Introduction: Back to the Future's Nano Flux Capacitor

Today it's 21 Oct 2015!

For the few that already doesn't know, it's the date Martin Mc Fly came to the future from 1985.

I bet the hype is making much people thinking about building a DeLorean model...

This is a way to enrich your Back to the future's 1/24 DeLorean Model with a "working" Led Flux capacitor.

Fits in 9mm x 7mm !

See the video...

Step 1: Get Material & Tools

Material

  • Optical Fiber 0,75 mm X 2 Mt - On Ebay Here - 6€
  • 1 x 2MM styrene sheet - On Ebay Here - 8€
  • A can of back spray paint.
  • 4 X White LEDs + 4 X 220 Ohm resistance- < 0.50€
  • Assorted Heat Shrinkable Sleeves - On Ebay Here

An Arduino prototype kit made of:

Tools

  • Craft Knife - for cutting out shapes, decals and general craft/hobby tasks.
  • Sand Paper 250 - 800 -1200 Grits
  • Plastic Sprue Cutter
  • CA SuperGlue
  • Self Healing Cutting Mat
  • Soldering Stain
  • Soldering Iron
  • Third Hand Soldering Solder Iron Stand

Step 2: Cut the Syrene Sheet

  • First draw lines with a pencil (see pic)
  • then Cut about of 4 mm of each other three Flux capacitor branches it with your Cutter
  • Do it from the front and from the back
  • try to remove about 0,75 mm of material.

Step 3: Install the Optic Fiber

  • Cut N° 12 X 20 cm (or more) pieces of Optic Fiber
  • Paint it in with your blackspray paint. let it dry

For each of the three Branches:

  • install the 4 fibres
  • glue with aboudant CA Superglue
  • Let it dry 5 min.

Step 4: Sand

  • Cut the exceeding Optical fiber with your Plastic Sprue Cutter on the front side.
  • Sand the front side with progressive Grit, until it's Polished.

Step 5: Build the Circuit

  • Use Heat ShrinkableSleeves to attach each of the 3 leds to the 4 Optical fibres coming form each of the 3 branches
  • Make sure you pair the optical fibre correctly, the closest to the center of each branch, then the second an so on..
  • You'll end up with 4 groups of 3 optical fibres.

  • Prepare 8 electric wires.
  • Solder the 4 leds to 8 wires
  • follow Fritzing diagram to complete the circuit.
    • resistances
    • connections to arduino

Step 6: Program Arduino

Upload following code to Arduino

Use the following wiring starting form the center of the flux capacitor.

Pin 8, pin 10, pin 11, pin 9

or change it as you wish....

int led = 8;
int led2 = 10; //quarto int led3 = 11; int led4 = 9; int Intervallo=30; int ricarica=200; int debug=0;
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {               
  // initialize the digital pin as an output.
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(led2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(led3, OUTPUT); 
pinMode(led4, OUTPUT); 
}
// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  if (debug == 1) {
 analogWrite(led, 255); 
analogWrite(led2, 255); 
analogWrite(led3, 255); 
analogWrite(led4, 255); 
  }else{
analogWrite(led, 255);  
delay(Intervallo);             
analogWrite(led, 0);   
analogWrite(led2, 255);  
delay(Intervallo);             
analogWrite(led2, 0);   
analogWrite(led3, 255);  
delay(Intervallo);             
analogWrite(led3, 0);   
analogWrite(led4, 255);  
delay(Intervallo);             
analogWrite(led4, 0);   
delay(ricarica);
  }
}

Step 7: Embed It in Your Project!

hope you can embed it into your model project...

i'm doing it right now with mine!

model in pic above is Aoshima kit (not my model)

That's all! Enjoy!

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Participated in the
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Participated in the
Back to the Future Contest