USS Enterprise (2009) (Revell) review and build

Well, exciting news everyone. Google 'PNT Decals' and look what comes up on the PNT site as the first result.

nudecal.jpgdecaltest2.jpgdecaltest3.jpgbussard.jpg

They are coming! Yay!
 
Hi,

not too much work on the Enterprise this week.

I've drilled a hole for the electronics plug and the stand on the bottom, opened the torpedo launcher and filed a long rectangular hole into the surface below the hangar bay. Into this hole I'll glue a piece of transparent styrene which hopefully will let some light come through to the top, which is thought to act as the small spotlights for the NCC-1701 stencil there. Don't see another way for this.
Ent_STID_Rev_build_048.JPGEnt_STID_Rev_build_049.JPG

I also installed two more spotlight-SMD LEDs on the sides of the secondary hull.
Ent_STID_Rev_build_050.JPG

I'll now work on the warp nacelles first as they also have some delicate spotlights down to the pylons... A quick dryfit of the bussard dome parts reveals another area of inaccuracy, as seen in this comparison shot:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_051.JPG

The right image is a contrast adjusted crop of the shot where the ship hovers over the atmosphere of Titan. It's also the only one known to me which shows the vertical lip in the "intake" below the dome, which is not really correctly shaped on the Revell kit. I hope that I find a way to replicate this closer to the real thing. I'm so tired of making major corrections everywhere in the moment... :sick

Thorsten
 
Today was shopping time again. I got a new 8-pin plug on which I will mount the ship on,
some IC connectors and most important: IC L7805 voltage regulators. They have an output
voltage of 5V, so I can run the electric motors with them directly. And it will allow me to use the
transistors of the strobe circuit without a resistor on the base (as Orbital Drydock pointed
out, they can handle only 5V there). But I may have to adjust the resistor values of the
circuit a bit therefore. I'll post an updated shematic when it's done.

Nice, 8-9 pin mic plugs are the best way to go!

Be careful with the 7805's, they are great voltage regulators, but can only output 1.5A max & might need a heatsink for anything above 300-400ma.

If you wind up going with a power supply, like a re-purposed computer supply, or small switching supply. You can use the 12v & 5v outputs & run separate 12v & 5v rails into the model & still use a common ground bus for all rails & trunk lines. Just make sure your power supply has enough amperage for each rail. I usually go 1.5x over what the model will draw (2A draw, 3.5A-4A supply output). When using power supplies, always put a fuse or breaker inline with the mains going into the model , keep the fuse/breaker rating close to the actual current draw. Since you're using a multi pin plug definitely go with a power supply, even if you use the 7805's. It will solve the Vdrop issue with the floods & strips, & save money on batteries.

Man, this build is looking great!
 
Thank you so much Orbital Drydock for all your input, especially about the electronics! They are really very helpful and I'd have made so many mistakes without you!

The amperage of the 7805's shouldn't be much of a problem, since they only need to feed the two ICs with their circuits and the motors. I measured one motor running at 5V which needed only 0.08-0.09 A, so it's far away from the max values even when supplying both motors at one time. For safety, don't know if it really makes sence, I plan to use two of the 7805s, one only for the blinker circuit, one only for the motors. There will also be a switch which optionally turns off the motors if only the lighting is needed, to save a bit on the motor's lifetimes.
(BTW, I'll use 5V and 9V, not 12V ;-) )

The plug I bought are probably not what you mean, they are DIN-plugs which are quite large but can handle a lot of weight very safely. I'll post a picture of them tomorrow, together with an update on the Bussard rotors which I just built.

Best regards,
Thorsten
 
Hi,

as promised here is a report on the Bussard collector rotors.
They are built up from 3 main layers of 0.5mm plastic sheet,
with another 0.5mm layer between to give them more depth.
Ent_STID_Rev_build_052.JPG
The fine details were improvised with small basic triangles
and rectangulas.
Ent_STID_Rev_build_053.JPG
Ent_STID_Rev_build_054.JPG
The whole assembly won't be seen too detailed through the
dome, so I didn't care too much about clean cuts.
Perhaps I'll glue the rotor to a disk of frosted clear plastic
to give it more strength and to diffuse the light from behind.

Here is the template sheet for the rotor parts, perhaps
someone finds them useful.

View attachment bussard_rotor_templates.pdf

The paper can be glued to styrene using a waterbased glue
stick, and after cutting, it can just be washed away with
water.

