I've looked over the threads and am drawong in too much info! While I'm learning, could someone tell me a few basic things?

I have a few projects that take just a single LED and some fiber optics - a safe place to start. And I have the LEDs, cool white, 3.2 volt.

I know to look to Radio SHack for heat-shrink tubes, resistors, and a switch.

Is there anything specific I need to look for in resistirs - are trhey specific to voltage?

How many watch batteries will I need for a single LED, just one?

And where is a good online shop for fiber optics?

Hey Dreamer...

If you want to cut corners choose one of those 3V lithium coin cells and skip the resistor. That should power your 3.2V LED plenty bright (LED's will operate through a pretty wide range of voltages).

The only thing you'll need to worry about is which side of the LED to connect to positive and which to negative. Don't worry: you won't damage it if you REVERSE THE POLARITY (sorry, I always wanted to shout that); it just won't light.

If you want to get more fancy and use batteries in series to increase the voltage then you'll need a current limiting resistor to drop the voltage to the LED. Too high voltage and you can burn out the LED. The type of resistor depends on how many batteries and what voltage they provide, and the needed voltage/current of the LED.

I like to run 9V batteries (smaller and you can get the handy snap attacherers (techy term)) and use a 330 ohm resistor between one of the LED wires and the battery. That's pretty typical.

Aren't you in Fluke's neck of the woods? He's pretty electrical...

On the fiber optics, I usually get jacketed cable and strip off the jacket where I need to run single strands.

I've bought from this place before Fiber Optic Store link (http://www.thefiberopticstore.com/purchase/endglowcable.htm)

It's handy because you can butt (I always wanted to type that too) the end of the cable to an LED and just run some tape around it to secure it and then loosen up the strands at the other end to run single strands of fiber where you want them. You can "mushroom" the tips of strands with a heat source (maybe hold it close to an open flame. The fiber will blacken and burn so experiment with this). Dab a bit of elmer's colored with food coloring and voila! multi colored tips.

Don't use CA on the strands; it'll make them brittle. Use a hot glue gun or epoxy to hold them in place.

link to mushrooming (http://thefiberopticstore.com/FAQ/endglow/flaring.htm) (not to be confused with other forms of entertainment)

Link to taking off the jacket (http://www.thefiberopticstore.com/Projects/Tips/cutting-cable.htm) (suitable for work).

I agree with Steve; if you are using a single 3.2 volt LED and some fiber, using a 3 volt source would be easiest. Depending on space, you can use anything from a single 3 volt watch battery all the way up to 2 D's in series. Obviously, the 2 D's will give you much much more run time ;-) I would definitely check the overall brightness of the LED first, the cool whites tend to run pretty blue. I prefer the brights or superbrights personally.

I am lighting a 1/350 scale Enterprise Refit and running the whole thing off multiple 12 volt rails from a computer power supply. Needless to say, I have been spending a fair amount of time soldering about 40 LED's to an equal number of 330 ohm resistors.

For simple LED setups like you describe check out this site.
http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

For more advanced mutiple LED and higher voltage source setups go here.
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

These are great sites for the begginer and advanced builder.

Thank you, all of you! I've got all of those bookmarked and am starting to make my way through them bit by bit.

I've a number of projects, and they'll need different lights...I should say that the immediate one is the Moebius Nosferatu, so I don't have much clearance for a battery. I'm closing the wall, so it'll either have to be under the base. The idea is to seal the ends of fibers into tiny glass beads for the rat eyes, then paint 'em red. So, I don't want a strong light for that one. I'll play around with 'em and see waht works.

Yeah, I'm one state down from Fluke! I'll be needing his help eventually. And really missing Sci-Fan, but I'm trying to break a modeling block that's lasted a few years now. Looks like Nosferatu might get me there. :)

WWW.VOODOOFX.COM

Hello Dreamer 2.0. Timothy 1967 & Steve 244 have put out great tips regarding your project! "Nice Job Guys"

My door is open if you need it?

Thanks
Randy Neubert
VoodooFX
650-568-3400
www.voodoofx.com

Thanks for the kind words Randy. I would love to use your circuit boards for my kit, but the cost is a bit more than I am comfortable with spending right now :) I am making my own Nav and strobe circuits using 555 timers, so hopefully that works out.

WWW.VOODOOFX.COM

Thanks, Randy, I've got you bookmarked too!

Randy--

Any chance of a BSG Viper Mark I lighting kit? Or a Star Fury kit (since Revell is reissuing the Star Fury)?

I believe that Randy has something planned for the Viper.

I've looked over the threads and am drawong in too much info! While I'm learning, could someone tell me a few basic things?

I have a few projects that take just a single LED and some fiber optics - a safe place to start. And I have the LEDs, cool white, 3.2 volt.

I know to look to Radio SHack for heat-shrink tubes, resistors, and a switch.

Is there anything specific I need to look for in resistirs - are trhey specific to voltage?

How many watch batteries will I need for a single LED, just one?

And where is a good online shop for fiber optics?

LEDs cause a voltage drop but have no effective resistance. If you put any currentthrough them without a resistor they fry.

You need to know the "foward voltage" of your LEDs, the maximum current that can be passed through the LED, and the voltage of your power source.

Then, if you do a google search for "LED Calculator" you will find a number of web sites that will determine the impedance you need to use. There are calculators for hooking leds up in series and parallel.

You can alway use more impedence (sacrificing brightness) than the calculators say.

The reason that that trick with the 3 volt lithium battery works is that all batteries have an internal resistance. It is not good for the battery, but it does work. (Maybe that is the reason that batteries heat up when you draw a lot of current - the power dissipated through that resistance?) In any case, try that with a 6 volt or 9 volt battery and see the joys of a led exploding.