Ok thanks. I understand and it looks like I may do the same thing then.
Regarding the landing lights... are you going to add white lights to the landing gear bays? I don't see that shown on any of landing light references but I've seen several people install them.
As soon as I make some actual progress I'd be glad to share some pictures. So far all I've done is research and I started marking the landing lights location on the bottom hull.
Right now I'm working on a lighting board that is similar to
https://github.com/fmalpartida/Falcon-Lights. Basically I've put a LiPoly charger controller on an Arduino and exposed 7 I/O pins (5 with mosfets so they can switch higher current loads). As soon as I ship the PCB off to OSHPark I'll get back to working on the kit (hopefully tonight).
I was working on a small board for the engine lights based on Adafruit's Neopixel Strip (
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1426) but for now I'm going to wait on this board and use a pair of LED backlights from Adafruit (
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1626). It won't be possible to get the same cool effects as using WS2812 LEDs but for the cost ($4) and the reduced power usage (40mA total) I think it's a good compromise - especially for the first model I've worked on in years.
Wow thanks for the tip! I spent a bit of time this morning and found a handful of 0402 LEDs that use 5mA - certainly a nice power savings. I didn't find any white/warm white LEDs that use lower than 5mA but I see there is a better selection of 0603 parts so I'll keep looking.
Are you using 0402's or 0603's? For the first time today I saw a 0201 LED and while I loved the size I'd be terrified to try and solder leads to something that small.
One thing I've noticed is that when I use SMD LEDs for projects I tend to use a much larger resistor than the resistor calculator says to use (so instead of a 100 Ohm I use 1k+) because they are just so bright. I never have gone back and looked at the current usage in those circumstances but I should be using well under 10mA (a quick check seems to imply closer to 5mA). These aren't really low current parts but just some ChipLEDs I got from Digikey (I mostly use these LEDs on the PCB as status indicators).
Regards,
Brad.