The TPR1 LED Strobe

AussiePhil

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Let's cover some background information first.

Strobes are one of those things mentioned all the time on forums such as planet christmas and used quite a lot in the US, when you read up on them they are either bought C9 type strobes or have been made by DIY people out of disposable camera flash units.
The flash units are recovered from disposable cameras that seem to be relatively easy to get hold of in the US. Now in Australia this is quite a different story, disposable camera's were never that common and with the explosion in cheap digital cameras even less so.
Super bright white LED's gave someone the idea to hook them up and turn them on and off under software control, using a 25mS on period in Vixen gives a good imitation of a flash unit.
One circuit published last year at DIYC used a lm317 to provide a constant current driver for the LED so that voltage used was not critical, one issue with this is the amount of heat generated when used at 12v and sort of requiring that a headsink be used.
[add link to diyc thread]

The TPR1 came about purely from a desire from a member to have a premade PCB that fitted with the C7 covers that were cooped by FH45. Out of that simple request developed what is now the TPR1.
 

fasteddy

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So I presume the name TPR1 stands for the first name of the collaborators of this project
T = Tabor
P = Phil
R = Ryan
and 1 = version 1 release

Couldn't have named it any better myself :D
 

KeithTarpley

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Greetings,,,

Also, conveniently,

Transistor
Pic
Resistors
1 (or more)
Led
Strobe

Thank the collaborators for having the correct initials... lol...

And thank them anyway...

Keith
 

cBell

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I assume due to the size of these things, there isn't a way to hook up an ISP interface to the PIC (if you choose to go this route). This would be the first time I would be dealing with SMD PICs. What is the best way to program them.
 

AussiePhil

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cBell said:
I assume due to the size of these things, there isn't a way to took up an ISP interface to the PIC (if you choose to go this route). This would be the first time I would be dealing with SMD PICs. What is the best way to program them.

Chris

On that assumption you are wrong :). The PCB has the required 5 pin header to connect a standard Pickit2 or Pickit3.

No header pins have been included in the BOM as a simple way to do it will be revealed in a video as soon as i have pcb's.

Basically it is just use a 5 pin row of pins plugged into the Pickit as a male to male adapter and then just hold these in the icsp holes on the pcb.

actually making room for the header was interesting to say the least :)

Cheers
Phil
 

ThaiWay

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I don't suppose the pics in the parts buy will come already programmed? :)

John
 

budude

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So - - the next question is how is everyone building these? I realize they can be hand soldered but when you have a couple hundred, this would get pretty laborious. I was thinking of going the toaster oven/SparkFun controller route since it's not super expensive and can be used in the future. Running 10 batches of 20 boards doesn't sound too bad but soldering up 200 (along with the jillion other projects I have to finish) does...

Does anyone already have this combination running? If so, do you think the standard program for it will work for these or does one need to be developed? I know there's the skillet method also but that seems a bit more error prone (maybe?).
 

fasteddy

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ThaiWay said:
I don't suppose the pics in the parts buy will come already programmed? :)

John

The PICs to my knowledge will not be pre programmed because if they were pre-programmed then there would be 1000s to program and i don't think anyone has the time to do that. You could organise someone to do it or get yourself a cheap Pickit 2 or 3 programmer and start learning how to program the PIC. That's the great thing about this project it enables us to become comfortable programming PICs and soldering SMD
The other advantage is that you will be able to change some program parameters like flash rate and on time to suit your own display by using the Pickit 2 or 3
 

fasteddy

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budude said:
So - - the next question is how is everyone building these? I realize they can be hand soldered but when you have a couple hundred, this would get pretty laborious. I was thinking of going the toaster oven/SparkFun controller route since it's not super expensive and can be used in the future. Running 10 batches of 20 boards doesn't sound too bad but soldering up 200 (along with the jillion other projects I have to finish) does...

Does anyone already have this combination running? If so, do you think the standard program for it will work for these or does one need to be developed? I know there's the skillet method also but that seems a bit more error prone (maybe?).

The fact that the board is double sided may cause you some issues when using an oven, You might be able to oven bake one side but then you may have to hand solder the opposite side.
From what I've heard it may be quicker to just hand solder rather than oven bake anyway. There will be a detailed video produced showing all of us what to do, so that should be a great help.
I'm sure Phil and Tabor might be able to answer this question further
 

budude

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fasteddy said:
The fact that the board is double sided may cause you some issues when using an oven, You might be able to oven bake one side but then you may have to hand solder the opposite side.
From what I've heard it may be quicker to just hand solder rather than oven bake anyway. There will be a detailed video produced showing all of us what to do, so that should be a great help.
I'm sure Phil and Tabor might be able to answer this question further

Fair enough - which parts are on which side? I'm not planning to use the PIC option on all boards (maybe not any but getting some of the PICs anyway). I've been planning to get an oven setup anyway but this would push me to get it sooner if it's an option.
 

fasteddy

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budude said:
Fair enough - which parts are on which side? I'm not planning to use the PIC option on all boards (maybe not any but getting some of the PICs anyway). I've been planning to get an oven setup anyway but this would push me to get it sooner if it's an option.

I am fairly sure that the PIC is the only thing on the opposite side, Phil/Tabor correct me if im wrong
 

Tabor

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On the opposite side there is the PIC and a resistor.

You know what the PIC is for and the resistor is actually used as a pulldown resistor for the transistor.

If you are not using the PIC then both can be omitted.
 

budude

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Cool - now I have to explain to my wife why I'll be coming home with a toaster oven from Walmart... ::)
 

mschell

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budude said:
Cool - now I have to explain to my wife why I'll be coming home with a toaster oven from Walmart... ::)

I recently came home from Walmart with 2(!) toaster ovens. My wife and I both went, and when I explained why I needed one, she suggested we get 2! Why, well she makes custom jewelry and other items out of polymer clay, and will be using the second one for baking clay.

The toaster oven is still sitting in the boxes, mostly because I haven't had time to get going with any SMD projects yet...but these strobes might be the first ones tried in it...

So find something your wife needs when you go to get yours....
 
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