I travel through the great galactic star cluster of the internet from Board Game Geek to share a simple yet beautiful YT-1300 Modification I've been working on with a good deal of success.
Putting LED light systems into YT-1300 freighters, from what I could find something of a first.
Edited by Kyramla KyramudYeah I think so, what lights did you end up using in the end?
This is from that eBay auction topic I posted a few days ago Ratty.
Yep, but I believe that Kyramla Kyramud was the person that originally made it.
Yep, but I believe that Kyramla Kyramud was the person that originally made it.
Oh? Cool! He did a good job.
Where is the battery situated and how do you turn it on or off?
The engine plate is has magnets on it and it just lifts off to get to the battery. There was a nice picture of it.
I saw this and immediately bought leds, tubing, magnets, and tiny switch and battery holders, just need to design the circuit and an on off switch and start cutting on my falcon
Could a flat battery be used for something like this.. I'd like to do this as well.. you know for grins.. but a heavy AA or even triple A might be too heavy.. maybe use a couple CR style flat ones.. and maybe extent the life of it as well..
im going to try 2 3v cr2032's in series with a resistor to regulate the voltage to the 3.5V LEDs i picked up
What is used to spread the LED lights across the entire back of it to give it a more even lighting? I'm assuming some sort of plastic with diffuser properties.
An array of three LEDs behind a curved piece of frosted acrylic rod would be perfect for diffusing it. Housing the battery might be a problem, but I think some electronics wholesalers sell individual CR style battery holders designed for PC motherboards which can be adapted for use as a miniature power source.
For those who want the correct resistor values:
White or blue LEDs: 3.9 Ohm/3v circuit.
Red LEDs: 56 Ohms/3v circuit.
Solder one resistor per LED and you should be fine. For other voltages and LED colors, you can use this online calculator: http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz
Edited by Millennium FalsehoodAny simple schematics for a slim set up for this.. I can build anything.. but not the best at drawing up a schematic.. lol
Parts can be gotten at radio shack I'm sure...
Screw radio shack. They'll charge you 5.99 for 2 resistors, when you could order 100 from amazon for 3.99. I'm just making up the numbers, but it's pretty much accurate. I'm thinking this is going to be the next project I tackle, so if I"m motivated enough, I'll take some pictures as I go along.
that would be awesome..
man im not technical enough to do this but maybe i can get some one to make one for me and trade some stuff or just pay em
Screw radio shack. They'll charge you 5.99 for 2 resistors, when you could order 100 from amazon for 3.99. I'm just making up the numbers, but it's pretty much accurate. I'm thinking this is going to be the next project I tackle, so if I"m motivated enough, I'll take some pictures as I go along.
Yes please!
Screw radio shack. They'll charge you 5.99 for 2 resistors, when you could order 100 from amazon for 3.99. I'm just making up the numbers, but it's pretty much accurate. I'm thinking this is going to be the next project I tackle, so if I"m motivated enough, I'll take some pictures as I go along.
Lol, that's over twice the price I paid for a pack of 610 resistors ($10) at a genuine electronics store.
Never, ever buy components from Radio Shack. Go for real electronics stores, which are usually hole-in-the-wall places. Mine is a small shop, out of the way in a bad part of town, but the owner is great and is always willing to help you understand electronics. He's got a very wide selection and has great prices ($0.05 for a pair of capacitors, for instance).
If you want to buy online or can't find a store, here are my favorite places to shop:
http://www.allelectronics.com/
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/
For LEDs, it's hard to beat these stores:
cool, it was just the first thing to pop into my head..When I was an Electronics tech this wouldn't be a problem.. lol.. I could build it at work.. I'm the guy who does the great solder job, I usually don't design the circuit. but I do make it look perdy.. lol I'll check the places you linked for parts..
If some kind person could give me a shopping list, it's been over 20 years since I last did electronics so need to know what parts I need. Working with them shouldn't be a problem I'm still OK with a soldering iron
Basic shopping list:
LEDs (color depends on preference, but I like whites as you can color them to match whatever shade you desire)
Proper resistors (Use the resistor calculator I linked to earlier to find out which size to get)
Battery holder (Get one of the CR-type battery holders from one of the electronics retailers I linked to)
Wire (Magnet wire is ideal, as it is extremely thin, but has an enamel coating to prevent short circuits)
Soldering iron
Solder (Get rosin-core solder. The rosin will clean off the metal and produce a good electrical connection.)
