Author Topic: Connectamabob's black hole sun (Read 13663 times)

Silent Invader · « **Reply #30 on:** February 22, 2015, 08:31:30 AM »

Clever use of Lego

dampfpanzerwagon · « **Reply #31 on:** February 23, 2015, 08:26:58 AM »

I am intrigued to see this model finished.

Tony

Constable Bertrand · « **Reply #32 on:** February 24, 2015, 07:52:50 AM »

I really must say I think your entry is the wild card, it is just impossible to tell how this will turn out.

However it will be the best x-wing board out there! I'm really liking how this is coming along, it is just so unusual.

Best of luck
Matt

Connectamabob · « **Reply #33 on:** February 27, 2015, 12:29:23 AM »

I'm not dead! Yet!

Just tossing out some quick pics to show I'm still here. Got sidetracked sunday and monday building a pair of Star Trek style space stations to use in the final pics with it, and that cost me. Today is gonna be a bit of a marathon to finish in time, but I'm workin', and provided nothing goes horrible wrong (Lighting! Over here! RIGHT HERE! DO IT, I DARE YOU!) it's still possible.

A double spiral of clouds , relief ground into the underside of the plastic using the Dremel. You can faintly see a layer of interference powder I rubbed on (red on one half, blue on the other, to half-arsedly imply Doppler shift) and sealed down with Future:

The underside painted, still need to add some wisps and swirls to the top to get the full 3D "pop". Used reference pics of hurricanes from orbit, and Jovian/Saturnine clouds, as the only pics I could find of accretion disks were artists interpretations. Well, except one pic, but it was an itty-bitty low res-image from a tiny corner of a high-res telescope field, so it basically just looked like a 50p wide water ring.

One of aforementioned stations. I made two: a wee Regula 1-ish station (pictured), and a larger proper starbase. Ironically, I doubt they'll be in the final entry pics they were built for, as I doubt I'll have time to paint and base them now. I'll post them in the Sci-Fi boards after the contest though.

EDIT: Hadn't noticed the deadline change. That's super cool. Gives me way more breathing room that I thought I had. Should have zero problems getting done before then, including the space stations (and the FASA Romulan Gallant Wing I found in my lead pile, score!). Also maybe a better space mat than this plain black felt I've got right now. Rockin'!

matakishi · « **Reply #34 on:** February 27, 2015, 12:32:22 AM »

That disc is amazing, it looks real.

Mr. Peabody · « **Reply #35 on:** February 27, 2015, 12:33:46 AM »

Quote from: matakishi on February 27, 2015, 12:32:22 AM

That disc is amazing, it looks real.

What he said!

Constable Bertrand · « **Reply #36 on:** February 27, 2015, 06:41:17 AM »

Very smooth.

Cannot wait to see how this one turns out.

Cheers
Matt

Eric the Shed · « **Reply #37 on:** February 27, 2015, 07:09:39 AM »

This is great....

dampfpanzerwagon · « **Reply #38 on:** February 27, 2015, 07:44:13 AM »

Great progress. I look forward to seeing even more.....

Tony

Duke Donald · « **Reply #39 on:** February 27, 2015, 01:35:10 PM »

Impressive!

snitcythedog · « **Reply #40 on:** March 01, 2015, 10:02:33 PM »

Well cool. I am impressed.
Snitchy sends.

Connectamabob · « **Reply #41 on:** March 12, 2015, 12:32:02 PM »

All night solder party:

LED pallet for the disc:

It's a plastic plate from the dollar store, which I drilled holes in to the mount the LEDs and restors to via their leads. This will go under the disc, and will serve as both the LED rig and the base for the disc. Still needs vertical spacers for the disk to rest on, and the LEDs will be masked and the base painted white to act as a light bounce.

Here's the underside, where You can see how everything's wired together:

I threaded the leads through drilled holes and "crocheted" them together in a double ring (triple, if you count the LED/resistor connections) to form a big parallel circuit. Technically I had to break it into two parallel circuits which were then themselves ganged into a single meta-parallel circuit because some of the resistor leads came up too short to connect to their fellows (see more below).

That's twenty LEDs at 20mA/3V each, twenty 750ohm/1W resistors, two 9V batteries, 95 holes drilled, and 68 soldered connections. Took two nights to assemble (somewhere between 6 and 8 hours total).

Apparently I had this in the garage the whole time:

Think I must have gotten it at a garage sale at some point, then forgot about it. Wish I'd found/remembered it when I was doing the fire planet electronics, as it is way, WAY better than the little butane iron I used for that.

Made some mistakes along the way. Resistors should have been arrayed in a sawtooth/spiral radial pattern rather than a straight radial pattern, as with the straight radial pattern the outermost leads turned out to be very nearly too short to chain in a circle like that. Battery wiring is both too simple and too complex, as I made a couple goofs and had to redesign on the fly. Originally I intended there to be a switch, but I goofed the wiring on that, so for now it's turned on and off by removing/replacing one of the batteries.

This project is only the second electronics/lighting thing I've ever done. There's a number of things I'd do differently if I had to do it again, but it works, and is relatively clean. Yay, learning!

Tactalvanic · « **Reply #42 on:** March 12, 2015, 12:38:13 PM »

Oh wow.

Really good stuff - really looking forward to seeing finished article

Duke Donald · « **Reply #43 on:** March 12, 2015, 01:10:57 PM »

This is looking great!

You should still be able to add a switch but I recommend being careful with the painting/gluing; I had to change the switch twice on my build after paint/glue went into it and it stopped working properly.

von Lucky · « **Reply #44 on:** March 12, 2015, 09:23:18 PM »

Well it looks impressive. More so that it's something you haven't done much of.

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Author Topic: Connectamabob's black hole sun (Read 13663 times)

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