# Secrets 1/350 Enterpries Refit build.



## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

This is going to be a long project time wise.

Mostly because of the custom lights being controlled from an Arduino Uno.

I dont actually have the model kit yet, due to the amount of work presented to me for the lighting alone. But heres a general break down before I go onto the programming.

Motorized shuttle bay doors.
LED landing strips in the shuttle bay.
3 modes - Startup, Impulse Power and Warp Power.
Possible sound effects for going to warp and dropping out from warp.

Now, the Arduino has certain limitations which need to be accounted for. Most notably, the lack of output pins.

So the saucer cabin lights, engineering cabin lights and flood lights are being consolidated down to a single pin output. This "signal" will be fed into a circuit that will activate the 3 sets of lights at the right times.

The other major limitation is power output of those 13 pins.

Each pin will act as a trigger signal which will go to a "power expansion board" and be activated/deactivated with that.

Now then! the fun part! I have already been working on the core programming. And its coming along quite nicely. I will post the video below but heres what still needs to be done:


There is a bug with the impulse leds (3rd and 4th LEDS from the right) where they are not staying on properly.
The fade LED's need to be "down faded" instead of simply turning off.
Servo control needs to be added for the shuttlebay doors.
Possibly add sound effects

The timings on the navigation lights and strobe lights need a little "tweeking".

The idea behind the code controlling it all though is that it can be used in ANY starfleet model and the variables, such as the navigation light and strobe light times, changed to suit.

So "hey you said you'd add a video link" I hear you saying.

Well here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-trRl2oFaw&list=PL1ja0k2ccCfverSOdZQo0rclB5YKm89W7&index=5

I will be trying to get the code refined and working properly as well as beginning work on the hardware circuits. First and Foremost will be the shuttlebay landing strips though.

If you think you can help get the code working properly, Please drop me a private message. But I should say, I do intend to make all schematics and the code available publicly to the members here. So please bare that in mind if you wish to help with the code.

I will of course, answer any questions and try to keep regular updates coming!

:wave:


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## mikephys (Mar 16, 2005)

This sounds very cool. I don't know much at all about Arduino, but I look forward to your updates. From your video, I gather that you are attempting to replicate the Enterprise start up sequence from TMP.

Best of luck to you, and please keep the updates coming!


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

Yeah, thats the startup sequence I'm hoping for but could do with a video of it for reference, then I can adjust the code to suit.

I will make a tutorial video on adjusting the settings and sequence so people can see how to use the code for their projects.


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## Sparky (Feb 21, 2004)

I am intrigued by all the features that you are proposing. A torpedo firing sequence with associated sound captured from one of the movies might be cool to add to your list. This is a feature I have always wanted to incorporate into a refit build.


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

It's something I had thought about to be honest sparky, but the Arduino has limited outputs and there wasnt enough room.

although im only using the digital pins and and there are analog pins to be utilised.

But hey, I have a bug in the fading which needs to be fixed before i worry about that haha.


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

I thought a little more about it.

It would be possible to hook up a circuit to turn on the torpedo LED and play the relevant torpedo sound. It would take its trigger from the corresponding pin much like the cabin lights.

incase you or anyone else, sound clips here:

http://www.trekcore.com/audio/


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

Ambiguous project you have in the tubes there! 

But I don't think your "motorized bay doors" will work as you plan it to. There is just not enough room between the hangar bay walls and the hulls bulkhead. Same goes for the space underneath the bay doors and the fantail hull. There is perhaps a 3-5mm gap not more. There is a little more room between the hangar wall and outer ship hull since it widens as it goes towards the bow, but at its narrowest point there is also only like a 3mm gap, if at all. For motorized bay doors you need a track system the bay doors halves are sliding on. How do you plan to do the doors halves? Flexible material, trapezoid elements that are linked to each other? The doors need to retract in to the secondary hull right parallel to the outer hull and bay walls. You need to have the motor to do it in someplace too. If you want to install the hangar/cargo bay and light it, as well as secondary hull lights, cabling to the pylons/nacelles and saucer I can attest to you: there is not a lot of spare room left! 

If you can make it happen! Awesome! 
But don't over plan this project! 
It will become an un climbable mountain very fast!


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

I have already given the doors enough thought.

The servo for them wouldnt have to be in the walls, there is alot of room in the shuttlebay itself that goes unseen when the model is assembled.

Basically all of the servos you can buy are insanely large for this model, even the 7/9 gram ones.

I'm going to rebuild the shuttlebay doors out of a different material that is flexible and use the "curtain track" style method to give it something to run on.
The motor/servo will be hidden in the back of the shuttlebay where it steps down. then a push/pull method hidden in there somehow.

Obviously I dont have the kit at this time so I havent made anything other than loose plans for it.

But i still need to get the code finalised and touched up before moving onto that. As well as the hardware requirements for the expansion boards and landing lights and so on.

Does anyone know the internal diameter of the supplied "mounting" tube?

I was thinking of using some internal computer cables. A couple of these










I'm going to have all the circuits in the base, with NO pcb's or anything in the model and group the lights together into 1 cable which connects to 1 pin on those then the other end of that pin to the relevant circuit connected to the Arduino. Obviously, one of the headers would need to be taken off to get it up the tube though haha.


