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Author Topic: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112  (Read 4431 times)

xrad

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XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« on: March 30, 2017, 12:56:58 am »

This is a small but cool model from Lindberg. Bought it new sealed in box off ebay for 19$.  Cost me more in led's and grain of wheat lighting! Wrote an arduino sketch to run the lights, 8 seconds on/off.  Although some charts say x2 1 sec blinks, then off for 3 sec. And normally, only one light on at night, but too cool to watch them blink back and forth. Also, anchor lights on foremast (very small leds).  Will also have cabin lights and foghorn sound!

Only some of the pieces fit well, and some broken from banging around in box. No big deal. The fun part was testing out some new to me rust techniques with acrylic 'effects' from AK Interactive.  Takes a bit to learn to do well.   The deck came out better than the hull. 

For the Nantucket, I am going for the PRE coast guard style, so no 'spar buff' yellow/beige.  Not many pre-1939 color photos (or even black and white) of this ship. Old style lamps on masts, and old style foghorn, and a few other bits I can make out on the pics I have.  Nice to build a model for under 100$ for a change!
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2017, 02:31:58 am »

Correction to above flash pattern:


1) In one of my lightship books(no date for pattern): x3 1 sec flashes followed by 2 seconds off 


2) 1942 chart: GpFl (3) ev 9 sec


3) 1966 chart: GpFl (2) 10 sec  (which I think is based primarily on the rotating locomotive lights on aft mast installed in 1960)

ev= every which was dropped from charts a while back. ex#2   Code stands for Group Flash 3 times every 9 seconds. Some charts have distance light is visible, but this has also been dropped a while back. There are many flash patterns.....sometimes designated as (2+1), slow, fast , etc....

So obviously, one needs up-to-date charts to know which light you are following.....(or GPS)
A few more pics.....
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2017, 03:27:06 am »

If you are not familiar with basic programming of micro-controllers, I strongly suggest you get yourself an adafruit trinket, read the directions on adafruit website,  and a test board and teach yourself a bit about programming with the arduino IDE. It takes a bit of time to get the hang of basic programming, but once you have it, for a few $'s, you can control innumerable lights, sounds, stepper motors, etc.  I also taught myself to program a 2$ WT588D sound board via/SPI flash plug-in. Both of these use free IDE's. The WT588D can hold hundreds of sounds and can be triggered via serial interface or mechanical switch. I am using one for the fog horn via a red button mechanical switch. Board comes with built-in 2w amp!

Anyway, below is a pic of an Adafruit trinket (7$). I have programmed it to flash the two masthead lights ON 2 sec, OFF 1 sec, On 2 sec, OFF 3 sec. I could run the lights directly off the board, but instead, I am using x2 3904 NPN transitors (100 for 7$!).

Here is the program, so you can see how it looks. I have it set so that when I power +3.7v to pin 4, the masthead lights will flash. Have to define pins differently, hence LED and LIGHT.  Could define them as fore and aft, just have to describe them the same throughout the program.  What is nice is that I can #define 'X' as pin 1,2,3,4, and it will follow through the program.  That is nice and easy. I could probably get rid of the excess brackets {} in the loop, but I wanted to define each action as it follows the previous action.  This program takes 17% of the trinket memory. Another program I wrote takes 97% and does a whole lot more!

As with most small microprocessors, they are made to run one program from beginning to end, unless you ad a bunch of if/then statements.  If you keep the program short and sweet, the trinket can nearly instantaneously run what seems like several different programs at once. Or spend 12$ and get a larger processor!  For example, there is a simple mathematical formula for my void loop to blink lights, and which could be written as one line. But since what I have below works great and is easily configured to add or take time away, I chose this method.




