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I've tried Googling this to death but have came up somewhat empty.  I did find this site:

http://store.qkits.com/category.cfm/LED

I wonder though, all of those kits show the LEDs mounted straight on the board.  Is it a simple matter of buying some fiber optic wire and soldering the wire onto the board in place of the LED legs...then run the wire to the LED? 

The reason I ask, I'm in the process of building a landing pad and wanted to run wires from the board to the various spots on the pad where the lights will be.  If it's a simple matter of buying some wire, running it to the LEDs, these kits look like great buys.  Any tips/links?

Thanks.

using fiber optics does not involve soldering at least all the types i've seen , most that i've seen for models is nothing more than fexible clear plastic.you can desolder the LED's. solder in wires to put them where you want . it's been a long time since i looked at their websight but i think micro mark tools has a fiber optic kits.i hope that helps.

http://www.culttvman.com/

This guy, IIRC has a good how-to on LED's. The wiring for them requires a bit of math and some resistors usually.

Also, do a search on Star Trek modelling and LED lighting. Those guys seem to do it FAR FAR more than anybody else.

Model railroaders use LED also. Check those sites as well.

I just did some of this over the weekend.

1) You need to pay attention to standard electronic principles, like ohm's law. You can't just run current through an LED and expect it to work right - it might light up, but if you over-juice it, it will burn out too. Pay attention to the current requirement and voltage drop over the LED and toss in a current limiting resistor.

If you already know that, great, if you're really confused, I can probably help with more specifics.


2) I thought fiberoptics would be fun to play with and allow me to get light to places I wouldn't otherwise have been able to. Ug. The stuff is a nightmare to use, at least in larger (1.5mm) diameters. It is only semi-flexible, and would rather be straight than follow even simple curves. I had to make all sorts of plasticard mounting brackets, and even then it was a nightmare to run through to where I wanted it. Maybe smaller gauges would work better...


3) Using those kits, sure, just run wire and connect the leds to the wire ends and the kit should drive everything else.

Those kits are great, I just bookmarked the link. If you order, let us know how it works out!