Original Tron Identity Disc - Need Help with slight problem

[Kris Lyssara]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

This is the type of project I love to see here on the RPF. Multiple people working together to cover each other's weak areas to produce something for the community.

Tx, you've not even been here two months, and you're already proving to be a valuable member of the community. It usually takes people a lot longer to find their footing here (I've been here a few years and I'm still not exactly valuable or useful).

I wish I could help you with the LED sourcing, but I don't personally know of any reputable sources online. I will, however, put in a call to my uncle, he works on a bunch of LED projects and might know of a good site; if he does, I'll pass it on to you.

 

[tim]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

Sounds good! If the discs are made out of aluminum, just make sure all the wired LEDs are well insulated so the leads don't short out on the metal.

As for LEDs in quantity, my usual go-to places are Mouser and Digi-Key as noted earlier.

 

[TxBabyHuey]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

This is the type of project I love to see here on the RPF. Multiple people working together to cover each other's weak areas to produce something for the community.

Tx, you've not even been here two months, and you're already proving to be a valuable member of the community. It usually takes people a lot longer to find their footing here (I've been here a few years and I'm still not exactly valuable or useful).

I wish I could help you with the LED sourcing, but I don't personally know of any reputable sources online. I will, however, put in a call to my uncle, he works on a bunch of LED projects and might know of a good site; if he does, I'll pass it on to you.

Thank you :$
Before I did the bits I did about 3 months of research on what would be the best route to go. I asked people what they would like and it worked well for me and the guy that was doing it with me.

I am anal about how I spend my money. I don't have a job, and I ain't rich, so when I spend my money I want to make sure I spend it well. When I spend OTHER people's money, I HAVE to make sure it is being spent well.

So when I do these, I want to make sure that people will be blown away by them and if I can't do that for a certain price then I have to back out.

There is some stuff here I REALLY want from you guys but I can't afford it right now, once I get a job I can save better.

But I always want to make sure that what I do is affordable.

I have pm'ed all the people on the tron forum as opposed to posting this just in case I get in trouble for doing it. And the same thing has happened, some people think I should do this or that, and some people just can't wait til they see the finished product, as do I.

4 of the 12 people really want me to use the EL tape, but I just can't afford it and it would make each disc about $400.

So the guy helping me with this is checking out my lighting options this week for what I want to make each disc cost.

Hopefully I get better at making more solid decisions in favor of the crew as opposed to a few. Because I DO want everyone to be happy with these.

So far not a single person out of the 42 that ordered the bits backed out because of the end product.

 

[YenChih Lin]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

Woah, EL was just a proposal!

 

[TxBabyHuey]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

Woah, EL was just a proposal!

Well it wasn't just you. There were some guys on the Tron forum that were apparently completely familiar with it before I was.

4 of the 12 people who said they were interested on the Tron forum said "Hey you should do it with EL sheets"

When I will be paying for most of this with just the money that people put down and my money that I put down.

I am thinking it will take two sheets per disc just to get one color, maybe 1 and a half if I am lucky. And that would just be for one color.

I would LOVE to get some EL sheets for this.

we were told by these guys that the molds will maybe hold up to 50 pulls. So maybe another way I can make some money back is to sell the blank discs to those that WANT to do EL sheets.

Hell I only plan on doing 20 of these which leaves 25+ blanks that can be used for the type of lighting that someone would want to do for themselves.

 

[tim]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

we were told by these guys that the molds will maybe hold up to 50 pulls. So maybe another way I can make some money back is to sell the blank discs to those that WANT to do EL sheets.

Hell I only plan on doing 20 of these which leaves 25+ blanks that can be used for the type of lighting that someone would want to do for themselves.

I think that's a great idea. I'll be a lot of folks would go for a DIY option.

 

[TxBabyHuey]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

So I went to RebelScums workshop today and OH MYLANTA!!! The largest Star Wars collection I have ever seen.

Rebelscum, thank you so much for letting me come by tonight, your collection will be in my dreams!!!

well we talked about some options for this project and basically there are two major options.

1. LED's
2. EL WIRE

So there are two major drawbacks from each.

1. LED's will be very bright but leave hotspots showing you that there are led's. But seeing as how thats what they did with the Tron Legacy Deluxe Disc. I don't see it as a major thing.

2. EL Wire, will give an EVEN lighting, but is not that bright.

So I also talked over my options after this with the guy that is helping me machine this, and he says we can do this in these ways, but try them this way.

As opposed to having the lights where I placed them in the image where they are in the cavity facing upwards.

