LEDs and Wiring

[xeno]

what is the best or cheapest material one can use to redirect light from a led? im planning and making a launch pad dio.

[FichtenFoo]

What do you mean by redirect? Like fiber optics?

[Major Blah]

simple acrylic plastic sanded smooth is pretty good as a wave guide.

Fiber optics works even better

[xeno]

thx for the info i'll go with acrylic plastic as i need a bigger surface

[xeno]

here is a quick drawing of the background
small vid of the  breadboard.
the green is for the name, the 3 white is for the word clear, the blue is for the word lounch, and the 5 red is for the background energizing

[Major Blah]

Hey the circuit's pretty cool, do you have the schematic??  

I so I gathered from your info that you'll cut strips of acrylic and use it as your light on the floor?  You might want to think about the distribution of the light along the material to achieve a uniform glow.

Canadian eh?

[Ryuhao]

I think he's trying to make the launch catapult, just like on one of the ships on the GS or GSD series.  So it will go on the sides rather on the floor. :)

[xeno]

Well what you see in the video is just a test to see if the circuit work. Once the launch pad is built the led is going on the side with the acrylic. The schematic here I use the 555 as I can get them cheaper,  also use a 3904 transistor to get more voltage for the white led and 4007 diode to keep the previous led on
yeah i'm Canadian, how u know?

Oh here is a link to a bunch of led related schematic

[mtomczek]

I searched the forum and couldnt find a clear answer for what I was looking for, so I figured I would ask.

I am looking to start adding LED's to some of my models and really have no idea where to start. I would like the power pack to be as compact as possible (so it would fit in 1/100 scale kits) and be powered by one or 2 watch batteries.

Anyone have a little tutorial, or willing to write one up quick?

Thanks a bunch!

Matt   :)

[Zoccoli]

Perhaps you could jury-rig something using the power packs from HY2M heads? I just got a set, and while the LED itself is probably too big for wide use, the power pack is really quite small. (It fits inside a 1/100 head, after all...) The power switches are magnetic as well, so you'd have some flexibility there. The 3 head sets are reasonably cheap, too; I found mine on ebay for about $16 shipped from HK. Anyway, just an idea!

Dalong.net's review: http://old.rfdh.com/dal67/hy2m/hyh01/hyh01.htm

[pu_rplecow]

I wrote some basic stuff about LEDs here but as for the placing them in the kit itself, i haven't been successful due to laziness really..   You can check out my half plan here.

Anyone wanting a stab at this article can try at its edit page

[zerobxu]

There's also some good information over on Starship Modeler on this page:
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/techmain.htm#howto
(just scroll down to "Lighting and Electronics")

[ROBeROB]

This link is pretty good too.

http://www.fichtenfoo.com/02GiantRobots/02c-leds.html

[zerobxu]

This link is pretty good too.

http://www.fichtenfoo.com/02GiantRobots/02c-leds.html

Thanks, ROBeROB--that's the one I was originally looking for, but couldn't find. And now, I'm off to see if I can find the back of my own hand with a map and a flashlight.  :oops:

[angel_ad]

I'm planning on replacing the eyes on my ABC War Robot with GOWs, I am told that they should have the same life expectancy as LEDs and produce the same amount of heat. Can anybody give me a second opinion on this?

Also will the small amount of heat produced affect the eyes-lids I superglue onto them made from modeling putty? 
Sorry if this last ones off-topic.

Thanks

[Zircor]

Hey guys, I'm having some trouble getting a couple of LEDs lit up the way I would like on the project I'm working on.  It's 2 LEDs, 1 5mm white, 1 3mm green.  I'm trying to get them in series, but I think I'm going to need some resistors, just not sure what to use.  Running off of a 3.3v watch battery (the kind that is needed for the 00 1/100 designer color led sets).  I can wire them up in parallel and they work fine, but to minimize wiring, since it's in such a restrictive area (the nuke zook from an SD GP02A) I'd like to have as little wires as possible.  Just a stupid question, when in series, it goes pos-neg-pos-neg for the polarity of the wirings, right?

[FichtenFoo]

correct. The problem is that when you wire them in series, the voltage required increases. So let's say you have 2 3v LEDs. In parallel they take 3 volts of power with a surplus of .3v for your 3.3v battery. In series though those two LEDs now use 6v power. 3v + 3v which is more than your batter is supplying. Series is great for say a 9v battery and 3 3v LEDs and no resistors, but probably not your best bet here.

[FichtenFoo]

Oh and to help: http://metku.net/index.html?sect=view&n=1&path=mods/ledcalc/index_eng