Yūkari Layout Building

[Madsing]

SoftBank Building

 

Among other things, I continue to work on detailing the four buildings at the east end of the Main Street. The next building is a SoftBank shop (1st floor), Aomori Dental Clinic (2nd floor), Dimanche Curtains (3rd floor) and Massage Salon (4th floor).

 

These are a few photos of the construction.

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Madsing

[Madsing]

Vertical signboards

 

I had to build illuminated vertical signboards for the Dance School and SoftBank buildings. I have used the same technique as described here:

but I wanted to improve the uniformness of the light. After googling a bit, I learned that intensity of the light in the backlight panel decreases exponentially. I then created a small python script that generates lines spaced exponentially, and used the resulting document to score the transparent acrylic sheet.

 

 

 

The result is a uniform light distribution, even if there are just two LEDs at both ends of the signboard.

 

 

[cteno4]

Excellent solution Marc! It’s the inverse square law, light dissipates at the inverse square of the distance from the source.

 

love your little window light boxes to individually light windows. 
 

when are you going to just have a ATtiny chip in each building?

 

jeff

[Madsing]

8 hours ago, cteno4 said:

It’s the inverse square law, light dissipates at the inverse square of the distance from the source.

Thanks Jeff, so I was wrong about exponentials, my mistake! I'll modify the script.

 

8 hours ago, cteno4 said:

when are you going to just have a ATtiny chip in each building?

It's already (almost) like that 😀. I'm using tiny LED remote controllers from Adafruit (this module: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1455) and I now need one per building.

Longer description here: https://shin-yukari.weebly.com/led-controller.html

 

Marc

[Madsing]

Building a Shunting Route Indicator - 進路表示式入換標識

 

Another ongoing project. I need two shunting route indicators like these:

  

 

Toho kindly provides extensive descriptions on their web site (https://www.toho-elc.co.jp)

 

 

I've built a first prototype using photo etching. I'm happy, it starts to look good

 

 

 

 

The first two photos show all "holes" (representing LEDs) open. I have also built a series of masks placed inside the light box, which will allow me the choose the digit to display. Unfortunately, that will be fixed. For now, I have no way to change the indication "live". Even the smallest 0201 LEDs are too large, and there is no way I can fit a small display in there.

 

Marc

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by Madsing
Typos

[cteno4]

Well in the case of the plastic there is probably some channeling of the dispersion that happens so not as drastic as a light in space fades at the inverse square. From the looks of your result it looks like your lines hit the spot for and even dispersion in the acrylic.

 

those are cool. The ATtinys are similar with serial com channel to potentially daisy chain.

 

jeff

[Madsing]

I have finally purchased a 3D printer!

That was at the end of last year already, so I have already spent a few weekends testing and playing with it.

I chose the Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra 9k, along with their Mercury XS Bundle, including the washing and curing stations (center and right on the photo).

 

The Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra is a small printer, the maximum build volume is only 153.36 x 77.76 x 165mm, but the resolution is super high: 18μm (that's 0.018mm). This is suitable for me as I will only print small models, but I need them super detailed.

 

First test prints:

A shunting route indicator. I am very happy with the results. The size (diameter) of the smaller details like the ladder is only 0.2mm!

 

 

Signboards

 

 

And an "AMAZING YUKARI" sign (inspired by this one https://www.city.toyama.lg.jp/shisei/seisaku/1010755/1011930.html)

 

 

 

 

[Grant_T]

Awesome stuff. I'm looking at getting a printer too for all the detail stuff on the next layout. This one came up as an option. How hard was it to get your head around the work flow?

[Madsing]

What I have been able to achieve in a few weeks is beyond my expectations. The technology (resin 3D printing) is perfectly suitable for our hobby and this particular printer (the Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra 9K) did not disappoint me. This is not a review of that particular model or brand, this is my very first 3D printer so I cannot compare it to others. 

 

But there is definitely a learning curve. Luckily, there are hours of video on Youtube. I watched tons of videos before and after buying, and this has been really helpful. I think these are the main two challenges I have faced:

 

Challenge #1: Handling chemicals, i.e. the resin and the IPA

That was expected. Study how to handle resins and the IPA, buy the necessary bottles, filters, funnels, gloves, masks... beforehand. This is very important. No need to be too scared, just precautious. In addition, I live in an apartment and proper ventilation is an issue. Odours when printing are not too strong but I really cannot stand them, so for now I leave the printer alone in a room when printing, with all doors closed, all windows open and the fan on. Same during cleaning and curing.

 

Challenge #2: Supports

That's a challenge I did not expect. Models must be properly oriented and supported during print (as in the photos above). There is a lot of know-how behind that. Some of my first prints came out very distorted because of the forces that are generated during the printing process. There are things like "suction cups" that I had to learn. I was already familiar with 3D design (I use Autodesk Fusion 360 for several years) but I had to learn how to use the slicer.  The printer came with a license of VoxelDance Tango (https://voxeldance.com/Tango). It's a very good application but after checking around I decided to buy a license of Lychee (https://mango3d.io/lychee-slicer-for-sla-3d-printers/), which is a much more popular and capable application.

 

I still have a lot to learn, that's really what I like.

[Madsing]

On the layout, I use an LED control system that I have described earlier on this forum (see also here: https://shin-yukari.weebly.com/led-controller.html). It is based on Adafruit 12-Channel 16-bit PWM LED Driver modules spread all over the layout. They allow a central computer (a Raspberry Pi in my case) to control the hundreds of LEDs fitting the various buildings.
In addition, I needed a similar control box on my desk. This is a description of the system I have designed.

 

 

It uses the same Adafruit module and exposes the 12 LED outputs on terminal blocks with push-in connection, suitable for temporary connection (no soldering required, no screw).

 

 

Here we see a building "under construction" on my workbench, with its wires attached to the control box.

 

I have designed the PCB in Autodesk Fusion 360. The system is based on an ESP32 microcontroller connected to the Adafruit module and to the various connectors and terminal blocks. The ESP32 exposes a web page used to individually set the brightness of each LED.