Singing and dancing Land Raider!

[Gurth]

As some of you may remember, a long, long time ago I started converting a standard Land Raider into a Prometheus. I always had the intention that it would become a light-and-sound show as well — so here's a short, illustrated guide on how to turn it into just that ^_^

 

Front Deck

The Prometheus doesn't have the hull-mounted heavy bolters so their mount needed to be plated over. It's just 1.5-mm plastic card cut to size and glued in place, then puttied and sanded smooth, with some supports on the inside to stop the plates falling in too easily.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/front_deck_front.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/front_deck_close-up.jpg

This photo is mainly to show the small fillet necessary to fit the left hinge.

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/front_deck_inside.jpg

 

A viewing device also needed to be added, as this is also on the Forge World kit. In my case, it consists of a part from a 1/35th tank kit as the base, the heavy bolters' shield for the top, and plastic card to make up the rest of it. Once I had this thing, I cut a hole in the bottom so I could put two 3-mm LEDs into it as the "eyes"; these came from an old computer.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/targeter_insides.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/targeter_hood.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/targeter_complete.jpg

 

Hull Sides

Since I wanted a light show, I decided flashing lights in the axles along the lower sides of the hull would be cool.

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/sides_with_holes.jpg

This photo shows the holes I drilled in the hull sides to accept the optic cable that would light up all the axles. Nothing fancy, just 1-mm diameter holes drilled with a pin vice through the centers of the axles.

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/sides_with_speaker_1.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/sides_with_speaker_2.jpg

And these photos show where the speakers will eventually go. I had to cut out quite a few bits of the hull to make them fit, but this is fairly easy to do using a small saw and a good blade.

 

Electrics

Light and sound equals wiring, so here it is:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/electrics.jpg

These are all the electrical bit after I'd assembled them.

• On the extreme left is the battery pack: three 1.5-V batteries in series with wires soldered between them and the power cable from the speakers attached, the whole thing taped to a popsicle stick ;)
  
• To its right is the front deck with LEDs; hidden beneath this is the resistor I added between the LEDs.
  
• Below the front deck is the power cable that came with the speaker, plugged into a socket soldered to the wires and taped in for security (the socket used to be on the speakers' circuit board)
  
• To the right of the front deck are some bits of circuit board, one serving as a power distribution point to which all the LED leads are attached, the other three each having one flashing LED and a resistor on them. There are three LEDs because they flash at different frequencies.
  
• Below these, above the power connector, is the on/off switch for the LEDs.
  
• Next are the two speakers, which came from a set of external laptop speakers, and their amplifier (the circuit board); this was a set of two plastic housings, each with a speaker and one also holding the board. Another on/off switch and some cables attach the board to the power plug.
  
• And finally there's a 1-GB MP3 player.
  

For those interested, the total cost of all this was something like €30-€35.

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/sides_with_speaker_bracket.jpg

This shows the interior of the hull side again, now with the speaker fixed in place using a corner of GW sprue that I cut to size. The speaker is also superglued to the hull sides as well as to the sprue.

 

Optics!

Finally, we get to the fun part … the optics.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/fibre-optic_cable.jpg

This is the cable I bought to make the optics. It's actually an optical audio cable, that consists of a 1-mm clear plastic core with a black plastic shell around it, and another (softer) plastic shell over that. To the left is one of the plugs on it, to the right is the core with its inner covering.

 

I had intended to use the cable with the inner cover still attached, but it turned out that made it too rigid and very liable to snap at the point where the core emerged from the covering. As a result, I had to strip everything off the core, which is not a great job to do.

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/tubes_1.jpg

The way I connected the optics to the LEDs was by taking some plastic tube into which the LEDs just fit, and drill 1-mm holes in them so the optics would be held against the LEDs. Unfortunately I had three different diameters of LED (2, 3 and 5 mm), and only tubing for the latter two., so I had to improvise by drilling a 2-mm hole in a piece of GW sprue.

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/electrics_and_optics_in_place_1.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/electrics_and_optics_in_place_2.jpg

These photos show all the wiring, both electrical and optical, in place in the model. I put in a floor from 1.5-mm plastic card to keep all this separate from the MP3 player and battery pack, which can be removed through the front ramp.

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/electrics_and_optics_in_place__with_brackets_1.jpg

I didn't glue the LEDs into the model, but instead made some brackets from more sprue and glued these over the circuit boards to press them down.

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/sides_with_optics.jpg

Optical spaghetti!

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/optics_off.jpg

The optics turned off …

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/optics_on_1.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/prometheus/optics_on_3.jpg

… and on :)

 

They blink, of course, but because these are about 2.5-second exposure photographs, the lights appear on all the time. That's why I also have a film clip of the show in action! :)

 

As you may have spotted, the cables actually stick out from the hull. This is intentional: I can paint the model now, and cut off the excess cable after I'm done, so I won't have to mask tiny bits of cable.

 

Anyway, that's about it for the moment — hopefully I'll have photos of the completed model soon :)

[aioannou]

thats amazing, pure amazing!

i might steal the speaker idea if i ever do a noise marine army ^_^

[Guest Azeikel]

That look soooo cool, I wish i had the money to do one!

