So, you want to light up your model? Lighting up your model. Let's just say, you have spent hours of research to make your X- Wing or Gundam model as accurate as possible. All the painting schemes and scratchbuilding has been done. Finally, after hours and weeks of work, your model is complete. And it sits proudly on the shelf. ![]() Later on, you and your friends watch flims on TV related to your model. The film is so exciting, you turn your head and look back at your model. It is still siting proudly on the shelf. But then, you realise there is something missing. Your model does not have lights. Now, its just sitting there on the shelf, doing absolutely nothing. Lights and some degree of movement does help enhance the model in terms of realism. But before you start lighting up you model with matches, bulbs or even fireworks, there are some things to consider: For example, Let's say you want to light up your 1/2. Plonking a 5mm LED into the headlights is like having a 1. The closest LED colour you can get for your headlight is either yellow or pure white. And since the LED needs power to light it up, most of the time, you cannot use a battery as it might be too big for the car. The police car has flashing lights and so, you need some electronic circuits to make it flash and again, you are faced with the problem of space inside the model. And where can you put the speakers for the siren? How about accessibility in case the LED or bulb burns out? These are some of the points to consider for the model before you even start your project. But here, we are going straight to the electronics. Choice of Lighting Below are some guidance to help you in deciding which is the best method to light up your model. Halo Ring Installation Service Yes- We will install halos in your headlight and/or fog light assemblies for you! Welcome to the NFC Performance professional. Back to Electronic Flash and Strobe Principles of Operation Sub-Table of Contents. Electronic Flash Fundamentals. All modern electronic flash units (often called. Love these Afterburner Tail Lights!!! Don't let your father with bad sight help you install them though, as mine snapped the bulb in half on the first light.waited. Certain questions come up all the time on the various discussion boards, particularly theSamba'spopular Baywindow Forum. This is a FAQ made up from my replies to. Learn about the different types of monitors, screen resolution and other key features in our Monitor Buying Guide online at Best Buy. The table below loosely describes each lighting system (and cannot be used as a Bible of any sort). There are other types of lighting such as bright but fragile CCF (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Tubes) but it will not be discussed here (OK, so I can't easily find them on the market here). Also, Fibre- optic strands are not a source of lighting but helps in distributing dots of lights onto large area where EL or CCF is not available, or when the modeller prefers to use a minimum number of light- source to spread light all over the model due to over- heating concerns. And depending on how much light- source was used, the power supply changes accordingly. A good example would be to light up 2. LEDs which consumes about 4. A. So, you would need a 9volt 5. A Mains Power adaptor (with proper current limiting resistors for each LED, of course) and not a battery as it would exhaust itself in a matter of hours. Find the perfect TV using the Best Buy TV Buying Guide. Learn about 4K TVs, HDR and 4K Ultra HD TV technology to help you choose a great TV. Spyder LED Tail Lights in stock now! Free Shipping & Lowest Price Guaranteed. Read Customer Reviews, Call 800-544-8778, or Shop online. A GSM and GPS Tracking solution to locate and track the whereabouts of your vehicle in real time via the Internet on a computer or Smartphone. Personally, where models are concerned, I would use a Mains Power Adaptor whenever I can. This is because, if you forgot to change batteries after some time, they will leak and the chemicals will wreak havoc not only on the electronics but also your beautiful model (unless you intentionally wanted it to be, in the first place) The LEDThe LED (Light Emitting Diode) is a semiconductor diode that emits visible light or near infra- red radiation when it is forward biased. In other words, when you connect the LED to the way, it lights up. Inside the LED is a semiconductor which is encased in a transparent epoxy resin which could be either diffused or clear lens. The LED, unlike a normal bulb, has a limited viewing angle between 3. A clear lens would have a narrower viewing angle but is very bright. It will create a miniature spotlight effect. A diffused lens would have a better viewing angle but . Therefore, it must have a resistor in series if you do not want to open up your model to replace a burnt LED all the time. I always use the following formula when calculating the value of the current limiting resistor for the LED. Resistor = (Voltage supplied - LED Voltage) / LED Current Example: You need to light up a LED from a 9volt battery, so, yo must choose the correct resistor to give the correct amount of current. Resistor = (Voltage supplied - LED Voltage*) / LED Current* Resistor = (9 - 1. Resistor = 4. 