USS Enterprise Model Build – Part 9 – LED lighting kit part 2
So once the lighting for the saucer was tested and everything worked out just fine up was the lighting for the nacelles.
This requires several working steps:
- Drill holes into the circular plastic pieces that go into the nacelles (drilling template is provided as part of the deluxe lighting kit)
- glue LEDs into the holes
- Solder resistors to each of the LEDs
- Connect all the LEDs as per the instructions that come with the deluxe lighting kit
This turned out to be quite a lot of work. Here are some pictures of the work in progress.
LEDs being glued into the circular plates and a quick fit test after the resistors have been soldered on:
Preparing the circular plate and attaching the LEDs
Soldered nacelle assembly
Once that was done all the individual LEDs have to be connected to the bussard circuit board. This is done using a flat cable that is also provided as part of the deluxe lighting kit.
The bussard lighting circuit board
On the other end you have to solder all the cables onto the circuit board. Doing this with a buddy really was a life saver : )
So once everything was connected we tested it out with a 9V battery and the lights only rotated once. Hmmmm. So we thought that maybe the 9V battery did not provide enough power (as the instructions call for a 12V 2amp supply) and we went ahead and connected the power supply.
Unfortunately we had the polarity wrong and POOOOFFFF up in smoke went one of the components on the board. After getting a replacement part the same week we tried again and now it works just fine.
The whole assembly connected to the nacelle LEDs on one side and the circuit board on the other:
Short demonstration video
And here a short video of the whole thing in action:
