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Thread: All-electric simulated machine gun?

  1. #51
    Hehe. "Roger that" Ron. We all have to be at least a little crazy, so right there with ya on that. Regarding directivity - really good point. Also gives rise to the fact that flying down a runway line will only allow one side of a wings lights to be potentially seen by "the crowd." To see both sides would require a bit of side slip with the leeward wing slightly high for a good effect. And of course the directionality also comes into play as you stated. For that I see a small servo connected to a bracket that connects all the light mounts that will allow you slant the lights as much as necessary to expose as much of the light as possible to the on-lookers. My brain is working overtime trying to come up with a good mounting solution for all that. I think it is totally do-able though.

    Also thanks for the heads up on the IC 558. I knew about the 555 but have not had a chance to play with either of them yet. That said, I have tried out several of the lights I received from SuperbriteLEDs, as well as the strobe controller, and I have to say I really like the effect I get from one of them above all the others. It is their part number WLED-RLX, which is a 1 watt non-polarized wedge mount Red LED. I'll have to rig it up for some outside tests, but inside it just about blinds the heck out of ya-and that from using just a 9 volt battery. The strobe effect is also pretty cool, and would pass for machine flashes pretty nicely I think. I'll look into the 558 chip and use your schematic and see what happens. I'll grab some pics and video and post those as well.

  2. #52
    cluttonfred's Avatar
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    I have the two "filament" version of this single 3W LED bulb in the bullet-shaped tail lights on my truck. I am very impressed by the brightness and the dispersion of the beam from the integrated lens.

    http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...ctor-lens/921/

    For a WWII set-up, I can easily envision eight 1156 (BA15S) sockets set in the wings below the surface of the leading edge under fake "doped red patch" covering the "muzzles" but with each hole actually covered by removable clear tape circles. For the big show, you remove the circles and plug in the eight bulbs with the sockets just deep enough to leave just the lens projecting beyond the leading edge. That ought to be visible from any angle when firing but otherwise not jarring from a distance. See this detail photo of an actual Hurricane I at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford.

    Name:  hurricane wing gun detail.jpg
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  3. #53
    Eric, that is awesome. Yup, I can see those lights working well for an in wing WWII assembly. Looks like they are just over 2 inches long and 3/4 inches wide. Unfortunately I am chained to the task of emulating the flared gun ports of a P-51D Mustang, which basically consists of a stacked wedding cake-looking assembly of metal coming out of each gun port. I wish I could get away with the open port design of the Hurricane (thanks for that photo). That would make things so much easier. Then I was milling about in an RV trailer hitch store today and found some plastic plumbing parts that immediately grabbed my attention - not for using them on my trailer, but as an almost perfectly scaled gun port for my application. Here is a pic:



    Not too bad for a gun port on an experimental plane I think! I plan on glassing the gun farings onto the wing for that true P-51 gun port look. Taking the SportAir Composite class in about a week so I am getting excited about that.

    This site has some good close ups of the gun ports on the 51:
    http://www.crazyhorseap.be/Mustangs/...nie/G-MSTG.htm

    It all comes down to measurements now. If I can house all of the light assembly inside the gun port housing, then I only need to drill holes in the LE of the wing large enough for the wires to attach to the base. Otherwise the base will get mounted just inside the leading edge of the wing as you have stated, probably on a small aluminum bracket that I will attach to the nose of each rib in the bay where the guns will be located. Above all, I will need to ensure that the gun port assemblies are able to withstand the flight loads without coming apart, and I think flight testing will be the only real way to assure that.

    I was also trying to figure out what to use for a weatherproof cover for the ports, and was encouraged by reading your post and seeing the specs from the 1156 light which includes a reflector lense. Then I was disappointed again when I read the fine print that states that they are non-weatherproof and for indoor use only, unless in a weatherproof housing. I have a local company where I live that handles all sorts of vehicle lighting that I plan to visit next week to see if they can offer up a small profile weather proof enclusure for a light light this. Or perhaps a simple O-ring will do the job. Either way - no question that I will have to do whatever is necessary to keep the moisture out.

    Still having fun piecing all this together.
    Last edited by Flyin'Bryan; 04-13-2013 at 02:38 PM.

  4. #54

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    On waterproofing - how hot do the LED assemblies get? If they don't get hot, one would think some shrink wrap might be a super low-tech solution. If they do get warm, perhaps a cardboard tube to insulate from the guts of it and then shrink wrap.

    Or just don't fly in the rain!

    I was going to experiment with a glass or plastic tube when I rig up the gun for dispersal of light - the barrel of my 7/8 scale Lewis gun is about a quarter inch around, and I wondered if I put a glass rod in it up to the flash supressor if the light would scatter back enough from the end to show from the sides through the slits.

    Perhaps if it were frosted....
    The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

  5. #55
    cluttonfred's Avatar
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    On the waterproof installation question, I remember seeing some low-cost marine lights made by essentially screwing the bulb-holder through the inside of a baby food jar lid into the roof or bulkhead of the boat. The wires were fed through a rubber grommet-lined hole in the lid. You then screw on the jar itself for the "lens" and you are done.

    With that principle in mind, depending on the bulb holder you use, you ought to be able to to find a small clear plastic pill jar that would fit over the end of the bulb and with liberal use of silicone sealant you could make it waterproof. I don't think heat would be an issue--the LEDs do not generate as much heat as traditional bulbs, and they will only be flashing intermittently in short bursts.

    That said, these bulbs are probably a lot more water-resistant than you might think, they are just not intended to be installed completely exposed to the weather.
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  6. #56
    I have ordered the same 1156 LEDS and the bases that go with them - they might arrive tomorrow. In the mean time I am including two links, one of the raw mp4 video I shot of my light test with the strobe controller unit from SuperBriteLEDs. I will also post a link to my latest blog entry that also includes the same video, in case video only link does not work for some reason. I really liked the the effect. As my post states, I finally found a small round enclosed trailer LED light today that may just serve my purposes. Lots more testing to do yet, but man this is fun....

    This small light seems to be weather proofed in front and in back, but still requires a good mounting base. Love the baby food jar idea, and so far my idea was somewhat similar by using a small round metal mounting plate that I will imbed in a glassed gun port faring as far in front of the leading edge of the wing as necessary for the gun port/light assembly to look good. I also still like the idea of making the lights removeable and putting some sort of cover plate over them. Also agree that they should not get that hot if they are being strobed in short bursts.



    http://bryansrv8project.blogspot.com...n-testing.html

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