubing and simply cut a short piece, attached one end around the LED and inserted the fiber optic strand to the other end and then hit the whole thing with a hair dryer/blower to "shrink" the tubing. (Repeating for each LED.) No need for hot glue, as far as I can tell.

I too purchased the board kit that he recommended and plan on following the same steps. Unfortunately, in a later video, he mentions that the board was too big and he had to trim it up some in order to fit it in the secondary hull.

Doomgiver, that is a fantastic looking setup. Your board is significantly smaller. Nice job!

mgoldcha · Post by **mgoldcha** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:22 pm

I bought this LED chaser circuit: http://www.amazon.com/Velleman-Mini-LED ... roduct_top

I replaced the included 3mm red LEDs with 5mm red LEDs. It fits perfectly beneath the shuttlebay, runs on 9V and works great.

bjblasko · Post by **bjblasko** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:23 pm

I agree that Doomgiver's setup is great. I tried the heat shrink approach, and either the FO pulled out when the fiber was bent or the hair dryer melted the fiber and caused it to curl. That's why I'm looking for another approach to this. I also like the way Doomgiver mounted his board on the bottom of the hanger "runway" rather than on the bottom of the hull. I think that one of the keys to doing this is drilling the holes for the FO at an angle - it's a really tight fit for the cables nearest the end of the ship, and the FO will not make sharp 90 degree bends!