The footprint is 3" x 4.4" which is the same size as your cardstock motel. The lobby is under the carport, but will have just under 1 square inch of floor space, but will be lit up well so you can see inside. I'll measure the AC's tomorrow, I made a rectangular outline under each window for them. Roughly 3' x 5', but I'll get actual measurements of the space. I used a tan gloss spray paint for the building, and the first coat was too shiny, so I held the spray can about 18 inches away, and the paint dried before it hit the walls, which gave a stucco appearance. I sealed it with Dullcote so the stucco would not rub off easy.
Oh yes cruising! We had us 20 McKinley highway in South bend/Mishawaka. Cops broke it up really early 90s. But for a while everyone would cruise the strip. Had every fast food place on it and plenty of parking lots! Still though the best memories was the cars that were rebuilt! Barracudas, Monte Carlo, and pickups just decked out. Different time. We’d work on cars on Friday and Saturday just to get it looking good for the strip. Haha.
I've made a lot of progress on the Aldrin Astronomy Center since I last checked in. I finally found something that will fit in the observatory and move the telescope up and down. It's one of those tiny linear servos that don't make good switch motors (apparently), but work well for my needs. Just so long as there's no resistance to movement, the gears won't shred, and their only real problem is how loud they are. Here are the mechanics, the linear servo moves the telescope (3mm brass tube) up and down using stripped, 22g hook-up wire and it's powered/controlled via a slip-ring that allows a full 360deg of motion via the 28BYJ-48 stepper (geared 1:6). You can see the lights installed in the (upside-down) building to the right of it and the 2-part light shield that prevents light from escaping from under the dome on the left of it. The right picture shows the side view, so you can see how everything hooks up. Here's the assembled structure. The mechanics will be hidden underground, I just have to figure out where to put everything else. The final version will be printed in black PLA, then painted white for light-fastness. You can see the red light working on the right. I'll try to post a gif of it working. There will also be both white and red lights installed in the front office and main building. I'm currently playing with resistors to figure out the best brightness for the lights. I might also install a porch light if I have a pin left over on the Arduino and I can find a spare, wired 0402 LED. Right now, it's programmed to move to a random position every 2-4 minutes while the red light goes on and off in the observatory before and after it moves, which makes it look like people are working inside using red lights to preserve night vision. Eventually, I'll program the lights for the whole building so it looks like something's going on there.
Today I worked on the interior view blocks (rooms). I plan on putting lights in all the rooms and use an Attiny85 to turn lights on and off on individual timers to simulate human activity. I need to put a buck converter and the Digispark Attiny85 in as well as run the 0402 LED's. I cut .050" holes in the roof pieces (which are also the floor to the second story rooms, and cut mouse holes to run the wires. I will just black out the LED's so light from the 1st floor lights don't leak into the second floor rooms. Here you can see the Buck Converter which converts the 12VDC to 5VDC for the Digispark, stuck to the wall, and the digispark sitting on the lobby roof, so there is plenty of room for these tiny electronics. They are cheap too, $4 for the Digispark, and $1.60 for the DC/DC Converter. The LED wire mouse holes run under the windows, you can see them in this photo. Tomorrow I will work on the wiring:
Wow, you are going the extra mile to create realism in the lighting of the motel. Signs look great too! Where did you get the Buck Convertor and the Digispark?
