Build Challenge 2016 #2 - Stuffy's Brewing Co by FSM

Started by Vilius, October 28, 2016, 11:54:08 AM

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Vilius

I am finishing the Dyer's kit and still have a little time left until the end of the challenge so I am doing another one. Few weeks ago while on vacation I decided that I would pick one new kit and work only on it for an evening and then get back to unfinished projects. I was very eager to start something new. My plan A was FOS Dead Horse Bay and plan B Stuffy's. When I got home I realized that I had left the Dead Horse at work. Stuffy's won  ;).

Why Stuffy's?
1. I don't think Karl has built it.
2. It is one of my top favorites.
3. It isn't too big so I have a chance to finish it.
4. I have a large collection of kits and I won't finish them all before the time comes. Eventually, I will have to sell them so it makes sense to build the kits that aren't in the best shape and also have lost most in value. Sadly, Stuffy's has lost more than 30% since I bought it so the idea is to build and sell it in hopes to break even in the end.

I did what I decided to do. I cleaned up the castings, primed them and set aside so I could finish some other projects. I have been thinking about the since then and have come to the conclusion that I need to do lighting. Simple steady lights won't do it for me though. Pretty much everyone does that these days. I will do custom animation. Differently from Elijah Roth project I will take slightly easier route and use Arduino board instead of stand alone microcontroller.  I have China built Arduino Nano and LED driver. I am waiting now for some LEDs and resistors. The whole thing should cost me less than $10. It would be more but I have 9V wall wart power supply and that cuts the price nearly in half.

I will let you know my plan in the next post after I do some testing.

Vilius

fbernard65

Villius,

Karl has built this kit before.  Just not in a thread on this forum.  Looking forward to seeing how build this one.

Frank

ReadingBob

You keep kits at work and at home?   :D  Gee, I wonder if I could set up a spray booth here in my cubicle.   ;D  ;D

I'm looking forward to your build and your lighting.  I have Stuffy's in the closet waiting to be built.  It's one of my favorites (but I have a long list of favorites).  I'll definitely be following along.   8)

Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

Vilius

Quote from: fbernard65 on October 28, 2016, 12:24:36 PM
Villius,

Karl has built this kit before.  Just not in a thread on this forum.  Looking forward to seeing how build this one.

Frank

Frank,

What a disappointment. I'll hope then that Jaime hasn't :).

Vilius

Vilius

Quote from: ReadingBob on October 28, 2016, 12:56:41 PM
You keep kits at work and at home?   :D  Gee, I wonder if I could set up a spray booth here in my cubicle.   ;D  ;D

I'm looking forward to your build and your lighting.  I have Stuffy's in the closet waiting to be built.  It's one of my favorites (but I have a long list of favorites).  I'll definitely be following along.   8)

Bob,

Well... For the most part I keep them at home but I get the kits delivered to my work. Our home mail delivery lady leaves the packages out in the open. One time I completely forgot about the package, left it out until the next morning, and it rained. Luckily it was light rain and whatever was inside was made of plastic. I am not taking that kind of risk when it comes to my kits.

It so happened that I received the Dead Horse right before my vacation and forgot to take it home.

Vilius

Vilius

I think I may have finalized my lighting plan. The Arduino has 6 outputs capable of pulse width modulation. That allows me to change the brightness of 6 LEDs without having to change the resistor. It so happens that LED driver chip that I have also supports 6 LEDs. It looks like I could have all LEDs connected directly to the Arduino outputs but my concern is that summary current may be too much for its power circuitry to handle. I may still hook up 1-2 LEDs if I decide later that I want some on/off functionality. Here is my plan as of today.
1. Steady light in the boiler house. Then every few minutes or so simulate opening of the boiler for new load of coal. That would be done by simulating fire. I found nice idea on the web of how to do it with Arduino, one red LED and two yellow. All three LEDs have to be independent so that takes 3 PWM outputs.
2. Two tavern rooms will have two level lights like someone turning on the light and then turning on the second. It will be done in random pattern. That takes 2 PWM outputs.
3. Steady lights. First tavern floor, newspaper stand, front windows of the second floor of the brewery, goose neck lamp above the garage, the rooftop sign, front dock.
4. On/off light for second floor door and side window combo of the brewery. I may have to do steady light though if it turns out that I have to dim boiler house light to make fire more visible.

The issues I am facing right now are.
1. I don't have small warm white LEDs. My original plan called for only one, for the goose neck lamp, and I had it. Then I added two for the front dock and one for the rooftop sign. I ordered them but they are coming from China so it may take some time.
2. The yellow LEDs for the fire just don't work for me. I want to try two orange/amber and one red LED combination.  It is all possible that I may go with yellow, orange, red combination. The orange LED wasn't something I had so I ordered a bunch of LEDs of different colors. They are coming from China as well.

Since I can't complete any of the sections because they require LEDs that I don't have, I am working on the sub-assemblies for now. Here they are.

Vilius

tom.boyd.125

Vilius,
Great start on this classic FSM kit. Like your coloring a lot and looks fantastic. Will follow along.
Tommy
Tom Boyd in NE Minnesota
tommytrains22@yahoo.com

MAP

Mark

Vilius


Powersteamguy1790


Vilius

Thank you, Bob.

My LEDs have arrived. I checked different combinations of colors and I have come to conclusion that two orange and one red LEDs make the best combination for the boiler house. Other than that I don't have any progress to report.

Vilius

postalkarl


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