Shadow Bussards and running lights for 18" TOS E

[RossW]

I added a construction tutorial for the bussards here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1w1n-JKdxg&t=11s

Excellent!

[Tshark]

Here is the wiring for my Shadow Bussards and pylon windows.  I wanted all three windows in the pylon lit, but LED's or fiber optics for each was going to be over-complicated.  I created a light tunnel in pylon with bare metal foil and regular tin foil wrapped around a coffee stir straw. The straw not only serves as a wall for the light tunnel it also provides a conduit for my wiring.  I placed a SMD LED at the top of the tunnel for all three windows.  I decided to use pieces of plastic tree to function as stops for the Neopixel coils rather than earthquake putty to facilitate replacement if ever necessary.  I also re-enforced the upper nacelle half with 1/16 sq brass bar to prevent nacelle droop.

[MurphyPeoples]

Enjoyed the video. I'm starting to just now get my feet wet with Arduino. My goal is to have an Uno operate 3 servos doing separate functions, and 3 sets of lights doing independent off and on. Fingers crossed.
Murphy

[Markeno]

This looks great, thanks for posting so much helpful information with it.  I will certainly keep this in mind for when I work on that model which I have sitting on the top of my shelf here.  While I am looking forward to doing it, I have no less than 3 models ahead, and I am very slow at doing them.

[Tshark]

Here is the final in-model wiring for my TOS Enterprise. I am using magnet wire to limit light obstruction (Trekworks tip). In the secondary hull I used a drinking straw wrapped in foil as a conduit for wiring to keep it away from light source and windows. The connections are soldered and the red globs are liquid electrical tape to insulate and provide strain relief. Coming out of the model are four magnet wires to power a total of 58 LEDs (38 LEDs for Shadow bussards, 3 Nav, the rest window). I have run this 5VDC system for several hours with no problems.

[Tshark]

Here is a YouTube video of the Shadow Bussards in the finished model.  Also included is a brief description of the basic components used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbNkfDAjDuQ

Below is a Fritzing of my final wiring.

Hope you enjoy this.

[jdonigan]

I can't decide if I should mount my Metro Mini horizontally in the engineering hull or vertically into the dorsal. I've been working on modifying TShark's code to get different light patterns from the rolled NeoPixel strips, but I don't have the ParaGrafix engine fans yet to check them out. I'm not planning on lighting any windows. If I mount vertically, I can plug directly into the USB at the underside of the engineering hull and re-program it at any time. Horizontally, and all I can get to is the power connector I mount instead, unless I do something funky with the deflector mount... Any suggestions will be welcome. I've already seen that I can drive all of the LEDs from the USB port with a large enough USB power supply.

I have separated out the left and right NeoPixel strips in software, so I can roll both of them in the same direction, make a spare, and still only have used half of the roll. The "right" strip is simply driven backwards from the "left." With separate inputs, I can also have different pixels light up in blue and green between the two at the same time, so that one is not just the mirror image of the other.

[Tshark]

I can't decide if I should mount my Metro Mini horizontally in the engineering hull or vertically into the dorsal. I've been working on modifying TShark's code to get different light patterns from the rolled NeoPixel strips, but I don't have the ParaGrafix engine fans yet to check them out. I'm not planning on lighting any windows. If I mount vertically, I can plug directly into the USB at the underside of the engineering hull and re-program it at any time. Horizontally, and all I can get to is the power connector I mount instead, unless I do something funky with the deflector mount... Any suggestions will be welcome. I've already seen that I can drive all of the LEDs from the USB port with a large enough USB power supply.

I have separated out the left and right NeoPixel strips in software, so I can roll both of them in the same direction, make a spare, and still only have used half of the roll. The "right" strip is simply driven backwards from the "left." With separate inputs, I can also have different pixels light up in blue and green between the two at the same time, so that one is not just the mirror image of the other.

Sounds like the vertical mount would be the way to go.  The wall wart power supply that I mentioned in my posts also has a USB jack in it and a microUSB adapter, so you should be able to use it to power the Neopixels.  I found that having one strip driven backwards did not seem to affect the optical illusion of movement.  If you look at one bussard long enough it appears to move both directions.  However, this maybe affected by timing, number of pixels, distance of the rotor blade from the bussard cap, etc.   I would love to see some video when you get it up and running.  Please keep us posted!