Cave Scene - Tom tries to make a circuit

[thd9791]

So, I learned a little about basic soldering and some electronics and thought I’d try to work this out

Dave Ps diagram was what I used and I actually found out removing the casing of the snap switch helped. I kind of want to glue a plastic piece to the bottom of the board and use that to depress the switch!

anyway, look at this mess - any tips are greatly appreciated. I broke it trying to stuff it in the box and have to re do the circuit.. I still have extra LEDs and switches

I realized the bulbs had to be at a right angle to the switches and that changes where the solder joints go... sort of.

I swear it worked!!!’ Exactly like the scene... and then I broke it haha

 

[Hylo133]

So, I learned a little about basic soldering and some electronics and thought I’d try to work this out

Dave Ps diagram was what I used and I actually found out removing the casing of the snap switch helped. I kind of want to glue a plastic piece to the bottom of the board and use that to depress the switch!

anyway, look at this mess - any tips are greatly appreciated. I broke it trying to stuff it in the box and have to re do the circuit.. I still have extra LEDs and switches

I realized the bulbs had to be at a right angle to the switches and that changes where the solder joints go... sort of.

I swear it worked!!!’ Exactly like the scene... and then I broke it haha

Great start! Soldering at this scale drove me mad at more than one occassion!

This is the way I set up mine before adding more isolation etc.:

The key to making it fit was using two stacked LR44 sized 1.5V button cells, which gave way to a lot more space in the control box.

The other thing that really helped, was making sure each of the components, including the LED's had enough wire attached to them so they could move around flexibly when needed.

 

[thd9791]

This is so helpful thank you! Waiting on some more parts in the mail.. today I did this, maybe it will help organize everything (if theres room)

 

[thd9791]

So... i technically did it. And im already thinking of ways to make this better. Its a bit too big and doesnt fit in the box unfortunately

I basically did wire wrap.. with solder.. i dont know how to run leads with breadboard without wrapping the wire around the lead and soldering it all in the hole

I re configured Dave Ps map

Then I hand-filed all the components leads to snap into some new breadboards holes.. and basically ran wires or the leads themselves around the back of it. Unfortunately, the wire I got in this kit is like multiple strand wire and not the single strand.. dont know what thats called but I think I need that. I shorted out the circuit by playing with it, i think because the solder joints are so big the ones next to eachother touch

Ill take a pic of the back tomorrow.. but it was so cool seeing this work

 

[thd9791]

Here are some better pictures.

Definitely need tiny solid wire for starters. Another thing I noticed, and its why I cut a section of the board away, the arrows are right at the bottom of the box... so the thickness of the board will block the windows!

Also isnt there a way to pool solder and not use wires at all? Idk Im definietly going to get some more stuff from digikey and try this again

Addendum: that black strip is 1/4" Delrin to make my own buttons!

 

[v312]

Here are some better pictures.
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Definitely need tiny solid wire for starters. Another thing I noticed, and its why I cut a section of the board away, the arrows are right at the bottom of the box... so the thickness of the board will block the windows!
View attachment 1440047
Also isnt there a way to pool solder and not use wires at all? Idk Im definietly going to get some more stuff from digikey and try this again

Addendum: that black strip is 1/4" Delrin to make my own buttons!

You can make traces by connecting the dots with soldier but it's a hassle. Of course only works if they don't have to cross each other somewhere
Also maybe a piece of vero board will work better for the purpose (if there's enough space) - you can use the traces instead of those longer parallel wires

 

[thd9791]

You can make traces by connecting the dots with soldier but it's a hassle. Of course only works if they don't have to cross each other somewhere
Also maybe a piece of vero board will work better for the purpose (if there's enough space) - you can use the traces instead of those longer parallel wires

Thanks to this friend for helping me out, I'm finally sitting down to an older strip board, hoping to design this much better.

The last board didn't really fit in the box. I know..

 

[thd9791]

So folks I tried it again. I used a strip board with patterns on it and I loved figuring out where to place them.

For some reason my LEDs come on whether my switch is open or closed. Any ideas?

 

[thd9791]

My android takes terrible photos but I hope these help. The LEDs light up and flicker on their own sometimes so there must be some connections that touch or something but I cant find any! Maybe that strip that goes back to the battery is the problem

 

[karmajay]

It is always helpful to maybe draw your circuit to see if you have your wiring right. It is hard to really tell what is going on is this picture form. Here is a good micro switch video I found but the important picture is here: (oops attached). You on/off switch can be in that common line between the battery and device.