00 Ohm. The closest value for this (Under the E1. Resistor value) would be 3. Ohms * - Different LED colour has different current requirement, which could be from 1. A to 3. 0m. A. Luxeons would be from 3. A to 1. 00. 0m. A. How to read a Resistor. ![]() Once you calculated the resistor value, it is time to get them. And it is important that you know how to identify each resistor after you have bought them. A resistor can be identified via the 4 colour bands on its body. The first three bands are the resistor's values while the fourth band not only tells you which direction the resistor must be placed for reading, it also tells you its tolerance. Value. Colour. Colour. Multiplier. 0Black 1. Brown 1. 02. Red 1. Orange 1,0. 00 = 1. K 4. Yellow 1. 0,0. K 5. Green 1. 00,0. Blue 1,0. 00,0. 00 = 1. M7. Violet 1. 0,0. M8. Grey 9. White The resistor above shows the value of 4. K Ohm. To read its value, hold the resistor with the Gold/Silver band facing right. Read off the colours (from left to right) of the first two bands and then multiply with the third band. Band 1 = Yellow = 4. Band 2 = Violet = 7. Band 3= Orange = x. Ohms. Total is 4. Ohms or 4. 7K. The Gold band denotes 5% tolerance. A simple LED circuit. Let's say you want to light up your X- Wing fighter's engine ports. As the wings are moulded in one piece, you would have to drill some tiny holes for the 5mm LEDs. You can put a LED (optional) to light up the cockpit by using another LED (yellow or white) with the same resistor values. You might want to increase the resistor value to dim the LED for the cockpit as it is only used to highlight the pilot as if the lights are coming from the dashboard's instruments. For more accuracy, you would have to put the 5mm LED deeper into the exhaust port and slot in a red trasparent octagonal fin after it. This is the circuit diagram for the X- Wing's engines. To be more accurate, you'd have to source for purple LEDs (they do exist)This is how it looked when you put LEDs into the X- Wing fighter's engine ports. This model belongs to fellow Forummer Koo. Williams Tools required. The tools required for installing LEDs into your models are: 1) Soldering Iron. Get a good soldering iron with a sharp pin- like bit, that costs you between RM4. RM6. 0, I suppose and if possible, made in Japan. And the wattage, 2. Anything higher or lower, you would be burning a lot of things. And while you're at it, get some good solder to go with it, you will need those thin ones (about less than 1mm in diameter) as they will melt faster. Why is the wattage so important? When you're soldering, you're actually transferring heat from the iron's bit to melt the solder which then sticks to the component/printed circuit board (PCB). So, while you're doing this, the heat from the iron would be lost and it needs time to regenerate. If you do not realise this, you would be touching the soldering iron and the glob of semi- melted solder, waiting for it to melt. And while you're doing that, the heat building up from the soldering iron would be tranferred to the component/PCB (instead of staying on the bit), which in turn, could be bad news. The intense heat could cause the component to fail prematurely or the disintegrates the bonding between the copper tracks and the PCB. And that, folks is the problem with low wattage iron. Too high a wattage, is like literally using a flamethrower to light a cigarrette. And you'd be buying lots of heat clamps (that transfer heat away from the iron and the component) to prevent from burning up or melting everything. In the end, when you're soldering, the faster, the better, which I counted is not more than 4 seconds. We'll get to the soldering aspects later on. Multimeter This is one of the most important tool for testing LEDs apart from a LED tester (When I have the time, I'll show you how its done). Using the meter, you can test the LED's polarity and also whether its working or not. One advise when buying a meter is to get an analogue version, and if you wish, you can get (a copykat) one for under RM2. But an original SANWA meter would cost you RM1. Compared to an Analogue meter, the Digital Meter is only suitable for measuring voltages acurately. Usually, it does not have enough current to allow you to test a LED. When you're testing the LED, twist the knob ultil it points to the lower rightat the X1. A) position. If you do not want to use the meter, point theknob to the ? Using the meter probes with one hand takes some considerable skills. It is like holding a pair of chopsticks in your hand. So, after much Chinese take- outs, your chopsticks skills would have improved considerably If you open up the meter, you will see that everything runs from. AA batteries. And see the fuse at the bottom