Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A with Challenger STS-6 (1:144)

• #460 by RichO on 11 Mar, 2014 21:53
• MANFRED,
  
    Your build looks so pretty with the colored lights! I know that you will get all the lights the same soon. The idea of the red safety lights is very cool, I like very much. Also I feel for you man, with the really small ladder parts, I know, I've been there.
  
    With spring getting hear fast, I anticipate everybody will be slowing down a bit with the reports, a lot of stuff to do to get ready for better weather. Love your work, keep it up!
  
• #461 by roma847 on 12 Mar, 2014 23:15
• Thanks Rich for your nice comment.
  
  Everything takes its time, and the smaller the parts are, the more increases the own respect for the work.
  
  
• #462 by RichO on 16 Mar, 2014 20:30
• Come on Manfred! I know about the low energy we have to deal with from time to time. Keep your spirits up and keep building. Your build is inspiring a lot of builders, myself included as you know. We all need to feed off each other's energy. Mine is through the roof at the moment and I hope I can send some your way my friend. On with the show!!
• #463 by roma847 on 16 Mar, 2014 22:08
• That's right Rich, you understand and I fully agree with you.
  This is our destiny, and we must make each other again and again hope and new courage.
  
  Thanks for your support guys! The show should and must go on!
  
  
• #464 by roma847 on 24 Mar, 2014 12:59
• Hello together,
  
  after a light spring fatigue I have browsing in the meantime, some older images sources according to the hazard warning lights. But somehow I have not the right clarity, as with these red and/or yellow beacons of those days back in the STS-6 on MLP-2.
  
  So far, my friends from the NSF forum unfortunately could not help me too, but I stumbled across a very interesting thread that makes me high hopes. So I have found a contemporary witness (39B), who has worked at the time during the reconstruction and modification of the Pad 39B there and has been reported about in detail with although partially slightly yellowed, but still great photo scans. And if there were any technical ambiguities, what you may not believe it, he was more often on the Pad 39A, so always close to the base. Maybe he can answer my special questions.
  
  Since I now know the lamps pretty good on the FSS and the MLP, I have now started, the lights on the RSS to look a little closer. And this my standard reference photo is again a good overview.
  
  
  Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
  
  And as you can see it, there are the same lamps are mounted as in MLP with the classic lampshades.
  
  
  
  On the newer "old" photos the lamp shape becomes even clearer as the following pictures show.
  
  
  
  
  Source: J. MacLaren (39B) NASASpaceflight.com
  
  And so I can use my recent lampshades from the ferrules for the RSS lamps.
  
  Of course I've tried and picked out the lamps from the Revell kit.
  
  
  
  These are the arc lamps here, of which 40 pcs. are included in the kit, but they were never installed in this spherical shape on the pads.  
  
  
  
  And that's why I like my screen lamps but much better,
  
  
  
  or what do you think?
  
  
  
  Okay, the arcs are 1 mm in diameter, what's a little too strong, but I would anyway prefer to use a thinner brass tube in order to thread the LED wires still.
  
  
  
  So long for now.
  
  
• #465 by roma847 on 28 Mar, 2014 17:11
• Have the same time my thin brass tubes checked and in 0.7mm diameter found one. And here two Cu wires are trial basis threaded with diameter 0.15 mm, which is still so relatively easily.
  
  
  
  For my lampshades with about 3 mm in diameter, the pipes should have 0,5 mm diameter to remain about the scale but also to realize them. Such brass tubes with a diameter of 0.5 mm and 0.09 mm wall thickness there are also with STEBA.
  
  Although the bending radius of the arc lamps is relatively large, you would have the LED wires but probably be inserting before bending of the tubes, because this should be any more difficult in the bent state, but were up to trying.
  
  
  Source: J. MacLaren (39B) NASASpaceflight.com
  
  
  Source: J. MacLaren (39B) NASASpaceflight.com
  
  For information only on the edge for all Space Shuttle historian:
  
  How do I know now of J. MacLaren, on his photos (between Christmas and New Year 1985) one can see the Challenger in preparation for the first shuttle launch from the new Pad 39B for mission STS-51L (01/28/1986), which was known to her fate mission.
  
