56 replies to this topic

[NerfDude1138]

slowguitarman, on Dec 10 2008, 10:36 AM, said:

The easiest way to do this is buy a bunch of blue (or whatever other color) LEDs that are all the same and then use an online resistor calculator to find what resistor you need for a single LED and then wire the LEDs in parallel with each other and wire the resistor in series with that. It would also be cool to not use such a huge switch.

So you do need a resistor (sorry for the misspell, I fixed it). Is overheating the issue or is it something else? Will this mod run into trouble with the way he set it up?

Thanks for the help, I'm still new to the wiring aspect of modding.

[baghead]

Forsaken_angel24, on Dec 9 2008, 07:15 PM, said:

In other words.
You did what I was going to do and since I love me... Great job.

that is SOOOOOO added that hilarious quote to my signature, while playing with my butthole...



On topic: I love how this thing looks... but I wish you'd kept the neon orange parts orange just because they would glow so insanely vibrantly with the blue leds in there.... this almost makes me want a clear mav... but then i remember I have absolutely no use for a mav...


anyways... Excellent job.

[Vulcanman101]

Wow i did'nt know that nerf made clear Mavericks cool mod.

[slowguitarman]

NerfDude1138, on Dec 10 2008, 11:18 AM, said:

slowguitarman, on Dec 10 2008, 10:36 AM, said:

The easiest way to do this is buy a bunch of blue (or whatever other color) LEDs that are all the same and then use an online resistor calculator to find what resistor you need for a single LED and then wire the LEDs in parallel with each other and wire the resistor in series with that. It would also be cool to not use such a huge switch.

So you do need a resistor (sorry for the misspell, I fixed it). Is overheating the issue or is it something else? Will this mod run into trouble with the way he set it up?

Thanks for the help, I'm still new to the wiring aspect of modding.

You do need a resistor, but because of overheating, but because the LED will burn out if too much current flows through it. I have no idea how he wired it. That's what I've been trying to figure out. He said he wired three LEDs together in series so the 9v battery would split evenly into 3v each, but he has 18 LEDs and definitely not six batteries. It would be fantastic if he would just answer the question.

[Carbon]

slowguitarman, on Dec 10 2008, 11:02 AM, said:

You do need a resistor, but because of overheating, but because the LED will burn out if too much current flows through it. I have no idea how he wired it. That's what I've been trying to figure out. He said he wired three LEDs together in series so the 9v battery would split evenly into 3v each, but he has 18 LEDs and definitely not six batteries. It would be fantastic if he would just answer the question.

In a nutshell, he has six 9-volt LEDs wired in parallel. The 9 volt LEDs just happen to be made up of three 3 volt LEDs

[Betrayal]

Hot damn. That looks damn awesome!

[AJAQ]

Beautiful.

I just got a set of 500 red Directional LEDs this week, so if I can find one of these, this is certainly on my list of things to do with 'em.




As for the circuit, it does appear that those would heat up. I'll look into the circuit and see about a solution.

I would think a low ohm resistor would do the trick in parallel.

I'll check numbers later, but something like this:




PS: If anyone wants any LEDs, a friend has directional red 5mm 3v LEDs for 25$ per 1000ct.

Edited by AJAQ, 10 December 2008 - 03:02 PM.

[hereticorp]

atomatron, on Dec 9 2008, 05:59 PM, said:

Very nice, I like it .

It looks...Radioactive.

In my opinion that is what should be done to all clear mavs.

Thanks, although if I was going for radioactive I would have gone with green LEDs. I just love blue glowy things.

boisie, on Dec 9 2008, 06:05 PM, said:

I'd like to see this done with a pot for brightness, or a picaxe 08 for cool light shows.

Good thoughts, and yeah, it is wicked bright, I'll look into an adjustable resistor to put into the line.

Just Some Bob, on Dec 9 2008, 06:09 PM, said:

You should be able to find sandpaper to at least 1000 grit, hopefully even beyond that. Do the best you can with the paper you can find, and then ... toothpaste. You can use it in a cloth wheel on your rotary tool, but keep the speed way down. There are many other fine polishing compounds, but none are as readily available, and a few of them can leave stains.