right? I usuallyremove it and replace it with a piece of wire since it blowseasily when I am not too careful. Biasing. Here we go again that boring old subject of biasing. Anybody with half a. Pull out the old ones, plug. What could be simpler ? They are all the same make, all the. They all light. up, the amp works now, it didn’t before. Don’t know anything about biasing, but. Wrong. On the other hand if it’s set too high, it will. Also dangerous and a nuisance. At the. extreme, running flat out very difficult to stop. If you do, with the. BANG!!! Oil and. bits all over the road. That’s why the idle speed is set at about 6. RPM. so the engine is running happily at idle. The bias of your amp acts in much the same way as the throttle on your car. Correct setting of the bias keeps your amp running happily, but you need to. Just like in your car’s engine, the cylinder compressions need to be. If you have one compression lower than the rest, the engine will misfire. If the compressions are all over the. But new the engine will still need to be set. But then everybody knows that, don’t. Fitting matched valves ensures among other things, that they all draw the. This may be. insufficient, the amp will sound horrible and run cold, may not even work at. It may be to excessive, amp running very hot you can smell it is not right. Its soon gonna’ go BANG! Adjusting the bias to achieve the correct idling current is hugely important. Your amp tech, (if you can find one) will check the anode currents of your. EL3. 4’s. It may be. The bias is a NEGATIVE voltage. Increasing or. decreasing that voltage by a small amount will affect the amount of current. Just 1 volt difference in the bias voltage can make a. Just checking the bias. Just like adjusting that throttle on your car so you don’t stall or. If you read a Mesa Boogie owners manual, it will tell you that it is not. Boogie amp when fitting new replacement valves. This is. complete and utter bollocks, Boogies are no different to any other amp when it. What they actually mean is you must buy only Boogie. Boogie. If you fit vales of other manufacture (they don’t make their. But you can bias it to fit valves of your choice. But as always, only fit. I personally have found many Boogie badged valves to. And have you seen the prices? It is not. adjustable, it would need to be replaced with one of a different value to alter. All valves of all manufacture vary enormously in their electrical. They are rarely matched by the factories, but are sold in large. If you buy your valves from a reputable dealer, that dealer will test the. In this way. he can select pairs, quads, sextets, or more that have the same electrical. These are then sold to the likes of me and other engineers and. Numbers or colour codes will be put on the boxes to. If you buy 4 valves all boxes should be marked with the same. RED or perhaps BLUE. Whatever, they. should all be the same. If not or there are no numbers or colour codes, then you. Put em back and buy some elsewhere. Out of a batch of a hundred valves, the tester would be lucky to find any. The whole point of this article is as follows. A young lad struggled into my workshop with a large Laney VH 1. R amp head. He said it just faded away and stopped working. Now alarm bells started. Devon music shop. Nothing wrong with Electro Harmonics, but I asked, was it a matched set? Did they bias the amp to suit, I asked? Eh, yea it has been. Until now I said. Better have a look. As suspected the HT fuse was blown. What blows fuses? Answer, too much. Why too much current? Answer amp not biased, valves not matched. The. valves of only a few months old, had obviously been running too hot the bases. I checked the anode current of each valve as the pictures below show. Was this a matched quad? Don’t think. so do you? I guess. someone else might have bought a pair just like them!!! This adds up to a total of 3. Should be around 1. Finally the weedy little 1 amp fuse could stand no more. The real solution here would have been, to fit a properly matched quad of. Per valve setting. The. anode or plate voltage being 4. What I actually did was to adjust the bias in order to bring the unmatched. Not the best. scenario but kinder on the owners pocket, and he might just get a few more. Nowhere near a match. They are plugged into the valve bases, and the. The red leads are connected to the test. This should be done every time you replace your. A. dangerous place to be poking about! SCREEN GRID RESISTORSNothing to do with biasing, but I. Boogie valves in the previous article, this was. Funny, but within a few days of me writing the above article, I. Mesa Boogie F 5. 0. You may have gathered from the previous. I am not a lover of anything Boogie. They are over rated, over weight, over priced and over here. There have been. so many different models over the years, with all the different Marks, 1/2/3/4/5. A , B C & even C+ versions Symul- class Nomads, Rockets, Rectoverbs Tremoverbs. Dual Rectifiers, Stiletto, Deuce, Trident, Road Kings, Lone Star, Blue Angel. The Maverick. The list goes on and on, all too complicated too many knobs and. The best of the lot was the Mk. If they had a successful model. Look at the Vox AC3. By the way, I use. Tweed Peavey Classic 3. X 1. 