You can get everything cheaper if you shop ebay, but I was into instant shipping gratification when I ordered. What I like about the Digispark is they have a USB port built into the board, so you can plug into a USB and program with Arduino, then after you are happy with the program, you can cut off the USB port to make it even smaller. I have tried to run a small stepper motor with these but with minimal success. They only have 6 IO ports, but for small projects and a small footprint they have uses. Buck Converters: 5V Regulator Module Mini Voltage Reducer Adjustable DC 4.5 - 24V 12V 24V to 5V 3A Volt Buck Converter Digispark: Ximimark 3pcs ATTINY85 General Micro USB Development Board for Arduino
Just getting started this morning. The weather is great! It's 65° in my garage, and the door is opened. A little smokey because of all the forest fires, but cool weather for the first time in 9 weeks of 100° weather is a game changer... It marks the beginning of.... Wait for it... MODEL RAILROAD SEASON! I updated my Avatar, as you can see I am happy. (I also have lost 35 pounds since I have been on my "No Wheat's No Sweet's" diet I started in March) Yesterday was cool, at only 82 degrees, but it was 70 degrees in the morning, today is when I'm calling the start of the season, and I am happy! So I am starting on wiring lighting into my Motel 6 project. I am using 0402 warm white LED's, and gluing them in with UV Glue, because it sets within a couple seconds of UV light exposure. As you can see I run the wires through the mouse holes, turn on the UV for a couple seconds, and move on the the next LED's. It's much better than CA and Accelerator, because there is no stink, and the resin is optically transmissive. Here is a quick picture: UV Light makes the LED Phosphors glow. it's really cool looking:
Drken the observatory looks great! Pretty cool. think you’re right Robert….I’m getting that itch. Must be the season starting!
I have to get the interior done before I can actually wire in the lights, so I switched gears and drew up curtains, signs, Traventine tile lobby floor, and the lobby counter. and laser cut the curtains with different degrees of opened to closed for variety: Then I installed everything inside, including gluing first floor figures randomly in their rooms: I had to make carpet to cover the first floor room lights so both floors don't light up at the same time. I made that out of black Polybak to make sure no light could leak through, and all the wires neatly ran through their mouse holes: And lastly for today, I wired in all the room LED's through 4.7K SMT Resistor Packs, 2 resistors in parallel for each LED so I get 2350 Ohms to each. This will give me just enough current to NOT over-brighten the room lighting. The Digispark outputs are 5V divided by 2350 Ohms = 2.13 milliamps. I also made a lighted Motel 6 drum-head sign on the end of the building. When testing, one of the rooms on the bottom floor don't light up, and I had sealed all the resistor packs in UV Resin to prevent the tiny wires from breaking off, so one room on the bottom floor will not be illuminating. I guess that means that there is Room Vacancy available. I ended the hobby day gluing on the second floor ceiling so I can wire in the second floor lighting. No need to paint that as the walls are all that will be visible when rooms are lit up:
It is looking great with the lights, curtains, and the wiring for the Motel 6. I like the sign on the other end. You really look for all the detail as much as possible. You’ve really taken to heart Motel 6 motto, “Will leave the lights on for you”!
Funny you mentioned their motto, I put that sign on the registration counter in the lobby. If you zoom in the photo of signs you can see it.
Rob, Great work so far on the motel! Love all the layers in the walls, textured walls, window columns, glass, and curtains. Well thought out! All the graphics for signage looks really nice. Scott PS, If that's you happy, I'd hate to see you mad.
More progress. I used larger magnets in the base to hold this model in place stronger, because it uses a bit more current than most structures. I also build a diode bridge to feed the buck converter, so I can use anything from 5V to 16V DC or AC as an input and not worry about polarity. Also you can see some of the first floor figures: I wired in the top floor room lights, and put a red light in one of the rooms to represent what often happens at motels. There are lots of wires now, as there are 20 LED's in the model: I was worried it would not all fit, But I managed to tuck it all in before gluing the roof on: And before I continue with the details, I wanted to test everything with the roof on, before the glue sets to the point that removing the roof would cause any damage. Here is a short video of the action:
Thank you, Rob for providing these great step-by-step posts. Seeing what you are doing is very helpful. The consolidation of all those wires and resistors in one place with only two wires coming out makes me want to cry. Amazing work as usual. Jim
I just ordered another 200 of the 0402 Warm White LED's, and 100 2A SOP-4 sized SMD Bridge Rectifiers. My latest enhancements for structure lighting is to use bridge rectifiers so I don't have to worry about polarity, just hook up any 2 wires.
