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 Rank: Beginner Level 2   Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2016 Posts: 10 Points: 30 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
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Hi all! I have no experience in model kit building so I'm likely to have little to contribute in the realm of painting and construction techniques. I have been a maker of sorts for most of my life with some expertise in computers and electronics and creating BattleBots, etc. So hopefully I have enough passionate geekiness to make this work! I'm only just beginning this project and have been learning quite a lot from the other builder's here, especially Colson. I'm navigating a path thru these splendid examples in a way that optimizes my skills and interests. I'll likely only post when I feel I have something of value to add to the existing knowledge base. So I'll start with a couple of ideas I've not seen here yet. But then I haven't looked at all the build diaries. I may eventually wind up building a display case, but rather than running wires out of the model to switches I plan to build control electronics into the model with just a power plug required and controlled via WiFi to make it portable. (Heftable at least!) I've chosen the Particle Photon controller and have been testing my additional lighting elements with it as I go. The Photon is trivial to setup and use, though I'll likely do some more sophisticated programming along the way, like more complex lighting control, random flashing, etc. (Imagine sounds from the movies sync'd with effects on the Falcon!) The end result we be controllable from phone, tablet or computer. I'm also using some surface mount (SMD) electronic components like LEDs and resistors for lighting because they are oh so tiny compared to the big old cylinder LEDs. Here's a photo of one I used for the cockpit front instrumental panel:  This is an SMD LED and resistor glued back-to-back and soldered together and to wire-wrap wire that's not much thicker than the optical fibers. The whole package fits in the hole cut into the panel behind the monitor. Making these tiny lights is not easy; I use my electronics microscope and it took a couple of tries to get the process right. One actual fabrication tip I do have to offer, which you see here, is the use of Bondic. It's a clear plastic 'welding' process that sets instantly with a UV LED. I used it to fix the optical fibers in place as well as the monitor LED. WAY more forgiving than CA and WAY more convenient and quicker to set than putty. VERY cool stuff! Enough for now. Happy building to all!
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 Rank: Super-Elite       Groups: Registered
Joined: 31/05/2010 Posts: 5,679 Points: 17,011 Location: Wiltshire
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Scott Hope you enjoy your build. Sounds like its going to be an interesting one with your take on the electronics fitment - looking forward to seeing what you manage to do with this - sounds very interesting. Happy Modelling
BUILDING: Hachette Spitfire Mk 1A, Constructo Mayflower
SUBSCRIPTION COMPLETE (Awaiting building): USS Constitution, Sovereign of the Seas, 1:200 Bismarck (Hachette)
COMPLETED: Porsche 911, E-Type Jaguar, Lam Countach
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 Rank: Pro Groups: Registered
Joined: 04/07/2015 Posts: 99 Points: 309 Location: north wales
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wow....that's some painstaking work....looks like this is going to be one to watch....good luck on the journey !!!
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Rank: Beginner Level 2 Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2016 Posts: 10 Points: 30 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
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This is how I connected the fiber optic filaments to the SMD LEDs, fused with Bondic which hardens crystal clear and seems to transmit light rather well. I separated the filaments by color (red/green/blue/yellow) each with its own LED for independent processor control. 
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Rank: Beginner Level 2 Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2016 Posts: 10 Points: 30 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
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Nothing overly original here, but I thought I'd demonstrate my temporary hack to extend and retract the ramp. On the breadboard you can see the Particle Photon controller I'm still experimenting with. It's about the size of a rectangular postage stamp. So far so good! The larger board is an Ardumoto motor controller board I happen to have lying around. The final version will use a smaller breadboard about the size of the chip itself. I may also just interface with DeAgo's controller board, but I have no idea yet what that looks like or what all of its functions are.  Video of the ramp going up and down: here. For now I have the ramp lights going on when the ramp is extended.
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 Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 05/03/2015 Posts: 561 Points: 1,713 Location: South Carolina
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Looking great there my friend. Will be watching! You got any shots of the illuminated cockpit fibers?
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Rank: Beginner Level 2 Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2016 Posts: 10 Points: 30 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
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LrdSatyr8 wrote:Looking great there my friend. Will be watching! You got any shots of the illuminated cockpit fibers? I'll see what I can do. (FYI: It should be very similar to Colson's shots.)
