Weekend update...
Took the plunge and redid the LEDs on the bussard boards.
First thing was to clipm off the kit LEDs leaving as much of the legs attached to the board as possible so I had something to solder the new LED legs to:
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IMG_4460 by trekriffic, on Flickr
Then I used my Helping Hands to hold the board in place while I positioned the new LEDs onto the old LED leg stubs using a second set of Helping Hands. Here's the first board after resoldering. Not that I had to run jumpers from a green flasher over to the blue flasher opposite it to get the blue flasher to fire. For some reason that port on the board went dark on me:
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IMG_4481 by trekriffic, on Flickr
Things went smoother with the second board:
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IMG_4488 by trekriffic, on Flickr
After installing the amber LEDs (which required 2V max) along with their 47 ohm resistors onto the always on posts and white , blue, pink, and green 3V LEDs onto the flasher posts I powered the board up and saw I had a problem... the always on LEDs lit up fine but the flashers did not. After a little trial and error I discovered that when I removed the amber LEDs the flashers started working. I had fallen victim to that rule about mixing LEDs with different forwarding voltages- current will always flow to the LED with the lower current draw and ignore the LED with higher current needs; in this case it was the amber LEDs that hogged the current. Once I swapped out the amber LEDs for 3V white ones and stuck with 3V on the flashers the problem went away and everything lit up:
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IMG_4469 by trekriffic, on Flickr
The resoldered board with the plastic tower part was a little thicker than before so I had to grind down the tabs inside the bussard housing that butt up against the bottom of the PC board so the assembly would sit lower enoguh in the housing to allow the clear (now translucent ) outer dome to fit properly:
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IMG_4534 by trekriffic, on Flickr
Here I installed the PC board and the light tower part into the bussard housing. I used reflective silver "stars" paper under the LEDS. The mirror button in the center is shown here but it was later removed (it didn't do anytihng to enhance light bounce as I had hoped) and I went with mirror shards instead like the original studio model:
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IMG_4483 by trekriffic, on Flickr
Lights on:
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IMG_4485 by trekriffic, on Flickr
The light effect with the spinner in place:
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IMG_4472 by trekriffic, on Flickr
And with the outer dome:
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IMG_4475 by trekriffic, on Flickr
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IMG_4478 by trekriffic, on Flickr
The effect with the flashers going is pretty awesome IIDSSM.
I'll post a video once I've got the motor attached so you guys can see it all lit up with the blades spinning.
