Sometimes the biggest problems come from the smallest part...
The Little D comes with one Pod Bay door open, with the Pod in that position facing outward, on an extendable landing pad.
The diameter of the Pod is a little over an inch, so you can imagine there isn't much room inside. The headlights are .100 in diameter. Lighting them up has been a real head-scratcher. I've tried several things to produce something that approximates the look everyone is expecting. I even got some really tiny light bulbs (.093"), but they weren't bright enough and they put out a very yellow light.
I didn't want to use light bulbs anyway, because they'd be very hard for the owner to replace when they burn out. So, LEDs are the answer, but none of them fit into the very tiny holes. The following photos show the solution, which isn't really obvious, so I'll have to describe this end result.
Here you see the front of the Pod, a brass tube and some fiber optic. This is the largest monofiliment fiber optic I could find, but its only .060". If you look closely, you'll see that the end of the fiber optic has a 'head' on it. This is done by applying heat from a soldering iron, but not touching it. The end of the plastic swells and is really close to the desired size. This process is called 'lensing' the fiber optic.
Now the problem is I have to cut teeny-tiny lengths of not only the fiber optic, but the brass tubes as well, which is the part on the right.
Fortunately, only one Pod per ship gets this treatment. Cutting the fiber isn't a problem. Cutting the brass is the problem. Actually, not cutting it, but FINDING it after its been cut! Eh, cutting 4 of these per Pod and just cutting a bunch of them will only take a couple of hours. But those will be very long hours...
But, that's not the end. Each headlight will need its own LED, so that's 4 LEDs per Pod. There is simply no way to combine any of these together and still get a 'blinding' light out of the headlights. I just need to find LEDs that are acceptably 'white'. Most whites are really bluish or amberish, but I know they are out there because I've seen them!
The good news is this works. I just have to work out how the wires are routed from the Pod back into the Command Sphere. Actually, there's only one way to do that, I just need to get some really fine wire. In the meantime, assembly continues and I'll be covering that very soon.
Scott
The Little D comes with one Pod Bay door open, with the Pod in that position facing outward, on an extendable landing pad.
The diameter of the Pod is a little over an inch, so you can imagine there isn't much room inside. The headlights are .100 in diameter. Lighting them up has been a real head-scratcher. I've tried several things to produce something that approximates the look everyone is expecting. I even got some really tiny light bulbs (.093"), but they weren't bright enough and they put out a very yellow light.
I didn't want to use light bulbs anyway, because they'd be very hard for the owner to replace when they burn out. So, LEDs are the answer, but none of them fit into the very tiny holes. The following photos show the solution, which isn't really obvious, so I'll have to describe this end result.
Here you see the front of the Pod, a brass tube and some fiber optic. This is the largest monofiliment fiber optic I could find, but its only .060". If you look closely, you'll see that the end of the fiber optic has a 'head' on it. This is done by applying heat from a soldering iron, but not touching it. The end of the plastic swells and is really close to the desired size. This process is called 'lensing' the fiber optic.
Now the problem is I have to cut teeny-tiny lengths of not only the fiber optic, but the brass tubes as well, which is the part on the right.
Fortunately, only one Pod per ship gets this treatment. Cutting the fiber isn't a problem. Cutting the brass is the problem. Actually, not cutting it, but FINDING it after its been cut! Eh, cutting 4 of these per Pod and just cutting a bunch of them will only take a couple of hours. But those will be very long hours...
But, that's not the end. Each headlight will need its own LED, so that's 4 LEDs per Pod. There is simply no way to combine any of these together and still get a 'blinding' light out of the headlights. I just need to find LEDs that are acceptably 'white'. Most whites are really bluish or amberish, but I know they are out there because I've seen them!
The good news is this works. I just have to work out how the wires are routed from the Pod back into the Command Sphere. Actually, there's only one way to do that, I just need to get some really fine wire. In the meantime, assembly continues and I'll be covering that very soon.
Scott
