Girvan's 144 FMMF

Cool.

When I said 37...I meant the entire diorama, not just this one kit though...just so I'm clear.

There must be a way to wire the entire thing (the rogue squadron diorama) so that it runs off of one switch...I'm sure we'll (er... you'll) find a way. There most certainly is a will.
 
Just use a 12VDC plug in transformer, do the math to find out what resistor(s) you need for the entire circuit to provide 3.2V at the LED.

Easy Peasy

Just remember you want to wire them in Parallel and not in series. That way if one burns out, it doesn't take the whole circuit with it.
 
I guess that's the part that trips me. In my mind a 12 volt power supply will power 4 LEDs at 3.2V each...like 12/4=3....but that's not the case is it?

The Falcon will need about 12 LEDs for all the landing lights (I think more actually).

Then I need ambient lighting in the hangar, lights in the 1/35 X, lights in some of the equipment etc....

I'm sure all this can run off of 12VDC...just need to figure it out.
 
If you were running the lights in series, then yes, at best a 12VDC power supply would run 4 LEDs at best.

However, when running the LEDs in parallel with a 12VDC supply, you are actually putting 12VDC across each LED, which is why you end up needing at least one resistor in the circuit somewhere (assuming you are using all the same LED's) to bring the voltage across each LED to 3.2V (or whatever they require).

Would be the same for your X-wing Dio. One 12VDC PS would be more than enough to run what you need.

Basically if wired in series, you are starting with 12VDC, everytime a LED is introduced into the circuit, it is robbing 3.2V from the 12V, (and if one goes out, they all go out, because the circuit is broken).

A4series.jpg


In the circuit above, if we had a 9VDC PS (battery), and 3, 3.2V LEDs (lightbulbs), you are dropping 3V every time the voltage goes through one of the lights.

parallel.gif


In a parallel circuit if you have the same 9VDC PS and the same 3, 3.2V LEDs, you are actually providing 9VDC to each LED (which is where the resistor comes in, to reduce the voltage going to each LED to 3.2V)

Now instead of dropping voltage across each LED, you are dropping current, but there is no need to worry really about running out of current, as each LED requires very little current to operate, and a 12VDC PS will have loads of current, just looking at 2 I have close by, one has 1Amp, the other is 1.5Amps. Most 3.2V LEDs are about 20mA, which means if you had 1Amp on the PS, then theoretically you could run 50 LEDs before needing to step up the PS.

1 Amp = 1000 mA

1000mA / 20mA for each LED = 50 LEDs

So a 12VDC, 1.5Amp PS, would run you 75 LEDs

Clear as mud?? LOL
 
Cool. Yeah I get that better now. I was thinking in terms of series and didn't consider how parallel works.

So then, I will need a resistor on each LED then...and provided all the LEDs are the same I will need the same resistor on each...to allow it to run successfully with a 12V PS.

I need to go find some 3mm LEDs...hopefully some $store toys will have some.
 
I did try running the largest fiber optic strand I have (about 1-2mm) and seeing if that would cut it as landing lights. It does produce a spot on the ground, granted not a very bright one. On the other hand I think that a full throttle LED will be too much.
 
No 3mm LEDs anywhere in this one horse town.

I have lots of 5mm. Gonna try and shave them down.

As for resistors....I was thinking, rare I know, but if you throttle down the incoming 12V line to 3 and then serve 3 to all these in parallel, that will mean I don't need resistors on every LED...

TRUE?
 
Scott Girvan said:
I did try running the largest fiber optic strand I have (about 1-2mm) and seeing if that would cut it as landing lights. It does produce a spot on the ground, granted not a very bright one. On the other hand I think that a full throttle LED will be too much.

If you isolate each fiber strand, they will get more light and be brighter. What I mean by this is put the LED driving the fiber into a brass tube and then stick the fiber in the other end of that tube.

I would not put three LED's in series and then put each set in parallel. If one of those three LED's quit working the other two will quit as well.

You will need some 470 ohm resistors. Do an ebay search for that, they are very, very cheap. I wouldn't pay more than $4 us with shipping for 100 of them.

You might have to wait a bit to get them, but your system will be much better for it.
 
Gotcha on the brass tube idea.


I have 9 of these and tons of 909s I have no idea that these are.

