Test Fitting the Board
With only the LEDs left to solder, I want to make sure that the board is working. At this stage, I soldered the SMD diode and then powered it up. Using the meter, the voltage at the appropriate pins are all good. And so, what you see on the photo above is me testing the Thruster pin. It semi-flickers and is very bright. The next stage is to solder the 0603 SMD LEDs and it is not something I am looking forward to. I have tested the 0603 months before and averagely, ony 4 survived out of every 10. But then again, at that time, i only have a 3M double-sided tape to hold the LEDs for soldering. This time, I have a nice pair of tweezers.
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With most of the components soldered, I could not resist in test-fitting the PCB into the model kit again. Yes, it is still a perfect fit. |
On a closer look, the rounded edge is still OK but now, I think, if I were to solder the 0603 LEDs onto the edge, it might be a bit worrying since as you can see from the picture above, it is very close to the eye's slit opening. And there is a potential problem of it hitting the plastic part and break the LEDs from its solder. See the two empty holes on the side of the PCB? This is where the wires from the board comes out and through the model kits opening. No need drilling at all. I suspect this was done intentionally by Moebius to help in lighting up the model.
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With the lower cover closed, the board does not obstruct the model in any way at all, which is good because when it comes to modelling, I would like to have a 'plug-and-play' solution even though its very difficult to design on my part. But for the end user, you just power it up and it runs, with minimal drilling or anything. Good, eh? |
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This is how it looked when I started to solder the LEDs on the PCB's edge. It was working fine until you start to make a mistake like accidentally melting the soldered LED next to you. It is frustrating to solder it back, even with the pair of good tweezers. So, like the 0805 theory, this one it out. And if I were to go ahead on this idea, I wll have nother problem, such as to make sure the LEDs are perfectly soldered or else it would not fit through the eye's slit. Now I am worried... very, very worried. |
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After calming myself down and having a warm cup of water, an idea just struck my mind. Why not solder the LEDs vertically, like Stonehenge? Not only that, if it works, then I do not have to worry about the PCB being double-sided anymore. And so, with the remaining surviving 7 LEDs, I tested the idea and it really works! |
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By soldering the 0603 LEDs vertically, it indirectly solved my fitting problem near the eye's slit. As you can see from the picture above, the fully populated board still fits like a glove. Which means, this is very good. |
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And this is how it looked from the outside of the model kit. Once you smoke the clear part which is the visor, it should be good to go. I cannot wait to see it lit up. Can you? |
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But wait. Let me show you the scale of things. The PCB and the 0603 LEDs sized up next to a 50 sen coin. Yes, the LEDs are very, very tiny and I easily have lost a few more on the table's debris. FYI, the 50 sen coin is 27.5 mm across. |
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