Toothpaste... Wow, I would NOT have thought of that, thanks for the tip.

xtremejumpy, on Dec 9 2008, 06:10 PM, said:

Where the hell do you get these things? The guns, not the ideas.

Black Friday deal at GameStop, buy the Nerf game, get a free Maverick. I'm hoping they come out with them retail so that I can do multi-color sets of these. Blue, Green, Red, Purple.

A side of nerf, on Dec 9 2008, 06:11 PM, said:

Very cool heriticorp, I like the use of blue and I imagine red looks cool too! I would also like to say that your photography never seizes to amaze me, those shots are great!

Quote

I'm using LEDs that I ordered off of eBay for use in my XBox and PS2,

If you finish that, send me a few pictures because I was considering green LED's for my PS2.

Thanks, and I would have done a Green and a Red one if I had more of them to play with. The shots are thanks to an inspired thought I had, I have a white-gloss case freezer in a closet painted white, so what better place to take pictures. It helps that I start at 10MP and then cut down from there as well.

PM'd about the pictures, I finished my PS2/XBox mods years ago, these LEDs were just sitting in a box left over.

Mr. Tubb, on Dec 9 2008, 06:13 PM, said:

Nice modification! I do like the blue glow, but maybe somebody else will use a different (or multiple) color (s.) For example, if somebody wanted to do a Baghead style version of this, they could use pink and green LEDs.

I thought about that myself but I didn't feel like spending the cash on multi-color LEDs, but if I get my hands on another one of these I'll definitely do different colors.

slowguitarman, on Dec 9 2008, 06:27 PM, said:

What? You don't need a separate resistor for each LED in a parallel circuit. You just wire your resistor in series with the parallel LEDs. You also said that you used 18 LEDs, yet you said you wired the LEDs in threes to evenly make 3v each, but I don't think you put six 9v's in a mav, so how did you wire it?

@a side of nerf: All the blue LEDs at all three of my local Radioshack's have always been the 4.5v kind.

I said I wired them in sets of three to make them 9v for each set of 3. Then each set is wired in parallel to the one battery. It's not hard. Wire 3 LEDs together in series so that it's 9v across all 3, then wire them to the battery, lather, rinse, repeat.

This is why you order them online, you can get exactly what you want and they're cheaper than dirt.

Anthrax13, on Dec 9 2008, 06:39 PM, said:

That looks tight! It actually makes me want to own a maverick, where do you get those? I have never seen them before.

Nor will you again, unless Hasbro decides to produce them, they were a special deal at GameStop on Black Friday.

Forsaken_angel24, on Dec 9 2008, 10:15 PM, said:

You bastard!
Stupid fucking black friday.
Stupid fucking Game stop exclusive.
Stupid fucking only available in America.

In other words.
You did what I was going to do.
Then again I guess it wasn't exactly a unique idea.

In other words.
You did what I was going to do and since I love me... Great job.

I thought you might be going for something like this when you were after a clear mav, and rest assured I would have sold you one cheap if I had managed to get two, sadly I got the last one.

Thanks =) Hope you get one for yourself and put your special touch on it.


EDIT: Alright, cookies to anyone who can figure out where I messed up the Quote tags in this entry, I copy/pasted from all of the previous entries and I've looked through it about 6 times, so anyone who can see where I fucked up, let me know.

Edited by hereticorp, 10 December 2008 - 06:07 PM.

[Axelion burnout]

Very interesting. The first thing that came to my mind once I saw the picture of the LED's in there was how you could make that into a TRON gun. If you paint over the rest of the gun and mask off some clear parts to the design of the circuits on the characters bodies in tron, you could have have a sweet looking blaster.

[hereticorp]

NerfDude1138, on Dec 10 2008, 09:12 AM, said:

I have a restrictor resistor question: I thought that one would typically have wired three LEDs in a series with a resistor, then repreat five more times for your 18 LED array. You said you left the resistor out. Is that not dangerous? The resistors I thought were to keep the LEDs from overheating. I only bring this up because some kid might follow your mod, string a bunch of LEDs together and have an overheating issue. Can anybody answer this? It would be good to know.

