The $3 4 channel constant current LED DMX dimmer board ( giveback project )

lol - no hard feelings! The MM has a storied past with blowing up LEDs so I'm just trying to help it out...
 
None at all. I have a number of light fixtures around in the shed, the fish tank, and on PC desk that run a lot run a lot which have White only LED's and I have yet to have a failure, but your milage may vary, and thats the thing - you MAY have issues, you probably wont, but dont blame me if you do :)

The Fish tank mood lighting runs 16 to 18 hrs a day, a mix of 48 G B & W LED's 24V DC, no resistors - 8 lots of 6 LED's in series and a small 160mA CC controller. All the lights have equal illumination, last time I measured the currents they ranged from 19 to 22mA, and no failures. That has been running for close to 2 years now.

The white floodlights mounted in the shed are a modded version of Matt's board with 6 white LED's in series and 18 groups in parallel. They are each driven off a 1A switchmode 240V to 18V power supply I picked up off ebay for $5 each, delivered. The resistors locations are bridged out, and these work great - no heat, huge illumination and very even light spread. Admittedly these are not run off a CC supply, but a CV source, but the lighting is very even in each LED bank.

Edit: and I dont have any MM lights in use (I think I have one here tho, cant remember), so I cant comment on them specifically
 
lithgowlights said:
OK I'll try and answer your questions the best I can

I'd like to be able to run your standard Ray Wu style RGB strip, strings or modules. Is the 44CVA the right board for this? I was thinking mini trees or some sort or corro element.

Thats what I plan to use here too. The CV boards as the pixels, modules and strip have built-in resistors to allow them to work on a certain voltage (i.e. 12 or 5V normally)

I see that the boards can be stacked to make say a 48 channel 44CV stack or a 48 channel 44CC stack, is there some sort of order they need to go in for addressing purposes?

Not really. The first element of the stack needs to be a C?A, i.e. a CVA or CCA as that is the Addressable item. It sets the first DMX address, and you can mix and match any of the CC and CV boards below it in whatever order you want depending on your need.

How is the DMX side of things hooked up? Cat cable?

By default there are no connectors, just connection points. Some see this as a disadvantage, but I see it as an advantage. If you want to provide power via the DMX cables then you can. If you have a seperate power supply, you can use that too. Use 3 pin DMX leads for the DMX - well you can add that, or if like me you use RJ45's then you can make a little lead up. It's up to you how you connect things, same as the outputs - you can use a terminal, hard wire (such as in an item), wire up a 2, 3, 4 or 5 pin plug to it and use that to connect to a light, set of lights or 4 individual lights.

Am I right in assuming that I simply feed the required DC supply into the board for whatever is being used, say 5V for the 5V strip?

Yes, I believe so, but there is a small issue with 5V at the moment in that the boards need 7V in to run. MPH is looking at bypassing the internal voltage regulator in the chip so we can feed 5V directly in. For 12V and above this bypass is not needed, and I'm not sure how the final point will be bridged yet as it was a rather late thing I pointed out to him and he had not realised some will want to run 5V gear off it. It will be a very minor update at most

Lastly, and yes I may sound somewhat retarded , but what can I do with the CC board? Well maybe a better way to ask that question is "what is everybody else using the CC board for?"

Initially, nothing here at all. Later on I want to find some stars, simialar to the Tuppet stars, but just the front, and I'll put a few 4 pin RGB (or seperate R G and B) LED's inside to light it up as a double sided star. Perfect for a small topper on a minitree, or to hang in a larger tree as a rather unique home-made item.

The CC's are a small use item here, but eventually I can see myself using more of them, probably in groups here and there around the yard.
Click to expand...

Dave,

Thanks very much for the quick reply, I really appreciate the help and now I'm comfortable forking out the cash. Time to start spending!

Cheers,
Nathan
 
What is the difference between the $3 4 channel "giveback" project and the 44 project?

How do we get them?

Confusedly yours
matt
 
kool-lites said:
What is the difference between the $3 4 channel "giveback" project and the 44 project?

How do we get them?

Confusedly yours
matt
Click to expand...

Same project.. no difference at all
 
The 34 was the original name but as the project evolved with the inclusion of Constant voltage boards and addressable and auto addressable boards it became the 44 project

1 x 44 panel consists of a mixture of boards and has a total of 35 boards

5 x 44CCA (addressable constant current board)
10 x 44CC (auto addressing constant current board)
5 x 44CVA (addressable constant Voltage board)
15 x 44CV (auto addressing constant Voltage board)

Effectively the name stands for 4 channels for $4
 
$3 to $4 - bit of scope creep or over enthusiastic marketing ( I know what both of those are like ;)). So I need 4 panes to get 40x CCs Correct?

Where do we get them from?
 
kool-lites said:
$3 to $4 - bit of scope creep or over enthusiastic marketing ( I know what both of those are like ;) ). So I need 4 panes to get 40x CCs Correct?

Where do we get them from?
Click to expand...

No, not either. the 34 got renamed to the 44CC. its still going to be about $3. We created a 44CV as well which is about $4. The Naming got really confusign sorry.
 
Despite the efforts of some people who seem to delight in being complete @#@$%'s! the 44 is not vaporware. Its going ahead. Heres the schedule.

July 20. The finalized specification for the 44 project will be released, along with accurate pricing information. At this point i will start to take confirmed orders for the project. Today the price looks like $125-$130 per panel of 35 boards

July 30 Payment due for systems. Payment will *only* be accepted by Paypal. End of story

Production lead time is 5 weeks from there.

Australian Orders will be shipped ex Melbourne
NZ orders will be shipped ex Wellington
US orders will hopefully be bulk shipped, but to be confirmed.

Orders will strictly be on a per panel basis, and price is still looking good and on budget provided we can do 30 panels.


Looking forward to it.
 
I'll be one of those who really don't have a specific NEED for a 44 but WANT a few.


MPH, it would help if your www.dec1.org site did more than give the days until December 1st. Your post just above this one says to go there to register our interest. :(


JonB
 
JonB256 said:
I'll be one of those who really don't have a specific NEED for a 44 but WANT a few.


MPH, it would help if your www.dec1.org site did more than give the days until December 1st. Your post just above this one says to go there to register our interest. :(


JonB
Click to expand...


It does. www.dec1.org/forums


But i've added a high tech hyperlink for you now. Aint that just the bee's knees.
 
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