Zvezda Star Destroyer-a WIP

Agreed, remote control is neat. I can just hear it now....get home, take off jacket, turn on the Star Destroyer with a key fob and it lights up, and it goes "CHIRP CHIRP!"

This morning I've been toying with the notion of putting an Arduino board inside the ship and a Raspberry PI in the base. That way I can not only vary the LED intensity, I could probably program a start up sequence for each of the seven engines. Just daydreaming... !
 
WarpeD said:
This morning I've been toying with the notion of putting an Arduino board inside the ship and a Raspberry PI in the base. That way I can not only vary the LED intensity, I could probably program a start up sequence for each of the seven engines. Just daydreaming... !
Click to expand...

I believe you probably can pull off your led sequencer project with an Adafruit trinket alone..(scaled down, bare bones Arduino compatible microprocessor)
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1501
https://learn.adafruit.com/category/trinket
And use RGB leds so you can change the light hues at will
 
Ota, it definitely looks like I wouldn't need the PI, which is just as well. I would probably use a powered USB hub to drive the beastie so that I could have a remote connection to my development PC and also to be sure to have enough amps for the LED's, of which I'd probably use no more than 15 or so, which should fit the electronics limits, I would think.

I've never done anything with an Arduino, much though many of my flight sim cockpit building brothers attest to their usefulness. The nifty thing is that it looks like the Arduino IDE uses C to program the bitty unit that I would mount inside the ZSD. I would need to feed five circuits total - the portholes, the vernier engines and then each of the main engines individually to manage a start up routine, and maybe even a failing engine if I get really creative. As it happens, the Adafruit trinket would handle the job - at least in terms of the number of separate LED circuits. This is looking pretty likely.

The hilarious thing is that it would be cheaper than Robiwon's remote! :) Well, at least until I start working up a mount that can conceal a micro USB connection. :(

No matter what, though, it's an inexpensive proposition, with a little bit of skull equity in addition to all the fun building stuff. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction. (Edit....might get a wee bit more expensive if I try to use my Nexus 7 as my remote control). More on this when I start my own build thread. Sorry for the OT, Robiwon!)
 
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The Arduino "Trinket" is $6.95. A minimalist approach would put that in the ZSD with a couple of cheap buttons in the base. I have scads of Radio Snack buttons from my cockpit building stash, but there are buttons available online for well under a buck. However, in truth, the project now have in mind would require a wireless USB extension as well, and those go for $17.49 at NewEgg. I would probably plug a powered hub into that as well, and that's another $10 or so for a USB 2.0 unit. All the software would be free, since I'd have to write it. But at the end of the day, this looks very doable, and it's still under $50.00 with a huge amount of potential capability and extendability, if I do this for other kits I have in the stash, like my FMMF. I think it's going to happen. Skill wins: Learning to program Arduino sketches and simple Android apps. I would definitely add the on/off "CHIRP" somewhere in the control chain! :ninja
 
WarpeD, running a LED sequencer program on the trinket shouldn't be too difficult, it is kind of it's bread & butter.
On the other hand adding wifi, sound samples capabilities and interfacing with an android device is a whole other ball game, and probably require a beefier Micropro. and experience... baby steps ;)

Personally I have had very little experience with the Arduino past the blink program (equivalent to "hello world"),
I played a bit with a temp sensor and a couple of RGB LEDs, so other than "Nudging" I won't be of any help, but will follow your future thread.

If you do a search on the forum there's quite a few threads on the board, mainly in the Props & Costumes sections to learn from where Arduinos & trinkets have been used.
Robiwon Thanks for the leeway on your thread
 
Agreed that I might need a bit stouter Arduino for the comms part. Not too worried about the code for the bitty unit, with a 20k line flight management system simulator under my belt, and there's a good tut online for Android/Arduino controlling via USB. The only WiFi part is the wireless extension for the USB hub, and any sound would come from the Nexus.

A more practical concern would be access to any internal electronics, and creating a solid light leak control design to accommodate.