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Rank: Beginner Level 2 Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2016 Posts: 10 Points: 30 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
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Another technology update: I recently discovered 'neopixels' (LEDs), from Adafruit, and have decided to go with them for lighting. (See HERE.) Pros: 1) Ultra high brightness, but controllable. It looks like just two neopixels will light up the corridor ramp slits and I'm thinking I can get by with just one for each bank of 3 or 4 corridor sconce lights! 2) Requires only ONE controller pin for as many neopixels as you want to put on a string. 3) Neopixels can be individually addressed and set with 24-bit color (8 bits each of RGB to control brightness). 4) Separate power supply to LEDs, so not limited to voltage of controller chip. 3 lines of power, ground and data chain from one neopixel to the next. 5) Available as individual neopixels to put where you want. (Not just the stick and matrix products.) Cons: 1) You need a controller chip (like the Particle Photon I'm currently using) to talk to the neopixels. 2) You should solder a capacitor onto each neopixel. But they need no resistors, so that's pretty much a draw. And the near infinite flexibility to control brightness and color more than makes up for that. Here's an image of just two neopixels (of an 8-pixel strip) lighting up a corridor ramp.  The ramp is from TonyRR of Shapeways. It's a translucent plastic, so I put aluminum foil tape on the bottom of the ramp plate to keep light from glowing thru it, and on the tube underneath the plate to help focus the light. There's still some light leakage at the plate's uncovered screw posts, so I'll need to fix that. The two neopixels are only at half brightness and the stick is just shoved into the gap and not positioned optimally. But I think the result is very nice for just two LEDs! I'll be looking into how well these do in place of the SMD LEDs I was using for fiber optic lighting. But I'm sure it will be fabulous, especially as bright as these are. And the flexibility with color makes me wish I'd used clear fiber and not the colored fiber. But if you cut both ends it becomes clear. And the light may just overpower the tinting anyway! We'll see.
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Rank: Beginner Level 2 Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2016 Posts: 10 Points: 30 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
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Just completed work on a mandible front headlight mod. A 3D-printed plate holds the Neopixel in place on the small hull plate as well as a couple of magnets for securing the plate to the metal side frame. (The frame is not magnetic, but the screws are!)  A short piece of 5 mm solid core side glow plastic rod conducts light through the side hull plating.  Neopixel color and brightness are controlled by cell phone via Bluetooth to an Adafruit Feather controller. This short term test interface will eventually be replaced by a custom app interface, of course.  More pics and videos on my website gallery.
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 Rank: Amateur level 2 Groups: Registered
Joined: 29/09/2015 Posts: 41 Points: 123 Location: USA
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You've got a great start there so far. Love those walkway floor lights!
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Rank: Super-Elite  Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2014 Posts: 5,060 Points: 14,980
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Really nice job Scott.
I looked at arduino myself a while ago but just couldn't get my head around
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Looks excellent Scott, I too was looking at the arduino, still in two minds at the moment. Great build, and you are doing an excellent job. Mark
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Rank: Beginner Level 2 Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2016 Posts: 10 Points: 30 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
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More lighting work, substituting Neopixels for both the surface mount LEDs I had illuminating the fiber optics and the kit-supplied bulkhead lighting. I prefer the Neopixels because they can be super bright when needed, but I can also easily dim them down or even change colors when desired. For lighting fiber optics color control is especially valuable since I discovered that cutting an end of a colored fiber dilutes the color and cutting both ends removes it. Cockpit lighting with 4 Neopixels illuminating the bulkhead from the rear and 4 focusing light into fiber optics to the instrument panels. For mounting the Neopixels I 3D-printed a plastic panel that replaces the kit-supplied LED circuit board:  View of the lit cockpit rear bulkhead and forward instrument panels:  View of the forward instrument panels lit with fiber optics and the central monitor lit with an embedded LED. 
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Rank: Pro Groups: Joined: 24/08/2009 Posts: 48,827 Points: -13,348
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Very cool work your doing there 
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Looking excellent Scott. 
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Rank: Super-Elite Groups: Registered
Joined: 17/12/2013 Posts: 3,982 Points: 11,974 Location: NY, USA
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Great work Scot.really good fiber optic lighting information
Carl
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Rank: Pro  Groups: Registered
Joined: 13/05/2016 Posts: 130 Points: 386 Location: Murrieta, CA (USA)
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Fergazoid wrote:More lighting work, substituting Neopixels for both the surface mount LEDs I had illuminating the fiber optics and the kit-supplied bulkhead lighting. I prefer the Neopixels because they can be super bright when needed, but I can also easily dim them down or even change colors when desired. For lighting fiber optics color control is especially valuable since I discovered that cutting an end of a colored fiber dilutes the color and cutting both ends removes it. Cockpit lighting with 4 Neopixels illuminating the bulkhead from the rear and 4 focusing light into fiber optics to the instrument panels. For mounting the Neopixels I 3D-printed a plastic panel that replaces the kit-supplied LED circuit board: View of the lit cockpit rear bulkhead and forward instrument panels: View of the forward instrument panels lit with fiber optics and the central monitor lit with an embedded LED. I found that taking a sharpie pen of the same color as the fiber you can add color back by coloring both ends of the fiber. So I have Red, Blue, Green and Yellow sharpie pens that I use for this. Make things as simple as possible but not simpler... - Albert Einstein
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Rank: Beginner Level 2 Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2016 Posts: 10 Points: 30 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
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Bill-Devine wrote:I found that taking a sharpie pen of the same color as the fiber you can add color back by coloring both ends of the fiber. So I have Red, Blue, Green and Yellow sharpie pens that I use for this.
Indeed! I've also restored the fiber colors with the same Tamiya clear paints that I used to reinforce the colors on the bulkhead instrument panel. But with the chance to do it all over again I'd use all clear fibers and control colors completely with the Neopixels. (Though I've found that the LED color can override the fiber color, without TOO much added brightness.) That level of flexibility may not be very important; but why not, eh?! I'm a control freak!
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