The Viper Project

[Snakedoc]

3 hours ago, BaronVonVaderham said:

Love the progress you’re making!

would love to see the radio & panel knobs, annunciator lights, korry pushbuttons etc. Would you be willing to share the stel files for those? 
i don’t  t have a laser cutter/engraver or resin printer, but I do have a filament printer which will be good enough for my needs.

I plan to print my panels with PLA. Haven’t decided exactly how I will build them up. I like your approach to the LEDs. It’s simple and effective. Do you glue them down to their mounting plate?

Thanks man

I have printed some of the radio knobs already, will post pictures soon

you can find the 3D model of the knobs here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1_cFrojEq1pHJU_naOHi58j7Dr8RwRRJu
 

I only modified them to have a 6mm diameter hole to accept the std rotaries shaft

I discarded the above method of using individual LED lights to backlit the panels, I’m working on a method using a led strip which is easier and faster (will update here soon). I don’t glue the lightplate to the backplate, they’re just screwed together 

[BaronVonVaderham]

Ah, the infamous vault. That’s my go to source as well.

 cool , I’ll check out what they have knob wise. I think I saw a spider in there, which is great!

I saw a series of videos by ahornetsnest on YouTube. He too is stepping away from individual LEDs in favour of strips. 
I’d love to see how that works!

 

[Snakedoc]

 

[BaronVonVaderham]

Nice. Idea, and good results!

which LEDs do you use? There’s quite a few, and arduino nanos are quite limited in how much power they can switch, and you have quite a few LEDs there.

[No1sonuk]

1 hour ago, BaronVonVaderham said:

Nice. Idea, and good results!

which LEDs do you use? There’s quite a few, and arduino nanos are quite limited in how much power they can switch, and you have quite a few LEDs there.

A normal Arduino can handle a maximum of about 200mA in LEDs.
That's 20 LEDs at 10mA. 
However, that panel is using 2 LEDs per light for the rectangular ones, so if the LED forward voltage is less than 2.5V (Red LEDs are usually somewhere around 2V but check yours), it's theoretically possible to run them in series to reduce the current load on the Arduino.
Basically;
10mA through two LEDs in series is 10mA total.
10mA through each of two LEDs in parallel is 20mA total.

[BaronVonVaderham]

My concern is brightness. Most 10mA LEDs I can find have a relatively low light output. The plan is to make them dimmable. 

[No1sonuk]

Series connection would be better then if you need two LEDs - each Arduino pin is only good for 40mA max.  The 200mA overall capacity is still a thing, though.  That's because of the overall package power tolerance.

[Snakedoc]

I'm using regular 3mm led which you can find everywhere (I bought mine on aliexpress)

They're plenty bright, in fact I've had to wire a resistor to them to reduce the brightness.

Here's some picture of the "V.2" (in the video it was without any resistor). I've added a lip inside the Jay-el replica to eliminate the light bleed on the perimeter of the lenses, and I've also designed and build the master caution light/pushbutton

it's hard to take a nice picture of led lights, the camera always pics up the hotspots but in real life you can't see it

again, excuse the wiring mess but it's just a testing rig 

 

[BaronVonVaderham]

You got them dimmer by putting a resistor in series? LEDs usually are current driven, not voltage driven, meaning that lowering the board across the LED actually doesn’t affect brightness (but could stop it from operating if too low). This is why PWM is normally used to dim LEDs. 
 

As for the result, whichever way you did it, the result looks really good!

On 2/18/2024 at 11:10 PM, No1sonuk said:

Series connection would be better then if you need two LEDs - each Arduino pin is only good for 40mA max.  The 200mA overall capacity is still a thing, though.  That's because of the overall package power tolerance.

That’s not too bad actually. Even at 20mA you can still drive maybe 6 LEDs at full power? At 10mA you’d have plenty for the warning lights. 

On 2/19/2024 at 9:55 AM, Snakedoc said:

I'm using regular 3mm led which you can find everywhere (I bought mine on aliexpress)

They're plenty bright, in fact I've had to wire a resistor to them to reduce the brightness.

Here's some picture of the "V.2" (in the video it was without any resistor). I've added a lip inside the Jay-el replica to eliminate the light bleed on the perimeter of the lenses, and I've also designed and build the master caution light/pushbutton

it's hard to take a nice picture of led lights, the camera always pics up the hotspots but in real life you can't see it

again, excuse the wiring mess but it's just a testing rig 

 

Your design looks good. Do you print that in resin? I found filament had its limitations for accurate and detailed printing. 
i need to start designing my warning lights as well

[Snakedoc]

Yeah I just put a resistor on the cathode. 
 

All the prints so far are done with my resin printer (I don’t have an FDM printer)  

[Snakedoc]

Timelapse of a functioning RWR replica build

 

Parts used:

2.8in round LCD display w/ controller board
DCS export 
3D printed bezel & PBC holder
Laser cut lens from 2mm acrylic - engraved & white filled