50x50=2500, 8 Light (pic heavy)

[slawton]

Well I cut off the top of the wall from the Main Mission to the Commander's office and glued it to the superstructure (which will eventually be glued to the light panels above the Commander's office). I also started brush painting instruction-recommended cream (which appears "pinker" in person). The paint doesn't stay mixed and has been giving me problems going on. I'm thinking of just masking and painting over with a light gray.

[slawton]

Shaka, when the walls rose??

The walls are going up! Here's the center span, Main Mission computer wall and Commander's office wall to corridor:

top_side.jpg (80.98 KiB) Viewed 707 times

Technically, there should be 2 small doors to the Commander's office, but I opted for just 1 larger one. I also added a portion of the door that could close the center span:

I wanted to get a couple of low angle shots before I closed it in with the other walls. Funny how the different grays look in different lighting. I did not have light gray for the walls, so I used a darker gray (seems to have some blue in it) and lightened it with a misting of white. I left the cream on the boxes on the stair edges of the commander's office. I also Sharpie'd silver on the top edges of the stairs.

[slawton]

The walls are closing in...

walls.jpg (82.21 KiB) Viewed 639 times

I made some progress while watching football. 3 more walls have gone up (the last must wait until the balcony floor is finished) with some non-plastic attachments. It feels like its becoming "borgified" as I am building it up for 3 stories and spread out to include light chambers. From the underneath view, you can see I added some reflective aluminum foil (from a bag of popcorn) to keep light internally reflected inside the chamber.

Under.jpg (103.18 KiB) Viewed 639 times

[slawton]

So I took someone's advice from years ago and bought LED Christmas lights (on sale after X-mas):

So, now I have 500 white LEDs and wire that could be used on larger kits in replaceable bulbs. In this project, I will need 4 white LEDs, so how to hook them up in a simple circuit?

Well, I'm going to go into a little description for those that are not familiar with LEDs. Here's a graph of voltage versus current for different LED types:

jwHV9.png (11.31 KiB) Viewed 203 times

It requires a certain amount of voltage (denoted forward voltage, which varies by color of LED) across an LED before current starts to flow. It is roughly treated as an on/off type of thing (where current doesn't flow less than that voltage & unlimited can flow once it reaches that voltage). Well that's an approximation. From the graph, you can see that the current ramps up, but the voltage also has to increase slightly to allow greater current. If the current is too high, the LED will burn out (hence the need for a current limiting resistor). If the voltage is hooked up in reverse, current will never flow.

ztlaW.png (12.06 KiB) Viewed 203 times

From this graph, you see that visible light is roughly proportional to current (so no current until forward voltage is met means LED is off, after voltage is met brightness increases as current increases). With that intro, lets talk about circuits -- here's a series circuit.

Simple-LED-Circuits-Circuit-2.jpg (18.97 KiB) Viewed 203 times

So, this circuit has 3 LEDs in series. In order for current to flow, the input voltage needs to exceed the combined forward voltages of all the LEDs (Vcc > 3 x Vf). To limit the current flow, the resistor value should be selected based on the excess voltage (Vcc - 3Vf) and the desired current (typically 10-20mA is considered safe). For example, using Vf = 2V, Vcc = 12V, I = 20mA, we can calculate R = 12 - (3 x 2) /.02 = 300 ohms (which might be replaced with a next HIGHER level resistor, say 330 ohms). A benefit to this type of circuit is low current (which equates to low power, Vcc x I = .24W, which half/.12W is dissipated in the resistor). Some drawbacks are that 1 component fails, the circuit doesn't work (all LEDs off). Also needs higher voltages to exceed the combined forward voltage of all LEDs in series.

Here's a parallel circuit:

Simple-LED-Circuits-Circuit-3.jpg (26.8 KiB) Viewed 203 times

In this case, the input voltage only needs to exceed the forward voltage (Vcc > Vf). However, the forward current needs to flow through all 3 LEDs, so the overall current is tripled. In this example calculation, we'll use Vf = 2V, Vcc = 5V & I =20mA. So resistor R = (5 - 2) / (3 x .02) = 50 ohms (or next HIGHER). Advantages are ability to use lower input voltages and if 1 LED goes out, the others should still light (however, they will draw more current and could burn out faster as a result). A disadvantage is greater power usage (in this case 5V x (3 x .02mA) = .3W with .18W dissipated in resistor, even with smaller input voltage).

So armed with that basic knowledge, the questions to answer are what to use for the input voltage source and which circuit to use? One could use batteries to drive it (portable/standalone, but will continually need to be replaced), regulated power supply (dependable & long life, but expensive, large & requires power outlet), wall outlet transformer (dependable, small & long life, but voltage varies with current & requires power outlet) or USB (dependable, small & long life, but limited voltage/current & requires power source). This choice affects the circuit design decision. For those that light their models, what do you use to power them & why (this is usually not addressed in lighted builds)?

[slawton]

I've started a DS9 station. I have the one without the fiber optics. Does anyone have the instructions for the one with lighting? If so, can you post picture(s)?

[mophius]

I've started a DS9 station. I have the one without the fiber optics. Does anyone have the instructions for the one with lighting? If so, can you post picture(s)?

It is on scalemates to download as a PDF

[JeepSwensonFan1980]

I have the fibre optic DS9 model and scanned the instructions years ago for someone on starship modeler.

[slawton]

I did as mophius suggested and found a .pdf file of the instructions on the Scalemates site. While they are not pristine, they will probably suffice for my needs. If I get a detailed question I might take you up on you scan.

With that being said, it looks like the fiber optic kit came with light bulbs instead of LEDs and uses fiber optics for all the lights (even though some of the windows are rectangular). There's also some blinking beacons which do not appear to come with the kit. It did point out some pylon windows which I did not notice.

BBC has been broadcasting DS9 episodes recently, so I've started on this kit in response as I'm watching the episodes. I haven't seen too many of these builds posted. I've been struggling a little with the alignment of the parts to get clean seams.

[JeepSwensonFan1980]

No worries.

Gives me a chance to find where I put the files.