Very nice mod by the way. I plan on doing it myself.

It's all a matter of voltage, and the resistor is only there to keep the LED from burning out. an LED will burn itself up WAY before it EVER becomes a heat danger to anything.

If you strung 18 LEDs together in series, it would barely light up at all, because the voltage draw would be so stupidly high (54v draw for 18 3v LEDs in series). If you wired 18 LEDs in parallel to a single 9v battery, they would all burn out because the battery would be feeding each one 9v and they're only designed to handle 3v each.

I do not have an 18-LED array, I have 6 3-LED arrays connected in parallel to one 9v battery. There will never be an overheating issue with LEDs in any case, they're not incandescent bulbs and they don't put out much heat at all.

Even the 20-LED bulb I built to replace an incandescent bulb in a home lamp doesn't get too hot to touch and those are 1/4" diameter LEDs running off of converted 120v AC power.

baghead, on Dec 10 2008, 11:31 AM, said:

Forsaken_angel24, on Dec 9 2008, 07:15 PM, said:

In other words.
You did what I was going to do and since I love me... Great job.

that is SOOOOOO added that hilarious quote to my signature, while playing with my butthole...

On topic: I love how this thing looks... but I wish you'd kept the neon orange parts orange just because they would glow so insanely vibrantly with the blue leds in there.... this almost makes me want a clear mav... but then i remember I have absolutely no use for a mav...

anyways... Excellent job.

Yeah, FA is always good for a sig now and again.

Thanks, but sadly what you think it would look like is not how it would turn out in real life. Since the light is all from the back and the paint is complete opaque, the orange would look black, not glowing orange, especially since there's no orange light incoming to reflect, if you shine one of these blue LEDs on the orange paint in otherwise darkness, it looks black. I could probably rig up an orange glow-y one though, which might have the effect you were looking for.

I generally have no use for a maverick at all, but I'm an LED whore and I will put them in anything and everything I possibly can. Car, Consoles, computer, lamps, etc.

slowguitarman, on Dec 10 2008, 12:02 PM, said:

You do need a resistor, but because of overheating, but because the LED will burn out if too much current flows through it. I have no idea how he wired it. That's what I've been trying to figure out. He said he wired three LEDs together in series so the 9v battery would split evenly into 3v each, but he has 18 LEDs and definitely not six batteries. It would be fantastic if he would just answer the question.

Motherfucker have a little patience, I'm recovering from surgery and haven't looked at this thread in a little while.

Ok, lets clear something up, the ONLY reason you need a resistor in an LED light is to take the input voltage down to match the voltage of the LED.

For example, I put a bunch of LEDs in an XBox, that's a 12v input voltage, and I'm using 3v LEDs.

That means I need to normalize the voltage to 3v somehow. I put a resistor on the positive leg of the LED that drops the voltage by 9v, thus putting 3v to the LED. This is a WASTE OF POWER. It's not an issue in the XBox because it's an AC powered unit, but in a battery situation, it's different.

What I could have done is put a 6v resistor on and then wired up all my LEDs in parallel. This would mean that the battery is pumping out 9v to the resistor, which is stealing 6v and dispersing it as heat, and only passing on 3v to the LEDs. This is a huge waste of power and would cause a significant drop in battery longevity.

I chose the other way of adjusting the power levels, series connection.

9v Battery+ - 6v Resistor - 3vLED - Battery- = 3v to LED.
9v Battery+ - 3vLED - 3vLED - 3vLED - Battery- = 3v to each LED
because the load is spread across 3 LEDs in series. Is this a little more clear?

I made up 6 sets of 3 LEDs, making in effect, 6 9v LEDs. That allows me to power a total of 18 LEDs using a single 9v battery and no resistors.

There is NO DANGER OF OVERHEATING in this configuration, it is a matter of simple math. The battery puts out 9v, the LEDs can handle 3v each. If they are overloaded, they burn out, they do NOT overheat and they are in NO DANGER OF MELTING.

