Chieftain No. 34

[John Clarke]

David, A bit late in the day but there is de-soldering wick which sometimes comes hollow and looks like braided sleeving in copper. Beware the stuff I brought was just flat braided and not hollow. I got this stupid feeling while trying to open it up after 5 minutes.
I've used screen sleeving stripped from old computer accessories wiring found in my spares drawer, but often found at boot sales. Pulls down to about 2.5 mm OD.
Unused Scart leads have been stripped to supply thin colour coded wiring to put through said braided sleeve to supply the Chieftain lamps front and rear, 3mm OD copper tubing soldered together making up tee's and carefully bent tubing for elbow's, then forming thin alloy sheet into hexagonal nuts shape on the hollow braided ends sealed with J/B weld to form the hollow nut. (A bit like me)
it's a bit crude, but six wires at one point needed to go through the braiding cable on the front lighting setup I'm doing.
All load resistors for the LED's are connected individually remotely, don't be tempted to join all lamps with one resistor.
I usually run warm white LED's with a higher rated load resistor than normal on low voltage (6v) they'll last "long time" with a more realistic warm white element type glow.
I'm putting red LED's in the front infra red lamp housing's, because not everyone will be wearing their infrared googles ....it's Theatrical.

[Richard Goodwin]

Hi David,

Check out P10 of my blog re solder wick if that doesn’t work

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi all.

Hope everyone's is having a good weekend.

As part of the front end modifications, a job I thought would be a bit of a chore. That is to remove, make and refit these lifting(?) eyes. In the end it wasn't that bad a tall.

Fitted as per instructions.

Where they should be, but not these bits.

Good job I didn't use JB weld or the like, could have been difficult to remove

I was happy with the headlights, so far, a bit more work before fitting required, but not a lot.

With faux braided cable.

Couple of "Minions" and some red paint.

Take care and have fun.

Charles

[Richard Goodwin]

Nice job Charles. The ‘faux’ cable looks pretty good

[Charles A Stewart]

Thank you Richard.

How's your build going?

Cheers

Charles

[Richard Goodwin]

Hi Charles,

Have been on sabbatical for what seems as an eternity. Hoping to restart again in the new year since having withdrawal symptoms although not sure where I’ll start I keep seeing her on the hydraulic lift which adds further salt in the wound I have a lot of catching up to do reading all the blogs and getting back in the swing of things but there is some great work going on out there so will no doubt serve to reinvigorate. Keep up the good work!

Best regards
Richard

[John Clarke]

Nice work there on the head lamps Charles, Certainly look the biz.
Glad to see you back Richard.

[David Battson]

Hi Charles,

The front details are coming on nicely, the lift eyes look much better relocated .

Charles, John and Richard, many thanks for the tips on braided cables - anything is a big improvement on my original 'boot lace' idea.

John, - I'm interested and slightly concerned about your comment on LEDs 'I usually run warm white LED's with a higher rated load resistor than normal on low voltage (6v) they'll last "long time" with a more realistic warm white element type glow.' Being an electronics duffer I have used pre wired 12v resistor and LED's from the 'bay of ees' which are now sealed for good in the headlight units - should I be worried about them not lasting very long. What are you calling a higher rated resistor ? should I be adding a second resistor to each circuit and running at a lower voltage ?

David

[Richard Goodwin]

David,

The resistor is there to limit the current flowing through the led, without it, you’d blow the led. Rather than adding another resistor, lower the supply voltage instead ie 12v to 6v. With the leds I have there is little discernible difference in brightness between the two voltages, the current flowing however is lowest at 6v so you could say less strain on the led although in all my years, I’ve never seen one fail yet.

Hope this helps

Charles,

Re the headlights, you could put some sticky silver foil over the wires on the inside to cover the wires? Also as another suggestion, I would slide some 1mm heat shrink sleaving up the brass tube such that it hangs out the bottom. This will help in protecting the fragile wires from vibration and binding on the edge of the brass tube.

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi All

Thank you, Richard, I never even thought to cover the wires . I should have painted them at the very least.They are firmly fixed in place now and the wiring clued to the light frame and will go into the hull through the mounting holes, not yet drilled.

I have changed the resistors too(LED's as bought were 12V), the lights will be controlled via an R/C switch (as supplied with the S1), which is 5V(ish), I believe. We have tested the Chieftain lights using the S1, it worked

Take care and have a good weekend.

Cheers

Charles

[Richard Goodwin]

Hi Charles,

Sounds like you've done the right thing and recalculated the value of resistor needed to ensure 20mA current drain at the new voltage. This ensures the led is operating within the correct portion of its VI curve. You could potentially drop the current further but because you are so near the cut off of the led which I think for these warm white leds is around 3V, you don't want to drop it much further.

For those who don't know how to calculate the value of the resistor needed, there are plenty of examples on the internet showing how to do this.

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi all.

Thank you Richard, a very valid observation, I have also noted that coloured LED's seem to be rated at a lesser 2.5>V. If that is a help. I am no authority on such matters, only bumbling along, learning as I go.

Today's efforts will be:-

Fill that gap in the wading rail, the one next to drivers hatch.

1/Use a filler(possibly/probably messy).

2/A fillet of sorts.

Metal it is then, just like the real thing.

From the front.

Apologies the last photo isn't that good. I couldn't open the garage door due to the gale & deluge going on outside

Cheers

Charles

[Richard Goodwin]

Hi Charles,

Without getting too technical, the colour determines the switch on voltage; as a generic example, see the pic below:

IMG_7164.png (68.97 KiB) Viewed 136510 times

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi Folks.

Nothing to report but thought this would entertain, if not seen already.

We can but aspire.



Hopefully you can spot what I am referring to.

Cheers