Heat-shrink tubing (Put a small section over the newly-soldered joint and then heat it to shrink it down and form an insulator)
Nice! I wanted to that with my center-cockpit YT-1300 conversion but didn't bother to wait and find the right components.
Step 1 is complete. I started with a standard Falcon (and placed an order for a replacement just in case this doesn't work out well).
I then proceeded to remove the raised engine panel. I went through about 3-4 hobby knife blades to make sure I always had a nice sharp one. I would recommend starting with the back corners as they're rather fragile. I didn't start there on the left side (first side I cut) and decided to cut it after the long edge. The problem was that it had no support. It appears that there's nothing really supporting it underneath, and very little is attached to the side. It didn't help that my knife slipped once or twice to make the panel line deeper.
The engine panel is not really attached at all in the rear. After I cut the three edges, I slid my knife between the "engine glow panel" and the engine top panel, when I got towards the center the knife didn't want to go any further. Thinking there was glue holding to two pieces together, I wedged a toothpick style instrument into the opening the knife had already created with the thought that it would keep it separated and allow me to cut with the knife. But just inserting the toothpick object was enough to pop the piece off. I was able to reassemble it by just pushing the engine panel back in the hole and everything looks normal. And then to dissassemble, I can just grab underneath the engine panel overhang and pull it up. So I'm thinking that's all you need to do to separate the two the first time too.
Finally, I pried the "engine glow" panel off by inserting the knife between it and the molded plastic. I started by attempting to cut it off, but found that prying it was much easier to do, and then made the next step easier too. I took a small hobby saw and cut the vertical edges, and then another fresh blade and sliced through the bottom of the molded plastic. When I got to the center where the post is, I did the same on the other side. I then used the saw to cut through the post. I also sawed the post off the top panel. A little bit of sandpaper later, and I have smooth edges ready to be filled.
I'm thinking I'm going to create a mold and create a hot glue diffuser to spread the glow the full distance. I'm toying around with that execution right now, but I'm thinking two lighter blue LEDs in the center, and 2 darker blue LEDs on the outside. My original idea was 4 dark blue LEDs, and a single white LED centered, but I then realized that I don't have any white LEDs in stock, so I'm going to at least try the multi-blue and see if I get the intended effect, or it it just blends all of them together.
Note - while PAM works great for creating a non stick surface for removal of hot glue - leaving the hot glue over night on a PAM surface doesn't work. But that's what trial runs are for anyways!
For those that are interested, the entire inside is hollow. It seems possible that with skillful use of a dremel, one could cut out the "glass" on the cockpit, or create holes for the headlights, and route the LED via the engine panel opening.
As for the remaining steps of the project, I have to still prove out the hot glue diffuser (well, I've proved it out with just 1 LED, it works great for spreading the light around), which I determined last night will require a proper mold (I attempted to just use the plastic that I cut off, but it really needs side supports as well). I'm thinking thin aluminum so I can cut it by hand and curve it at the back. From there, it's just grabbing the right batteries (right now I'm just using what I had around, which I don't think are the ideal batteries) resistors and a few solders for the electrical. I'm planning on putting contacts on the removed engine panel that will complete the circuit when it is put back in place, and interrupt the circuit when it's off, like those flashlights that you have to screw the rear to complete the circuit and turn the light on. I doubt at this voltage and amperage that there'll any arc concerns, but if there are, then I'll have to modify my thoughts.
I'm thinking I'm going to store the batteries on the left side of the model, so I have room to run wires up to the cockpit if I ever decide to go that route. I was concerned though that it might make the model seem unbalanced. Initial tests last night put my mind at ease as I couldn't even tell the batteries where in the model. For holding the panel back in place, I'm planning on using the same magnets I'm using on my B wings ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0065O63BK/ref=oh_details_o05_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
). I'll have to build up a column in each corner to bring the magnets to the right height, but i'm thinking 4 of them should be plenty to hold it together. Lastly, if there's any issue with light showing through, I'll have to attach some foam on the inner edges of the panel such that they're pushed up against the side of the model, blocking the light, but not showing through themselves.
