The Dumb RGB Icicle Project

[AussiePhil]

The little PCB's turn up today so i can really get going on getting my RGB dumb icicles done.


Each drop will be a constant 7 RGB leds so that i can use my normal 28v DC i use for all dumb strings.


The little pcb was designed to put the dropping resistors on and provide a simple t-junction from the horizontal power run.
Like this



The front has the resistors and drop wiring. The back has the horizontal main cabling



I will be using the C9 covers like this



Next step is to design the 3D printer channel to hold each pcb, we are working on 100mm spacing as i have 20M of gutter and a little over 200 of the RGB sections already soldered up.

 

[AAH]

Are you using wire strippers like below to strip all 4 wires at once and leave the wire intact?


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKMAhbQfYsg

 

[AussiePhil]

Not those ones in the video Alan, but yes I'm using wire strippers to do all wires at the same time

 

[AussiePhil]

Update:

Printed a couple items last night to provide consistent spacing of each vertical drop and to provide mounting for the little PCB's.


already re-designed the spacers a little and now thinking about little clips to hold the pcb's in place whilst silicon waterproofing sets.

 

[DrNeutron]

This is looking Very cool!
Nice project

 

[Benslights]

lol phil you will find a print job for anything these days

 

[Kitman]

You should have added some holes where the channels join so that you can put some zip ties between the 2 so that the join holds together nicely.


Or designed the join between the channels a little different so they click ontop of the next one like lego or something.... just a thought.

 

[AussiePhil]

Been doing some soldering for the last couple nights, here's another bit of this project.


32 x dropper PCB's in a pseudo panel arrangement, double sided tape on the block of wood holds them in place to apply the solder paste, the SD is for size comparison.



I have solder paste in a syringe and each pad has a little bit added by hand, here's the boards after the paste and 128 resistors placed on them, about 40 minutes. We are ready for the hot air reflow now



After the hot air reflow that took about 12 minutes it starts to look a lot better.



And off the block of wood to join the others already done...

 

[AussiePhil]

You should have added some holes where the channels join so that you can put some zip ties between the 2 so that the join holds together nicely.


Or designed the join between the channels a little different so they click ontop of the next one like lego or something.... just a thought.

Hi Kit,
It was designed to click together to keep the precise 100mm spacing, i've pulled the join fractionally so you can see it in the photo.
at least each section of 800mm will be glued together for strength.

 

[AussiePhil]

Well another week has passed and I have broken the construction down into stages.


There is around 200 vertical sections of 7 Leds each, fortunately the sections were pre-made about 5 yrs ago.
What i did need to do was solder on a positive voltage tail to go from the bottom of the drop back up to the t-joint pcb.
Here is what around 200 look like hanging on a couple nails

and a close up, the C9 pixel covers are attached to real pixels

Next step is to turn each string into a ready to attach vertical drop as shown in the one completed 9 drop section.