3480.jpg
 
This is a 459.9 Ohm resistor, Scott. The last metallic line indicates the mistake in it's resistance. Can't detect the color clearly from the pic, but gold would mean +\- 5% and silver means +\-10%
 
Scott Girvan said:
Cool.

Did you ever make your own decals Solander?

Yeah, once, for my Venator-class Star Destroyer. Got to use 5 fool sheets of decaling paper to print all the aztec paneling, but that was worth it 100 percent.
But still for small markings I try to use decals from the kits which I buy for throwing into kitbashing, fabric decals are thicker, and when it comes to tiny pieces they are much easier to operate with without damaging.
 
Yeah, that is a 470ohm resistor, here is a good site to use if you don't want to figure it out:

http://www.csgnetwork.com/resistcolcalc.html

I used to know them by heart, as we had to in Electronics, first term, you had to know what the resistance of a given resistor was, and you only got 2 tries at the test. Fail the resistor test and you failed the course.

I have since forgotten most of it.

The last stripe, the gold one is the variance or tolerance of the resistor,

No line = +/-20%
Silver = +/-10%
Gold = +/-5%

With that resistor being 470ohms with a gold band, that means that it could be anywhere in the range of 446.5ohms to 493.5ohms. You want to try and use ones with the gold band, as too much tolerance one way or the other could give you too much, or too little voltage to your LED, either making them dim, or burning them out. Most LEDs can tolerate a little fluctuation, but once you get into the 10% or 20% tolerance, it could be too much for most components and you end up burning them out.

The proper way to do your parallel circuits would be to have a resistor for each LED, makes the voltage going to each LED "cleaner". If you were using all the same LED, you could get lazy and only use the one resistor in the circuit, as long as it was on the positive side of the power source before the first parallel junction to the first LED. This however can lead to the one resistor failing prematurely, as well all the power going through the one resistor could make that resistor hotter, as basically what a resistor does is bleed off voltage, and like a stove top element (which is basically just a big resistor) that bleed off of voltage is in the form of heat.

If you put a resistor on each LED, while they are each still getting 12VDC, the resistor is only working for it's individual LED and not for the whole circuit, thus it doesn't have to work as hard to do it's job.

Like putting a 4cyl engine in a big full size truck, it will work, and move the truck OK, but the big V8 doesn't have to work as hard to do the same job.
 
Understood. Thanks.

So I"ve started..at least. More on that after the pics.

First I marked the location of each light. This is not accurate, the 'real' light plan has more. But this will do...for me. Makes for a total of 14. Insane.
3481.jpg


Then I drilled holes.
3482.jpg


I'm thinking perhaps putting 3mm LEDs inside a tube. I can reduce the size of the spot on all those other than each side of the eascape pod locations.(3 and 9 o-clock area)
3483.jpg


3484.jpg


3485.jpg


Tried to solder the onces I prepped last night. PITA, not enough lead. Forget those.

I don't have any white 5mm or 3mm LEDs so I am going to eBay some. And return to building the 1/35X in the meantime.

Now the question is...since this will be a 12V project I should get a bunch of white 3mm and 5mm LEDs

AND

and bunch of 470 ohm resistors....

??

Once I know for sure I'll start searching. Might be a Canadian website too.

And thank you for your help. Scott, G, Sol, really appreciate it. This stuff stumps me a bit. Some one should open a scale model lighting consultation business...design custom solutions for modelers.
 
If you just get the plain old LED's, most of the sellers will include the resistors, and it will be cheaper than the pre wired. You can also find lots of 100 where you can pick 20 red, 20 while, 20 yellow, and 40 blue if you like. They will let you specify how many of each color.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1000-pcs-5mm-Red-Green-Blue-Yellow-White-LED-Lights-12V-/120553474416?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c118c0970#ht_5933wt_1115

This is just an example, but take a look at this seller, they have great prices.
 
Yeah, what Grendels said.
That's what I did.
Of course, I haven't had a chance to use them yet. :)
I bought them over a year ago.
They gave me 12v resistors. Not sure if that's what they are, but they asked me what power source I would most likely use.
 
Cool. I'll look into that.

So as long as I get 12V resistors I'll be good with a 12VDC wall wart.

True? I hope I got at least that much in my head out of this lesson.
 
Scott Girvan said:
Cool. I'll look into that.

So as long as I get 12V resistors I'll be good with a 12VDC wall wart.

True? I hope I got at least that much in my head out of this lesson.

12V resistors = 12V wall wort!

That is true!
 

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