The End Result
And so, after so many weeks of overcoming a lot of problems, I have arrived at this stage. Through the many frsutrations and lost opportunities, I am grateful that I have learnt quite a lot in terms of design and how to deal with people. And so, just to recap, here are the system's specifications:
1. 10x red roving eye LEDs
2. 2x 5mm White LED with semi-flicker effects (Thrusters)
3. 2x 3mm Red LED (Missile Bay).
4. Accepts voltage from 2x AAA to a maximum of 3x AAA batteries ONLY.
5. Polarity protection.
6. Batteries lasts more than 24 hours on 3x AAA. (It could be longer if I could keep the prototype for another day)
Lighting up the Cylon Raider Model
Now comes the interesting part where I will put the system into the model and make it work. Please bear i mind that this is still a prototype circuit and I am not sure I would be making it for sale since there is already a few other systems out there on the market. The electronics was fine but I just want to share with you the process I went through when it came to designing the PCB, which was the most difficult part for me.
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With the board in your hands, slowly and carefully pull all the wires to the front of the PCB so that they will exit through the holes at the sides. Now, what you need to do is to make sure the LEDs can be seen from the other side of the model. In order to do this, you might need a 3mm drill bit and slowly pass it throughat an angle so that the board can tilt up and down while stuck to the pillar. |
At this stage, you might want to power it up just to see if the wires are still intact. Although the prototype has thick wires, if it comes to production, I would change them to thinner ones.
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In theory, the PCB will sit perfectly inside the model but in the real world, you might need to secure the board from moving up and down just as long as you are not using anything conductive. if everything is perfect, you would be seeing something like that on the photo above. |
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Slowly lay out the red and white LEDs as shown on the pciture above. if you do not want to build the missile bay, you can just use a cutter and cut the wire, then use some electrical or duct tape to seal the ends of the cable. Or you can just leave it in there... |
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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 nzvsdvsdvsdvsdsdot 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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As for the white LED thrusters, you might want to do the same thing I did, which is to use aluminum tape to line the walls of the thusters and align the LED as far away from the plasma emitter as possible to spread the light. |
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I did not use the aluminum tape on the nozzle yet but the effect is quite nice. |
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I then sealed the model up with 3M scotch tape as this was the only tape I could find in the house apart from the normal plastic glue. Then I left it running overnight. 24 hours later, it was still going strong. But there is a catch. You will need to drill a hole for the power cables to run into the model. Heh.
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Miscellaneous #1
Remember the other PCB? I had two of them and was doing both boards at the same time. Unfortunately, when I changed from SOPP IC to the SOIC, I forgot to reprogram the microcontroller because four output pins have been rearranged. In other words, on the first board, it had the SOPP programming and so, the LEDs were sweeping irratically, as if the Cylon could not focus in front of it but rather on the sides. So, I panicked and tried to desolder the chip. Since I was not experienced enough with the solder wick, and I thought it was the limit the solder wick could do. Little did I realise that if I persevered, I could have removed the chip safely and also, not damage the PCB's copper tracks.
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OK, so I should have been more patient with the solder wick and the soldering iron instead of using bruteforce... luckily, the board was repairable but it looked more like Frankenstein's PCB now...
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With the other board, I decided to play safe and this was the time where I sort of dwelved into the ICSP aspect. Since I did not design the pins for the ICSP programming, I had to solder the appropriate wires to the 'legs' of the microcontroller itself. After disconnecting the GROUND cable for the LEDs, I preceeded with programming the chip. And yes, it worked!
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Whoa! Brain re-programming! |
Miscellaneous #2
Now, with the project as success, I am considering to make a few more of the PCBs but that is another story for another time as I have just found out that the actual PCB vendor had a hard time understanding what I need with my design. Also, being a manufacturer themselves, I would need to commit to a certain MOQ which, when I was quoted, was too many for one person or a few people to absorb. So, I am not sure if I really want to make them or not and therefore, I have tasked a friend of mine to spread the news via Forums and the like. Only time will tell.
Just in case, I can now be reached at chowfookcheong at yahoo dot com. You just need to replace the 'at' and the 'dot', K?
In the mean time, here is the video:
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