electric on bandai falcon
- Thread starter krade
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Dedalus5550
Sr Member
The easiest is the Bandai accessory kit that is tailor made for the MF. It's only available through Bandai and in Japan, as I understand it, but Turkey Volume Guessing Man or something like that is in Japan and has been getting these for people outside of Japan at very decent prices. He's on starshipmodeler dot com. If he doesn't have one listed, just contact him with a PM. You won't learn anything about electronics, but you won't mess it up, either. And word to the wise, these sets are usually much more than it would take to do it yourself if you know what you're doing, but for those who don't want to know what they're doing or who are afraid of knowing what they are doing, they have these sets. (Edit: I see the lighting set listed on amazon for the yikes price of $27 plus $15 for shipping. Now, if you go the do-it-yourself method, and don't have any of the supplies already, you would spend that much or more. The pay off would be when you light other projects and can spread the initial cost over several projects.)
Beyond that, you might be better off posting a general question about lighting so you get more responses, as far more modelers have lit SOMETHING than those who have lit a Bandai MF. And I think starshipmodeler has a section on lighting and other electronics. Wherever it is, there are great intros and how-tos about voltage, resistance, LEDs, and where to buy.
HTH,
MIke Todd
Beyond that, you might be better off posting a general question about lighting so you get more responses, as far more modelers have lit SOMETHING than those who have lit a Bandai MF. And I think starshipmodeler has a section on lighting and other electronics. Wherever it is, there are great intros and how-tos about voltage, resistance, LEDs, and where to buy.
HTH,
MIke Todd
I prefer the do-it-yourself method, but that's just always been me. Getting into lighting a model is a daunting task if you go this way. However, it is quite the learning experience and provides you with the knowledge and how to that can be useful in future projects. I'm starting to get the lighting part down myself by doing the basics and understanding as I go. It's certainly a learning process with many ups and downs, but when you get it right, it's a great feeling.
I found fiber optic cabling on ebay for relatively cheap, say $11 for 300 feet of .25mm fiber. You'll want something that small to light most of the Bandai Falcon. As for light sources (cause you need a way to light up those fibers!) I found that the cheapest way to go is getting some LEDs from www.superbrightleds.com. They ship quick and are very inexpensive. The problem here is that you need to get wiring yourself and find a way to mount the LEDs and power them. I'm going to use AA or C batteries for this and found that the small surface mount LEDs they offer are the best for this. The are literally $.75 or less each and are extremely bright. Blindingly bright, I should add. It's really amazing how much light they put out with a couple batteries. You could literally light the entire Bandai Falcon with one of them. I have yet to get into resistors but will be adding those in as well. I haven't found a resource for that yet, but I'll share whatever I find when I do. In the meantime, I wouldn't hesitate to do some research of your own on basic wiring as mentioned by Mike Todd in the previous post.
-Kris
I found fiber optic cabling on ebay for relatively cheap, say $11 for 300 feet of .25mm fiber. You'll want something that small to light most of the Bandai Falcon. As for light sources (cause you need a way to light up those fibers!) I found that the cheapest way to go is getting some LEDs from www.superbrightleds.com. They ship quick and are very inexpensive. The problem here is that you need to get wiring yourself and find a way to mount the LEDs and power them. I'm going to use AA or C batteries for this and found that the small surface mount LEDs they offer are the best for this. The are literally $.75 or less each and are extremely bright. Blindingly bright, I should add. It's really amazing how much light they put out with a couple batteries. You could literally light the entire Bandai Falcon with one of them. I have yet to get into resistors but will be adding those in as well. I haven't found a resource for that yet, but I'll share whatever I find when I do. In the meantime, I wouldn't hesitate to do some research of your own on basic wiring as mentioned by Mike Todd in the previous post.
-Kris
Dedalus5550
Sr Member
I just want to add that Kris's comments suggest you can connect LEDs directly to a power source. That may be possible, maybe with certain LEDs, and I haven't done the lighting thing in a few years, and I really just did some practice stuff and one real project (and I was an electronics tech in the military several years ago), but as far as I know, it's misleading to think you can buy just LEDs and connect willynilly (not to suggest Kris said willynilly). As far as I know, you need some added resistance. But maybe times have changed.
Richard Baker
Sr Member
The good thing is that the Falcon kit is designed for lighting- that is over half the battle. LEDs that come with the low budget battery powered Christmas Tree lights are about the right size- you just need some of them though. If you install phono mini jack socket in the bottom hull it could double as a display stand if you have the plug portion set into a brass tube. As mentioned upthread, SSM has a great lighting forum and there are plenty of people willing to offer advice. The important thing to remember is that raw LEDs just hooked up to power will burn out- you need a resistor in the circuit to prevent this. What kind of resistor is determined but what kind and how many LEDs you use- when you determine that ask on that SSM/Lighting forum for which to get.
