So my wife got me this awesome Star Trek Enterprise model with working lights and a play able recording of the intro to the original series for $10 at a rummage sale. Only issue was the batteries have been in there for ages and was all busted open, acid all over, and crossion everywhere inside. I did my best to clean it all but still it was a mess. Rather then wasting more batteries I decided to make a little modification and have it run off of USB power! The voltage is just about the same, the model runs off 4.5v and USB outputs around 5v “this will vary from machine to machine, even port to port in some cases”. For example when I hooked it up to my laptop the brightness and everything was perfect, but when I connected to a desktop machine at work the lights got very bright and hot fast, I solved this by attaching a non-powered USB hub and connecting the model to that. Below are a few pictures I took from the mod. Ok that is it, enjoy!

Here is a close up of my new toy:

Here is the USB cable I used:

Here is the cable attached to the base:

Here is the cable soldered to the main board in the base:

And here is the finished project: