20250406 C&C Tesla Trooper: The Tesla Emitter

20250406 C&C Tesla Trooper: The Tesla Emitter

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The Circuit Board

The original PCB that came from the Kit was very good and the unique feature is that it can be controlled using a magnet. However, I would still like to design my own solution because I really love the design of the Tesla Emitter. The first step in creating a circuit board to house a micro-controller an the LEDs in such a small (but long) space was really challenging. With every component fighting for real estate, I had to make the circuit board longer than the original. The issue here is to make sure the SMD micro-controller still fits into the plastic part, N2’s square cavity. The second issue is because of the circuit board’s dimension which follows the entire curvature of the clear part, E2, the PCB must be able to curve.

This is the top design of the Tesla Emitter and as you realise by now, the orange design means, the whole circuit board material is flexible PCB and not of those FR4. Even with 0.8mm thickness, FR4 is still impossible to bend without affecting the who circuit. The LEDs are in the form of SMDs; LEDs 00100 to 00400 are 0805 while LED 00500 would be the larger 1206 type. As for the white pattern, it is just silkscreen.
This is the bottom view and I really hope the SMD IC1 does fit into the plastic part, N2 which can be used to lock or secure the whole system accurately. There is a small dimple which is used to lock the original PCB but here, I think some double-sided tapes might mitigate it.

The Programming

I programmed the whole LED sequence (using Flowcode) over the weekend. To program and then test the software, I used my own Programmer/ Tester adaptor. Long ago, I would be transferring the micro-controller between the programmer and the prototyping board. This not only wears out the metal connectors of all components but also, introduced a lot of unnecessary programming errors. In the end, I designed this adaptor which helped to eliminate a lot of the issues and more importantly, save me time and space.

Most of my projects revolve around this IC and its 5 I/O pins (for LEDs) and the sixth switch Pin. The LEDs are there to tell me the results of the progamming before I continue on with the actual circuit.

20250406 C&C Tesla Trooper: The Tesla Emitter
The programming and circuit board design has been laid out to follow the LED sequence on the Programmer Adaptor (from left to right). Note LEDs in Banks 001 to 004 are the smaller 0805 variants while the Emitter would be the larger 1206 SMD LED.
The problem with digital devices is that they cannot adjust to the micro-controller’s flickering. In the end, all you’d see would be weird blinking and sadly, this was quite evident in the video below.

The YouTube Video

Posted in A Piscean Works Blog, Action Figure, Border Models, Computer Games, Computers, Design, EaglePCB7.77, Figures, Flowcode, JLCPCB, Lighting, Microchip PIC, Microcontroller, Model Kits, Printed Circuit Board, Programming, Scale Lighting, Scale Models, Software, Upgrade Parts.

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