May 14, 20192 min read

Falcon lighting: the ramp

Updated: Mar 2, 2020

Ideas and technical drawings:

Technical drawing and picture showing how much space there is between the moving ramp driver (green) and the fixed ramp ceiling (red). Amongst the 4 rows of lights, only 3 do not have much space: the one before the ramp driver axis has plenty of space. However, the 3 other rows of lights have between 3.6 mm and 5.6 mm of space when the ramp is down. The estimation of the available space is important for the lights and wires between the moving ramp driver and the fixed ramp ceiling.

In addition to light the ramp ceiling, I am planning to light two extra spots along the ramp wall.

Preparation of ramp ceiling:

The brass pieces, which created an effect that I liked, have been removed as they take too much place above the ramp ceiling for the lights.

They will be replaced by Ø 4 mm styrene tube to gain space above the ceiling to accommodate Chris Holland lighting.

Here are the small pieces of styrene tubes, which finally create an effect that is not too bad.

Sliding cover for the ceiling lights:

As I want to have a maximum of things removable for repair or replacement (i.e. lights), I had to find a solution for the 8 ramp ceiling lights with the constraint that the minimum space I have between the moving ramp driver and the fixed ramp ceiling is 3 mm (see technical drawing above).

I therefore decided to create a sliding cover that will hold the eight lights and wires. The lights must be glued on the sliding cover and fall exactly where the 8 ramp lighting holes are located.

The Chris Holland's lights:

The customized lights that Chris Holland created for this project are very tinny SMD leds (less than 1 mm wide). 8 leds are for the ramp ceiling and 2 are for the ramp walls.

Leds are then glued with CA on the sliding cover. The wires have been temporally Scotch taped, they might be glued at a later stage after all tests are done. It was a real pain to glue the leds without damaging them, they are so tinny. Thanks Chris Holland, it must have been a real burden to solder them.