Modular Console Build

[hedgehog]

Those look great! How did you make the switches light up with the fairy lights? (I have a few similar switches on my own console and I've always wanted to have them light up, but I could never work out how.)

Thanks, dude! Ahh I kinda cheated with the lights... I've always had issues in the past with fitting lighted switches on projects, I'd always overload the built-in bulbs and burn them out in the first couple seconds (often just on test fits, too!).

I didn't wanna put my wallet through all that trauma again of re-buying switches everytime I burnt out their bulbs so this time I opened up each switch like so:


... And completely gutted everything. I tossed all the bits I wouldn't need, snipped the terminal housing off the rear of the bulb holder before drilling a hole for the fairy light and then gouging a big hole in the back of the switch housing itself:


With all of that junk torn out, the cable feeds through the back and the LED slots snugly into the hole ready for reassembly.


Simples. The switches do, however, lose their toggleness... With no terminals inside the rocker function doesn't latch, it just kinda sits. But I'm leaving a few unaltered ones dotted around the console for close up shots.  

Another problem is having enough patience to modify every damn switch you want to light... Grrr...

[jontennant]

What I find is that adding a resistor to keep the bulb from overloading is useful, I have had the same problems so I tend to stick with LED switches like my two toggles.[attachid]IMG_20171103_164422.jpg[/attachid]

[The14thDr]

Thanks for the step-by-step hedgehog, much appreciated. (I must say I really don't envy you having to disassemble, modify, then re-assemble all of those switches - you must be a very patient person. )

[galacticprobe]

I didn't wanna put my wallet through all that trauma again of re-buying switches everytime I burnt out their bulbs so this time I opened up each switch like so:

... And completely gutted everything.

As a retired electronics tech, my thoughts are "Oh the pain, the pain." An easy way around this is to either adjust your power source's output voltage (if possible), open the switch cover and replace the bulb inside with a higher voltage bulb, or as jontennant said, put a resistor in line with the power going to the part of the switch that lights the bulb. A variable resistor is good for this because you can adjust it to brighten or dim the bulb, while still keeping it from blowing because the voltage going to it is higher than what the bulb is rated for.

I hope some of this makes sense, and is helpful. (As 14th said, that's a lot of switches to have to mangle. Maybe this will give you more ideas to work with to make preserving the bulbs easier.)

Dino.

[hedgehog]

What I find is that adding a resistor to keep the bulb from overloading is useful, I have had the same problems so I tend to stick with LED switches like my two toggles.[attachid]IMG_20171103_164422.jpg[/attachid]

Your picture's not showing up for me for some reason, can you repost it so I can have a peek? 

I did think (briefly) about wiring them all up with proper resistors but I'd have had to install a sequencer and everything to get the lights to flash in the patterns I wanted, it seemed easier in the long run to throw in some multi-function fairy lights to get the same effect without building a circuit board for each group of lights.
I suppose in hindsight I could've used Arduino actually, that might have been less messy... 

As a retired electronics tech, my thoughts are "Oh the pain, the pain."

Haha, avert your eyesss! One of the friends I roped in to play some of the monsters is an electronics engineer too, he'd flip his lid if he knew what I've done 

I appreciate all your input, guys. If the time comes that I ever need to refit this console then I'll definitely be chasing you down for your opinions and experience.

[jontennant]

Have a look at my console thread to see.

[galacticprobe]

Haha...! One of the friends I roped in to play some of the monsters is an electronics engineer too...

Paraphrasing "Bones" McCoy: "Blast it, Jim! I'm a technician, not an engineer!" Big difference. Electronic Engineers design and build circuits and equipment for people to use; Electronics Technicians follow in their footsteps to find and fix all of the bugs so the equipment actually works! (They'd done this to me enough times in the military - put something new on one of the ships, and then I'd get this obscure call asking to help troubleshoot something I'd never even heard of.)

If the time comes that I ever need to refit this console then I'll definitely be chasing you down for your opinions and experience.

And for that I will defer to the Engineers; they go through far more schooling than Technicians do. They can help design things for your refits; I can sometimes handle just basic circuits that blink LEDs, or some incandescent lamps. (As I always said, if it's broken and I've got a manual and schematics, I can fix it; when it comes to designing it, I never had the head for that.)

Dino.

[hedgehog]

Paraphrasing "Bones" McCoy: "Blast it, Jim! I'm a technician, not an engineer!" Big difference. Electronic Engineers design and build circuits and equipment for people to use; Electronics Technicians follow in their footsteps to find and fix all of the bugs so the equipment actually works!

Haha, so sorry Dino. I should know better, I'm a Technician too! Not electronics mind, cleanroom labs, though we sometimes make more problems than we fix, ha.




A quick pic of a few more instrument panels I whipped up yesterday. I don't know what colour scheme I'm going for yet, maybe a tarnished metal for the console and a darker gunmetal for these little panels? My mind will keep changing until I'm actually out there buying the paint if past projects are anything to go by.


More liiights... /drool

[hedgehog]

Mini-update time!

Progress has been slow lately, especially with scrambling to buy Christmas presents and the cold, damp weather making itself comfortable in my garage... My poor, soggy garage. But slow progress is still progress.


For starters, every spare ten minutes I've had has been spent marking out and cutting up more LED mounts.

I'm pretty happy with these so far (for the amount I've done already, I kinda have to be), and I'm happy with the rest of the instrument panels, the time rotor, and the overall look I'm going for. But what I wasn't happy with was the one part of the console that actually needs to look great. The one part that always gets the glamorous close-up almost every episode.

The mac daddy... The big man on campus...

The demat lever.

In truth, this was the first part of the console I set about building the very minute I decided I was going ahead with the fan-series, so I've had plenty of time to design, build, cry, redesign, rebuild and cry again since then.
I wanted it to look chunky and loud, something that the Doctor would throw some weight into when using it, but my first version just turned out...

...boring. there was nothing special about it and it just sorta looked awkward. So I put the lever to one side and carried on with the rest of the project.
It wasn't until the other day when I was figuring out how to incorporate this pair of car window cranks that it hit me.


And BAM. Simple, but I like it. I originally wanted to stray away from anything resembling the Pickwoad lever but the more I stared at it, the more I fell in love. I feel like I can sleep happy now 

[karsthotep]

Ingenious, i love it.  great work love this build.

[The14thDr]

To be honest I thought your original demat lever looked great, but the new one looks even better! (Genius use of car window cranks for the handles too!)

[anime]

Looks awesome!!

   -Anime

[hedgehog]

Progress!! After nearly nine months of silence, my build has moved from to phase 1 to a staggeringly proactive phase 1.5! In your face, procrastination!

I decided my original console top was too small so the MDF hexagon will now be the base platform for the plinth. I've fashioned a console rim out of cheap ducting channel as a starting point to build inwards from, my angles aren't perfect but they can be tidied up or even covered with some flashing or something.



Testing the spacing of the 'ribs' with some offcuts:



And finally a small-ish selection of some buttons and switches sourced fairly cheaply. I figure going for a 9/10 coral style console will be more forgiving in terms of clean-ness of cuts so I can cover it wit has much junk as I want and still have it look like something the Doctor could've/would use.



Hopefully more updates will follow soon... Depending on how soggy my workspace is with all the sudden rain coming in, but it gives me more time to focus on the scripts for the fan series this console will finally get used for. Hooray for silver linings!

Edit: Crumbs, fixed the pictures. They should be visible now 

[hedgehog]

First two panels cut... Angles are a little off, but this is all pre-sanding and tidying.

[KIT-KAT]

that's looking great! looking forward to seeing how this goes, I always enjoy seeing peoples own custom TARDISes