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But that’s not all! That’s just the board. We still have the rest of the kit to worry about to get the lights up and running properly.


> RS 4AA Battery holder, long.

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I was able to find a vintage RS Components battery holder, almost but not quite the same as in the helmet. It’s labeled RS stock no. 488-163 and is marked “UM-3x4 6V” molded into the plastic along the spine.

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This holder was probably made in Japan or Taiwan. I think Japan is the only country which labels AA batteries as UM3 but battery holders made in Taiwan also use that designation. The spine on the vintage are wider than current versions, more like 1/2” wide as opposed to 1/4”, and smaller protrusions for keeping the battery in place. I passed on the vintage holder since it wasn’t the exact same model therefore not worth the beefy price of the giant lot it was in. I’ll stick with the cheap one from amazon for the time being.



> Two Mulbrod wire clips made in Germany. Luckily I was able to get some. Currently there aren’t many sources for these. Grab ‘em if you find any.


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> Rainbow wire 24AWG (orange/red/brown/black)


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> One vinyl 9v battery snap. I got vintage because the vinyl is shaped nicer and more like the one in the helmet as opposed to the cheap misshapen stuff you get from most suppliers today.


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> The well-known Honeywell micro-switch 1SX1-T preferably with 77 or 78 manufacture date (I believe that’s a YYWW code again, so preferably nothing after 78-20 or so if you want to be hyper accurate. Mine is 78-41, a little past that date! Drats! Well, maybe the ESB had a slightly newer one than the ST helmet. Let’s pretend for now).


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> Two red LEDs. The correct LEDs for the rangefinder top are the Fairchild flv102. These were only made in the '70s but can still be found.


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> Three 2mm 6v grain-of-wheat lights. Terminal Fettler’s beautifully done RF top has the correct size holes for these.


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I’m choosing NOT to put vintage batteries into the functional version. Should you put replica vintage labels on your batteries? Don’t be ridiculous. Of course, you should.


With all the parts collected, I’ve temporarily put them in place and plan to solder the connections properly after testing the design with prototyping software.


But thanks to the left turn at Albuquerque along the way, I’ll be doing two slightly different builds for the board. One for the ’79 ESB hero helmet, dubbed ‘theoretical’, and one for the SE, dubbed ‘post-ESB’ which is what we started out building without knowing it. The '79 board I will be making functional, the post-ESB I will not bother to wire up because the setup was trashed by the time the SE filmed. I'll put a sticker on the RS chip on that board, though, to turn it into the 7416 until I can find a real one of the correct period.


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If there are any electronics gurus who think they know how to make this board work with the RF lights and would like to help me make this happen, please PM me. I don’t mind the challenge of doing it myself, but I also wouldn’t mind speeding up the process with a little expert help.


Phew! We did it. We laughed, we cried, we made it through a truly mind-bending journey of wonder and discovery, stunning betrayals and earth shattering revelations. And who saw that second act plot twist coming? Not me. That’s for d*%n sure. But I’m a sucker for happy endings. Especially ones with unicorns and sunsets.


I’ll update this post as new information becomes available (the discussion continues here in the stand-alone thread). More to come in part 2. I also have one more research project to post soon that may or may not be a new found part.


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