#define LED 3
#define LIGHT 2
#define BUTTON 4

void setup()
{
  pinMode (LED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode (LIGHT, OUTPUT);
  pinMode (BUTTON, INPUT);
}

void loop()
{
  if (digitalRead(BUTTON));
  {
    {
      digitalWrite(LED , HIGH);
      digitalWrite(LIGHT, LOW);
      delay(2000);
    }
    {
      digitalWrite(LED , LOW);
      digitalWrite(LIGHT, LOW);
      delay(1000);
    }
    {
      digitalWrite(LED , LOW);
      digitalWrite(LIGHT, HIGH);
      delay(2000);
    }
    {
      digitalWrite(LED , LOW);
      digitalWrite(LIGHT, LOW);
      delay(3000);
    }
  }
}
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2017, 03:37:03 pm »

Here is a tiny tutorial on how to record digital sound for your models.

Download Audacity (free)
Download WT588D Voice Chip Beta 1.6 (free)
Purchase a few WT588D 8mb voice modules AND the SPI flash programmer (see pic)

The process is pretty straightforward. Find a sound you like on the internet. Right click on little windows speaker icon and enable recording devices (stereo mix) so that you do not need to use a microphone to record sound back into Audacity. Audacity has a drop down selection for WINDOWS WASAPI which is the link to the recording device 'stereo mix.'   So when you play a youtube video for example, you hit record button on Audacity and you now have realtime digital recording (as good a youtube or etc. quality)

Once you have recorded to Audacity (I always set for MONO), you can play around and edit the sound, fade in, fade out, and 100 other things.  The key is to get the level to peak at -3 to 0 dB. This is the best level for sound playback on the WT588D (using its built in 2w amp).  I prefer Tang BAnd W1-2025SA speakers for EXCELLENT sound reproduction. This little speaker can really kick out some loud non-distorted sound in a very small package.  Of course, bigger ship can carry bigger amps and speakers.

Ok, so now you have recorded a sound on Audacity.  Then you need to save it as a 16 bit WAV file at 16000hz. This is what works best when compiling and downloading through the WT588D flash programmer to the 8mb sound modules.  Save the Audacity sound file to desktop (easy to find).

Next, open the WT588D Voice Chip Beta 1.6 IDE. It is in Chinese, so you have to select English (top row, second dropdown button from right).  Right click on the LEFT side file boxes and load your sound file. Drag and drop file from LEFT side to RIGHT side in the order you want to play. I start in the 00 box as it is the first to play. Select trigger (button control mode...switch to 'ground') to use a mechanical switch (you can also use 1 and 3 wire serial mode)  There are at least ten different playback modes/triggers.  SUPER nice unit. The WT588D sound modules are made by several Chinese companies. Some have round header pins and some have square header pins. Some are built a bit better than others, but all have worked.  Round header pins modules seem to have the best assembly quality.

Easy to find the PDF download instructions for sound IDE and module.  You will also need the Flash programmer module into which the WT588D is plugged(7$ form China). Then a simple matter of USB connection to pc and downloading files. NOTE: the flash programmer module draws more amps than basic pc USB can supply so for PLAYBACK, use a 5v min .15amp USB charger plugged into home power outlet.

First pic is of Audacity with a sound recording of a 2 tone diaphone off the net.  You can see it is mono and the saved sampling rate and 16bit WAV file type. Sound has been adjusted to between -3 and 0 dB. 


Next pic is WT588D sound module IDE.  Left boxes for loaded WAV files, right boxes for files going to the sound module. Center box is the USB link data to the flash programmer and the chip data. 


Last pic is the actual WT588D chip module mounted in the flash programmer, the mini USB connector, and the Tang Band speaker. 

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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2017, 07:24:59 pm »

Mini tutorial 3D printing:

I need a box for the light and sound switches, USB charger, speaker, and battery. Since this model is going to be mounted, I designed an ABS box for these components.  They would fit in the ship, but no need for unnecessary work.

In order to make parts, you need a CAD program, and a printing program.