If you do not understand the simple mathematics of voltage flow and series vs parallel connections, I suggest you do some research before you attempt any sort of electrical modifications on any of your guns.

Carbon, on Dec 10 2008, 12:59 PM, said:

In a nutshell, he has six 9-volt LEDs wired in parallel. The 9 volt LEDs just happen to be made up of three 3 volt LEDs

THANK YOU, finally someone who got it.

LED+LED+LED -------------\
LED+LED+LED --------------\
LED+LED+LED --------------- BATTERY
LED+LED+LED --------------/
LED+LED+LED -------------/
LED+LED+LED-------------/

Is that easier to understand?

Also, wiring them in sequences of 3 let me run a lot less actual wires through the gun, which is a pain at the best of times but can get seriously annoying when you have to work around the mechanics of a nerf gun.

Axelion_burnout, on Dec 10 2008, 04:28 PM, said:

Very interesting. The first thing that came to my mind once I saw the picture of the LED's in there was how you could make that into a TRON gun. If you paint over the rest of the gun and mask off some clear parts to the design of the circuits on the characters bodies in tron, you could have have a sweet looking blaster.

Now THAT is a genius idea, I'll keep that in mind if I revisit this gun in the future.

Here's an extra picture for you people, someone over at NHQ requested the LED placement points, so here they are.

Edited by hereticorp, 10 December 2008 - 06:09 PM.

[slowguitarman]

slowguitarman, on Dec 9 2008, 05:57 PM, said:

Did you wire six different parallel sets of three LEDs in series? If you are using different LEDs, it is usually not the best idea to have them in parallel.

I guess you didn't read your own thread. I asked if that is what you did and you went off on some crap about how you wouldn't wire anything parallel, and then told me that's how you did it in a totally condescending way. Effeminate Fail.

[CaptainSlug]

NerfDude1138, on Dec 10 2008, 12:18 PM, said:

So you do need a resistor .

When powering LEDs from a battery it's best to use a resistor (even in a series arrangement) because most types of batteries when fully charged will output a bit more than their rated voltage. Or if you're planning to use you LEDs in a car, just assume a maximum voltage of 14 volts.
So charge the battery fully or take a brand new one and measure its voltage with a multimeter.
Then you can use that voltage with an LED calculator like this one to find out the resistor you need.
http://www.hebeiltd....stor.calculator

I've been making a bunch of LED arrays lately. Mostly for my electric moped. Here's a serial-parallel circuit of 20 LEDs in 5 sets of 4 LEDs in series (one 180ohm resistor per set). The fewer resistors you use, the less power you'll be converting into heat.


I buy my LEDs in bulk lots from Chi-Wing
http://stores.ebay.c...1QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Edited by CaptainSlug, 10 December 2008 - 06:01 PM.

[kluve56]

CaptainSlug, what is the box labeled "prototype shoes?"

[hereticorp]

slowguitarman, on Dec 10 2008, 05:01 PM, said:

slowguitarman, on Dec 9 2008, 05:57 PM, said:

Did you wire six different parallel sets of three LEDs in series? If you are using different LEDs, it is usually not the best idea to have them in parallel.

I guess you didn't read your own thread. I asked if that is what you did and you went off on some crap about how you wouldn't wire anything parallel, and then told me that's how you did it in a totally condescending way. Effeminate Fail.

I wouldn't wire EVERYTHING parallel, thus using a resistor and wasting power. Not anything, everything.

And if an LED has the same voltage rating, it doesn't matter if it's 3mm, 6mm or 9mm or what-freakin ever measurement, using them in series is fine. Size doesn't matter. It's all about voltage.

[hereticorp]

Just Some Bob, on Dec 10 2008, 05:46 PM, said:

hereticorp, on Dec 10 2008, 01:21 PM, said:

EDIT: Alright, cookies to anyone who can figure out where I messed up the Quote tags in this entry, I copy/pasted from all of the previous entries and I've looked through it about 6 times, so anyone who can see where I fucked up, let me know.