Robiwon, are you making any plans to have access to your remote when the project is done?
 
WarpeD, I do have an idea for internal access. Stand by for more details on that though.

Ota, I'm not a fast builder anymore, so the OT comments keep the thtread fresh and alive.
I just want to see more build threads! There has to be hundreds of these in the states and Ive only seen a couple threads.
 
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I'm going to wait until I've got the beast in me grubby paws before starting the build thread. In the meantime, I also have the Revell snappie on the way to practice with.
 
After filling some holes and making a few mods, the Revell kit is actually not that bad. Ditch the electronics and fill in the landing gear.

26288pz.jpg

33tsci1.jpg

kn62t.jpg
 
Hey Robiwon what are you planning for the underside bay? After looking at a few images I settled down on a series of 1.0mm lights (FO of course!) down each side. Took a bit of thinking and planning since I didnt want to ruin it and wait a whole month for a replacement from Russia! LOL!

32513780631_ff18f44f24_z.jpg
20170131_181939 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

I still dont know if I would keep that section with an independent circuit or not. It would then have 3 circuits, one for the engines, one for the multiple little lights and one for the bay....
 
Robiwon said:
WarpeD, I do have an idea for internal access. Stand by for more details on that though.
Click to expand...

Roger that, Red Leader. Standing by.

Still bouncing around the electronics playground of the mind. Right now the plan is a good bit more pricey, with an Arduino Uno and a Bluetooth shield (add on card). Given the size and complexity of the project, I will want to be able to get at it after the beast is done. From your pix, it looks like the top of the "wedding cake" would be easy to convert to a removable cover with some magnets in the corners. The Nexus 7 remote control idea is gaining momentum, especially given that I've got some programming challenges to add sauce to the goose. The instructional sources I'm finding are very encouraging.

One reason to keep this train of thought going is that micropro's in models are a great way to add flexibility to a lighting installation. Naturally you don't do this sort of thing for every single build, but I can see this as a great solution to lighting an Enterprise kit - anything with a variety of flashy blinky things. Programming something using C, as opposed to using IC controllers, is the way to go. But that's just the computer geek in me - it's but one good solution.

Still, I can see the day in my mind when I'm sitting in my recliner, and as dusk settles over my living room, I pick up the Nexus and start commanding all of my models to turn on...one happy event at a time. :) (And if you knew me, the thought of having multiple completed, lit models is truly a delusion of grandeur!)

Thanks for the encouragement on the Revell Snap Destroyer, too, by the way. I'm torn between a semi-serious build up and some very serious and widely varying experimentation. What's that color you used on yours, by the way, Robiwon?
 
I've designed quite a few lighting modules over the last 5 years or so and have often thought about adding phone control, but 2 things always steer me away.

Firstly, the whole playing field is moving so fast, there is a danger of anything married to todays technology is going to be obsolete tomorrow. You build a great system and controlled by an app on your phone and seal it up inside a kit. A few years down the line, there's another step change in technology and you find you can't use the old app any more. And you can't remember how it all worked, or can't debug a new version because your only test platform is sealed up inside the kit.... A dedicated solution like the tx/rx Robiwon has for his lights gives you a much better chance of it all still working in 5/10 years time (as long as you haven't lost the tx!).

Secondly, battery power and battery life is a primary factor in anything I light - all that comms hardware is sucking up battery and doing nothing for 99.9% of the time.
But if you want to give it a go, the ESP8266 seems ideally suited to this!
 
On the Revell kit I did Duplicolor grey primer. I masked of some paneling and shot it with Duplicolor Universal White. I removed the masks and shot it again with the Universal White until the grey primer "shapes" had all but disappeared. I then gave it a sludge wash of a medium grey acrylic, Randy Cooper style (spritz model with water, slop on wash, wipe off). That was lastly followed by Dullcoat.

Before the wash.
24ew5rs.jpg

4jkqqv.jpg
 
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