Friday 1 February 2013

Star's

The decision to install day-night lighting from NCE opens the opportunity to add the most noticeable effect in the country sky - star light which is made visible by the lack of artificial light in country area's. As  Spicers Creek stage set [module] is to be modeled in open country the stars would be very clearly seen on the horizon by any viewer




The solution was identified in a product created for business and home - "The Star Ceiling". The problem was to identify a cost effective unit for model railway use and as the intention is to exhibit the modules the use of a single source was not practical as the fibre optics cannot bridge a gap cost effectively

The LED Twinkle Illuminator from  WieDaMark in Dallas Texas USA appears to meet the needs for a model railway.




Specification: The LED light unit has 10 * 5mm White LEDs in a 1" circle with a FTC 21 connector for holding up to 300 * 0.75mm fibers.

The light unit produces a white light with shimmering / twinkle pattern with no steady on feature. LED's produce no heat so it is extremely safe to operate and produces zero running noise. Used in conjunction with any of our fiber optic end glow cables. Operates from 9VDC wall pack and battery powered unit is available upon request.
  • Size: 2.75H" x 3.0L" x 2.25W"
  • Input Power 120V

The Star Pack 48 provides a single cable of 48 fibers in three different sizes that will be enough for each module at Spicers Creek.  The sizes include in the pack are:  34 * 0.75 mm, 10 * 1.0 mm and 4 * 1.5 mm fibers. 

Installation

The fibre optics are installed at the horizon point of the plastic cove of the modules with the LED light source fitted at the rear of the frame formers. Bend radius can be as tight as 12 mm for the 0.75 mm  and 35 mm for the 1.5 mm fibers allowing fitting into the cavity between the cove and formers of the module. All the fibres are cut approx 1 mm from the surface of the cove allowing repainting of the cove if necessary. These are fixed to the inside face of the cove using a black acrylic sealant blobs and is all shown in detail in a video on the suppliers site.

As outlined in the Philosophy page technology now exist to allow presentation of our models in a totally new way.

Installation photos will follow as the order has been placed......!

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