Colonial Viper Mk1

[RangerNeil]

Things are a bit fraught at the moment with the wife having had to go in hospital to have major surgery yesterday as an after effect of bowel cancer and then 9 days R&R so I've not had much time for building. But I got the LED kit out tonight to have a look see whats involved. This is the contents of the kit:



There is a:
Circuit board
Ribbon cable - ??
Heat shrink
3 White LED's for the engines
1 Green LED for the cockpit
A difuser plate to go between the cockpit and the cockpit LED
An on/off switch
A battery (PP3) connector

The instructions say to leave the nose section of the Viper unattached so the battery can be mounted in the engine bay section. I am not happy about this though. The fit is not so tight and the Viper will look like its sagging in the middle. Also - the on/off switch being mounted on the Viper will look bl**y ugly!!

So - the plan at the moment (and subject to change at any time) is to get something like a 2.4 or 4.5 mm jack plug and socket along the lines of https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Male-Female- ... 3dee3d5e94, drill a small hole in the floor of the engine section and fit the jack to that, fitting the nose section permanently.

Then I have an option. I can build a box to look like the Galactica equivalent of a Trolley Acc. and either just mount the battery and switch in/on that.
Or I can put the circuit board in there too rather than putting it inside the engine section.

Right now I am inclining to the latter option as being neater and tidier..

Unless anyone has a different, better idea??

[digger303]

Things are a bit fraught at the moment with the wife having had to go in hospital to have major surgery yesterday as an after effect of bowel cancer and then 9 days R&R so I've not had much time for building. But I got the LED kit out tonight to have a look see whats involved. This is the contents of the kit:



There is a:
Circuit board
Ribbon cable - ??
Heat shrink
3 White LED's for the engines
1 Green LED for the cockpit
A difuser plate to go between the cockpit and the cockpit LED
An on/off switch
A battery (PP3) connector

The instructions say to leave the nose section of the Viper unattached so the battery can be mounted in the engine bay section. I am not happy about this though. The fit is not so tight and the Viper will look like its sagging in the middle. Also - the on/off switch being mounted on the Viper will look bl**y ugly!!

So - the plan at the moment (and subject to change at any time) is to get something like a 2.4 or 4.5 mm jack plug and socket along the lines of https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Male-Female- ... 3dee3d5e94, drill a small hole in the floor of the engine section and fit the jack to that, fitting the nose section permanently.

Then I have an option. I can build a box to look like the Galactica equivalent of a Trolley Acc. and either just mount the battery and switch in/on that.
Or I can put the circuit board in there too rather than putting it inside the engine section.

Right now I am inclining to the latter option as being neater and tidier..

Unless anyone has a different, better idea??

Could a small push button on off switch be used or a thought has just occurred to me and I don't know if it is practical. Bfrd would be the boy to give a good answer on this......How about a induction loop in the base ? No nasty wires or switches showing then.

[Stokesy44]

No help with the electronics I'm afraid. I've only just mastered fire!

Sorry to hear about the Mrs. I hope she is on the mend mate.

[Hawkmoon]

Get well soon to the Mrs and good luck with the electronocs

[RangerNeil]

Thanks for the good wishes for the missus folks - she will appreciate this. On the menf now - hopefully tomorrow they will remove the morphine and the oxygen feeds and start reducing her pain control. Canula and blood drain will be there for a few days more she thinks. Physios have said she ain't coming home until they are convinces she's got the hang of living with the bags now - anyone who knows my missus knows she is a total technophobe (took her 5 years to use the washing machine without reading the instruction manual first....) so I hope they are a patient bunch!

Could a small push button on off switch be used or a thought has just occurred to me and I don't know if it is practical. Bfrd would be the boy to give a good answer on this......How about a induction loop in the base ? No nasty wires or switches showing then.

The inductive loop sounds interesting - I've heard of them - the JPL in the USA were looking at them to extend the range of electric vehicles on motorways ( freeways). But that's the limit of my knowledge!
I am guessing a powered wire loop in the base unit and a matching loop in the Viper that relies on magnetic transference to move the power from on to the other???

[digger303]

Thanks for the good wishes for the missus folks - she will appreciate this. On the menf now - hopefully tomorrow they will remove the morphine and the oxygen feeds and start reducing her pain control. Canula and blood drain will be there for a few days more she thinks. Physios have said she ain't coming home until they are convinces she's got the hang of living with the bags now - anyone who knows my missus knows she is a total technophobe (took her 5 years to use the washing machine without reading the instruction manual first....) so I hope they are a patient bunch!

