The Year of the Tiger

With the start of the New Year, everyone was excited, especially the girls who get to wear new clothes. Yes, this is going to be a great year!

The girls in their new pyjamas, greeting,
"Gong Xi Fa Cai"

The girls with their new pink dresses.

Yes, its going to be a great year. But then, Wife is still sick and me, slight fever with headache. And so, we slept for the best part of the day while missing breakfast, lunch, tea ceremony and what else we always do for Chinese New Year. And since it was also Valentine's day, I'm sure we're going to get slaughtered if we went out for dinner. Sigh.

Enterprise Photon Torpedo:First Measurements

While waiting to usher in the New Year, I had two choices. Three if I am in the mood to watch some DVDs since everyone in the house is fast asleep. I could either continue soldering the Navigation Lights Board or start on the next module, which is the Photon Torpedoes.

Yeah, OK, so I am lazy today and I opted to start on the Photon Torpedoes. Even with the fan above me, I am still sweating. Anyway, here is a first look at the 1/350 Photon Torpedoes segment in the model kit. At the moment, I have the circuit already designed and maybe, at the end of the month, I shall start prototyping it. Just that there is a slight problem on the software part and also how to control it from a controller board.

Thanks to Polar Lights, the torpedo tube is actually
moulded in transparent plastic.

Looking at the space inside, the only way to light this
part up is to cut away some parts (red area) so that
the LED can go through to the tube.

Well, what do you know? It can take a 1.5 x 5
rectangle LED afterall. But it does need some
sanding if my measurements are wrong. And
so, I will have to update the manufacturer on
the new LED measurements next week.

The thing is, I will not be able to fit the whole LED
into that area since it sort of shrinks a bit towards
the opening of the tube.

The space inside this is going to be a tight squeeze
and let me write this down.... 2.5 x 2.8, uhumm.....
which is 1.0 by 1.1... good. Lets see, 1.00 separation
and max thickness is well, 5.00? Don't mind me
here, I'm talking to myself.

I don't have a Red LED so, this will have to do.
Nice or not?

Here is a rough diagram of the photon torpedo tube. Its
in one piece. There are holes at the back where you
can put red rectangle LED (but not the normal ones)
and at the front of the tube, there is actually a layer
of transparent plastic so its not a hollow tube all
the way through. But there will have to be a lot
of light masking for the complete model or
you will see a lot of unwanted light leaking.