Compact DC SSR for LED Canes

[Daemon]

Hi David


I have 20 or so of these candy canes also so you can add me to the list of those interested when you revisit it this year.


I have been installing led rope light in them as it fits tidily but individual control of the leds looks brilliant.


Keep me in mind please and great job.


Steve

 

[Blickensderfer]

David,
I received my WS2803 and I was wanting to play around with a couple. I'm going to breadboard a couple to do you have a schematic of your PCB?
Thanks,
Dan

 

[Daemon]

Hi David.
Did you ever go back and relook at this board?
I am still interested in getting some, failing that could you post the schematic that vanished with the server move please so I can try and recreate some myself.
Appreciated
Steve

 

[David_AVD]

A couple of us talked about it again at the Brisbane mini last weekend. I guess you could call that progress! LOL

The sticking point is the wiring of the LEDs. One thought is to make a long PCB that has the electronics and the first 14 or so LED. The remaining LEDs (for the curved part) would need to be hand wired, but that's better than doing all 18 !

 

[Daemon]

That's true. I cant really see the difference myself because you will always have to do some manually due to the shape.
May as well do the whole lot I say!
Will just keep an eye on this post then, just in case

Steve

 

[David_AVD]

The one cane I did manually wire fully was a PITA honestly. I have no desire to make a dozen or more using that method.

I don't think I ever published a circuit diagram for this. I did link to the WS2803 data sheet though and it's now in the wiki.

I do have one cane at home so I might measure it up again and see how easy a long PCB would be to design.

 

[Daemon]

I thought I remembered a schematic or something posted at the start but I may be mistaken.


I plan at this stage to just use led rope light stuffed into them and control them with a standard dc controller but it would be good to expand on that.

 

[David_AVD]

This LED wiring jig was made by Blickensderfer.



Soldering the common anode wire:


Adding one cathode (channel) wire per LED:


Dress the wiring:


Taken out of jig:


The end result:

 

[Daemon]

Too easy eh?
Thanks for posting those David. Thats a good idea, that jig.
I have loads of RGB leds lying around, I am sure I could do something with those also.
Steve

 

[David_AVD]

I will be getting bare boards from China again soon. If there's interest I can get boards made for these candy canes.

There's bugger all to the circuit. Just the WS2803, regulator (if using 12V instead of 5V) and a couple of resistors and capacitors.

I'm not offering a group buy on all the parts, just offering the boards. I will have to leave it up to someone else to offer a group buy.

 

[Daemon]

I would definately be interested David.


Getting them from China? I thought there were loads of places to get cheap boards closer to home now adays.


Anyway, Can you refresh my memory, how are they connected to the dmx controller in the chain? and can you pass the DMX signal on to the next?


Also, will you be getting updated ones with the transistor onboard?


Steve

 

[David_AVD]

These are pixel drive (WS2803). not DMX so you'll need a suitable pixel controller to use them.

Not sure what you mean by "Also, will you be getting updated ones with the transistor onboard?" ?

 

[adski]

Regardless of the candy canes, this looks like a really small, really cheap 18 channel LED controller board - I can think of a multitude of uses!

OK, it can only drive a single LED string per channel, but that's at least 6 LEDs at say 24V, and the addition of a dollar or so's worth of resistors and 2N2222s could bump that up to a few hundred milliamps (maybe that's what Daemon was suggesting?).

Just add a DMX pixel driver and you're away (one universe would drive 28 of these boards).

I'd be interested in a dozen boards.

Dave

 

[Daemon]

I am referring to your very first post in this thread David. Quote " It would have DMX input and each one would be individually addressable to allow for some more detailed sequences"

Also further down you said, and I quote again "I could look at an updated version (so the regulator can sit on the top side) and offer them here as a board only buy"

Dont blame me for having a good memory.


So this board would be able to be driven from the E680 etc?
I am still a little hazy with the pixel thing not having tested mine yet so I guess my question about addressing it comes from not knowing how to hook it up.
All would be revealed I suppose.


But it is definately a cheap 18 channel board.


Cheers
Steve

 

[David_AVD]

Yes, the DMX input one was first proposed then discarded in favour of the pixel style input.

It would be compatible with whatever hardware supports WS2803 protocol.

The pixel data loops in and out like the start and end of a conventional pixel string / strip.