Hey all,

Here is my completed CR90 LED engine mod. This took a little more work than the Victory II mod. I'm not 100% satisfied, but it looks pretty good. Especially when it's sitting on the table.

This shows a close-up of the back. At this distance you can see how messy it is.

• LED's: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11248
• Magnet Wire: http://www.traintekllc.com/ngineering-n5038-38-magnet-wire-100-red-green/?gclid=CPvLvvX8v8YCFQuMaQod0PgCWg
• 10 ohm resister from this set: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10969
• https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11285
• A LOT of patience!

I wired each row of LED's separately. I also made sure that on each row the top wire (which I had wired up as positive) went to the left and the bottom wire (which was negative) went to the right. This made it pretty simple to keep the three positive and three negative wires separate.

Once each row of lights were complete I super glued them to the corresponding engine row on the back of the CR90.

I ran the wires underneath the engine assembly and down the post. Drilled holes through the base and wired them to the Lilypad battery/switch via a 10 ohms resistor. The resistor was necessary to step down the voltage from the battery otherwise all 11 LED's were literally blinding to look at.

Lastly, I dabbed some hot glue on each light to help diffuse it a bit. This proved to be a bit messy, but doesn't look too bad.

If anyone wants more details or additional pictures, let me know and I will see what I can do.

J

**** that's swanky! I feel like I should eventually put my electronics degree to use for something like this.

Who am I kidding? I suck at small parts. Haha

That's awesome! Great job!

Can't tell from a distance so this is amazing

What does the ship look like when you cut into it? Is there space inside, or did you make some? Could you cut somewhere else and avoid all the gashes on the back?

So, this ship is a solid piece of plastic. There are no gashes, each LED was mounted directly on the outside of the engine. The messiness or gashes you are seeing on the back are a couple of things:

1. For each row of engines, there is a positive wire on the top and a negative wire on the bottom that connects each LED to the next. This could be hidden by providing a bit 'extra' wire between each engine and pushing the extra between the engines.
2. I put a dab of hot glue on the top of each LED to help diffuse the light. If you have ever worked with hot glue you know that it can be stringy and a bit messy. With a little more cleanup on the engines this can be resolved.

Optionally, you could cut into each engine so the LED is recessed a bit. However, these LED's are so tiny I think this is more work than it's worth.

I'm still looking for a better option than using hot glue to diffuse the LED's. It's a great solution for bigger projects as it dries opaque and really makes a difference. But when working with 11 extremely tiny LED's it's a mediocre solution at best.

Hey man nice work!

That's very creative!

First question that came to mind though... what happens when you need to detach the post from the base to swap out the ship card?

I see it now. Mostly the glue strings are what make it look wonky. The model sure seems to be multiple pieces, though. It looks as if halfway through the engines is a seam. I was wondering if you could drill each one out. But maybe that's not worth it.

As for the Neb, I was able to wiggle the engine block off the [weak] side arc beam easily, and it sure looks like there's a cuff on with a plug glued in it. I can work my knife a little between it, but I haven't tried getting it out. If you could, again, wondering if you could drill out the engines to put in the lights?

Wonder if you could use a different glue in lieu of the hot glue. Like an epoxy or model glue. Something less stringy or at the least a bit firmer so you could sand it down.

I see it now. Mostly the glue strings are what make it look wonky. The model sure seems to be multiple pieces, though. It looks as if halfway through the engines is a seam. I was wondering if you could drill each one out. But maybe that's not worth it.

As for the Neb, I was able to wiggle the engine block off the [weak] side arc beam easily, and it sure looks like there's a cuff on with a plug glued in it. I can work my knife a little between it, but I haven't tried getting it out. If you could, again, wondering if you could drill out the engines to put in the lights?

My concerns with drilling out the back are two fold:

1. You may have to remove a lot of plastic for this to work right which can be a lot of work on these little models for not a lot of gain.

2. If you just drill out a small hole and mount the LED's inside somehow the size of the hole and amount and distance from LED to the hole might really limit the light shining through.

The more I think about it the more it might be worth a shot though...just a lot of work...and wiring up these tiny meds is difficult as it is.

That's very creative!

First question that came to mind though... what happens when you need to detach the post from the base to swap out the ship card?

I actually made an angled cut on each side of the card so the front and back slide out and then I don't have to worry about removing the plastic base. This could be problematic for people who play tournaments...but that is not a problem for me. Works pretty good otherwise.

Wonder if you could use a different glue in lieu of the hot glue. Like an epoxy or model glue. Something less stringy or at the least a bit firmer so you could sand it down.

Potentially...I just like the immediateness of the hot glue. Plus, I know it dries opaque...which is key. Not sure about epoxy...some do and some don't....some dry with a yellow tinge so it would take a little investigation.

J