SEARCH FINESCALE.COM

Enter keywords or a search phrase below:

Lighting Kit Help

5528 views
38 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Katy, TX
Posted by Aggieman on Saturday, June 5, 2021 4:24 PM

Eaglecash867

 

 
Aggieman
I didn't time it or anything, but it was not for very long.  A few minutes.

 

Unfortunately, anything more than about a second can kill it if the polarity is reversed.  Those guys definitely need to get their instructions corrected.  I'm sure you're not the first one to have the issue.

 

Thanks for that information.

I had reached out to them earlier for a clarification on what size of wire wrap tool to use for this project, and they never responded.  Honestly, I'm not expecting a response to this more critical issue either.  Seems like a good case study on how not to conduct customer relations, but I don't know, maybe my business school education was wrong?

  • Member since
    April 2020
Posted by Eaglecash867 on Saturday, June 5, 2021 3:19 PM

Aggieman
I didn't time it or anything, but it was not for very long.  A few minutes.

Unfortunately, anything more than about a second can kill it if the polarity is reversed.  Those guys definitely need to get their instructions corrected.  I'm sure you're not the first one to have the issue.

"You can have my illegal fireworks when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers...which are...over there somewhere."

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Katy, TX
Posted by Aggieman on Saturday, June 5, 2021 2:49 PM

Eaglecash867

Sorry to read that you weren't able to get it working.  You mentioned the instructions being inconsistent about how you connect the battery pack to the board, and that you tried both ways.  Do you remember how long you left the battery pack connected when you tried the different ways?  Its possible that reverse polarity for long enough may have killed the board.  Hopefully you'll get a helpful response from Madman Lighting.

 

  I didn't time it or anything, but it was not for very long.  A few minutes.

  • Member since
    April 2020
Posted by Eaglecash867 on Saturday, June 5, 2021 12:53 PM

Sorry to read that you weren't able to get it working.  You mentioned the instructions being inconsistent about how you connect the battery pack to the board, and that you tried both ways.  Do you remember how long you left the battery pack connected when you tried the different ways?  Its possible that reverse polarity for long enough may have killed the board.  Hopefully you'll get a helpful response from Madman Lighting.

"You can have my illegal fireworks when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers...which are...over there somewhere."

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Katy, TX
Posted by Aggieman on Saturday, June 5, 2021 12:45 PM

Got everything connected today and checked that the battery pack was generating sufficient power with a volt meter.  Then put the volt meter on the power prongs of the circuit board and get sufficient power there.  But still, the on-board light on that board never lights up.

Thought that I would get power to a LED if I connected one, so I did that.  Nothing.

I'm bummed about this.  The lighting kit was not particularly cheap.  I can certainly ditch it and just connect a bunch of LEDs with appropriate resistors, do some soldering, all of that, but you know, I got the kit so I wouldn't have to bother with that stuff.  I've sent an e-mail to the Madman Lighting people, but honestly, I'm not sure that I really expect much in the way of a response.  Hopefully they will surprise me.

Feels like I'm at a stand-still on this build.  I'll likely go ahead and continue drilling all the holes while I wait for a response to my e-mail.  And maybe start working on whatever my next project will be.

  • Member since
    March 2018
  • From: Chicago suburbs
Posted by Luvspinball on Friday, June 4, 2021 12:52 PM

you could always test with a 9V battery touched either to the wires to the board or the board directly.

Bob Frysztak

Luvspinball

Current builds:  Revell 1/96 USS Constitution with extensive scratch building

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Katy, TX
Posted by Aggieman on Friday, June 4, 2021 5:45 AM

Thank you for these responses!

This is one that does require the wire wrap tool.  The board has 5 posts, one of which the instructions refer to as the power post.  That is connected to the micro-connector (male-female plug essentially), which in turn is connected to the power source.

The instructions leave something to be desired.  They are inconsistent, I suppose.  One on page, there is diagram showing the red wire to be attached to the "top" post (top side of the board), but every where else, it clearly says to attach the red wire to the "bottom" post, with the black wire on the "top".  I've tried both ways with no successful results.

  • Member since
    April 2013
Posted by KnightTemplar5150 on Thursday, June 3, 2021 10:49 PM

Check the amperage output of the battery box as well. If the voltage is correct, but the amperage doesn't match, you"ll have problems getting the board running.

If memory serves, a lot of the Madman boards required either 9 or 12 volts at 2 amps. Madman boards were usually pretty simple affairs. 

Madman Lighting was sold off to Tena Controls a few years ago (2018) and I suspect that you may have a Tena designed board released under the Madman label because you're not required to solder resistors onto the board and you're using quick connect terminals instead of soldering the wires to the circuit outputs. Double check the amperage requirements carefully, because these boards (particularly those with special effects) tend to require a little more juice. These sorts of boards seem to favor a plug-in transformer to run most efficiently, but the idea is the same - you have to match both voltage and amperage to get things to work.

 

Edit - also check your connection instructions to see if a wire wrap tool is needed for installation. Some of the Madman stuff required it.

  • Member since
    April 2020
Posted by Eaglecash867 on Thursday, June 3, 2021 7:10 PM

Chances are that you're not getting power to the board.  Most battery boxes that I have seen recently have all been really poorly made, so sometimes they require a little work on getting proper contact between the batteries and the contact leaves and springs.  Aside from that, I know you probably already checked, but make sure all of your batteries are installed with the correct polarity.  I'm pretty sure that the board itself is fine.  Those tend to be pretty reliable.  It has always been the battery boxes of the power supplies that have been problematic.

"You can have my illegal fireworks when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers...which are...over there somewhere."

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Katy, TX
Lighting Kit Help
Posted by Aggieman on Thursday, June 3, 2021 4:40 PM

I have begun work on the Revell Republic Star Destroyer (Star Wars), which has sat in my stash for a long time with the idea that when I got around to it, I'd definitely want to light this thing up.

I bought a lighting kit intended for this Star Destroyer from a place called MadMan Lighting.  I have very little experience lighting models, having done an Iron Man kit about a decade ago from a collection of LEDs, resistors, and wires; this is my first time working with a pre-made lighting kit such as this one.

It features a small electrical board to which the wires attach from a "mini-connector" that itself is wired to the power supply, in my case 12v from 8AA batteries.  I've done the wiring between board and power supply as per the kit's instructions, which state that I should see the small LED light built into the board light up.  Not happening.  I reversed the wiring connections, and still, nothing.

Batteries are brand new.  My concern is that I might have a bad board, but given my lack of understanding of how it works, that may not be the case.  Has anyone built this kit with this lighting kit, or one of his other kits, that might have some suggestion as to how I should proceed?  Or could I just ditch the board and wire this thing up with resistors (I'm assuming the board performs the function that the resistors perform, although not being an electrician or electrical engineer, I readily admit that I'm a complete novice in this arena).

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

SEARCH FORUMS
FREE NEWSLETTER
By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. View our Privacy Policy.