Could a small push button on off switch be used or a thought has just occurred to me and I don't know if it is practical. Bfrd would be the boy to give a good answer on this......How about a induction loop in the base ? No nasty wires or switches showing then.

The inductive loop sounds interesting - I've heard of them - the JPL in the USA were looking at them to extend the range of electric vehicles on motorways ( freeways). But that's the limit of my knowledge!
I am guessing a powered wire loop in the base unit and a matching loop in the Viper that relies on magnetic transference to move the power from on to the other???

not enough knowledge do I have.... But something like that. I remember a farmer getting free power by burying a loop under a power line ( so only one loop ) and running the line underground to his house. The power company for years couldn't work out how he was getting his power.
Phones and electric tooth brushes are being recharged in this manner. Not very efficient, but it works.

[RangerNeil]

not enough knowledge do I have.... But something like that. I remember a farmer getting free power by burying a loop under a power line ( so only one loop ) and running the line underground to his house. The power company for years couldn't work out how he was getting his power.
Phones and electric tooth brushes are being recharged in this manner. Not very efficient, but it works.

Likewise as regards knowledge - so I cheated - I emailed a firm called RS Components here in the UK, one of the biggest suppliers of electronics bits and parts asking if they had heard of this being done - and if so what I needed to do it!! Sneaky or what!!

[Bdiddy]

Looking forward to seeing it with the electronics Neil, wishing the missus a speedy recovery mate!

[BigWall]

It's looking great! I can't wait to see what you do with the lighting.

I hope Mrs. RangerNeil is feeling better!

[Stokesy44]

not enough knowledge do I have.... But something like that. I remember a farmer getting free power by burying a loop under a power line ( so only one loop ) and running the line underground to his house. The power company for years couldn't work out how he was getting his power.
Phones and electric tooth brushes are being recharged in this manner. Not very efficient, but it works.

Forgive me for saying so but that is SO Australian!

[bfrd]

Using a wireless circuit for the LEDs would be interesting, but I don't think it is feasible. The loops for the magnetic fields need to be quite large to work properly. There just isn't enough room in the base of the Viper. I think you are probably better off just using a simple battery pack. Great idea though!

PS. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your wife!

[RangerNeil]

Using a wireless circuit for the LEDs would be interesting, but I don't think it is feasible. The loops for the magnetic fields need to be quite large to work properly. There just isn't enough room in the base of the Viper. I think you are probably better off just using a simple battery pack. Great idea though!

PS. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your wife!

Thanks for the good wishes sir.

A shame the wireless power transmission won't be feasible. Would have been the answer to many a modellers prayer I suspect
I'm looking into the plug and socket idea at the moment (RS declined to advise unless I gave them a list of components -???) - stumbling clock right now is that the mounting hole for a 2.5 mm 2-pole jack is nigh on 10mm dia as they are intended for cars where available space is much less of an issue. However - the banana plug sockets on a Landrovers dash aren't much bigger than 5 or 6 mm - if it wasn't for the fact the actual plug is massive I might have used them.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Super work
Love the lighting and all the detail

[RangerNeil]

Right - thought I needed to do a bit tonight - this wiring isn't going to do itself (much as I wish it would!!)
First step then was to separate the red and the black from the ribbon cable supplied in the kit - anyone asking "why didn't they just give a length of red cable and a length of black" gets a gold star!
Fortunately all that was needed was to run a knife blade between the two cables very gently to cut the joining web without cutting the physical cable. Measuring the heat shrink tubing it seems one cut in half will cover both the joins and the legs of the LED giving me something to superglue to the supporting strut. That's as far as I go tonight - tomorrow when I feel a bit more awake I'll attempt to clean the ends of the wire off and make a soldered joint.
Which reminds me - I need a PP3 battery to test the system with!

[digger303]

Using a wireless circuit for the LEDs would be interesting, but I don't think it is feasible. The loops for the magnetic fields need to be quite large to work properly. There just isn't enough room in the base of the Viper. I think you are probably better off just using a simple battery pack. Great idea though!

PS. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your wife!

How large are you meaning ? My electric toothbrush only has a small foot print. It is in very close contact though when charging.

[bfrd]

This might work. This is one of the smaller loops that I have seen. 5V should give you enough power for a few LEDs. Cheap enough to "try-out".