Get yourself Free-CAD off the net. Yes it jams once in a blue moon, but mostly works great. A few little bugs you will have to get used to. Especially saving your work after every few changes, and using 'standard' meshing which never locks up.  Takes a few hours to become fairly efficient at it.  The biggest learning step is having to use the 'ctrl' button for almost everything.  Also, can't really work on anything but flat surfaces, so you have to plan ahead for this when building parts.

Next, get yourself a 3D printer for 175$. I mentioned this in another thread. I accidentally fried one of mine trying to 'change' it up a bit.  I was careful to purchase two more of same units with same control boards and motors. Parts are cheap if you need repairs. The two new units have a big print volume 10x8.5x10 inches. You will also have to learn to set up your printer and get some ABS filament.   CURA is a great little program for creating the 3D .gcode files for the printer, and it comes free with the printer on a USB stick. (my printers are CooCheer). Once in a while a 3D print grenades, and I come home to a big pile of 3D filament (looks like a pile of fishing line all tangled up), but that only has happened when I am printing multiple components at once.  These newer printers are less noisy, although I do have to rotate flat sided 3D objects 30 degress to get rid of minimal print chatter/waves.  Otherwise, no issues.

I have not printed anything in a month. I took a few minutes and designed the components for the NANTUCKET (component box, speaker mount, speaker grill, USB charger cover) loaded them to printer, and was printing in short order.  Now I am free to work on other things!

You can see the control box upside-down(to print out the roof first as 3D printers do not like to print into air!). Large round circles are 'feet' I use to hold the corners down on the angles (plastic shrinks as it cools). They are only .2mm thick and work well.


If you think this is cool, check out my website and 3D printed unusual models with sound and light using some of the steps outlined in this thread.
http://www.elegantminddesigns.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWKC-wcrbZE&index=6&list=UUYQskpmHyALB5hsentYB_6g



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Landlocked

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2017, 02:56:57 am »

XRAD,


What a perfect use for a micro processor.  You might find a market with the crowd who put light houses in their gardens.  Who wouldn't want their Cape Hatteras light flashing at the right interval -- I wonder if you could get a rotation effect with a strip of LEDs.


I looking forward to seeing your laser blaster on a Big Bang episode.  Too geeky!


Ken
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2017, 12:18:06 pm »

Thanks Ken!  Appreciate the comments.  YES, you can easily write a fade -in fade-out LED code for the Trinket or other arduino style processors to run neopixel or similar strips.  This makes the light look like its rotating (at least from certain angles). Why only certain angles? Because the assignable WS2811 style LEDs have their own mini processor built in and they only shine light out one face, as opposed to a typical round LED which has 360 degree face. But, you could pack a bunch of them together or easily write a program for the standard LED or purchase:

http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=575

The bakatronics unit is limited on the number of steps the LED dims and brightens, but it does have a cool FLASH effect.

The dual laser blaster is a BLAST. Super fun to build and use! 
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2017, 03:18:07 pm »

Printed the control box, got a little warped at the corners.  USB charger port on back right.  Using a 3.7v Lipo battery.  Have to be careful to use correct type charger with lipo batteries. This charge puts out max 1a and then tapers off quickly.  I bought them in bulk for another project, so the USB chargers come on a 5 x10 panel or so, just snap them off as needed. Really nice units.


The control box is wired for 4 light switches, the bell sound, and the fog horn sound.  You can see the WT588D and the trinket pre-wired.  The wires will run up the pedestal mounts for the lightship, which for now is just laying on the pedestals.  The pedestals are just regular lamp hardware.


The speaker has its own internal mount. This mount is glued to inside of control box so no abnormal vibrations.  Since everything is printed in ABS, I use black ABS glue found at any home/hardware store (which is really ABS in solution).  Dries fast and 'welds' the pieces together.
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2017, 09:28:56 pm »

Case mounted with 4x 5-40 screws into 3mm holes printed into screw mounts, no drilling needed!  USB charger in action, glowing red until charged....about 1.5 hours for this size battery. Then the light turns blue.  Another front mount blue LED glows when unit turned on.   As you can see on bottom pic of mount, there is a tunnel for the five operating wires (cabin lights, masthead lights, and beacon lights).