 

[Halliwax]

Tom I need that battery holder! Where on earth did you find that!! ??

 

[thd9791]

I'm gonna mock something up, one sec

and Danny, these are 2032 battery holders and they're all over digikey and cheaper websites. They are so cheap, I don't know if there is a real brand coming from China, because they are listed under a lot of brands. I have a bag if you'd like some! Some come with snap plugs on one end which would be great for storing props, I'm just not sure where to get the other end to solder to the board.

They all come with a toggle switch in them, but I really wanted to mimic what Luke was doing so I have two switches technically but it's easy to rule them out, when it comes to problems.

 

[thd9791]

I'm not great with illustrator, this is my girlfriend's software

This circuit does seem to work. In the specs, this switch seems to have the anchor under the hinge and it goes to the furthest pin when open. Snapped, it goes to the center one. Sometimes a tiny bit of power will go to the Green or Red LEDs with the slide-switch "open" so it weakly flickers on and off. When I close the slide-switch it lights up strongly, but both of them light up.....press the snap-switch, it goes straight to red FULLY and doesn't act up.

Now, on my strip board, the black lines are all one copper strip covered with solder (the long center one) so there are 2 negative legs from the LEDs and the black battery wire all soldered in holes on there.

The snap-switch takes 3 of those 3-hole strips, and the LEDs/switch are soldered to separate ones. Same goes for the slide-switch, although I didn't snip off the unused 3rd leg.

 

[Halliwax]

Doing a hell of a job tom, you should be proud of yourself tackling those projects

 

[E Williams]

That circuit diagram looks correct!

Sometimes a tiny bit of power will go to the Green or Red LEDs with the slide-switch "open" so it weakly flickers on and off. When I close the slide-switch it lights up strongly, but both of them light up

Do you have a multimeter with a continuity test to check both of the switches? You'd want to verify that the hinge-side and middle leads really do have no contact when open, and same for the two slide switch leads you're using. If a switch with plastic components is heated too much while being soldered it could end up a bit melted/damaged and malfunction. Based on your comment in this quote that's my immediate suspicion (barring any shorts between neighboring solder pads).

I was going to ask if the inside of your control box is insulated, but it looks like you did cover that with some blue film? If not the back side of your circuit could be shorting against the metal surface.

 

[Poikilotherm]

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I had something similar happened in before, they often before there is no toggle switch that there will be a light or red and green lights are lit up, and may even do not work, that time I from replacement parts including display board is repeated many times, I finally settled, because the internal space of the control box is very small, although insulation inside the control box, The display board caused a short circuit by squeezing the parts. Since then I have thrown away the hole-hole-board.
I subsequently made violent alterations to these boards, although I always wanted to achieve the same switch placement as the original lightsaber.I tried to reduce the thickness of the board and the thickness of the screw cap as much as possible. Finally, they worked normally without any abnormal conditions and the position of the toggle switch was as I expected!

 

[thd9791]

I don't have a multimeter actually, I should change that

Also, whoa! What alterations! I actually like the idea of shaving down the LED colored section.... AND slightly countersinking the holes possibly

I was able to get it to work without a board! The snap switch has to sit in the center in order to let the black/red battery wires run out the back. It's the post holding up the fake board, the box is exactly as wide as the switch + 1 battery wire, and the rear post deletes the space for the battery wire to run next to it. Can't run over it either, not enough space!

but it works now, I'll upload pics in a second. I also noticed I need a solid thing to brace the slide switch against. when I push it it just slides left and right because it's not attached to a board!

I REALLY want all this affixed to a board though, and I think I can do it...

 

[thd9791]

Here we go, this technically works

I wanted the room to rock the switch and room for the battery wires to run up and out of the rear slot

 

[Poikilotherm]

Here we go, this technically works

I wanted the room to rock the switch and room for the battery wires to run up and out of the rear slot
View attachment 1457588

Looking forward to seeing the results of your final design!

 

[DaveP]

How on earth did I miss this thread?? Awesome work Tom! It's a real challenge to get everything in that space and working! Looks like you've cracked it!