ST TOS indicator / display panel question

highorder1

New Member
YES! I realize this has been beaten to death. I've spent three weeks combing the interwebs going back to 2001 looking at it.

And yes, I know there is at least two authorities on this topic. I did reach out to one of them with no response, and the other... it's probably best not to ask him these questions.


My head is mush. Let the hive work!

1- All of the panels in the wedges in the original series set seem to be built in the same fashion, with the legends / artwork differing.
2- Does this mean that the same electromechanical / analog flashing system was employed for each panel / group of panels?


If that's so, it makes my project MUCH simpler.


3- (the big one) How many groups per panel?
What I mean is, for instance: is there one set of rapid blink, and two sets of gradual rise time groups flashing against each other?

I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but what I am asking is> if I were to design a universal flasher module, what would it need to output?

Lastly, and I guess this might be heresy, but there are tons of ST forums out there. Is there one main one where I might get more responses?

Thanks,

Shawn
 
I'm inclined to think you're overthinking it, but that IS what we do here. ;)
If anyone has analyzed TOS blink patterns, it would be feek61. Check out TOSGRAPHICS Forum, and if it isn't there, PM him, he might at least have an idea.
 
phase pistol - no, not the buttons, although I am spending time researching ice cube trays.... ;) I am asking about the 'light bright' style displays with graphics on them that would tell an operator what's going on.

Tredwell - Yes, I have spent some time on his site. He is very protective of his research, and has it all low-res, watermarked, copyrighted, and puts tells in his work so he can identify it in the wild. I'm not interested in getting in the middle of any original/derivative copyright, intellectual property, or other entanglements, and I don't want to have to put licensing agreement information in 2 inch letters on my proof-of-concept projects.

He definitely appears to be *the* source for that kind of research, no question.

I don't want the patterns to be millisecond accurate. I do want to see if I can build a few, and I don't like the typical model railroad or Christmas tree light patterns. I'm not a Trek geek, but an electronics one, and you can tell those lights are mechanically controlled in most cases. I want to emulate that. I built several of these for a person 5-6 years ago, and he wants some 'next level' displays.
 
Gosh, I didn't think I was THAT protective!! I only added the "tells" and watermarks after seeing my stuff sold on ebay by someone else; I'm not in the habit of giving my work away so that some a-hole on ebay can sell them for 25 bucks a pop.

Happy to help if I can.
 
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YES! I realize this has been beaten to death.
1- All of the panels in the wedges in the original series set seem to be built in the same fashion, with the legends / artwork differing.
2- Does this mean that the same electromechanical / analog flashing system was employed for each panel / group of panels?

If that's so, it makes my project MUCH simpler.

3- (the big one) How many groups per panel?
What I mean is, for instance: is there one set of rapid blink, and two sets of gradual rise time groups flashing against each other?

I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but what I am asking is> if I were to design a universal flasher module, what would it need to output?

Lastly, and I guess this might be heresy, but there are tons of ST forums out there. Is there one main one where I might get more responses?

Thanks,

Shawn

1. Yes, they were all built in the same fashion but with different graphics and with different lighting grids behind that matched the graphic but isolated the individual lights to a particular area of the graphic.

2. A majority of the displays had it's own electromechanical switch but several of them were grouped together in some of the lesser seen areas of the bridge. That is that 2 displays shared the same switch and therefore the lights although in different patterns did change at the same time. Transversely, some of the larger displays had two electromechanical switches controlling a single display.

3. There was no set pattern. Each display changed with a different pattern and at different rates. Some had just a few patterns with only 4 or 5 different timings but some had well over 30 different patterns and rates.

For the transporter computer displays that we built a while back; we used the Arduino boards which allows for millisecond accuracy. The problem with using Christmas tree lights is that the rate is way too fast. The sequences on TOS were relatively slow compared to a generic strand of blinking lights. The advantage of using the Ardurino board is once you figure the code out; it is a simple matter of changing the time and pattern output but the programming essentially stays the same for all of the displays. The below video shows the Ardurino controlled display:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvbhPCxhPrE
 
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Hey Will!

No disrespect intended.

I just knew you were serious when I was frame-by-framing a yorktown video clip and saw this:

tosgraphics-copyright_sm.jpg

I won't have any control how the end product will be utilized, and all unused and proof-of-concept stuff, screwups, etc, will all go to sale, so it just seemed more.... logical to streamline the process.

3. There was no set pattern. Each display changed with a different pattern and at different rates. Some had just a few patterns with only 4 or 5 different timings but some had well over 30 different patterns and rates

Crap. That wasn't what I wanted to hear. Besides the fact that most say no one panel really gets enough airtime, forcing me to piece several episodes together to solve just one display, it doesn't seem like I can build the solid state equivalent of like an 8 deck cam timer to use across all displays! :angry

The problem with using Christmas tree lights is that the rate is way too fast.

Agree completely. It LOOKS like Christmas tree blinkers, too. Why make a really good looking prop and then mosh the second of only two things it does?

The thing about the Arduino is cost. I'd like to keep these low cost.

Thanks for all the replies!

I guess I've got to make a trip to watch some episodes, pick a few iconic ones, and work on them. It's all probably for naught anyway, this guy wants to do refit, and I am betting I wind up doing some video clips piped into a monitor at the end, anyway...
 
"I don't want to have to put licensing agreement information in 2 inch letters on my proof-of-concept projects."

If that is what you are talking about in the above screen cap; those letters are actually 1/8" in height and was the idea of the Starship Ajax people as an assurance to me that my years of work that I gave to them for free would not be distributed around the net without proper credit being given.

I want the correct information out there; not your misleading conjecture.



Thank you
 
Well I will add: I used 555 and 556 timers all over the place...each part can be set up with different timing speed and with transistors power a number of light and many more LEDs.

With pots you can time how often they blink and how long the blink is on.

They are very cheap.

My 2 cents worth.

Rich
 
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