[Romulas]

Cool idea using optical wire. :tu: would be nice to see it all painted up.

 

iPod speaker sets are a bit cheaper and have the mini amp built in to the circuit and those "small" mp3 players are getting cheeper. 30$ Canadian at XS Cargo, but i had to rework some of the solder in the speaker set.

 

i expect many more "sconic blasters" to be active soon. Clips from BoltThrower's Realm of Chaos album will be used in my next project. (make sure to buy the CD guys, i've had mine for years :D)

[RWJP]

Pimp my Land Raider...

 

I like it, I want to light up my next Land Raider.

[Gurth]

I wish i had the money to do one!

Aside from the Land Raider, this cost me perhaps the price of one box of Terminators or so. The most expensive item was the MP3 player (€19.99, IIRC) and only because I had to buy one new. If you know (or are) someone with an old one, use that — mine has 1 GB but all I use ATM is a few hundred megs for MP3s of the Dawn of War music.

 

Cool idea using optical wire. :P would be nice to see it all painted up.

That'll probably happen this weekend and/or next week. I hope …

 

iPod speaker sets are a bit cheaper and have the mini amp built in to the circuit

What I used here was a set of cheap laptop speakers that were €7.95 or so at a department store. The amplifier was contained in one of the two speakers, but I had to remove the power connector and re-solder one of the speakers because (obviously) I removed everything from the original housings.

 

i expect many more "sconic blasters" to be active soon

This will be a loyalist Space Marine vehicle, though I'm pretty sure nine out of every ten people will probably think it's an Emperor's Children tank :D

[Brother Richard]

Any problems with heat buildup?

[aioannou]

could you do a tut for this?

is it simple enough for anyone to do?

[Gurth]

Any problems with heat buildup?

I don't know yet, but I suspect there won't be any problems. LEDs don't give off much heat, and there are only three inside the hull (plus two in the targeter thingie). The same probably goes for the speakers and their amplifier. Of course, if my model starts to melt I've learned an(other) important lesson for the next one :)

 

could you do a tut for this?

I intend to post a more complete how-to article on a web site, but I need to write it first :)

 

is it simple enough for anyone to do?

Well, no — but that's mainly because nothing is simple enough for everyone to do … :) The main skills needed here are modelling and soldering: you have the former if you can build a GW vehicle kit neatly, but the latter is probably rarer in a wargaming crowd. I can solder, though not very well, but I found I picked it up pretty quickly again after putting a few wires etc. together for this model.

[Custodian Athiair]

cool

 

there is a guy at my Gw that has something like that

but he has the light in the searchlights and places

 

which makes it look more realistic but hey still awsome

 

Athiair :)

[Gurth]

there is a guy at my Gw that has something like that

but he has the light in the searchlights and places

 

which makes it look more realistic but hey still awsome

I could have done that, too, but that's dull and predictable :lol: It fits the overall theme of my army much better if it's a Pimp My Land Raider type of thing than if it simply has lit-up headlights … And I can always say that because it's a Prometheus, the lights are beacons for reserve units :D

[blood puppet]

wow thats amazing i might steal this idea for my noise marine army when i my orders come in

[Belius]

Hi Buddy

 

That is awesome!!! Something I have been thinking of doing myself, your pics will certainly spur me on.

 

Can anyone recommend where to buy LED's in the UK??

[Terminatorinhell]

fleeeking sweet, this would be awesome to see on a table!

[John117]

In the words of Chris Tucker....

 

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMB! Mrs Johnsons' finer then a mother...."

 

Seriouslt good work. I put a light in my Predator once didn;t look half as good as that. Good job m8 would love to see it finishd PM when it's done if you have the time to spare.

[Gurth]

That is awesome!!! Something I have been thinking of doing myself, your pics will certainly spur me on.

I've also been writing a more in-depth how-to that explains it all better, but it's not quite finished yet. I'll post a link when it is.

 

Can anyone recommend where to buy LED's in the UK??

Click :)

 

Good job m8 would love to see it finishd PM when it's done if you have the time to spare.

I also need to take some pics of the finished model, yes …

[Belius]

Many thanks for the link :cry:

 

I am a complete noob when it comes to LED.

 

What sort of battery pack do you require to light them, as I can't seem to find any reference as to how to power LED's on any of the websites.

 

If anybody has got "a complete idiots guide to LED's" then I would be eternally grateful

[Zeller]

You've got to post a video of that tank in action on Youtube.

[Gurth]

What sort of battery pack do you require to light them, as I can't seem to find any reference as to how to power LED's on any of the websites.

Any kind of DC battery (direct current — that is, not alternating like you get from the mains) will do, basically, but there are two things to consider when lighting up a LED. One is the voltage: each LED has what is known as its "voltage drop" — basically it tells you how many volts the LED needs. This depends on the colour as well as some other factors, but it's best to ask the seller for this information. FWIW, my blueish white flashing LEDs needed about 3 volts.

