jRatz: Sci-Fi "Submersible" aka Fish

[MerlinJones]

OooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOooooooh!

[JohnRatzenberger]

Well, with some trepidation, I took a drill to my fish -- visions of a big pile of resin dust dancing in my head .....
Two goals, as discussed last post; make mounting holes in the side and mount/wire holes for an LED.

I started with the 3 mounting holes, low down where they may be partially hidden by a fin. I decided on 3 holes, diagonally placed, to hold the weight on this thing. I started hand drilling by simply twriling the drills, then switched to a low speed electric screwdriver. I'll worry about the mount later; I have a thought about something that might rotate so the fish can be level, rising, or diving .....




I drilled into the cockpit top for a place to mount the LED. Then I started the most worrisome hole -- angling up right along side the "cockpit" to meet up with the LED hole. All of this done by eyeball, I might add. Well, the two holes grazed but didn't intersect and next thing I know, the drill has popped out the other side. Oh well, something to repair ....




Anyway, I rooted around with a scriber, a hobby knife, and a few other things and opened up a cavity. Popping out the other side proved to be a blessing in disguise. Unfortunately because the wire hole came up under the LED hole, it means I have to work the wires backward around a corner to run them, but here they are.




BTW, I did test the yellow LED and two 1.5v batteries will power it. The yellow light isn't subdued, which is what I want, but I still think I'll try to get a white one instead.

So tomorrow I may pull the wires and work on getting the kink out of the hole. Then I'll re-run the wires, solder on the LED and get it mounted. Then, it's time to get on decorating the interior!!!

BTW, last time I talked about running the wires through the shrink wrap, but the more I thought about it, it was too hard -- so I went for the looooonngg drill. Now I think I can take another route and just glue the shrink wrap to either the head or body. A thought for another day ....

PS: Does anyone, other than Merlin, recognize the wires I ran ?

[smethwick]

you are putting some work in to this, it is looking good...love that "steampunk" look..

by the way, its my fault , i started early...

[JohnRatzenberger]

Possibly the dreaded Spin a Prop wires

Way too easy a question, I agree, but at least now I get to claim some part of an S-a-P in the project ...

[JohnRatzenberger]

Drat !!! A wasted day trying to get an LED working.

Start with two wires wrapped around LED prongs and touching battery -- Works.
Solder wires to LED prongs, retest -- works.
Put on heat shrink -- doesn't work.
Ruin LED trying to unsolder.

Start with two wires wrapped around another LED, etc -- works.
Solder wires to LED prongs, etc -- doesn't work.
Ruin LED trying to unsolder.

There went the only two small yellow LED's.

Off to Radio Shack for more LEDs. Retest batteries, wires, LED's without solder ... all work.

Think about what to do another day .... to include maybe a different size/color LED. I have a nice blue one, bigger than the yellow, that might shine nicely on the instrument panel ... spending far too much time on this ...

[MerlinJones]

One of the things that repeatedly puts me off electrifying my models with LED's, is the talk of resistors. and of matching the current, etc..

Note also that, for S-a-P's, I try and recommend using wires other than those supplied with the S-a-P's. I believe the wires supplied to be a major weak point.

By the way, what, exactly, is 'heat shrink' tubing?

Regards,
Bruce

[montessa315]

John, a stupid question, as you play with RC models, I presume you know the LED’s are polarized.
I have also found it useful to put a metal crocodile clip on the LED lead in-between the top and where you solder as a heat trap.


Bruce – heat shrink tubing, commonly used in electrics, is a nylon or polyolefin tubing, which when gently heated will shrink and contract. It will normally shrink to ½ its original diameter. Comes in different wall thicknesses and diameters and is flexible.



Just in the process of trying to learn electronics and as far as I’m aware this might help.

For most LED’s and 5 or 12 volt circuits you can use common resistor values.
3 to 5 volts 330 ohms
6 to 9 volts 560 ohms
12 to 15 volts 1K ohms

If you want a more accurate calculation, you need to know the forward voltage drop through the LED and the LED’s maximum current rating.

The calculation is:

R = (V – Vf)/If

R = value of resistor in ohms that you want to use.
V = supply voltage in volts
Vf = Forward voltage drop through the LED in volts
If = Forward current that you want to pass through the LED, best to go just below maximum, or lower if you don’t want it quite so bright.


So a circuit powered at 3VDC
Forward voltage drop of LED 1.2 volts
Wanted current of 25 mA

R = (3 – 1.2)/0.025

R = 72 ohms

Some of the 3mm high efficiency LED’s you can buy nowadays have an inbuilt series resistor, so can be directly connected to a 5 volt supply line.


Not to technical I hope.

Alan………..

[MerlinJones]

And that's why my starships don't light up!

Regards,
Bruce

[SJPONeill]

LEDs for numpties (like me)...this might be an idea...https://www.monstersinmotion.com/cart/s ... it-p-16844;

[JohnRatzenberger]

John, a stupid question, as you play with RC models, I presume you know the LED’s are polarized.
I have also found it useful to put a metal crocodile clip on the LED lead in-between the top and where you solder as a heat trap.

Bruce – heat shrink tubing, commonly used in electrics, is a nylon or polyolefin tubing, which when gently heated will shrink and contract. It will normally shrink to ½ its original diameter. Comes in different wall thicknesses and diameters and is flexible.

Alan………..

Alan, no problem -- long prong positive, short prong ground -- I think that in fact I may have crossed hands on the 2nd try. I also use clips as a heat sink but I was working close to the bulb and got a bit rough.

Bruce, heat shrink is used to cover bare wire; much cleaner, and for R/C use, lighter, than electric tape.

I took another day off from soldering, other things going on ....

[JohnRatzenberger]

An LED is installed and working !!!! I went with a 3mm yellow, seems tobe the effect I want. Time to start interior paint. Should have some pix tomorrow.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Pix, but not much other progress ....

Here's the LED in, lit, and with the head on .... looks like a proper glow ....








I never got to painting the interior, but I got a start ... here's the faces of the gauges, they are photo-etch. I sprayed them with Tamiya SG Black from the rattle-can, then when dry, I gently sanded the paint off the raised portions ....




Hopefully I'll get more into the cockpit tomorrow ....

[SJPONeill]

Those gauges look primo!! And from such a simple technique...

[MerlinJones]

Wow!

[PaulBradley]

Very cool, John! PE dials - what a good idea for these larger scales.