WoW!

Tonight I finally finished this. Here's a few pics:

Under the lid, which is pretty tough to put on...

That looks so awesome!!! 

Almost done with hte BlueTooth controller...

For ROTJ, when Vader's Super Star Destroyer was being built, the FX crew decided to use brass strips with etched window openings.  They knew drilling thousands of holes and running gobs of fiber optic strands was heavy work, and Vader's ship would require even more windows than the ESB ISD.  So they came up with this ingenious solution and combined it with fluorescent light bulbs to save time and yet end up with an impressive result.

Incredibly, no fiber optic lighting was used!  The gap between the upper and lower hulls of the 1977 (Star Wars) ISD had simple detail compared to the 1980 (ESB) version.  There were no lights on the superstructure either.

Some other easily spotted differences include the big conduits running up and down the back of the superstructure "neck", and the really weird rounded, lumpy main turrets.

I suppose the 1977 ISD didn't need window lighting, as all the shots it was in were far away or from an angle that  would not have showed it off.

I do remember seeing the ESB ISD for the first time on screen, and gasping at the thousands of lighted windows and increased level of detail.

Interesting! So did the first one have a fiber optic lighting as well? Or did they do something else?

Actually, the original Star Destroyer prop was only 3 feet or so long.  It still boggles my mind that the focal length in the opening shot was so perfect.

The ISD prop for Empire was indeed 5 or 6 feet long and featured fiber optic lights for the thousands of windows.

Real G

It makes it even harder to believe that the original movie prop only had a lit docking bay and main engines.

I think the original model also had fiber optic lighting system, the main difference was that it was just on or off. I don't think it was set up to allow for a "power up sequence" like I wanted in mine. But they had WAY more space to work in, I think the original model was 5 or 6 feet long? I'm pretty sure it was significantly bigger than this one.

Github project:

https://github.com/jimcrafton/isd_lighting_audio

   Thank you for your kind offer, I may take you up on it. HUGE Star Wars fan, Star Destroyers are the coolest.

Great googly-moogly, there is so much wiring in that model it looks as though it is about to explode!

It makes it even harder to believe that the original movie prop only had a lit docking bay and main engines.

Well feel free to ask any questions here! I'm going to be putting all the code and electronic diagrams, and various other notes up on github, in case anyone is interested.

   That sir is up to you. I would watch it so I could understand and see what you're getting at. It my take some of the OMG outta the build and inspire someone to try.

     I have a large Destroyer and would love to have it lit up. Perhaps watching a video would take some of the fear of goofing it up might be helpful.....or I'll just continue to make turbo laser noises and hum the March.

Do you think there would be any interest in me making a youtube video with all the WIP shot and voice over explaining what I did? 

Finally after a frustrating 2 days to debugging arduino code, I think I can say all the electronics are done, the two arduino mcu's are talking to each other and both audio devices can play succesfully. I need to re-test the blue tooth controller, and then I can start figuring out how to pack all this crazy crap back together again.

   Love how the engines fire up freaking COOL.

Fantastic!  Appreciate the soundtrack as well :)

OK so hopefully everything but gluing the two hull pieces back together gets done this weekend.

Working on testing the communications between the two arduino pro mini's. One drives the audio for the fx, like the startup sounds, and the other drives the background music like the imperial march. Currently I've got both powered up and audio running together.

Gamera

Oh wow, I'd pull out what's left of my hair trying to get all that straight!!! 

 

Great to see you back on this.  Amazing project!

 Great job. 

Oh wow, I'd pull out what's left of my hair trying to get all that straight!!! 

Damn long time.... got burned out, but finally made some progress. Got sound files mostly done, but when testing them, found out one of hte LED's stopped working and ended up redoing the wiring and taking apart the model to track it down.

This is amazing. Going from never having lit a model to a whole star destroyer; talk about trial by fire. Hats off to you! I'd be curious to know how long all that fibre and wire would be if you put it all end to end.

Again, that's sooooooooo friggin' cool!!! 

Its going to be very impressive whenyou get it done.

Thanks guys, 

For the electronics I'd guess the actual components probably around $50-60? The battery cells were $23. I had to go from nothing (I'd never done electronics before this) to all sorts of components, transistors, capacitors, resistors, different IC chips, soldering iron workstation, etc. If I were to add all that stuff up, I'd probably choke in embarassment! The colored leds were a little more expensive since they are the individually addressable ones, which cost a bit more, but makes the electronics circuit a lot easier and less hassle to deal with.

Fantastic!  What a project you have going here.