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E-11 Power Cylinders Research Thread (renamed from "3 Central Fuses...")


PlayfulWolfCub

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Hi Kevin,

 

It's cool that someone else is trying to advance the cause  :)

 

I had a nosey round the Pye site too & I think I emailed them too.  I emailed quite a lot of people, as did Marv & Andy19422 & yes, I know that feeling of "close but no cigar"

 

Good luck with the search.   Keep us posted - especially if you get any close photos.

 

Cheers, Andy

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So if I have a deactivated Sterling, a M38A2 scope, proper T-tracks, and the Hengstler 400 counter, how do I decide which one to use for the E-11?  Critieria? Preference?

Thanks in advance.

 

I think this depends on what blaster do you want to make, look at Andy's versions and simply choose. BTW I would advise to try getting a M38/M40 scope, not M38A2.

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Do I choose one based personal preference?

 

I am making anh e11 however I already have the m38a2 which a got from my grandfather (he had a box full of scopes). I noticed that the only place that a I saw an a2 was on a sandtrooper screen capture. So a bit of a mis-match since I want to be a tk.

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Edited by evoxpilot
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scope power cells?

 

and the connection with aircraft parts fits with roger christian's method.

from star wars to alien we see aircraft parts used as set dressing.

Edited by TK Bondservnt 2392
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Do I choose one based personal preference?

 

I am making anh e11 however I already have the m38a2 which a got from my grandfather (he had a box full of scopes). I noticed that the only place that a I saw an a2 was on a sandtrooper screen capture. So a bit of a mis-match since I want to be a tk.

 

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

 

You can modify the A2 with bondo to sculpt the correct look of an M38

 

just purchase an A2 and a resin M38 and sculpt from there.

Edited by TK Bondservnt 2392
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So if I have a deactivated Sterling, a M38A2 scope, proper T-tracks, and the Hengstler 400 counter, how do I decide which one to use for the E-11?  Critieria? Preference?

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi Darren,

 

Sergiu & Vern make good points.  It's true that the A2 scopes aren't screen accurate on a TK blaster but it's nice to be able to use your grandfather's scope.

 

All 5 shapes of Power Cylinders I make are screen-accurate and, since we don't have clear photos/screencaps of most of the E11s used on-screen, you could simply choose the shape you like best.

 

However, if you want to make a screen-identified blaster you need to choose one particular blaster that we have clear photos of.  In my Replicas pdf (link) I've recreated 5 screen-identified blasters.

 

Are you a curly wires fan?  If so, they're only screen-accurate or screen-identified with Shape E - "Post Production".  Shape E will have been used on blasters without wires but we have no clear screenshots of it.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers, Andy

Edited by PlayfulWolfCub
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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Howdy Boyos!

 

Just read through all 32 pages.

Wow... and I thought us droid builders were obsessive!

 

Some really beautiful work here, both detective, and craftsman wise. 

 

As usual, not only am I late to the party, but all I'm bringing to the table is the equivalent of a warm bottle of Diet Mtn Dew.

 

SSkunky posted a pic on... I dunno, page 15 maybe, of this thread waaaay back when folks still seemed to care about the mysterious K that appeared on some part label. For the life of me I can't get the original images to load, but he found these different capacitors with a K and I read through the rest of the I thread expecting someone else to chime in with something I think is rather obvious. My guess is that no one jumped on it because the Metalmite caps were deemed 'close-as-we're-ever-gonna-get' before playfulwolfcub among others began to fashion their own dummy caps.

 

However In the interest of the phrase "All knowledge is learning and therefore good." I wanted to shovel my two republi-credits at you.

 

The K on the caps in SSkunkys pics stands for Kilohertz.

 

Note the KH is part of the printed label and the Z115582 is hot stamped on later no doubt after the caps had been tested and passed whatever (QC) Quality Control inspections the manufacturer required.

 

115,582 KHz (or 115MHz) is just above the top end of the FM radio band which really stops at about 110,000KHz. (0.1 Ghz) Which means this cap is better suited to radio (or possibly TV) equipment and NOT radar. Too high for early coastal systems, and too low for later systems.

 

Granted it still remains to be seen what is the frequency of the correct Metal Mite and/or Metal Pack capacitors.

 

 A little history. The earliest radar systems (coastal early warning) ran from 3 MHz to 30 MHz for HF band.

UHF band (yes, like the crappy TV stations) operated from 300MHz to 1000MHz.  Later systems jumped to 1GHz for WWII era and powered up to 10 GHz in the early 60's, which is probably the most recent military surplus the people making Star Wars were likely able to purchase on the cheap.

 

Modern radar modern currently runs up to about 40 GHz, and just to tweak the conspiracy minded I'll add that at 10GHz and higher you can pretty much see through walls.

 

I don't expect any of this to be much help at this point, but you never know.

KHz+capacitors.jpg

WOW! What a great read!

Thought I would stick my pennies worth in here....

