Lighting up your sub... (LED how to)

[Rogue Sub]

Amber Light
As far as I

Amber Light
As far as I know it is only on american subs and i believe that it is a US Coastgaurd rule. I know for a fact that the ohio class boat has one and it indeed blinks an "s". Im going to put one on my Akula boat anyway just because i think it would look cool at night and perhaps help with navigation in murky water. you know you can momentarily flash an LED at a higher voltage than rated and not do damage. You could make a really bright one if you wanted. Depends on how scale you are thinking.

As for white lights. On an Ohio class i have never seen a white light on the forward end of the boat except when we are tied up in port and we have all of the inport rigging up. At sea we do always have the white light on the rudder though. On the Akula they have the white light on the bow and on the pod of the boat as well as the red and green lights.

Did this help at all?

[cstranc]

That's great info, thank you.

That's great info, thank you.

The Sierra was in production around the same time as the Akula. They only made two of them so there is not much info available on this class. Where I lack Sierra specific info I have been using what you find on the Akula as a "best guess".

Many thanks,

Chris

[Rogue Sub]

Just make sure you send

Just make sure you send me a copy of the hull when your done

[cstranc]

I used lost foam construction

I used lost foam construction for the hull, so I don't have a mold to create another hull.

Maybe I can send a photocopy

[Rogue Sub]

Or just make another http://www.subcommittee.com/forum/icon_smile.gif

Or just make another

[cstranc]

Deal. Next year I'll do

Deal. Next year I'll do it again the right way and put all the detail on the master then create two hulls.

I hope you are patient.

[Rogue Sub]

Oh im not going anywhere.

Oh im not going anywhere. Remember you made a deal

[robse]

Nuke Power, cstranc

Nuke: Yes, sure did, thanks!
cstranc: You did see Nuke's reply regarding the amber "S", right?

[cstranc]

Nuke,
I shall remember.

Nuke,
I shall remember.

Robse,
Yes I am all clear on the amber light now. Thanks.

Ok time for my next question. It is clear that some of you folks do some amazing stuff with your LED's. Do you build a little circuit board to hold all the miscellaneous electronics for your model?

I just cannot imagine soldering these things together without something to mount them on. Like one of those small test boards that have plated through holes on .100" centers.

Chris

[Rogue Sub]

Well what are you trying

Well what are you trying to make?
if you really wanted to you could use a board for your leds but why?
I just glued everything to the top of the hull. If you gonna do something a bit more complicated i would use a board. Look at the diagram that Robse put up for his s light and what not. i would use a board for that. Like I saide dependss on complexity and components. But hey dont ask me im no wire biter, jsut a arm dragging mechanic who never proof reads his typing

[KevinMC]

From a different thread, Pete

From a different thread, Pete asked:

Kevin,
For multiple LEDs, like 50 of them, should they be hooked up in series or parallel? And how does more than one light affect your formula?

If I want to do something that will plug into a 110V outlet, should I just use a transformer plug that converts down to 9VDC like is used on other electronic toys, keyboards, etc.?

Pete

As a rough guideline, you should endeavour to string as many LEDs in series as your battery voltage will allow. Remember, the sum of all the Vfs in your circuit must be less than your battery voltage, so if you have a 12V battery and red LEDs (Vf = 2.1V) the most you can have in one "branch" is 5.

2.1V * 5 = 10.5, which is less than Vbatt.
2.1V * 6 = 12.6, which is greater than Vbatt. If you try this you'll find one of your LEDs will not illuminate.

As to running 50 or so LEDs, that's a pretty big circuit. If you want to drive them all from a 9V wall-wart, you can arrange them in 13 parallel banks of 4 LEDs. (2.1V * 4 = 8.4, which is less than your supply voltage of 9V.) Also note that each string of 4 LEDs should have its own current limiting resistor. While there are ways of driving them directly from the mains, as with strings of Christmas lights, because of the voltage you're dealing with there would be some serious safety concerns.

KMc