Installing Light Buddy 2 - Part 1

 

While the firmware is not yet complete, I went ahead and started building the first instance of this new LED Controller.  

This requires doing something that is controversial in the LEGO community and that is modifying the bricks.  My take is that drilling holes for wiring or letting LED light though, when no other option is possible and this holes cannot be seen, is acceptable.  Modifying bricks for an artistic effect is pushing this idea too far for me.

The first modification is the sand blue dish on the top.  In the build, the sand blue 1 x 1 round tile on the top will be replaced by a transparent red tile, so that that a glowing LED can be placed there.  There is no open stud in this part, so I will need to drill a hole for the wires.

The next two pictures show the problem.  First the hole has to leave the surrounding shoulder plastic so that the tan cone has something to connect to.  Second, in this configuration the dish is not stable.  Attempting to drill in this manner will likely result in the dish tilting and the hole not being where I wanted it.

The solution is to use 1x1 round plate with an open stud.  This picture shows that I have chosen a drill bit that will just fit into the open stud.

By placing the 1x1 round plate on the dish, it will serve as a drill guide.  The dish is now facing down and in the most stable position.  This makes drilling the hole very easy.

And here is the result.

The generator LED's are placed at the bottom of the 2x2 round transparent light blue bricks.  But the 6x6 round tan plate will not the LED light up into the 2x2 round domes on the 6x6 tan plate.  Here is where major modifications are needed.  The 6x6 tan plate has a hole in the center which will be needed for the wires coming down from the top of the dish.  Thus I need to drill holes of the same size where the center of the 2x2 round bricks attach.

There are two approaches to this. 

Drill from the bottom.  But as this picture shows, the location of the holes is not a normal circle.  That odd shape will cause the drill bit to wander and force the part to move unless it is tightly clamped down.

Drill from the top.   This approach is easier, but there does not exist a natural drill guide.  I would be guessing where the center is.  Thus as with the dish drill above, I am using a 2x2 round tile with a hole in the center.  This places the hole exactly where I want it.

Here is the 6x6 round plate with the four additional holes in it.

Next installment will be installing the LEDs.