The lamp hardware works great, just purchase the longest threaded tube (which at my store was about 30") and trim as needed, as the pre-cut shorter tubes are too short for the most part, and more expensive if you plan to make more mounts.  The brass component you can see in previous pics is threaded. I mounted the lightship to the pedestals first, then mounted the pedestals to the wood base. Easier to get the nuts and washers on this way(just slide them down a wire passed through the threaded tube, and spin nuts on with a thin flat screwdriver, then lock them with superglue). Then tighten on the brass threaded pedestals to the hull.  But you need correct length of threaded tube through the pedestals and wood base, or you will have to grind away material if too long.
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2017, 01:44:14 am »

almost done with wiring.   Everything works perfectly. The transistors switch as they should with added bonus of a somewhat 'soft' turn on/turn off of masthead warning lights. I have the correct resistors on all lights to dim them to 'scale.'  The masts are solid, so the lamp wires come down the side of masts. The wires are thin diameter copper run down the sides of masts, painted,  and soldered to covered wire below deck. Rust came out well. Still many deck details to add and more weathering........


it's a lightship, so I loaded it with lights!  Bell and foghorn sound great too. will post vid when done.
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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #10 on: May 01, 2017, 12:59:44 am »

5 more hours of enjoyment!  Wiring done.  Horn and Bell sounds are fantastic. Has lower deck lights, deck house lights, anchor lights, and marker lights.  Will post video when all done.

Since this is modeled as launched, prior to Coast Guard taking control of lightships,  there is no 'spar yellow' color. Also, inappropriate markings such as C.G. on anchors are removed.   Both masthead lights are identical on the original version.   Hard to find pics of original version of LV112, but I found enough to get her close.

Only about 50 more pieces and some touch-up painting........
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2017, 07:15:23 am »


 Video, video, video
!    O0
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #12 on: May 01, 2017, 11:32:05 pm »

Hi Martin,  Well, OK. I made this vid but my camera is terrible in low light....focus motor kept clicking. Will post better video later......of course, the real ship used only one beacon light. Unfortunately, you can't see the cabin lights. They come on before the anchor lights. And it's really blurry.....

About a minute long...wait for the sounds!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49RN5a-Hmqg



 
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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #13 on: May 02, 2017, 12:06:17 am »


OK, can almost see what's going on.... try with  a small light on behind you.   :-)
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2017, 12:25:01 am »

Found some nice old pics of LV112 back before the diesel update, and back before the hurricane of '54 smashed the pilothouse.  Now it has the original amount of portholes, and all the extra ventilators and steam pipes have been removed, and one ventilator added to rear deckhouse. The railings are for the most part correct.  Have to finish some more details..... looking good for 1/92 scale.....
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #15 on: May 07, 2017, 01:53:23 am »

Almost finished rigging. Added sepia wash.  few bits to go.....
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #16 on: May 13, 2017, 11:00:13 pm »

Finished. Brass wire for antenna masts. Weathered lifeboats.   I really enjoyed this build, so I decided to make a bigger one.......someday....

Some corrections to future build: 9 portholes on front wall of pilothouse. Chocks are mounted with a steel support plate to the cap rail, not box mounted to deck.  A few other little things too....


Nice smooth relatively clear video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWoK1OVomI

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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #17 on: May 13, 2017, 11:08:25 pm »

A few more pics:
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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #18 on: June 07, 2017, 10:53:31 am »

Very nice!!!!  :-))
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xrad

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Re: XRAD'S NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP LV112
« Reply #19 on: June 27, 2017, 01:12:39 pm »

Thx Missyd! Appreciate the comments.  I am working on a new lightship with a 30 inch hull just like this one. Waiting on some full sized plans from US coast guard.   But I have to finish my live steam launch first....


PS: your C Marie is fantastic!
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