Moebius J2 Lighting Kit...expert help?

[LoraElise]

Hi...

For a few years I've had the Moebius lighting kit for the Jupiter 2 sitting here. Having not built the kit as yet, I hadn't opened the lighting kit box to test anything inside. I did a quick check tonight without unbinding any of the wiring, just enough to see if everything lights up. It does, but...

The problem is that my fusion core board traces in the wrong direction -- it should 'spin' clockwise as seen from underneath, looking up. This may seem a trivial thing but for me it's a very characteristic feature of the ship. My unit spins counter-clockwise instead, as do most of the others I saw in YouTube videos of other people's builds. It appears the earlier original issue of the lighting kit spun correctly. My fusion core board has a date of 2016 stamped on it.

Is there any way to reverse the spin with this unit? Is there an adjustment somewhere?

Also, judging from the writing on the AC adapter it seems this kit is a 5V system. What would I need to do to make it run off a 9V battery? I'd also like to add a few short Easy LED strips into it...what would that do to it if it were 9V? Or would they need to be wired and powered separately?

Thank you so much...

Lora

 

[teslabe]

Hi Lora, I don't have the lighting kit, but if they use a "micro-controller" there's not much you could do unless they provide a push-button/jumper pads on the board to control direction and speed, does the kit provide a way to very the speed, it may also control direction. Could you take hi-res shots of both side of the board?

 

[LoraElise]

Hi...thank you for the reply

Here are a couple of pics. There is a red momentary pushbutton at the end of a wire that is to be mounted in one of the kit's leg wells. Push once for on at slow speed, a second push for faster, a third for slower again and a fourth for off. I don't understand why the first release of the lighting kit traced in the proper direction but this later one doesn't.

Lora

 

[JCalhoun]

Yeah, photos of the board. Someone with some soldering skills might be able to reroute the traces leaving the micro controller to the LEDs — to reverse the order.

The other thought of course is to install it inverted if that is physically possible. Even if the LEDs have to be lengthened....

Some boards can handle 9V if they have a voyage regulator to take it down from 9V to 5V. A photo of the circuit board might reveal that. I would hate for you to try 9V and fry your board....

Otherwise, there are a few ways to drop from 9V to 5V. See: 9v to 5v Converter - 4 Simple circuits | SM Tech
A voltage divider would be the easiest — you just need two easily-sourced resistors.

Do you have specs on the Easy LED strips? Voltage, current draw?

 

[JCalhoun]

Looks like I posted at the same time as you....

That tiny black rectangle with the three legs on one side, one on the other, looks to me to be a voltage regulator. If I could see the part # I could confirm. That suggests (don't take my word for it!) that it might handle the 9V.

Also, looks like you might be able to mount inverted. The cable connectors and the transistors (three black things standing up in a row — with three legs each) do add some thickness unfortunately. But I reckon you could desolder the LED's and replace with longer-legged LED's on the connector-side of the board.

Yeah, a bit of an effort — would have to source similar LEDs with their longer legs intact, but do-able.

 

[LoraElise]

The Easy LED strips are 9V. I'm not sure about draw.

 

[teslabe]

A quick test to try would be to lift the leads on the two resistors next to the micro-controller as shown in the second photo and just add a temporary wire to each and put it in the opposite pad on the board and see if that cures the problem, if it does just get two new resistors, from the photo they look like 100 ohm 1/4 watt and relocate them to the top side and wire as shown in the first photo. Post a picture of your work before you apply power so I can check your work. I hope this makes sense and fixes the problem.

 

[Antsnest]

I concur with teslabe - that looks to be a simple solution.
I'm a bit concerned that there does not seem to be much in the way of decoupling in the original circuit - just one cap on the regulator and none on the microcontroller...

 

[COlson]

One other issue of note. I don't think you'll be able to run that on a 9v battery. 9v supply maybe, but a battery will get eaten up in no time flat. While a 9v puts out the voltage, it doesn't have the amps to last.

 

[teslabe]

I concur with teslabe - that looks to be a simple solution.
I'm a bit concerned that there does not seem to be much in the way of decoupling in the original circuit - just one cap on the regulator and none on the microcontroller...

Thank you Antsnest for the concurrence. I too was surprised by how spartan this board is especially for what they sell the lighting kit for, I mean how much would a second .01uF cap and a 100uF/10volt electrolytic cap for the regulator impact their profits.....

 

[teslabe]

Hi Lora, have you had a chance to try the mod???