Battery switchout and servo switched lights

After finding that the little R44 batteries were dying already (not too suprising), I went to get replacements, and found another problem with using those types of batteries: they were $4.99 EACH! If they were going to go dead after a few days of occasional use, and that much, well then; its time for a Plan B

So I found this little AAA battery pack at radioshack, and thought I could make it work. I was a little over-big, but luckilly it was also over-roomy inside, so I dremeled away the pack to the barest of essentials, and now have a pack that will fit nicely in the empty left side of the rear cabin.


It would slide in (needs to be made removeable, so sliding in was one of the objectives) more or less like this. You can see its still a fraction of an inch to long, so I had to get really, fancy: and remove that overlarge gap where the spring are: I clipped the spring coils just enough to still be functional, then cut the entire black box in half, and shaved away the difference before gluing it back together. Long story short (too late!): it fits. Barely

When I was at Radio Shack getting the battery box, I saw something that caught my attention: a momentary pushbutton switch that was micro-mini... which means it may actually fit in this project (Its amusing to me how the tinyest micro mini switch still looks all huge and clunky at this scale.). The plan was, as shown in the red boxes, above: to mount the pushbutton in the vertical rectangle, and the last servo in the lower horizonal rectangle, set up on radio channel 1 (the one that doesnt 'spring load' back to center... perfect for this), so that when I move the throttle lever on my radion, the arm on the servo would swing up and depres the switch- thereby turning the lights on remotely.

So heres the layout (look at that huge clunky switch! sheesh!!), in its general position. The pushbutton is screwed onto a flat styrene strip (seen edge on), and will be glued to the stack of square tubes that were used to brace the turret servo (seen behind the tip of the needlenose)

And heres how the arm will actuate the switch. I will trim the white bar so it will be a more deadon-strike. Se seat on the right side of the cabin has been markes up for cutting away the lower portion. I need the seatcushion to hold the servo battery up in place, but ned the lower area for the servo to fit and line up (not apparent in this pic)

All in all this swtichout to a beefy twin AAA setup will give me more options: I can tie more lights to the terminal block, and even add 1.5v leds with a separate wiretap at the end of just one battery (I believe that will work)