[digger303]

This might work. This is one of the smaller loops that I have seen. 5V should give you enough power for a few LEDs. Cheap enough to "try-out".

[Stokesy44]

I understand like NONE of this!

[RangerNeil]

This might work. This is one of the smaller loops that I have seen. 5V should give you enough power for a few LEDs. Cheap enough to "try-out".

That looks interesting - where would one get them from??
Power supply for the lighting kit is a 9v battery - what used to called a PP3 (in the UK at least). There are only 4 LED's in the kit - 1 for the cockpit and 3 for the thrusters. There is also a circuit board about which I am totally ignorant - but I - think - has resistors on for some reason??

So - onwards - and sadly downwards - as my electronic knowledge is on a par with - or lower than - Diggers and Stokesy. Put simply - anything more complicated than hooking up det's to D10 and thence to a Shrike for a staggered bang is above my pay grade!
Having applied the mantra of RTFI in depth first I find myself more confused than enlightened.

Digging through YouTube for enlightenment only confused me further. VoodooFX's instructions state categorically that LED's are static sensitive, an earthing strap must be worn when handling them and they cannot be tested direct from a battery. And yet numerous videos of lighting installation kits show the builders not earthing themselves and hooking a battery direct to the LED loom??

Looking at the circuit on the board and the instructions is even less enlightening. This is a rough sketch of the board layout with the wiring paths in blue (CAD I can handle! ):



And this is the diagram in the instruction booklet:



My electrickery knowledge, such as it is says the power flows from the positive to the negative and that you usually put the I/O switch in the +ve side before it hits anything that works just in case that something shorts to earth and starts working unexpectedly
So - why in the name of any god you care to mention is there a 9v outlet?? I assume the +ve of the battery would go to the I/O switch and thence to the circuit board and the circuit board would route back to the battery -ve??

I think I can get away with routing the battery +ve to the RH terminal of the two marked "RSW" and the battery negative to the "GND" terminal on that side. This will feed 9v to the resistor array marked "PRO 4" and thence to the +ve LED terminals. The presence of an LED between the matching +ve and -ve terminals there completes the path back to the battery -ve thus completing the circuit and making the LED light up. Can anyone see anything wrong with that reasoning????

Whatever - it seems I will been to be mounting the circuit board and making all the soldered connections before I can test anything - although I wonder if I can get away with twisted connections for testing. After I find a way of earthing myself for the sake of the LED's....

I am thinking that, although the finished item will look rather good I might have bitten off a bit more than I can chew with the lighting.... Oh well - nothing for it now - it has to be done somehow.

[bfrd]

The image is a link.

[RangerNeil]

The image is a link.

Apologies - realised that after posting. Whats left of the brain is a bit distracted at the moment - missus had just rung - couple of things had gone pear shaped in hospital this evening and she was freaking....

Got the link open in another tab now. Interesting that in the comments section the one at the top raised the question of 5v vs. the normal 9v.

[BigWall]

This is well beyond my skill set. Good luck! It's a cool idea!

[RangerNeil]

This is well beyond my skill set. Good luck! It's a cool idea!

As much as I hate to say this - its well beyond mine as well.. But I (rashly) volunteered to do it so.....
The last component I was using as an "I'll do it when...." excuse for avoiding the lighting module arrived today - a new 9v battery. So...

Looking at the circuit diagram for the PCB - the resistor pack is already fitted to the board so that part of the instructions at least is redundant. For those who DO have knowledge of this arcane art - this is the circuit as per the instructions:



where T1, T2, T3 and C/PIT refer to the connections for feeds to the LED's. However I don't want to have the battery and switch inside the kit so I am thinking to move them outside the model I can modify the circuit like this:



So - viewed as an overall construction it looks like this- orginal on the left, proposal on the right:



The alternative proposal means to move the battery and switch outside the Viper I only have to route 2 wires somehow whereas the original would require a bundle of 4 wires to be run outside the kit.
If I can get it all working - then I can look at the inductive loop transfers Bfrd suggested before joining the nose and inlets to the main body

The coloured dots under the resistor packs refer to the wiring colours for the LED's - the kit gives you a length of ribbon cable that has to be cut into its individual strands. I wound up with:
Cockpit +ve Light Green
Cockpit -ve Dark Blue

Engine #1 +ve White
Engine #1 -ve Brown

Engine #2 +ve Grey
Engine #2 -ve Orange

Engine #2 +ve Yellow
Engine #2 -ve Purple

Battery +ve Red
Battery -ve Black

Apologies if this is a lot of waffle for nothing - but I find putting it down here helps clear my head of the fog of elecktrikery!!