What HE was proposing was to put the lights on the side of the disc, facing the EDGE of the acrylic ring so it lights the sides of it.


OR

doing the same thing with the EL wire where it is lined in the sides of the disc right next to the edge of the acrylic rings to light it from the sides.


So I am going there thursday or friday to the OTHER guys shop to try some lighting options.




And I guess at this point the guy won't mind me introducing him, he is reading this thread to get some ideas and to see what I am doing.

His name is Jason, and Jason is a BADA$$. He is the guy that wired the ACTUAL ECTO-1 that was restored for the Ghostbusters Video game.

And most of his bread and butter is from nutcases like us, he has wired one other ECTO-1 as well and is a genius with wiring techniques.

And as far as the disc, it will be molded by the same guy that molded our bits. I am going to do the disc as a mold, and go to RebelScum's shop to laser the rings out of acrylic.


This project is really coming together.

So from those lighting options, which is ya'lls opinion on which is better, lighting from the side with LED's, lighting from the bottom with led's, or lighting from the sides with EL wire. Hopefully we can find some EL wire that is bright enough.

Jason said he has enough of each lighting apparatuses to try one of each.

So I should know by this weekend which is the best way to go.


But then again I will also have the 25 blank discs so you guys can do your OWN lighting techniques.

 

[broklynite]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

Hia, I'm from the Tron forums and felt the need to speak up here. First off, TX is an awesome guy. Second, I am one of the people who suggested EL tape, but didn't think we could do it without jacking up the price to the point nobody would want it. I personally would prefer EL wire to LEDs because the even glow is what I would be looking for. On the other hand, if you're talking about close to a thousand LEDs, that would be pretty even, I would imagine.

I'm just not clear on the placement. There are deep vertical grooves in the shapes of concentric circles. Are you proposing to put shallow horizintal grooves at the bottoms of the circular grooves? And then into those would go the EL wire? That sounds difficult as hell but also awesome. I'm not up on modelling at all, but are you saying that they would be made from aluminum, or that they would be made from an aluminum mold?

I would hands down buy both a wired and an unwired version, no question. Is it sounding like ~$150 for wired and ~$60 for unwired? Heck, I might extras for gifts if that's the case.

Sorry, always terrible when your first post is just a non-stop babble of questions, but there you have it.

Edit: One thought, though I'd prefer not to do it. You could put pieces of frosted plastic in the grooves, which would allow the light to bounce around a bit more and would give a more even glow. Then you would have the brightness of LEDs with the evenness of the EL wire, and you would have a smooth surface to boot. Just a thought.

 

[tim]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

Edit: One thought, though I'd prefer not to do it. You could put pieces of frosted plastic in the grooves, which would allow the light to bounce around a bit more and would give a more even glow. Then you would have the brightness of LEDs with the evenness of the EL wire, and you would have a smooth surface to boot. Just a thought.

I mentioned that as an option earlier in the thread (great minds think alike ). That would even out the glow a bit, but you's still need pretty closely space LEDs. Some of the TRON Legacy ID disc mods used over 50 to get an even lighting effect.

 

[broklynite]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

I mentioned that as an option earlier in the thread (great minds think alike ). That would even out the glow a bit, but you's still need pretty closely space LEDs. Some of the TRON Legacy ID disc mods used over 50 to get an even lighting effect.

You are absolutely right, I completely missed that.

I like the idea of having one without the plastic on top as well tho- I think it would be pretty keep to be able to really feel the grooves, but maybe that's just silly.

 

[tim]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

You are absolutely right, I completely missed that.

I like the idea of having one without the plastic on top as well tho- I think it would be pretty keep to be able to really feel the grooves, but maybe that's just silly.

One could always backfill the grooves with translucent resin or epoxy--basically as potting to keep the LED strings in place.

 

[TxBabyHuey]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

One could always backfill the grooves with translucent resin or epoxy--basically as potting to keep the LED strings in place.

This is what I mean.

Having the lights in it's own groove inside each cavity facing the edge of the acrylic.

And here is another picture of the acrylic rings, a diagram more or less, but explaining what part of the ring it would be facing as opposed to being on the bottom of the cavity facing upwards.

 

[tim]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

^ Ah...now I see where you're going with this. I think that could be highly effective; it's just a matter of LED spacing and picking a good acrylic ring that disperses and diffuses the light. Ultimately you'll have to sit down and play with things a bit until you got an arrangement that worked well.

I had actually meant embedding the LEDs in a translucent epoxy or resin, but I like your idea better.