 

The second thing to consider is that you need to add a resistor: this is mainly because if you put too high a voltage on the LED, it will burn through fairly quickly. So say you have an LED that needs 2 volts and you use two 1.5-volt batteries to power it (giving you 3 V), you need a resistor that will "absorb" the remaining 1 volt.

 

It's not very complicated, but for best results you need to do a little homework and learn something about how voltage, current and resistance are interrelated. Wikipedia is probably a good starting point.

[Belius]

Thanks Gurth,

 

I'll check wiki out and do a bit research - got to learn sometime :)

 

So I am assuming that by any DC battery, this means even the standard "Eveready" batteries will do?? Looking at the pictures above it seems as thou you can solder onto these batteries??

[Gurth]

I'll check wiki out and do a bit research - got to learn sometime :ph34r:

It helps if you know someone who knows a bit about electricity and/or soldering :) If you're still in school, you could ask a physics teacher, for example — they should at the very least be able to help you with the necessary calculations about the voltage, resistor capacities, etc. needed to make the circuit work.

 

So I am assuming that by any DC battery, this means even the standard "Eveready" batteries will do?? Looking at the pictures above it seems as thou you can solder onto these batteries??

Yes, you can — but if you have the room in your model, I would recommend you simply buy a battery holder of some kind. This saves you from having to solder to the battery (which is more difficult than soldering wires, resistors, etc. to each other) and also allows you to replace the batteries more easily when they're empty. I couldn't do this for two reasons: I needed 4.5 V and there are no holders for three batteries as far as I could find, plus the limited room in the Land Raider didn't allow for a battery holder anyway, what with all the other crap that also had to fit inside.

[Belius]

Again cheers Gurth!!

 

I'm a little older than school age (!!!!) but never really had too much to do with electronics but with your advice and doing a bit of research then the whole LED thing is becoming a little bit easier to understand.

 

Here's a good site for battery holders that Gurth mentioned above:

Battery Holders

[Gurth]

I'm a little older than school age (!!!!)

I can't guess your age from your posts or profile :)

 

the whole LED thing is becoming a little bit easier to understand.

It's not actually hard, but you do need to get familiar with the terminology a little bit. Basically, it boils down to this:

1. You need to calculate how large a resistor you need;
   
   • You calculate resistance using the formula R = V ÷ I (resistance in ohms (Ω) equals voltage in volts (V) divided by current in amperes (A));
     
   • You know your voltage, because this is supplied by your batteries;
     
   • You know the LED voltage drop;
     
   • The last two give you the voltage over the resistor: voltage from batteries minus LED voltage drop;
     
   • You know the current that is supposed to flow through the circuit, because this is specified by the LEDs (usually, 20 milliamperes (mA) is a good figure);
     
   • So all you do is fill all this into the formula:
     • If you have 3 volts of power and your LED requires 2 V, that means you have 3 – 2 = 1 V that the resistor needs to take care of (note that these are simply numbers for the sake of the example — check what your LEDs actually need before calculating);
       
     • The current for the LED is 20 mA;
       
     • That gives R = 1 V ÷ 20 mA = 1 V ÷ 0.020 A = 50 Ω — take a resistor that comes closest to this, as it doesn't need to be exact.
       

[*]Solder everything together, taking care that the plus-pole of the battery is connected to the plus-pole of the LED (usually the side that doesn't have a flat area, and that has the longer wire coming out of it); resistors don't have a plus or minus pole, so you can add them any way round you like.

[Belius]

Again thanks for the useful info.

 

Found a neat little calculator for the formula you gave. Find that here

 

Sorry for another question but say for that you wish to put 4 red led's in with a voltage of 2.2v each, do you add that all up so that would equal 8.8v (9) and if you were using a 12v battery, you would take that away giving you 3 as the voltage drop??

 

So the equation would look like this R = 3v / 20ma = 3v / 0.002a = 449??

[Gurth]

Found a neat little calculator for the formula you gave. Find that here

For some reason the Java part won't load in my browser :(

 

So the equation would look like this R = 3v / 20ma = 3v / 0.002a = 449??

You are a factor 10 out: 20 mA = 0.020 A, not 0.002 A :tu: So that would mean you need a R = (12 V – 8.8 V) ÷ 0.020 A = 3.2 V ÷ 0.020 A = 160 Ω. Not sure where your 449 Ω comes from, though — 3 ÷ 0.002 is 1500, not 449 … (BTW, you may want to pay attention to proper capitalisation of units, to avoid confusion :()

 

Anyway, you could do it like this, but IMHO it would be easier to take a smaller battery, like two 1.5-volt batteries in series so you get 3 V, and then put the LEDs parallel to each other, with a resistor for each LED. This may be more work, but it means you can do it with a smaller battery that takes up less space.

 

FWIW, here is a diagram of the circuit in my model. Ignore the amplifier, MP3 player, etc. as they're not relevant to what we're talking about now, but notice that my LEDs are on separate wires, with a resistor for each LED (except the ones at the bottom, which has two LEDs on a wire with a resistor between them).

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/troep/circuit.png