[bfrd]

I picked up a couple of those couplers (see what I did there). They are technically chargers with some of the circuitry intended to limit current. I will play around with them and see what I see.

[bfrd]

Also, I would wire it a little differently.



Send the +9V where it is supposed to go, but through the I/O switch. Send the -9V to the ground as before. Then just short the switch with a small piece of wire. IMO that is a little cleaner.

[RangerNeil]

I picked up a couple of those couplers (see what I did there). They are technically chargers with some of the circuitry intended to limit current. I will play around with them and see what I see.

Cool - can you keep us posted please as to what you find out and how suitable they are for this job? As it stands the bottom of the fuselage is roughly 35mm above the surface the Viper sits on. I think if that is too far for these to work it would be easy enough for rig a kind of "drum" up under the fuselage to raise the base pad closer to the model.

And many thanks for the recommended mods to the circuit!! I See what you are getting at (amazingly for me!! ) And I will give it a whirl.
I had all the kit out to start soldering today - but suddenly felt ruddy awful - kept sneezing, headache and a griping stomach. so I just unplugged the iron and crashed out with the Lemsips. I'll have a go tomorrow now.
Priority is to get the cockpit LED wired up and tested. Which means the power circuit also has to be completed as the LED apparently cannot be powered direct from the 9v battery but has to go via the resistor pack on the circuit board. (Take a look on YouTube and there are a few Viper installations showing the installer doing just that - but maybe the kit LED's are a different type so I'll follow the book).
Once the cockpit LED is tested and in place I can close up the two halves of the front fuselage, work the joints to be acceptable and get a coat of paint on it. This is the real sticking point at the moment - the engine section is virtually complete but I cannot complete the front without the LED working and fixed in place.

[RangerNeil]

Anyone remember the old saying about the best laid plans of mice and men?

Got all the kit out and set up to start soldering after breakfast - and the phone rang. The hospital were discharging the wife 5 days early.....
So everything got put away again and I've spent the day retrieving the missus from the hospital and then making sure everything is as she needs it whilst she recovers from the surgery.
Hopefully tomorrow I can make a start....

[digger303]

Anyone remember the old saying about the best laid plans of mice and men?

Got all the kit out and set up to start soldering after breakfast - and the phone rang. The hospital were discharging the wife 5 days early.....
So everything got put away again and I've spent the day retrieving the missus from the hospital and then making sure everything is as she needs it whilst she recovers from the surgery.
Hopefully tomorrow I can make a start....

Bench time is only postponed and your missus must be doing well for the hospital to let her out so early.

[RangerNeil]

Manged to get some free - thus modelling - time today.... And its a RED letter day!!!
A few hours work with a soldering iron dredging up rust skills from over 40 years ago (last time I touched a soldering iron) and the lighting circuit was built inc. bfrd's suggested mod. Hooked up the battery, flicked the witch and got 9.6v across the +ve and -ve terminal on the circuit board. But nothing on the LED feeds...
Took no less than 30 minutes for the penny to drop and me to realise I had connected the Red +ve lead to a dead hole... Once that was rectified I was getting 9.6v across the LED + and - terminal holes.

I took a suggestion from YouTube on soldering the wires to the LED - a block of wood with the LED taped to it and then the connecting wire positioned and taped to the block leaving both hands free to solder the two wires together.



That worked surprisingly well. I used the same technique of taping the parts to the block to use a 1600v hair dryer to shrink the insulating tube in place. Needed a few passes over with the iron to finish the job off.



Once all the LED's were attached to the correct colour wires the 3 LED's were attached to circuit board leaving the cockpit LED loose and the wires a pushfit only. The cockpit LED was then roughly positioned and the two fuselage halves joined then the LED connected to the circuit board. It worked!



The green ring around the fuselage is where the coat of paint inside ended - so that has been extended down. Thinking right now of adding some kitchen foil to the fuselage sides beside the cockpit to enhance the light coming through the side panels. The cockpit LED VoodooFX supply is a green one and it lights up the centre displays well but less so on the sides.
Just need to finalise the position of that LED now and then the two fuselage halves can be joined and painted...
Progress again at last....

[Stokesy44]

Now that looks awesome!

[Parker]

so good.

[BigWall]

nice job. Congratulations!