2 combo I have ever had, and believe me. I have tried a few. It cost me all of . I have even had a MK3 Boogie. Nomad 4. 5, I’ll say no more, someone is sure to get upset. Now this F- 5. 0 only a short while ago, and at great expense was fitted with. Mesa Boogie 6. L6. GC STR4. 30 valves with a yellow match colour. I. didn’t supply the valves, but was asked to check the bias. True to what Boogie. Special Tube Request. On removal of the chassis I heard something loose. As I tipped it on its side, it slid along the chassis. After a little. shake, a resistor fell out on to the bench. It was one of the 4. The resistor had overheated to the extent that it had melted its. I tested the. resistor which was a wire wound 3 watt device, it was still in spec, I. I. measured the voltage drop across the resistor which was soon getting hot. The. volt drop was 2 volts. I then checked the volt drop across the other screen. Swapping the valves over transferred the 2 volt drop to the other. Obviously we have a faulty valve drawing an excessive screen. This would get worse under playing conditions. I fitted a new pair of G- T 6. L6 valves, straight out of the box the bias. Problem solved. Above - the test results. Below - the Boogie valves. With the individual company logo's printed on them, and at hugely. They are then marketed by those companies and sold on. I in some cases at greatly over inflated prices. These do retail at a fair. There is a lot of hype about valves which makes it a. You can buy from any reputable. U. K. Hot- Rox and Watford. Valves, Sovtek or Svetlana valves at a fraction of the price of branded. They are of the same high quality and spec as Boogie, GT, or Fender. You can see the. original Sovtek markings on the valve with the Fender logo on the other side. Now what is the difference between. Just the price. Left about . Maybe I. should get some made up with Amp- Fix printed on them and do the same! The valves are therefore 6. P1. 4P. and are amongst the best available. Often branded with someone else's. TAD is another and sold at greatly inflated prices as the EL8. M. If you have an AC3. A. amplifier, if you can find them fit a set of these and it will sound like an. AC3. 0 should, the valves will safely handle the Class A load and the high. I have a customer running 6. P1. 4P in a Matchless DC3. Close manufacturing specification tolerances. The Svetlana SV6. L6. GC is manufactured in the Svetlana factory in St. Extra- rugged. construction for use in music amplifiers- -thick mica spacers and extra bracing. Increased. peak cathode emission from new cathode materials. Gold- plated grid and extended. Tri- plate anode for superior. Precise grid/screen alignment. Comprehensive static and audio. May be operated in inverted. Fender guitar amplifiers. MARSHALL use EL3. Svetlana and market them. Marshall brand name. You can again buy these from valve. Svetlana name on the valve. But just to confuse you. Svetlana EL3. 4. The cheaper version, I understand is. Sovtek, who acquired the rights to the brand name. Petersburg's factory? Look for. the . Because of a change in ownership of the former. American distributor, JSC Svetlana recently lost its ability to sell vacuum. The Xpo- pul factory. Reflector) in Saratov, Russia is an entirely different. Russian company that makes vacuum tubes for an American corporation that. Sovtek and Electro- Harmonix brand names. This same American. Svetlana brand name in the United. States and Canada and recently introduced a line of Svetlana branded vacuum. Xpo- pul factory. The Xpo- pul factory ! Rest assured that the. Svetlana factory in St. Petersburg, Russia is still producing vacuum tubes. All current. production St. Petersburg factory tubes - - and only those tubes - - do bear. In today's world if you want the tubes that you've come to know in the. But whilst on the subject of valves, I just felt these things. I hope you found the information useful, but. This will ensure long life of the valves and a good tonal response. BIAS LESSON. Some like them hot some cold. Without getting too heavy with maths and. So measure the anode voltage. Divide the 2. 5 by the 4. The 0. 7 means 7. Hot anode / plate dissipation. Or go for the 0. 7 or even 0. Bias. The bias figure will depend on the anode voltage which will vary according to. More current less volts, les current more volts. Bias. Example 3. Bias. If looking for the Class A requirement, that's 1. Deduct about 5% screen current 2. Either way your amp. An LED would illuminate indicating which valve was at fault. An amp with 4 output vales would just keep working because the. LED. Maybe a. couple of days for the less experienced, possibly up to a week for the DIYer.
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