  
• #466 by RichO on 30 Mar, 2014 12:46
• MANFRED,
  
  Your light shields look great! Much better than the kit lights. I hadn't really noticed the globe lamp covers in the kit. I should study the parts better. However this is not a project to be started just yet. I have plenty of other builds going on right now. I'm excited to see some more bending for the light shield supports. The brass tubing will hide the wiring nicely.
  
  Long live the memory of those we lost on STS-51L.
• #467 by roma847 on 30 Mar, 2014 13:41
• RICH,
  
  although these Heroes have lost their lives, they will remain immortal in the memory of men for all time.
  
  Again to the arc lamps, to get a thinner tube one could use the actual metal tube as the return conductor so that one only has to thread one wire through the tube.
  
  For this I first have to solder every negative pole of the LEDs to the brass tubes and then connect each brass tube by a soldered wire to the next.
   
  
  
  That is certainly a greater effort than threading the wires. And threading the wires from 0.1 mm over this short length of about 20 mm should already be doable, I think.
  
  Therefore first I will try to pull the wires through the tube, maybe it will work.
  
  
• #468 by Squack on 31 Mar, 2014 10:15
• Hi Manfred,
  
  Using the brass tube as a conductor is a great idea, the wire out of the end will then look just like the wires in the photos.
  
  One word of warning though...
  
  Getting solder to stick to the pipe will be tricky, especially if your solder has flux built in to it. The bead of solder will tend to form with the flux underneath, on the pipe, and the whole thing will pop off very easily and make a bad connection. You may want to investigate roughing up the pipe with sandpaper or even drilling a small hole to solder the wire into to ensure you get a good connection.
  
  Hope that helps with your awesome build.
  
  Squack.
• #469 by roma847 on 01 Apr, 2014 22:15
• Hello folks,
  we stay a little longer in lighting, because it's just so beautiful tricky. Since I still had to glue the centering tubes in the shortened lampshades,
  
  
  
  which was to do it again only under the microscope.   And since the tubes have some clearance in the shielding sleeves, the superglue-gel (Pattex) proved when gluing but suitable as better than the liquid superglue (UHU) I had used before.
  
  
  
  Thus, there are not only the "classical" lampshapes on the MLP, the almost entirely on the pad (FSS/RSS) are installed, but also some lamps without a pronounced screen, as can be seen in this picture. These are, inter alia, the two lamps above the LOX Valve Skid, below the right TSM.
  
  
  Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
  
  And also the hazard warning lights (beacons) have a similar shape with a glass cover,
  
  
  Source: NASA
  
  which is why I modified these lamps something. In addition I have used the same ferrules, but not expanded, but only reduced accordingly with the Dremel cutting disc.
  
  
  
  
  
  These are the lampshades right in the picture, next to the tiny tubes that were now still glued,
  
  
  
  what looks like when finished.
  
  
  
  For the hazard warning lights I have now picked out a few more suitable transparent tube beads for the glass cover and trial strung, what ever does not look bad. The pods I can possibly cut something else and I'm still looking out for something shorter beads from my stuff, then the shape has come out quite well, I think.
  
  
  
  And as a test I now have threaded a red LED (0401) with the thin copper wires (0.1 mm), and low and behold, the tiny LED fit even along through the bead through, what the solution is somewhat simplified.
  
  
  
  And then I only had to connect the LED to my current bank, and the signal red lit up.
  
  
  
  And for the two lamps under the blast shield I will also find a solution, but the Sunny White LEDs (0603) to be used there, unfortunately are slightly larger than the tiny red LEDs and therefore require a slightly different solution.
  
  That's it again for today.
  
  
• #470 by RichO on 04 Apr, 2014 17:02
• MANFRED,
  
  The Lighting Dept. is shinning brightly with these new solutions that you have come up with. Now the mass production starts!!!
• #471 by shuttlemodeler on 04 Apr, 2014 18:51
• cant wait to see his electric bill
• #472 by roma847 on 04 Apr, 2014 21:49
• Hello you faithful guys,
  
  and thanks for your encouraging words.
  
