Light "transfer" technique needed.

SpaceDuck · Post by **SpaceDuck** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:05 pm

HiYa'll again,
Still working on my project: a kitbashed 'Bonaventure' class from the Ships of the Line hardback (compilation of calander art).
My 'electronics' are mostly handled but I just hit my latest stumbling block:

I originally kept the 'nav light' clear plastic pieces that come with the 1/1000th PL Enterprise TOS kit and simply drilled them out and then sunk some mushroomed fiber optic into them. Knowing I had already made them fit I went ahead and assembled everything (a kitbash, lots of plastic, CA and sanding) and now that paint is done and I have a working flasher board I snaked my fiberoptics into place and pushed the lil "nubs" left of the clear plastic pieces into place. Well, you all probably realize that even when you mushroom fiberoptic it doesn't really spread the light fully throughout the "dome" and since this is now inside a hollowed out plastic "button" the lights don't show much unless viewed from directly 'above' and that's not what I was shooting for! I assume it'd be nice if I had fiberoptic strands as big as those appx 1/8th diameter lights but I don't nor do I have LED's that small to run the wiring out to LED's mounted in the navlight positions.
Would using a 'high intensity' LED make much difference with the FiberOptics or am I shopping in the wrong place and are appx 1/8th" LEDs available?

It's only been through the info posted and offered on this site so far that I've gotten this far, so thank you all.

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:40 pm

Not only are 1/8" leds available (usually labelled 3mm), but you can get them smaller (1.5 to 2mm). And I am referring to the very bright ones.

SpaceDuck · Post by **SpaceDuck** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 1:57 am

jwrjr wrote:Not only are 1/8" leds available (usually labelled 3mm), but you can get them smaller (1.5 to 2mm). And I am referring to the very bright ones.

Ooooooh, SHINY!

I've stretched some clear sprue in the meantime and while it's larger diameter with a nice "dome" all fits, I'm still not happy with the effect. So now that you've educated me that I'm not asking for too small of LEDs I'll go hunting!

Thanks again!

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:44 am

Only thing I can think of would be to bore out those little nav lights a bit more and frost the insides to help diffract the light from the fibre optic.

SpaceDuck · Post by **SpaceDuck** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:04 pm

Kylwell wrote:Only thing I can think of would be to bore out those little nav lights a bit more and frost the insides to help diffract the light from the fibre optic.

Well,
That's a thought but in essence it kinda parallels what I did. I took the "nubs" of the original navlights, appx. 1/8th" dia. and then hollowed those out. Wanting a single flasher to feed both port and starboard I then colored the inside of one red, the other green. Then I "sank" the mushroomed fiberoptic into each and secured with CA. Now my thought was to wind up with the fiberoptic near the base of the "nub" with the nub colored from within and of course evrything is glossy from the outside. I understand how frosting can help diffuse but within the parameters I was using that'd be kinda hard when I wanted a secure unit to feed back in after painting the model and with the 'directional' beam of light from fiber optic even when mushroomed I'm not sure what more it would have helped? Nice thought though.
In the meantime I was lucky to find a nifty lil electronics shop that just moved into my town. Besides telling me that he gave away racks of goodies to move

he also let me roam his stockroom! So I came out with a nice lil stash of components at pennies to the dollar compared to RadioShack and also some T1 LEDs, which by the way, are still slightly larger than the 1/1000th navlight holes? BUT, I think I can work around that. Then too- I scored a bunch of what he called "perculiar" LEDs which remind me of surface mounts. These things (only red ones?) are a small lil nub with the leads coming out and angling back above the "dome". He said they were meant to be mounted under PC boards and then be observed as indicators or somethin? But, I'll be lookin into how to stealthily tuck these onto or into some places I couldn't have gotten before unless using FO. They're also small enough (but amazingly bright!) to do an easy ten in a chaser circuit for each nacelle dome! So I'll be solderin at the bench hopin to build somethin for awhile.

It's only for all the help and ideas I've received here that I'm now excited to work on these electronics projects- THANKS ALL.