LEDs, Motors, and Fiber Optics! Oh My!

D

Dedwrekka

New member
Hello, I\'m Dedwrekka and I have a converting problem (like many here, but I admit it. HA!)

So, while I love my Spinning Motorized Shock Attack Gun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=infM6fJki6s), I\'m realizing that I prefer a more mobile type of army, and setting a unit to babysitting the Mek can have it\'s downsides (and my Deathwing Skumgrod has a tendency to shrug off even high strength hits). Besides I want to give my big units of boyz more protection.

So, with those tactical decisions out of the way I\'m going to build a Big Mek with a KFF (Kustom Force Field for the abrev. impaired). Now, if I\'m going to have something to replace the big spinney guy on the battlefield the new version has to be suitably flashy himself. I look at this as a way to make a suitably flashy model and improve some technical miniature electronic skills. So with this in mind I present several ideas for da Big Mek Dedwrekka III;

  1. Flashy Lights- using LED lights and a conveniently placed battery have his KFF light up (possibly blink if I can figure out how to get that to work).
  2. Spin! - Radar dish or other suitable mechanical component will be placed atop a suitable pole and will rotate (I just need to find out how to make it spin considerably slower than the SAG)
  3. Do Both! - Spin and Light up, though how to manage that is frankly beyond my knowledge right now, I\'m happy to try anything suitably dangerous to my health at least once. :)
  4. Lightning Arcs - a bit of an offshoot of the \"Flashy Lights\" idea. I would use fiber optics and an LED to make it appear that the Force Feild is giving off lightning arcs (Again, still figuring out how in my head, but I\'m not afraid to experiment.)

Feel free to give some other suggestions and advice on how to do some of these things (I\'ll certainly need it). I\'ll also need a lot of technical electronic assistance.
 
R

richard86uk

New member
im by no means an expert but in order to have the led flashing you would need to build an intergrated circuit into the base so might be tricky getin one small enough
 
G

Gilvan Blight

New member
You know if you get LEDs to spin fast enough they will look like a stream of light. Some type of spinning ball of LEDS may give off a convincing force field effect. I\'m particularly thinking of some kinds toys I have seen, wands for fairys or something that use this.

Here\'s what I was thinking of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR57q87nu6c
 
PegaZus

PegaZus

Stealth Freak
Oh, don\'t try anything mechanical. Fully fiber optic is the way to go. A little clear plastic circle with a FO cable wrapped around it, powered by an LED and small battery in the base. One source for the cable, and a good idea of what I\'m talking about, is the fiber optic Christmas tree shown here. I\'m not sure if it would be cheaper to buy the cable by itself or try to grab one of these cheaply after the Christmas season is over. But worth a shot.
 
R

ronin412

New member
I might be wrong but I\'m sure (well 95%) you can get LED\'s that have a small built in flashing circuit.......

Scartch that I\'m not going mad.........

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/led.htm

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=2103

Just a little foot note, don\'t know if anyones intersted but I have a 1/35 Patlabor kit and it has tiny, flat LEDs in the shoulders that flash to look like police lights, not sure what they are called.
 
R

richard86uk

New member
might be wrong but I\'m sure (well 95%) you can get LED\'s that have a small built in flashing circuit.......

Scartch that I\'m not going mad.........

proved wrong its been a few years since i did electronics at school and for that we had to build a 555 circuit to get our leds to flash bt with the ones in that link should be so simple as they also remove the requirement for a resistor sso i would go for the flashing led idea
 
PegaZus

PegaZus

Stealth Freak
Another thing that just hit me is that the local craft stores have little itty bitty Christmas lights (LED) for those little houses. They\'d probably be worth looking into as well.
 
D

Dedwrekka

New member
I know it may seem needlessly limiting, but I\'d like to try to do this without a soldering iron.
(My dorm manager would kill me if I had one in here.) I was hoping to get by with JB weld, or twisting the wires together and insulating it with brownstuff. So anything requiring a circuit board is out (Still hoping I\'mm be able to deal with resistors without requiring an iron).

For Fiber Optics I\'ve already scouted out a couple of cheap suppliers online;
This is for side glow fiber optics, which they say needs a more powerful light source than regular, but I\'m hoping that a single strand will still be well lit by a bright LED.
http://www.wiedamark.com/14strandsideglow.aspx

http://myworld.ebay.com/thefiberopticstore/

and at least one LED supplier
http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Led.htm
 
PegaZus

PegaZus

Stealth Freak
Originally posted by Dedwrekka
I know it may seem needlessly limiting, but I\'d like to try to do this without a soldering iron.
(My dorm manager would kill me if I had one in here.)
Click to expand...
I was going to suggest one of those instant-cold soldering irons, but not sure it would do much good. A FLGS might be willing to put you up for a bit.
 
S

savage angel

New member
led

have a look in B&Q in the christmas deco i seen a small flashing led on a 30 40mm base with a cristal bit on top and difrent ones as well cost about £3.00 im going to get some
 
C

cybersquig

Dangerous when wet
if you are going with fiber optics (and why wouldn\'t you?) then make sure you get some flexible plastic cable rather than the rigid brittle stuff that you so often find. Barrule.com have some. I\'m not going to find the specific page, becuase they have so many good products that it\'s fun finding it yourself! anyhow, they\'re cheap and can take a good ol bit of punishment before they go down which is good (o:

James
 
D

DaN

New member
Sparks

You remember those old plastic guns you used to get that sparked and made a noise when you pulled the trigger?

I believe it was like the sparking wheel that you get on lighters that ignites the butane.

Maybe you could have the rotation of whatever it is you\'re having rotating doing the same job, and shooting small sparks, which would also slow down the rotation...

Not sure - just thinking aloud :p
 
D

Dedwrekka

New member
Originally posted by DaN
You remember those old plastic guns you used to get that sparked and made a noise when you pulled the trigger?

I believe it was like the sparking wheel that you get on lighters that ignites the butane.

Maybe you could have the rotation of whatever it is you\'re having rotating doing the same job, and shooting small sparks, which would also slow down the rotation...

Not sure - just thinking aloud :p
Click to expand...

The words \"Oh God...Oh god...it\'s on fire!\" keeps comming to mind.
 
Shawn R. L.

Shawn R. L.

New member
Originally posted by richard86uk
im by no means an expert but in order to have the led flashing you would need to build an intergrated circuit into the base so might be tricky getin one small enough
Click to expand...

Sometimes you can find that type of thing real cheap this time of year. I\'ve seen Santa and other Christmas type of buttons (badges) toys and orniments with LOTS of sequenced LED lights and this year some VERY tiny LED lights.

The Shokk gun, to me, spins WAY too fast. It loses all detail and just looks like a fan. 60-120 rpms would have good motion while still being able to see the detail. Again, toys can sometimes have nice little gear reductions. Go to the store and \'think outside the box\'.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back To Top
Top