This is why the community here is great. While I am hooking them up directly to a power source, it's only for testing purposes. I have yet to incorporate any resistors into the builds I'm doing, but will certainly do so once I finalize them. Any info I come up with when finishing up my lighting plan, I will certainly pass on.
Just to add to the discussion: I burnt out one led because I hooked it up directly to a 9V battery. It being a 3V LED lead to it's early death. The reason I can plug and play with the surface mount LEDs I have is that they require 2.9V and two AA or two C batteries provide 3V. I still need to add in a resistor so as not to burn out the LEDs over time.
-Kris
Just to add to the discussion: I burnt out one led because I hooked it up directly to a 9V battery. It being a 3V LED lead to it's early death. The reason I can plug and play with the surface mount LEDs I have is that they require 2.9V and two AA or two C batteries provide 3V. I still need to add in a resistor so as not to burn out the LEDs over time.
-Kris
Last edited:
Dedalus5550
Sr Member
Still, keep in mind there is a reason that batteries of different size deliver the same voltage. Consider that a car battery is huge and yet delivers "only" 12 volts, and that is not much more than a 9V battery. Ever put your tongue on a 9V battery? You wouldn't want to do that with a car battery. The difference is current, and current is what will light your life up if you short out a car battery. And that's why it may not be good to treat C batteries like AA.
xl97
Master Member
most accent leds will run at roughly 3-3.3v voltage..
REDS (usually) required less.. roughly 1.7-2.1v voltage..
most accent leds take (max) 20mA of current.. (10mA will probably be bright enough though)..
ALWAYS use a resistor.
Here is a resistor calculator you can use:
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
its always a good idea to keep the power source (battery pack) as close to the required voltage the leds need, as to not burn off the excess voltage as heat.
(or use a switching type voltage regulator perhaps)
this will give you simple leds on/off..
if you want to do more.. you will need a microcoltroller..
Arduinos are small, cheap and easy to work with..
adding other sensors/input can yield nice effects I would imagine. (proximity sensor.. to make some leds blink..etc.. trigger tones.. or even audio playback..etc)
REDS (usually) required less.. roughly 1.7-2.1v voltage..
most accent leds take (max) 20mA of current.. (10mA will probably be bright enough though)..
ALWAYS use a resistor.
Here is a resistor calculator you can use:
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
its always a good idea to keep the power source (battery pack) as close to the required voltage the leds need, as to not burn off the excess voltage as heat.
(or use a switching type voltage regulator perhaps)
this will give you simple leds on/off..
if you want to do more.. you will need a microcoltroller..
Arduinos are small, cheap and easy to work with..
adding other sensors/input can yield nice effects I would imagine. (proximity sensor.. to make some leds blink..etc.. trigger tones.. or even audio playback..etc)
Well, a car battery is designed to deliver a cranking voltage to start your vehicle. It's larger capacity just means that it can hold a charge for a considerably longer period of time. You could, if you wanted to, use a car battery to power your setup. Obviously you would need a resistor coming from a 12V or 9V source and going to a less than 3V LED. But for testing a fiber optic setup using a 2.9V 65mAh surface mount LED, two C batteries, or two AA batteries are not going to damage it for short periods of time. You're looking at ~.1V difference.
The main factor in using larger capacity batteries is just that, capacity. You do need to pay attention to V and add a resistor to compensate and not burn out your LED. But typically, the larger the capacity the battery, the longer it will last. Batteries, especially ones found in your phone are rated in mAh. A C battery will have ~6000mAh. So I'd have approximately 92 hours of continuous run time using the LED I have in my setup.
I'll say that burning out LEDs is always a good learning experience. Hands-on is how I like to do things, and if I don't know something (which there is a lot I don't know) doing some research or using the talent on this forum is the way to go.
-Kris
I use http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ledlights1.html you can get their LEDs prewired for 9v with resisters. Twist all your negs and pos. together, install a switch and battery connector and your good to go. You pay more for this than say, buying LEDs in bulk from China, but it saves a lot of time, resistor calculating, and not as much soldering.
Richard Baker
Sr Member
I use a variable power supply from Radio Shack for building- you can dial up any voltage and it auto adjusts the amps to what the circuit needs.
Just to back up what x197 said, ALWAYS use a resistor!
Just because stuff may appear to work without, you are more than likely a) damaging the LED even though it may not be obvious or b) getting lucky from some special case test circuitry (such as battery with high internal resistance) that will not be in play once you've assembled everything inside your model.
if you have ever connected up a LED without a resistor, NEVER use it in a model even if it appears to still work fine. Chuck it away. Its life may have been drastically shortened and the last thing you want is for it to die once it's sealed inside.
Just because stuff may appear to work without, you are more than likely a) damaging the LED even though it may not be obvious or b) getting lucky from some special case test circuitry (such as battery with high internal resistance) that will not be in play once you've assembled everything inside your model.
if you have ever connected up a LED without a resistor, NEVER use it in a model even if it appears to still work fine. Chuck it away. Its life may have been drastically shortened and the last thing you want is for it to die once it's sealed inside.
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