The I "C" Red Battle Royale LPF Contest

[CDBEAM777]

Yikes....just found this great contest !! Thank you LB for your bold initiative !!

I am working on my design....a unit equal to the " Tridentis" class !!!

Be afraid....Be very afraid !!...For the name of my build will be...selected to to inspire and amuse you gentlemen:


"Judge dREDd"




HAHAHAHAHA !!! Thought you all would like that !!! You can just imagine what this might be ??? E P I C !!! Trust me !!! :eg::eg::eg:

CDBEAM =======>

 

[Lazerbeak]

That is Awesome CDBEAM!!!

~ LB

 

[Wolfman29]

WOOT! So I got my phaser in the mail today. I was a little disappointed that the "power up" and "power down" buttons were switches, not buttons, but that's no matter - I'll just get some small switches to take care of that for me! Will require a bit extra effort, but I think it can be done. Now I just need to make sure that this will be able to run from a single 14500 li-ion! XD

 

[Lazerbeak]

Sweet Wolfman! Make it so

Keep us posted

~ LB

 

[Wolfman29]

Hah. Picard is my favorite! It's going to be a tough build, I'll give it that. Fortunately, it won't be a laser that is to be kept on, so the heatsink won't need to be too huge. And good thing too - won't have room for it! I'm thinking I will just run it parallel mode, with two 14500 batteries in parallel. Will provide more power and most of my ICs can't handle above 6V anyway.

Meanwhile, I realized I needed to order a few more parts. I want to get this show on the road before I have to move back into the dorms!

 

[cantthinkofone]

Still haven't uploaded pics. I'll upload them pics soon I sware. I just can't find the time.

 

[Lazerbeak]

Take your time Contest hasn't even officially begun yet :shhh:

~ LB

 

[Wolfman29]

So I am in the works of finally getting a PCB laid out for my design. It's been a real hassle, I'll tell you that. But I think it will work. The phaser will always draw a bit of current unless I pop out the batteries. That'll keep it in the last state it was in! I think it'll draw about 15mA at any given time, +- 5mA (that is, if I decide to add in LED indicators which tell me what power level it's at, which is what I am thinking of doing. Or I could make the design a bit more complex and make the fire button also switch on those LEDs, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose? Anyway, I think the fact that it'll have memory is neat. If I don't have the LEDs there, it'll probably draw less than 1mA when in the off position.

The theory of operation is that I will have the batteries always connected to the voltage-control circuit. That way, the voltage control can be adjusted regardless of whether or not it is on (can adjust power while it's "off"). Then, upon pressing the fire button, it'll close a MOSFET that gives power to the diode, the current of which will be indicated by the voltage selected by the voltage control circuit. I'll post up a PCB layout potentially tomorrow to show how complicated this is getting!

 

[Lazerbeak]

Most impressive Wolfman! Definitely sounds like an exciting setup :beer:

Look forward to seeing how much current you end up getting out of the 2 14500's.

~ LB

 

[Wolfman29]

If there's one thing I know, it's how to get too much current out of tiny batteries! I have my 2.5W 445nm diode running from two 14250s in series xD

Anyway, spent too many hours on this today. Bed time!

 

[Wolfman29]

Again, double posting - sorry. But I finally got a schematic and board layout for the driver. Jesus, it was hard to do. In my opinion, it's always better to keep the components on one side, so I worked to do that so that I could lay the board flat.

Anyway, here is a picture of the layout!

It's stupidly complex, so I hope it works on the first try Don't want to have to re-order the board!

 

[Lazerbeak]

that's crazy looking Wolfman. Is it the Fullmoon or something :thinking:

Color me impressed. I am really looking forward to seeing you put this all together.

A real Star Trek Phaser :beer:

~ LB

 

[Wolfman29]

Haha. It probably involved about 8-12 hours of research and laying-out. All-in-all, though, I managed to get it to be about 1.68" x 1.68" or so! Should fit inside the phaser, I think! I'll have to make some measurements tonight. I gutted the phaser and it's all good. Will need to do some ghetto mods on the buttons because the top two were switches instead of buttons, but that shouldn't be too bad!

 

[Laik]

Damn! I can't see the picture because the school is blocking it. I will have to wait until i get home

 

[Lazerbeak]

It's impressive Laik

I'm surprised you got the board so small Wolfman. As far as I know, there are no Next Generation Phasers out there, just TOS and Movie Era versions, gun style.


~ LB

 

[Wolfman29]

Exactly! That's why I wanted to do a TNG one - it's original.

Also, I may need to reshape the board... even that small may not fit. I may have to make two separate boards and then connect them with wires.