Sequential LED Kit

ALCLSC89 · Post by **ALCLSC89** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 10:03 pm

I got the 10 LED sequential kit from Chaney Electronics and finished putting it together. For some reason, all the LED blink at the same time and do not alternate. Any ideas what I might have done wrong? I am trying to put the landing lights in the shuttle bay of 1/350 Refit Enterprise. If you guys have any pics on how you put yours together would be a great help. Thanks in advance.

Mr. Engineer · Post by **Mr. Engineer** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:54 am

Can you post a link to this kit or even a big clear of it or even the circuit diagram?

Then maybe we can help but here is a theory:

You got the kit #CL4431
There are two ICs which I assume is the 555 and 4017 pair, which is very common for sequential LED kits and designs. But the funny thing is, there is no visible variable resistor to vary the speed of the 555 (smaller 8 legged chip) which controls the speed of the sequence. And so, based on the observation that they 'blink at the same time' could be that one of the resistors used for timing have been switched which made the 555's output pulse extremely fast.

That is my theory anyway since the kit is a DIY and sometimes, the colour bands of the resistor plays on your eyes.

http://www.electronickitsbychaneyelectr ... nfo/C4431/

bjblasko · Post by **bjblasko** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 2:23 pm

That board looks kind of long - did you test fit it under the "runway" of the hanger bay? I'm working on doing the same thing, and I found some 0.5 mm fiber optic cable that bends much easier than larger diameter stuff. Also, drill the holes for the fiber to go through at an angle, especially the holes closest to the rear of the ship - there is very little room under there to make a bend.

ALCLSC89 · Post by **ALCLSC89** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:25 pm

I'm thinking that I might have the resistors in the wrong place but I'm not entirely sure. Here is how I have them:
R1 - Yellow, Violet, Red, Gold
R2 - Brown, Green, Green, Gold
R3 - Green, Blue, Brown, Gold

Some of the colors are hard to tell.

The instructions say that
R1 - 4.7K Ohm
R2 - 1.5Meg Ohm
R3 - 560 Ohm

Tried to upload photos but not sure how. Thanks.

Mr. Engineer · Post by **Mr. Engineer** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:41 pm

Well, I am not too sure but once he gave the clues of Chaney Electronics, this was the only kit that more or less matches his posting.

Yes, if this was to be put into the 1/350 PL Enterprise, it would be too long. (I think the board is about 5~6 inches while the targeted Landing Bay area is about half of that)

Based on the three resistors, would have to make another assumption that the R2 (1.5Meg), which is the timing resistor got mixed up with the R1 and R3, which, could be the voltage dividers. Or, maybe the capacitor supplied in the kit has a different value.

Then again, I could be wrong.

bjblasko · Post by **bjblasko** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:14 pm

If you have the colors as indicated in your message for the 3 resistors, they are correct. Must be something else. I'd be thinking about another board anyway, because the one you have will never fit if you're putting it under the hanger bay. There are smaller boards available for around $10 with 10 LEDs, and others with 6 or 8.

ALCLSC89 · Post by **ALCLSC89** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 4:36 pm

Thanks for all the help. I in fact ordered a smaller board last night. Don't know what I was thinking. For some reason, I thought that the one I have would fit. This is my first lighting project so I will be visiting this section a lot during my build so hopefully I won't be too much of a pain.

mgoldcha · Post by **mgoldcha** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:03 pm

This is the board I used: http://www.amazon.com/Velleman-Mini-LED ... led+chaser

Fits perfectly under the shuttlebay. I replaced the 3mm LEDs with 5mm LEDs, used 1mm fiber optics and it works exactly how I wanted it to.