 

[Megatron]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

hmm I was thinking that might work since a lot of plastic seem to have a glow when lite from the ends..
cool

 

[TxBabyHuey]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

^ Ah...now I see where you're going with this. I think that could be highly effective; it's just a matter of LED spacing and picking a good acrylic ring that disperses and diffuses the light. Ultimately you'll have to sit down and play with things a bit until you got an arrangement that worked well.

I had actually meant embedding the LEDs in a translucent epoxy or resin, but I like your idea better.

We might even still try that, I am heading to Jason's house tomorrow or friday to try some of these ideas out.

With LE wire I can still do the red & blue we would just be putting the blue on one side and the red on the other.

I am hoping that we can still find a solution with the LED's because YES it will be cheaper for each person and be brighter. It seems that when using LE wire that it can only be seen if the lights are off, which me personally I don't like that.

 

[Megatron]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

could make a way for display? Like a power adapter socket

 

[TxBabyHuey]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

We will talk about that, the problem with that might be that LED's have a limited life.

I told myself that I wanted a budget of $500 for the lights. I thought each disc would have 50 lights total, and thanks to Rebel Scum, I just found a website where I can order 1000 lights for $210. I thought I was going to do a red/blue bicolor, but now I am going to do red and blue lights seperately.

Then as I was looking at this picture I did.

I figured I would see how much it would cost to do 100 lights in each disc, and through the website that RebelScum gave me 2000 lights, the blue led's will have a power of 5000, and the red will have a power of 5500, and it costs me $490.

Which is $10 shy of my budget.

One thing I have to figure out is if I do LE wires, how much that will cost me.

Because I have to get the battery pack, inverter for EACH DISC. The inverter itself will be $10 per disc. Which is $200 out of my budget of $500 just for the lights.

That does not include the LED wire, which I will have to figure out how many feet in EACH color wire will be used on each disc.

Oi VAY!!! Which is why I would much rather just do LED's and flood the damn thing that way.

AC adapter for Jason I am sure wouldn't be hard, but once again it's something where I have to order 20 of each.

I think by selling the blank discs, that will also allow me more money for the 20 that I plan on doing.

so once I meet with Jason we are going to see which option is the best to go with. But luckily those LE wire inverters are kind of small, just a small box plus a spot for two AA batteries.

THE MAIN PROBLEM WITH THE LE WIRE, IS THERE IS ONLY ABOUT 12,000 HOURS LIFESPAN.

THE LED'S HAVE OVER 100,000.

This might be trivial, but it could be important. I am hoping that doubling my LED's inside will have an effect on how good it looks.

 

[tim]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

We will talk about that, the problem with that might be that LED's have a limited life.

I wouldn't worry about that too much. If you limit the current to the LEDs (with resistors), they'll last so long that continuous operation external power shouldn't be a problem. For cost savings, you could just put a jack for external power on the bottom of the disc and have the user supply his/her own power supply (such as a wallwart).

thought I was going to do a red/blue bicolor, but now I am going to do red and blue lights seperately.

Cool...probably cheaper that way.

My one concern is that the each red LED is pretty far from the next (and each blue far from the next) in the outer ring, so you may get unwanted "bright spots" in the final product. I'd suggest spacing the LEDs more closely and keeping red and blue close to each other. If you do this, you can still use the second circuit diagram I provided. If you wire the red and blue LEDs further apart, you might need to opt for a separate resistor for each (as opposed to one resistor for each red/blue pair), which would drive up cost.

Either way, looking good and let me know if you need any other electronics design advice. My pencil is ready!

 

[TxBabyHuey]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

The website that Rebel scum gave me, the highest mcd that we found for blue led's was 5000, but I also have found some on ebay where they say they are 12,000 mcd, so I am still shopping and it seems if I do a bulk buy like that on ebay I get more for cheaper.

But I imagine if I buy 1000 in a bad, some will come broken or not working.

Does anyone have experience buying bulk on ebay from Hong Kong?

This guy says he has 10,000 mcd led's and 50 will cost me $2.
Lot 50 x 5mm Blue LED 10000 mcd + 50PCS Free Resistors - eBay (item 220661233060 end time Jan-25-11 09:00:28 PST)

Would any of you trust a guy like this?

RebelScum and I went to the website we found and saw that the highest mcd I could get from a manufacturer that rebelscum has used before was 5000 mcd.

So I am wondering if I should settle for 5000 mcd from a trusted seller, or 10,000 mcd from a guy in Hong Kong.

 

[TxBabyHuey]

Re: Ok Original Tron identity Disc?

And for this I have seen several types of lcds

StrawHat, Pirahnna, flat top, and a few others.

Which type do you guys suggest I use?