Now I know these are not the right capacitors but...... They do have a K in them. I thought this pic might help with the search.....

capacitors.jpg

Edited by jonny5
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Thanks Jon, glad you enjoyed the thread and maybe your ideas will help get closer to finding a real set.   I'll be honest, I have very little working knowledge about wartime radios and RADAR electronics & I keep hoping someone more knowledgable than me will have a Power Cylinders breakthough!

 

To follow up on a couple of your points...

 

I'm certain they were "METALMITE" as opposed to "METALPACK" because you can see the ITE" (albeit rather blurrily) in this photo:

 

ITEoncapacitors_zps34a6e7f6.jpg

 

 

Your idea about KHz works well on Sskunky's photo.  Unfortunately it doesn't work so well with the text printed on vintage TCC capacitors whose dimensions fit the Power Cylinders.  In the photo below you can see that none of these vintage TCC capacitors have a "KH" or "K".  Instead they have what I believe are parts and batch numbers: "6914" and "011-5551".  The spacing and content of the text on these capacitors matches very closely that of the original Landspeeder capacitors so I suspect they didn't have the "KH" & "z" either.

 

(TCC made the "METALMITE" series, for anyone who hasn't read the whole thread).

 

Vintagecaps1_zps0c4f15df.jpg

 

I've found two other other versions of these TCC capacitors with the same dimensions and electrical specifications but with different batch numbers so I still very much hope to find a "METALMITE" version with a batch number starting with K (which I'm led to understand is a military designation). 

 

I've only ever found one "METALMITE" capacitor with these dimensions.  It was in a batch of these TCC capacitors but it was already sold before I found it  :(   (Top left in the photo below)  You can't see the part or batch number in the photo and the seller couldn't tell me but it does reassure me that they do exist - it's just a matter of time (and luck...) before finding one and maybe it'll begin with a "K"... 

 

Metalmitecapacitorse_zps3410ef4f.jpg

 

Just to check, Jon, did you also spot the "History & Analysis" pdf summary of the Power Cylinders research?  There's a link in my signature.

 

Cheers, Andy

Edited by PlayfulWolfCub
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  • 5 weeks later...

Exciting update!  After many months of searching I've finally found and bought some of the correct-sized vintage capacitors that actually have "METALMITE" printed on them!  :)

 

They're not perfect because they're not K-numbered but it's very nice to be able to test-fit some genuine "METALMITES" into one of my baseplates.  I'm not soldering them in - they're too rare & expensive.  I might put them in a little perspex case.

 

I'll tell whoever gets this particular baseplate that it once had genuine "METALMITE" capacitors sitting in it!  :smiley-sw013: 

 

Cheers, Andy

 

METALMITES1e_zps100534a2.jpg

 

METALMITES2e_zpsfd987b0d.jpg

 

METALMITES3e_zps5ad21e28.jpg

 

METALMITES4e_zpsc6650034.jpg

 

METALMITES5e_zpsb412f496.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Andy,

That really is awesome! :). Did you ask the place you got them from what the resistors might have been used in or who they would have supplied the resistors to? To get an idea of if any of the original set ups may still be surviving?

 

Well done mate.

 

Cheers Mark.....TK222

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Hi Mark,

 

The guy selling these capacitors didn't know anything to help our quest.  Like other people who are searching I've asked so many sellers & experts that I'm astonished none of them have yet had the answer.  Still looking though.

 

Heads up to anyone who is thinking of bidding on these:  http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=121277310570&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:3160  It's an exciting photo at first glance but none of them are the right size. CP32Ns (which are on the card) are too fat.

 

Cheers, Andy

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Hi Andy,

Agh, that's a shame and quite typical of what we have been thrown into!! I've just taken a look at the eBay link and I bet there will be someone building an E11 that sees these and decides to buy them not knowing what you do. I was thinking there's a place near me that deals with ex-military stuff and I believe one of the things they handle is old radios, it may be worth just asking if they have any idea what the resistors are from if I show them an image?

Just looking on the other thread and the image of all the power cylinders laid out looks quite impressive with everyone's name underneath and I can see a gap!!! :) :)

 

Cheers Mark.....TK222

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I was thinking there's a place near me that deals with ex-military stuff and I believe one of the things they handle is old radios, it may be worth just asking if they have any idea what the resistors are from if I show them an image?

 

Go for it Mark  :) 

 

The more years pass by, the less likely it is we'll find them. If the technicians that soldered the original parts were 20/30 years old at the time they'll be in their 80s/90s now!  :o

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Hello everyone, the blog grabs that were introduced early on were mine, based on conversations with Paul Harrison at Elstree. He worked on the Landspeeder, the Mouse Droid, Treadwell and the Stick Droid (Jawa sale).

 

http://sterlingblasterconversion.blogspot.com/

 

Chris Trevas (LonePigeon) and I had conversed a bit about this, and felt we were headed in the right direction with the bank of capacitors and vacuum tubes found in vintage amplifiers that were abundant in 1976 England.

 

I'm curious, what is the final result of what you have unearthed on this topic?  Can someone give an accounting of what has been found and where the search stands?

 

 

Thanks!

Edited by Deckard
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