After completing the connections from the LED circuits to the micro-controller and the power source, I found myself in a rather sureal state - the box was empty. This was kind of strange, because the day before I was certain it was never ending. But there it was, empty. So comes the time to throw the switch, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh). When I pulled the pin, my suspition was realized - the LED panel that I thought I screwed up was screwed up. Glad it was still just held on with a rubber band rather than epoxy. In addition to the vertical panel being out, two of three LED's on one of the ribs were not lit. This seemed strange that two out of three would be defected AND located by chance right next to each other, but I was unsure at the time how to test the situation. So I sent an Email off to Tim Z at Leading Edge Rocketry to see about ordering some replacements. Tim told me he would get what I needed sent out right away, but forgot to tell me what I owed him. As it turns out, he had no intention of telling me, and I felt like I had to beg to at the very least cover the postage! I can't say enough about LER's product and service. Buy their stuff people, they certainly deserve the business. Less than a week later I had recieved the needed LED's to replace what I had miswired. About a ten minuite operation there. After a closer look at the unlit LED's embedded in the ribs, I thought I would try jumping one of them to the next copper foil circuit. That was the ticket. Something had happened somewhere along the copper during assembly that put it out of commision. Unfurtunately at this point a fix of the damaged copper is impossible, but a couple bits of wire from some CAT5 fixed it right up. So the end result after some waiting and learning, 39 animated LED's! I will post a demo vid of it in the near future. In the meantime, I got to work on the few wood parts the kit requires. The usual suspects here, three fins n' a nosecone.
