Finishlast Christmas 2013 - Re-Reloaded

[finishlast]

Hi there, I mean - eh - HOHOHO there.

Once again I struggled with the new winterset, I'm not really done with it, lighting up some booths, adding to the scenery.... etc. but since I completed the übertask with the carousel, I do think it's time to present at least this bit...

I added 62 smd led, here are some pics of it and a small Video I uploaded to YouTube, so that you get the idea...

Oh and I will really NEVER do that again. You will get mentally ill, I dare you...

[lightningtiger]

Impressive piece of Vero board building there 'finishlast'......interesting rotor/brush system too......Brick On !

[Paperballpark]

Are those genuine LEGO parts?

Seriously though, that's impressive!

Edited October 25, 2013 by Paperballpark

[NoEinstein]

This looks amazing.

I find it funny that you made a complex lighting system and still use hand power to make the carousel spin. Out of PF motors I bet

Edited October 25, 2013 by NoEinstein

[Kristel]

Very impressive! I think I'll keep my sanity though and stick with the version without lights.

[finishlast]

Absolutely genuine, yes ;) I'm concentrating on the most frustrating part right now, soldering those tiny smd leds. 14 or something are still to come.

Then I will have to order some more white plates to make it fit somewhere in http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=75913&st=0 <-here.

The motor part is worked on! My coworker and his son are doing the testing right now ;) See the motor tests here!

Edited October 26, 2013 by finishlast

[Rob Klingberg]

That is absolutely amazing work! Do you have more details about the circuit that you could share? What functions does it perform, how are the LEDs connected to the circuit, etc. Thanks!

[finishlast]

It's based on something I found on a german case-modding site. www.moddingtech.de "lauflicht 2" (just search Google) Unfortunatelly the site seems to be down right now.

I found the main circuit on Google Pictures again so see here:

I have 19v in the base and took 2 cables to bring it to the top, then transformed it down to 5v (the green board - you can take just a single -eh- whatever its called in english . .. power lower thing.. hehe voltage Regulator or so) to fit the moddingtech circuit.

Basically you take a ne555 as a clock ( the thing at the top my picture with the black piti) then you put the signal on a 4017 10 bit Counter so you get a 10 channel blinker. Its the thing with the resistors beneath the ne555 board.

Every channel only supports one led, so I put every channel agains a transistor and switch the 19v on and off.

That way I was able to put two strings of 6 yellow and 6 blue leds in each 2*8 at the sides.

So I used channel 1-8 for the for side plates which have 6 yellow and 6 blue so all in all 48 leds for the sides.

Channel 9-10 are used to light the top. 2 leds in each edge so I connected ever second edge to make it "move" a bit.

Yes and lots and lots of soldering and screaming a word a thousend times. I think it started with the letter f.

Edited November 9, 2013 by finishlast

[Rob Klingberg]

Wow, that is quite a circuit! Thank you for sharing. When you say you kept shouting the "F" word, I assume you mean "FUN!"

How did you mount the LEDs into the 1x plates? Did you drill holes?

Again, great work!

[NoEinstein]

Then I will have to order some more white plates to make it fit somewhere in http://www.eurobrick...opic=75913&st=0 <-here.

The motor part is worked on! My coworker and his son are doing the testing right now ;) See the motor tests here!

Waow, those pictures from last year look amazing. All those nice lit up buildings, to brighten the darker days in the winter. Can we expect some pictures when you integrated the market?

Love the movie. I shall motorize mine too when I get it and connect it to my 9V transformator like you did. My nephew of 4 will love it I am sure (much more than the digital switched battery box).

[finishlast]

Yes, now that I think of it the word was -eh- FUN!

You have to drill 1mm holes, but I'm not afraid to do that, I did that to the other sets and I will do it again. Lego-Brick-Murderer muhahahaha

The best way to do it without getting loose cables all the time is by putting some superglue in the 1x plates . There is a deeper hole in it where the smd led fit in, that way you have a really stable combination of plate, smd led and cable.

Then you have to drill your way through the other bricks. I know I know most Lego people will stab me now in the eyes but it's the only way to include that many leds without seeing a cable from the outside. I'm not going to rip the set part again anyways...

And yes, I will post new pictures when I'm done, I already soldered the last 14 leds yesterday. Right now I wonder how to drill through the lamp posts....