There's apparently a fairly small count after which the parser just gives up. The eleventh just won't work:

Thanks, fixed the previous post.

And of course, right after that I fucking double post. I blame the percoset.

CaptainSlug, on Dec 10 2008, 05:53 PM, said:

NerfDude1138, on Dec 10 2008, 12:18 PM, said:

So you do need a resistor .

When powering LEDs from a battery it's best to use a resistor (even in a series arrangement) because most types of batteries when fully charged will output a bit more than their rated voltage. Or if you're planning to use you LEDs in a car, just assume a maximum voltage of 14 volts.

Fortunately for the LEDs in my little creation, they are 3.4v and can take up to 10.2v of current before going kerblooey, so the 9v isn't going to damage them even when fully charged.

kluve56, on Dec 10 2008, 06:02 PM, said:

CaptainSlug, what is the box labeled "prototype shoes?"

Inquiring minds want to know.

Edited by hereticorp, 10 December 2008 - 06:18 PM.

[Foamfoot]

Renegademilitia15, on Dec 10 2008, 07:46 AM, said:

The clear ones were a friday special, and they were only sold at gamestop. Thats why they are so rare.

As far as I know, there is nothing other than our speculation ANYWHERE that says that they will never be released again.

[Firefox551]

That is the single coolest, blue glowiest, "take that bitch"iest gun I have ever seen in my entire life. Very nice work.

[Draconis]

Foamfoot, on Dec 10 2008, 03:10 PM, said:

Renegademilitia15, on Dec 10 2008, 07:46 AM, said:

The clear ones were a friday special, and they were only sold at gamestop. Thats why they are so rare.

As far as I know, there is nothing other than our speculation ANYWHERE that says that they will never be released again.

You can probably bet that they didn't fire up the clear plastic molding and special box for an order of ten per Gamestop store.

[hereticorp]

Firefox551, on Dec 10 2008, 06:26 PM, said:

That is the single coolest, blue glowiest, "take that bitch"iest gun I have ever seen in my entire life. Very nice work.

Thanks, I like to think of it as my Nerf with Deadly Glow gun.

Draconis, on Dec 10 2008, 06:32 PM, said:

You can probably bet that they didn't fire up the clear plastic molding and special box for an order of ten per Gamestop store.

Sadly, they might have done just that. But I'm hoping that it's a prelude to more "Crystal" guns, maybe in different translucent colors, now THAT would be sweet.

Edited by hereticorp, 10 December 2008 - 06:39 PM.

[CaptainSlug]

kluve56, on Dec 10 2008, 07:02 PM, said:

CaptainSlug, what is the box labeled "prototype shoes?"

http://matsys.com/fillshoes.htm

[kluve56]

CaptainSlug, on Dec 10 2008, 06:20 PM, said:

kluve56, on Dec 10 2008, 07:02 PM, said:

CaptainSlug, what is the box labeled "prototype shoes?"

http://matsys.com/fillshoes.htm

Ah. I see, got confused thinking they were some type of shoe, for your feet.

[hereticorp]

Just one final note before I leave this mod completely.

These are the LEDs used in this project, 17 of the larger and 1 of the smaller:

[your worst nightmare]

all i can say is holy fuck man were did u get the clear maverick any way

[hereticorp]

your worst nightmare, on Dec 19 2008, 06:58 PM, said:

all i can say is holy fuck man were did u get the clear maverick any way

1. Your sig fails, use the close brackets.

2. Read the thread. It has your question and the answer a couple times in it.

[Draconis]

kluve56, on Dec 10 2008, 05:05 PM, said:

CaptainSlug, on Dec 10 2008, 06:20 PM, said:

kluve56, on Dec 10 2008, 07:02 PM, said:

CaptainSlug, what is the box labeled "prototype shoes?"

http://matsys.com/fillshoes.htm

Ah. I see, got confused thinking they were some type of shoe, for your feet.

I believe that MOST of us were hoping for a radical new design of Nerf related footwear. Alas, it is not to be.