[Bdiddy]

Great job Neil, cockpit looks brilliant

[Hawkmoon]

Top job there Sir now just remember to paint everything black inside the fuzz and then paint it again to stop any light bleed

[Donkeywalloper]

Wow, wow, wow
You are the absolute artist chap.
DW

[bfrd]

I am supposed to get my couplers in today or tomorrow. I do know that the two parts are going to have to be within about 5mm of each other to work (including styrene). The electromagnetic field is just not strong enough to work any further out than that.

[RangerNeil]

I am supposed to get my couplers in today or tomorrow. I do know that the two parts are going to have to be within about 5mm of each other to work (including styrene). The electromagnetic field is just not strong enough to work any further out than that.

Sounds good - the thickness of the lower hull is 1.4 mm approx so if I make up a pillar that, say, looks like a jack pad for lifting the Viper onto the carrier for the launch rails its going to need to be withing 3mm max of the base of the Viper. So if I make it 34 mm high approx I'll have a 1mm gap between the two faces if I make the top gace of the pillar the lower of the two pads.
This could work well if it goes OK under test your end. And be the answer to a lot of modellers issues in fitting lighting kits....
The only foreseeable issue at the moment is the voltage - IIRC these couplers were rated at 5v whilst the power supply for the LED's is a 9v battery...

[RangerNeil]

I got some play time today whilst the DN was attending to the missus and the thought occurred to me that, as it stood, the cockpit LED did a great job of illumination the centre display in front of the pilot but the sides were barely lit at all. And I was wondering whether to try painting the inside silver over the black. I tried it on a test piece and, in all honesty it did not look very reflective. Then I had a brain wave - why not nick some of the missus's cooking foil whilst she is too laid up to notice (I know - totally despicable... ), line the fuselage halves with that and see how it went. So I did....



Tested it - and it worked amazingly well!! Feeling quite pleased with myself right now.
With no light on:


With Light turned on:


Not a very good photo but you can see that the side panels are now nicely back-lit.
So now the front fuselage is joined together and just waiting to be rubbed down and seams removed.

[LWWales]

Loving this mate! That cockpit looks excellent!

[BigWall]

Nice! Brilliant idea!

[digger303]

Works well.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Loving that lighting coming together

Thanks for posting in the live show so they don’t cut us out

[Hawkmoon]

Flashingly good work there

[Stokesy44]

Can almost hear the cycle of the Dreydus!

Very nice work

[RangerNeil]

Thank you for all the kind words folks - they've been much appreciated as I have to admit this lighting kit gave me nightmares - and its not over yet!!

After a days on/off work the front fuselage is joined together and the seams done, then a coat of Tamiya fine surfacer primer applied. Interestingly the top seam passes the fingernail test for smoothness and yet as I think you can see in the photo below its visible through the primer.... I hope it disappears under the top coat.
Once that is on and the side panels picked out as required its then a case of rigging the 3 engine LEDs behind the appropriate engines and then joining all the modules together.
The plan is to leave the rear most engine section free to remove until I hear from Bfrd as to how those wireless couplers work then take it from there. The hull has a slot in it for the stand so as an interim measure I will run the battery leads out of there.

On the improvised painting area


Primer on and back on the work area

[Twokidsnosleep]

You will be fine with the lights
Just keep the strands organized, maybe labeled and make sure you don’t get a knot in them...















Or you’re F’d

[Bdiddy]

Coming along nicely Neil

[RangerNeil]

You will be fine with the lights
Just keep the strands organized, maybe labeled and make sure you don’t get a knot in them...

Or you’re F’d

I'm good there The only permanent connections left to make are:
The cockpit LED +ve and -ve to the circuit board
then - after routing the board +ve and -ve out through a suitable opening
The battery -ve to the board -ve
The battery +ve to the switch
The board +ve to the switch

Font fuselage got its final coat of light grey top coat today. Got a couple of panels that need filling in in steel and dark grey respectively on either side and the nose cone to be done and that's the painting all over bar the shouting.. And a bit of weathering....
(Everything is just dry-fitted in the photo - none of the modules are permanently attached to each other!!)



Annoyingly when I removed the masking tape from the canopy it had marked the clear faces - I am REALLY hoping this is just adhesive residue and not bleed-though.....

[Stokesy44]

Looking like a proper Viper now.

[RangerNeil]

Looking like a proper Viper now.

Getting there slowly - VERY slowly.....