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## wjplenge (Apr 14, 2011)

The support tube for the 1/350 TOS Enterprise has an internal diameter of 3.52mm.


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

That needs to be changed out then for something with a little more internal room.

thank you wj.


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

I have got the bug out of the code for the impulse engines and the torpedo led.






Remember though, the led colors in the video are there just for testing and are not the final colors to be used!


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

secretreeve said:


> Does anyone know the internal diameter of the supplied "mounting" tube?


My ruler says 1/8".


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

Thanks Fozzie.

Update on the code!

I've got it looping around in cycles now!

The sequence is:

turning on the power you begin the startup sequence, From here it moves onto the "Impulse power" mode, then onto the "Warp power" mode. Then from here it returns to impulse mode and cycles between impulse and warp modes until you power off.

Still working on down fading the leds though but i kind of like having the "current mode" light turn off then the next mode light fade on, So the deflector orange light turns off and fades on blue, then the nacelles violet turns off and blue fades on.

I will post an updated video later.


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

Next on the list is expanding the hardware. First up will be the landing strip lights for the shuttle bay.


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## galaxy_jason (May 19, 2009)

I am doing this as well. I am using a micro to do the start up sequence 
exactly like TMP.

It also does the runway effect in yellow (normal mode) and red (stealth mode)..






As well as photon effect...

http://galaxyphoto.com/refit_350/ph_led.MOV

The secondary breakout board and runway...

http://galaxyphoto.com/refit_350/secondar_b.jpg

The main controller (prototype etch board)...

http://galaxyphoto.com/refit_350/boardfront.jpg

http://galaxyphoto.com/refit_350/boardback.jpg

And the single RGB LED dish in "rose" mode..

http://galaxyphoto.com/refit_350/dsih_test.jpg


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

Looks great Jason. 
Too bad you did not do that like 9 Month ago before I had sealed the secondary hull.


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## galaxy_jason (May 19, 2009)

Yes, well, I am still 6 months from getting it all working in a actual model


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

By then I will hopefully have finished mine  
Perhaps next time.


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

Cant really fault your designs there Garbaron.

I'm going for a more universal use with my project. hopefully something others can use for theirs if they wanted to or use in other models. Also aiming to keep as much of the hardware out of the model and in the base. other than the leds of course. haha.

yours will certainly be interesting to see though.


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## Opus Penguin (Apr 19, 2004)

Oh man!! That is incredible!


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## Nova Designs (Oct 10, 2000)

That is awesome!


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## galaxy_jason (May 19, 2009)

Don't limit yourself by the number of Arduino pins. Use serial data and high power shift registers..

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/734

I will be running over 30 channels in my micro controller reift. And these 
little guys can sink up to 150mA so you can drive multiple LED's without 
transisters. The Arduino can only drive one LED per pin.


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## starseeker (Feb 1, 2006)

secretreeve said:


> It's something I had thought about to be honest sparky, but the Arduino has limited outputs and there wasnt enough room.
> 
> although im only using the digital pins and and there are analog pins to be utilised.
> 
> But hey, I have a bug in the fading which needs to be fixed before i worry about that haha.



Something I've been wondering about is incorporating 2 Unos or Nanos or even smaller clones in a single build. 
These things do have so many possibilities that if you do go kid-in-a-candy-store wild with the wish list, is it possible to want a design so ambitious that you run out of outputs? - say adding all the lighting effects that you want to control (running lights, strobe lights, TOS or A landing bay lights, torpedo fire-up sequence, blue laser phaser (which was popular a couple years ago), the rest-to-spotlight-to-impulse-to-warp power-up sequence), plus all the mechanical effects, like doors and light motors (on the TOS), plus sound effects, which you haven't even mentioned yet? Plus an IR shield to control everything with a remote instead of more switches than the inside of a Lunar Module.* Given how inexpensive the clones are, could it be a lot simpler, or even necessary, or just plain more fun, to consider two boards instead of one?

This is a great thread! Thanks for posting!

*(Or on the Jupiter 2, controlling all the interior lights [steady plus all the control panels and the bottom light ring, plus sounds, plus the mechanicals like radar and landing gear and all the inner and outer hatches, if you were crazy enough to want to try that.] Even if it's physically possible, I just don't know if want to try to write all that into one script.)


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

you probably can include more than one. a single board is very capable if you know what your doing and have experience in programming. i dont so im going with one and keeping it simple.


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## shopper (Dec 6, 2003)

This is a great thread! I am currently experimenting with a Parallax Basic Stamp 1 micro to drive a LCD screen in my TNG MKVII Tricorder. Not sure about the processor you are using, but I am told the Basic Stamp is easy to program. I am still in the beginning stages at this point. I have a 1:350 TOS and a 1:350 Refit I am planning to build and I see the applications to control warp drive/lighting/laser-phasers etc..
Looking forward to your continued posts on your buildup!

Bill


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

Thanks you, I'm at a bit of a stand still on this for the time being until i get some cash injection into the project for the hardware expansions. I will keep up to date when i make progress though.


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## eagledocf15 (Nov 4, 2008)

*Any update*

Any Update on the build?


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## secretreeve (Sep 11, 2012)

Bike broke down so I'm having to hold all modelling until I save up enough for a new bike


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