Help required on PL NX-01 lighting

35th-scale · Post by **35th-scale** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:13 am

Hi Guys,
I'm hoping someone here can help me. I've just got the lighting set for the Polar Lights NX-01 from Federation Models, the second item down this page: http://federationmodels.com/products/sp ... efault.htm

However, I'm a complete novice when it comes to lighting, and there are no instructions included. I would be grateful for any advise or assistance anyone can give in terms of placement of the bulbs, should the boards be glued in place etc Does anyone know of a diagram or instruction sheet anywhere? Any other tips & hints would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sean

yodasan · Post by **yodasan** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:42 am

Dunno if it will help get answers but here is a bump as I am also
interested in this lighting kit. Really there are no instructions - ?

35th-scale · Post by **35th-scale** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:53 am

No instructions unfortunatly. I post this question in one of the other more frequently visited threads and got some very useful feedback: http://www.starshipmodeler.net/cgi-bin/ ... ht=#661883

To be honest, I've not even started it yet. There's a small nagging fear of making the proverbial dog's dinner of it and I keep putting it off....I keep telling myself "I can do this....I can do this...." and one of these days I'll believe it!

Good luck, and let me know how you get on Yodasan.

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:01 pm

The only thing that I can't tell is what power supply this kit wants. Unfortunately a 9 votl battery clip doesn't mean anything, as all the battery packs I have, 12volt, 6volt, 4.5 volt, all use the same 9 volt style connection.

PM TrekmanScott and ask him what he used for a power supply. you can use battery or wall-wort I bet.

Can you take a closeup picture of the circuit board, if there's a regulator on there I can look up its specs and tell you the power supply voltage it needs, as long as it produces greater than or equal to the current the board needs it will work.

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 11:41 pm

The 9 volt battery clip is a bad joke. I use that for testing circuits, but for an installation, I use a wall-wart or rechargeable battery.

35th-scale · Post by **35th-scale** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:23 am

jwrjr wrote:The 9 volt battery clip is a bad joke.

Can you explain what you mean please? I had presumed I lead a wire out of the kit for connection to an ordinary 9v battery....

and what's a wall-wort? A mains adaptor?

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:13 am

Yes the wall wort is a mini power supply, the term comes from the many power supplies that are a big lump that hang off the AC power plug. Looks like the wall has a wort or leech stuck to a power socket.

The 9 volt battery has a certain connection style which you can get just as the connector and a pigtail of un connected wires.

The thing is many of the battery packs that you can buy from electronic suppliers, like radio shack or allelectronics, also use this same connection. So just because you see the connector which a 9 volt battery happens to use, doesn't mean that the circuit uses 9 volts.

here's an example:
http://www.kc6sye.com/images/images_05_ ... rdseye.jpg
The battery pack powering the tug, is 12 volts, but the clip attached to the top of it is the typical 9 volt battery clip style.

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:34 pm

What I meant was that a 9 volt "transistor radio" battery lacks the current capacity to be useful for anything other than testing for short lengths of time.

Madman Lighting · Post by **Madman Lighting** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:39 pm

You could read my 11 page article on NX-01 lighting in the new Sci-Fi Fantasy magazine. It takes you step by step through the whole process.

jmartin · Post by **jmartin** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:01 pm

^^It just came in the mail today. I'm going to study it thoroughly. Nice job, by the way.

JM

Madman Lighting · Post by **Madman Lighting** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:00 pm

Thanks,

I enjoyed doing it, lots of work and time but it was fun. Learned a lot too. Ping me if you've got questions.

-JC.

35th-scale · Post by **35th-scale** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:46 am

jmartin wrote:^^It just came in the mail today. I'm going to study it thoroughly. Nice job, by the way.

JM

Can you scan & post?

Only joking....honest! That sounds like just what I need Madman. I hope it's aimed at the idiot builder.

jmartin · Post by **jmartin** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:30 pm

John (Madman): I started a price spreadsheet based on your parts list provided. (That's a huge help, by the way.) Any idea when the Delux-8 will be restocked in the SSM store?

JM

Madman Lighting · Post by **Madman Lighting** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:59 am

Delux-8 should be restocked in SSM Store in a week or so. I'm really sorry for the long delay, I had parts issues on the new design.

Good news is this:

New design is half as thick as the old one, less than 1/4" thick!

I moved the connector to the edge of the board which makes it much thinner and the connector is one part now instead of many which means you can actually plug it into a standard 0.1" dual row socket if you want.

Mounting holes are improved. Now they accept standard size #2 machine screws.

I've made a whole bunch of units and soon as I get LEDs in I'll ship units to SSM.

Thanks!!

-John C.