I have some time tonight, so I'll probably mess around with the mold and proof of concept for the diffuser and keep ya'll apprised on the progress.
Part 2 - Installing the lighting
So this step isn't fully done, and won't be for a few more days as I needed to order the proper resistor. But for now it works and all I have to do is install the resistor to maximize the life of the LEDs, which is especially important since they're not replaceable. I apparently didn't take any pictures of the process of making the diffuser, so I apologize for that. It was messy and I guess I didn't bother to take any pictures.
I used some thin gauge Aluminum sheeting and tin snips to cut out the shape that I wanted the diffuser to be. I used the engine panel that I removed as a template for the curve, and attempted to get the correct thickness (more on this later). I cut out a top and bottom template, the curve of the engine, and the two sides, tacked them all together with some hot glue on the exterior. then taped it all up to seal the gaps, and then sprayed PAM inside to prevent the hot glue from sticking.
With the mold complete, I turned my attention to the LEDs. I decided there really wouldn't be space for 4 LEDs, so I dropped it down to 3, Blue, Light Blue, Blue. I soldered them together and made sure that I had enough of a lead on each so it wouldn't get covered completely by the glue. I then started pouring the hot glue into the mold, and when I thought that it was full, I inserted the LEDS in the arraignment I wanted, and let the thing cool a bit. Of course the PAM made the tape not sticky, so that fell off, and the hot glue remelted the previous glue that was holding the mold together - that was by design though. I took off the sides and the back, greased up my knife and cut off any excess from the rear. And then I proceeded to take the top of the mold off, just to realize that I did a poor job filling everything in. So I had to put some more hot glue in from the top to fill in some of the holes that existed. and then I put the top of the mold back on to make sure it dried flat. Unfortunately, I ended up putting too much glue in, and that would cause a headache trying to get it to fit into the Falcon.
After trimming the edges again and cutting off the excess by the wires, the diffuser would not fit in the Falcon because it was about 3/16 too thick. I tried slicing it down, which really wasn't working. So then I tried using a planar... that really didn't work either, the blade would get clogged with glue and then the entire thing just glided over the top. So then I tried sanding, which seemed to work, but was taking forever. Not a problem, I got out the power sander... but there really wasn't any way to hold the diffuser while sanding it. Finally, I wised up and sandwiched the diffuser between the top and bottom parts of the mold and clamped it all together. I then used my heat gun to remelt the glue. The clamps provided sufficient force to squeeze it down to the proper size (which I took more care in paying attention to while I did this). And once again, I used the knife to remove excess by the rear, and then after the glue solidified, I trimmed the excess off from the other sides.
Now it fits into the Falcon just fine. The batteries are wedged up to the left and while not secured to the Falcon, don't seem to be really moving. I'm using stiff wiring to help keep the wires where I want them (it was useful for putting the LEDs in the diffuser and for keeping the batteries where I want them.
I haven't finished reattaching the engine panel, so I have to hold it on, but here's what it looks like unlit.
And then lit with the flash on.
And with the flash off.
For those of you who care about the electronics, I'm using 2 CR2032 in series to provide 6V of power. The LEDs are standard 3.2V @ 20mA wired in parallel. Which means the resistor should be 50ohms. I'm still unsure about what I plan on doing as far as a switch goes. My initial thought is to run the current through the magnets that hold the top panel on to complete the circuit, but messing around with it last night, it seems to be fine for me to just push the wires together to turn it on/off. I'm thinking that's all I'm going to do for now, and if it gives me problems, I'll have to modify it.
When I place the panel on perfectly, there doesn't appear to be any light showing through the other edges, but if its off at all, then it does, so depending on how perfect I get the magnets lined up, I might have to add a small strip of foam/felt to block the light from shining through.
thanks a ton for this, i will be doing the exact same circuit setup except i will be using a really tiny switch underneath the magnetized hull to turn it on/off and some semi opaque plastic tubing to use as a light pipe. I like your idea of using 3 LEDs to get the range of color. i may have to think about my setup a little more to see if i can do something similar with a light pipe.