  I'll try to bite me through this tricky and time-killing lighting chapter.
  
  BTW, the blue-eyed guys of the Lighting Dept. need to check their stock, if they have enough stuff for all the lamps. Only for the FSS tower they have to prepare about 100 lamps, without the Access arms.
  
  , I think, I must be a little bit crazy!!!
  
  
• #473 by Ronpur50 on 04 Apr, 2014 23:20
• Those lights look great!  Between the two Pad builds here, I am learning a lot about the details of those pads.  Enough to know I never want to try a build this detailed!  I will stick to the rockets!
• #474 by roma847 on 05 Apr, 2014 10:07
• Thanks Ron for your kind words, but that should not discourage you, even once to try a Launch pad build.
  
  You know, one should never say never.
  
  
• #475 by RichO on 05 Apr, 2014 13:24
• Glad to know we are helping to drive you a little bit crazy!!
• #476 by Ronpur50 on 06 Apr, 2014 02:28
• I look at all of my rocket models, and think I am already a bit crazy!  I am just glad I didn't build the 1/144th scale VAB I wanted to do years ago!
• #477 by roma847 on 17 Apr, 2014 09:19
• Hello folks, let's go on!
  
  By looking for the hazard warning lights in age-old image collections from the 80s so I've got further researched and studied this time the lighting on the Access arms of the Tower (OAA, OVA, HVA), but to do sometime soon in more detail.
  
  
  Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
  
  Today I want to show a quick update to the lamps whose mass production is now underway. These are again the normal lampshades for the lamps on the MLP Access Platforms left in the picture from the expanded ferrules (3 mm), as well as the unexpanded screens (2,4 mm) for the hazard warning lights, which are in the small dish. For this I had already found the matching glass beads, in which one just could fit the red LEDs (0401).
  
  
  
  Then I still had looked for matching glass beads for the lamps 11, 12 and 17 with a slightly larger hole,
  
  
  
  and found actually beads with a diameter of 2.2 mm in which the slightly larger Sunny White LEDs (0603) would fit longitudinally. Here one of these LEDs is even threaded in such a bead.
  
  
  
  Here you can now see two variants, the top for a lamp with a expanded screen, and the bottom one with unexpanded screen, which actually both could be used, because these minimal differences can hardly be distinguished under the Blast Shields anyway.
  
  
  
  Then briefly to the planned reconstruction of the Current Bank, what already had indicated as a result of extensive brightness tests by reducing the power intensity of the LEDs in the direction of 0.5 mA. In addition I have now begun to replace the fixed resistors (47 Ω) by variable Mini Trimmers (1 kΩ),  because the light effect should look even more realistic.
  
  
  
  And here the first Mini trimmer has been soldered.
  
  
  
  And to finish for today two tests with a Sunny White LED with minimum setting of the trimmer (> 6 mA), i.e. maximum brightness,
  
  
  
  and here at maximum trimmer setting (0,5 mA) and reduced brightness.
  
  
  
  And with these parameters, the final current bank for the whole Launch Pad is now designed that offers even better performance than the previous one, which I will present soon.
  
  Next, the remaining fixed resistors to be replaced by the trimmer.
  
  
• #478 by roma847 on 17 Apr, 2014 21:02
• And I've still done, finally does come the Easter Bunny.
  
  And so the current bank now looks with the eight trimmers.  
  
  
  
  Because the place for soldering was pretty tight, I have omitted to insulating sleeving.
  
  For my part I'm fully satisfied, all beginnings are difficult ...   And the most important thing is that all circuits have passed the function test with flying colors.
  
  So now the existing eight circuits, each with up to 12 LEDs in series let set with the same or different brightness and off separately. At the pad all the lights were finally not always switched on simultaneously and shined with the same brightness as one could see.
  
  In this sense, all of you a Happy Easter!
  
  
• #479 by Davp99 on 18 Apr, 2014 15:57
• Same to you Manfred....