Next step is filing the intake to a more correct shape and
installing the servo motors.

Thorsten
 
Sorry, forgot to add a picture of the plug:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_055.JPG

And last but not least I got the PNT Models decals yesterday with the
accurate font (not the azteks, I'll paint those). They are very nice,
a lot more accurate than the kit decals which are a bad joke. Just as the
designer never looked at the real thing.

Thorsten
 
thanks for those bussard_rotor_templates they will help me out big time when the day comes for me to tackle this. awesome work as well, love reading through this build
 
Love your build. Following your mods as I go along.
I've not built with styrine before so had to stick to mocking up and printing out some replacement nacelle turbines in powerpoint.

Movie reference
8_zpse7c2326f.jpg Photo by mikersutton2 | Photobucket

Found autocad sketch
bladeelement_zps58da2349.png Photo by mikersutton2 | Photobucket

back layer:
nacellebackground_zps615e643d.jpg Photo by mikersutton2 | Photobucket

back fan
turbine5_zps0fe21f21.jpg Photo by mikersutton2 | Photobucket

front fan
turbine4_zps6dca584b.jpg Photo by mikersutton2 | Photobucket

assembled
20130809_093529_zps465b0a60.jpg Photo by mikersutton2 | Photobucket

feel free to use or adapt.
 
Awesome fan blades. Cool stuff. I think they are actually supposed to arch back, instead of being flat, but will still prob look cool.
 
Thanks for the hint! I'll give them a bit of a bent backwards, now that you said it... didn't see this on my own. Will be an easy mod.

Thorsten
 
Hello,

sorry for the lack of updates. There is not too much new to show, but today I got the strobe circuit soldered. And it works! There is just one strange thing with it, when I touch a contact it seems that the ICs are resetted and only one LED blinks. Anyone has an idea why?

Also I got the rest of the parts primed and ready for a layer of silver and white for light blocking. I hope to get a lot done the next weekend.

Cheers,
Thorsten
 
Hello,

sorry for the lack of updates. There is not too much new to show, but today I got the strobe circuit soldered. And it works! There is just one strange thing with it, when I touch a contact it seems that the ICs are resetted and only one LED blinks. Anyone has an idea why?

Also I got the rest of the parts primed and ready for a layer of silver and white for light blocking. I hope to get a lot done the next weekend.

Cheers,
Thorsten

Post the circuit & I'll take a look.
 
It's this one here, almost the same as the previous versions but with the 5V voltage regulator in between:

beacon_circuit.jpg

The resistor-LED-packs are of course not directly soldered into the circuit.

Not shown are:

555:
Pin 1 connected with GND
Pin 8 connected with 7805 VO (5V)

What's strange is that even a touch at the 7805's cooling plate makes only LED D4 blinking.

Thank you for helping!
 
It's this one here, almost the same as the previous versions but with the 5V voltage regulator in between:

View attachment 224357

The resistor-LED-packs are of course not directly soldered into the circuit.

Not shown are:

555:
Pin 1 connected with GND
Pin 8 connected with 7805 VO (5V)

What's strange is that even a touch at the 7805's cooling plate makes only LED D4 blinking.

Thank you for helping!

No prob.

Are there filtering caps on the 7805? There should be a 0.1uf at vO & Gnd, & a 0.33uf-0.100uf at vI & Gnd.

What is the current draw of each led array(Led D3 & D4) & where do the 4017's vCC(pin 16) & Gnd(pin 8) land?

Are you running on batteries, or DC power?
 
The filtering caps are not yet in, didn't have enough of them yesterday. But they are on the list.

The final current draw is not yet determined, but there will be either one or two white LEDs on each, so it would be about 20mA or 40mA each. From all what I read in the data sheet I think the transistors should be able to handle these without a problem!?

4017
pin 16 goes to 7805 VO (5V),
pin 8 is... disconnected. Ok this might be the error. Shame on me... I really shouldn't use these circuit diagram symbols with the basic pins hidden...

The test was done with battery power but I'll switch to a power supply when the components come together (to prevent the voltage drop which was discussed some time ago).

Thank you once again, OD!
 
Update: The ground connection of 4017's pin 8 solved the problem. Thank you so much, Orbital Drydock!

And with the soldering iron already being hot, I soldered two more SMD LEDs, finishing this chapter. Now I only have to assemble everything... ;-)

Thorsten
 
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