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Author Topic: newbie Wire routing help?  (Read 3164 times)

skystar

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newbie Wire routing help?
« on: October 17, 2012, 04:19:11 pm »

Hi, new user here, I posted yesterday but my post and login name had disappeared by today, hope nothing I did wrong..

I am looking for advice on routing thin wires round my Tug Bugsier3 for lighting.
I have 4 lights on the front mast, nav lights, interior and spotlight in the middle, and 3 lights on the rear mast.
Currently I was just going to use an 2x AA battery box with manual switch as I only have 2ch receiver.

The leads on my mini bulbs are not especially long.
I get the basic idea of how to wire lights, but searching for info on the best way to actually physically lay out the wiring in a way that doesn't look messy and what type of connectors to use or just solder everything fixed?
Do you use shrink wrap or something else on this thin wire?

What do you do if you need to change a bulb? relatively easily to unplug (or unscrew) wires and insert a new one, or more hassle to cut it off and resolder?
I imagine it be a real hassle if the light was in an awkward place, but I don't know the tricks of the trade. This is my first boat. I've made planes and cars before but I only did the minimum to get them working, the boat I want to look good.

I feel a bit embarrassed to ask these questions as I'm sure there must be lots of info out there, but I've been searching for a while and just not quite found what I've been looking for.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

thanks
Dave
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skystar

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Re: newbie Wire routing help?
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2012, 04:41:55 pm »

This is what i was thinking of when I made the post.
1/6th scale Mersey Class Lifeboat
http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/Modellers/Mike_Pendlebury/1ndex.htm

Absolutely amazing job on that, and of course I don't expect to be as good. On page 18 I think he has wires going all over the place, deliberately for the photo I guess, but then are tucked away so are unnoticeable, at least not more so than on the real version. I see that they go through a hole to inside but theres no trace of them in the cab (looking at the tractor model atm).
I guess I was worried after reading someone complaining that the mini bulbs don't last all that well, didn't want to rig up my wiring in a way that would be too difficult to change something. Not used to working on this small size.
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NFMike

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Re: newbie Wire routing help?
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2012, 09:52:36 pm »

Mini-bulbs or LEDs? If they aren't going to be easily replaced then LEDs would make more sense, but, especially if you already have bulbs or they are prefitted in housings, LEDs will cost more and need resistors in line. On the other hand if you aren't planning to run your lights for hundreds of hours a year and under-run the bulbs (say 3/4 of rated volts, so 12V bulbs at 9V for example) they should last pretty much forever anyway.

Hiding wiring can be hard, especially if you do it after building the boat. However, you can be a little devious and glue wires to the surface in suitable ways, so when painted over they can give a passable impersonation of conduit, pipework, handrails, or other surface details - it depends how much accuracy you need and how cunning you are.
Another option is to check out dolls house wiring (eg. Double Copper Tape for Dolls House Wiring) which is basically a pair of copper strips on a thin plastic film. Again you run it over the surface and then 'decorate' over it

grendel

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Re: newbie Wire routing help?
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2012, 10:10:52 pm »

you can get some quite small (3mm) led sockets, you could wire these in then the led's or mini bulbs could plug into them - heres just one style - there may be more - http://vcclite.com/led-assemblies/panel-mount-assemblies/
Grendel
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grendel

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Re: newbie Wire routing help?
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2012, 10:37:17 pm »

out of the box thinking, use the jumper sockets from computer boards, the two pins of a led or grain light should plug into one of those with no trouble.
Grendel
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malcolmfrary

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Re: newbie Wire routing help?
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2012, 08:23:02 pm »

out of the box thinking, use the jumper sockets from computer boards, the two pins of a led or grain light should plug into one of those with no trouble.
Grendel
.........taking great care to plug 'em in the right way round.  The "D" in LED stands for diode, and they are notoriously picky about the direction of current.
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skystar

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Re: newbie Wire routing help?
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2012, 12:30:48 am »

I have mini bulbs not LED, I was thinking I'd buy LED's but I just got the lights that are prefitted in lanterns from graupner, and turns out they are mini bulbs, guess I didn't pay enough attention to that when I bought them.

So its ok to solder the wires fixed? I was thinking it might be the amateurish thing to do and that the experts would probably have a clever type of removable fitting.
Those LED sockets look good , but not sure if the mini bulb I have would fit in, flexible small strands of wire, would I need to solder something on the end first I guess?

thanks for the tips.
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grendel

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Re: newbie Wire routing help?
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2012, 10:30:23 am »

with flexible wire just tinning the end would probably stiffen it up enough to be honest. as mentioned before though if you have 12v bulbs and run them on a lower voltage the bulbs will last a lot longer anyway - indicator bulbs on power station control panels are almost always 240v bulbs run on 110v and replacing bulbs is a rare occurrence.
Grendel
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