I need to re-design the board again. This is because after drawing out the all the necessary lighting for the model, collectively, it seemed that there were more LEDs than I have anticipated. The current design was meant for the AMT which does not have a Cargo Bay. After going through the Revell copy, I think it is better to re-design the board for both versions.
It was already a challenge trying to light up the cargo bay walls but I have to take a stand and implement a much the more expensive solution to achieve this. I have discovered that there is another more effective method but that solution meant obscene amount of moolah. I will tell you more in detail once the board arrives later in the month as I am still finalising it.
THE STANDBY MODE
For the sake of simplicity, I will call this the STANDBY MODE where when the Razor Crest is landed on a surface. The micro-controller has enough memory to provide two modes; Flight and Standby. Although the system uses about 80 plus LEDs with the majority of them being in the engines, not all of them would be used at once. Here are how the LEDs would light up in each of the two modes:
Standby Mode
Cockpit, external, cargo bay, landing bays
Flight Mode
Cockpit, chin, navigation, engines
The common lights are the ones inside the cockpit and so, I would leave them as direct drive instead and doing so would free up one micro-controller port which I can then use for Standby Mode.
REPROGRAMMING
Apart from redesigning the circuit board, I would also need to rewrite the program as well since I now have a free output Port. I will use this Port to activate the required LEDs in the Standby Mode. Plus, I am going to put in the ramping of the Ring LEDs back, plus maybe a ramp down effect of the engines from Flight to Standby mode so it looks better.
WIRING
Of course, with the cargo bay lighting, there would be some additional wiring. I counted about 6 pairs of wires running into, and being squeezed within the almost zero-gap walls of the cargo bay and the fuselage tub. So, wiring the Revell version is going to be a big challenge.