[Rob Klingberg]

I'm working on perfecting drilling through the lamp posts myself. I find using a 3/8" drill bit (longer than normal-- look for an extended length) works well, as long as you have a drill press or other way to hold the drill straight. Let me know if you want me to send you a couple lamp posts. I also have pre-mounted SMD LEDs.

--Rob

[RunnersDad]

This is one cool carousel! Would love to see this turned into a real set!

[finishlast]

Then just go ahead and buy it, should be already in the stores

I ordered parts on bricklink today. Going to move on to integrate everthing. I think I have all smd led soldered and am ready to complete the smaller booths thingies.

I'm going to try to drill my way through the lamp Posts soon. Patches for my thump and everything all in place.

[finishlast]

Just a quick update, testing with the booth lights. Okayish so far.

I spent the weekend to make the other sets compatible with 19v, so all parts can use the same powersource now...

I'm still waiting for the bricklink order...

My coworker integrated lights into the carousel as well, but it blinks from bottom to top, looks really neat that way.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/finishlast/xmas/2013-9.jpg

Edited November 4, 2013 by Rick
Please keep embedded images to a maximum of 1024 x 768 pixels.

[NoEinstein]

Thanks for the update, cannot wait for the end result.

[kermit]

Very well done but is there a much simpler way of doing this without all those wires?

[finishlast]

I don't see a way with less cables. You have 48 leds in the base so you have to double that for +/- so you get 96 wires.

I took a row of 6 so you have 16 wires that goes to the top for 8 different channels. 16 lights in the top part devided into 2 channels make another 4 wires.

So you end with 20 right? um. You will at least need the transistor board to get enough voltage for the lights.

Maybe - just maybe you can take an arduino board to reduce the other things I stuffed in it. But I think that would be a bit too much...

Putting a single led as a simple backlight for the whole plate isn't working I tried with a transparent 2x2 in the inside with 3 ultra bright leds and its just way too dark.

Edited November 5, 2013 by finishlast

[finishlast]

Received the Bricklink order today yay

In the meantime I built the custom 19v power suply for up to 6 sets.

No, please don't plug in a normal usb device or you get hurt ;D

The sets are connected via usb cables...

Working on the m-Motor too, it's just too fast right now...

Edited November 12, 2013 by finishlast

[spacepilot3000]

Uh, oh, finishlast - found the topic today.

Folks, get a house, get a son, and you have no time for nothing anymore. finishlast is 1 million steps away from my status is soldering and do magic lightning...

But here's the little motor stress test on youtube:

And the this is the other way of blinking:

And here you can see the results of soldering 2010 - 2012. That's the "big diorama". The new set has to fit into ...

(The whole christmas wonderland of finishlast also looks this way....)

Uhoooh, finishlast how many weeks until christmas are left?

Edited November 7, 2013 by spacepilot3000

[blksuperman2]

That is really exceptionally awesome! I wish I had the time & talent to pull that off. Bravo!

[finishlast]

46 days, 8 hours and 57 minutes.

But since we Germans search for the christmas pickle on dec. 24th it's only 45 days right?

Then again you have to put the diorama in place on - at least - dez 1st.

Oh my gosh. My motor power-supply is ready now. Yay for smoke. Yay for buying double parts.

And testing ;)

Edited November 8, 2013 by finishlast

[spacepilot3000]

HO HO HO!

YES. After burning some parts for lunch today with finishlast, we have now regulated speed, and 25.000 imported italian(?) lights:

Next step for me is to get the powered something to turn. The rest is business as usual. LEDs, LEDs and more LEDs.

45 days??? OH ... my *waitforit* ... Goodness!

[finishlast]

Looking pretty slick. You still need a way to get the power from the base to the top.

My rotor/brush system works better than expected, the caroussel is running for 30 minutes now without problems.

I think I will try to get a seperate switch for the motor into a 2x8 brick, but I dont have a god idea where to start.

I'll sleep over it.

Edited November 9, 2013 by finishlast

[Lego Otaku]

Simple design and very cool!!! If I was going to do something like this, I would have used arduino. I can make more elaborate lighting squence trick such as separate LEDs on top and on center pillar rather than having only 1 set lighting in the whole setup.

arduino isn't too hard once you understand the basics. an arduino nano is somewhat similar in size to both 555 and 4017 combined.