Dream Chip LEDs with Arduino

[jbadd99]

jbadd99;850251 wrote: http://www.onlinecomponents.com/keywordsearch.aspx?text=LDD-1000h">http://www.onlinecomponents.com/keywordsearch.aspx?text=LDD-1000h</a>

There was about a 24 hour turnaround time from purchase of my last set to my purchase of these, so I'm still waiting to see if they're shipping as quickly, however I did notice the quantity available went since my purchase.[/QUOTE]

Yup. 24 hours after ordering my 1000's I have a UPS tracking number out of California. Get while the getting's good! :yay:

 

[giulianom]

I think when I ordered my 15 from PowerGate, they were less than $4.50 each...

But the lead time to ship was huge, still waiting until April 5th... Oh well.

 

[giulianom]

I think I may try coming up with my own board to hold 16 LDD-H drivers on one 10x15cm board.

ITEad Studio charges $48 for 5 x 10x15 cm boards, so it may be worth it.


Either that, or I design a 10x10 board that holds 8 LDD-H drivers, and I stack two of them on top of each other...

 

[jbadd99]

GiulianoM;850808 wrote: I think I may try coming up with my own board to hold 16 LDD-H drivers on one 10x15cm board.

ITEad Studio charges $48 for 5 x 10x15 cm boards, so it may be worth it.


Either that, or I design a 10x10 board that holds 8 LDD-H drivers, and I stack two of them on top of each other...

I would do a stack of 8s. They'll fit nicely under the LCD. I would even be tempted to go half with you. That said, I'd work it off the newest design they have out that includes a resistor and pull down jumper.

 

[giulianom]

jbadd99;850810 wrote: I would do a stack of 8s. They'll fit nicely under the LCD. I would even be tempted to go half with you. That said, I'd work it off the newest design they have out that includes a resistor and pull down jumper.

Got a link?

Most of these designs are done in Eagle, which is $169 for a "Hobbyist" version with a 100x160mm board area.


I'm trying to see if I can do it in KiCad - freeware - instead.

 

[giulianom]

So apparently O2Surplus also made a 5x LDD board design that incorporated 10K pull-down SMD resistors:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21241562&postcount=936">http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21241562&postcount=936</a>


This one uses the less expensive wire connectors, too.



I suppose I can stack 3 x 5x boards on top of each other.

 

[jbadd99]

GiulianoM;850829 wrote: So apparently O2Surplus also made a 5x LDD board design that incorporated 10K pull-down SMD resistors:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21241562&postcount=936">http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21241562&postcount=936</a>


This one uses the less expensive wire connectors, too.



I suppose I can stack 3 x 5x boards on top of each other.[/QUOTE]

Yup. But I sent mine to print before I saw that one. Another with jumpers that I was considering.

One thing I didn't understand was the purpose for the resistors.

 

[giulianom]

The resistors are connected between the PWM pin and ground, so that if the Arduino board is rebooting, the resistor pulls the PWM line "down" to ground and disables the output of the driver.

It prevents the LDD from going to 100% brightness with no signal on the PWM line.

The resistor is a 10k Ohm SMD chip (surface mounted) and goes on top of the board underneath the pin sockets.


Also, I may just order a stack of these new boards instead...

 

[jbadd99]

GiulianoM;850868 wrote: The resistors are connected between the PWM pin and ground, so that if the Arduino board is rebooting, the resistor pulls the PWM line "down" to ground and disables the output of the driver.

It prevents the LDD from going to 100% brightness with no signal on the PWM line.

The resistor is a 10k Ohm SMD chip (surface mounted) and goes on top of the board underneath the pin sockets.


Also, I may just order a stack of these new boards instead...

The jumpers, as I understand it, allow the resistor to function, so you can decide to allow it to not function at all without PWM signal.

Which version were you looking at? I still might be in for half.

 

[giulianom]

jbadd99;850876 wrote: The jumpers, as I understand it, allow the resistor to function, so you can decide to allow it to not function at all without PWM signal.

Which version were you looking at? I still might be in for half.

The jumpers on these boards:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21301526&postcount=1088">http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21301526&postcount=1088</a>


They allow you to disable the resistor by un-connecting the jumper.

The jumper is a pair of pins connecting between the resistor and ground.


I think I'll end up going with 4 of the 4x LDD-H version 3.0 boards by RRasco.

He updated them like only 3 days ago.. :)


He's got the package files here:

[IMG]http://code.google.com/p/meanwell-ldd-led-driver/downloads/list">http://code.google.com/p/meanwell-ldd-led-driver/downloads/list</a>


These are 5x10mm boards, at $22 for 10 not including shipping.

How many would you want?
<fieldset class="gc-fieldset">
<legend> Attached files </legend> [IMG]http://atlantareefclub.org/boards/data/uploads/attachments/850913=44156-LDD-Hx4 Breakout v3.0.png>

class="gc-images" title="LDD-Hx4 Breakout v3.0.png[/IMG] style="max-width:300px" /></a> </fieldset>

 

[jbadd99]

GiulianoM;850913 wrote: The jumpers on these boards:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21301526&postcount=1088">http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21301526&postcount=1088</a>


They allow you to disable the resistor by un-connecting the jumper.

The jumper is a pair of pins connecting between the resistor and ground.


I think I'll end up going with 4 of the 4x LDD-H version 3.0 boards by RRasco.

He updated them like only 3 days ago.. :)


He's got the package files here:

[IMG]http://code.google.com/p/meanwell-ldd-led-driver/downloads/list">http://code.google.com/p/meanwell-ldd-led-driver/downloads/list</a>


These are 5x10mm boards, at $22 for 10 not including shipping.

How many would you want?[/QUOTE]

4? Or split it even at 5? That's 20 drivers for each of us. Expedited shipping? Shoot me a PM if you wanna go this route.

 

[giulianom]

jbadd99;850916 wrote: 4? Or split it even at 5? That's 20 drivers for each of us. Expedited shipping? Shoot me a PM if you wanna go this route.

I think an even split would be fine.

I'll send you a PM to work it out.

 

[giulianom]

Thinking about using these style connectors for the boards:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261034059623&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en">http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261034059623&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en</a>


The pin headers solder onto the boards, and the wires screw into the connectors, and then you plug them in.

With 2 connectors per board, 10 of these would fill out 5 boards...


Actually, I think I'll go with these:

[IMG]http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-pcs-Pitch-3-5mm-Angle-8way-pin-Screw-Terminal-Block-Connector-Pluggable-Type-/251073489473?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a75256a41">http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-pcs-Pitch-3-5mm-Angle-8way-pin-Screw-Terminal-Block-Connector-Pluggable-Type-/251073489473?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a75256a41</a>

They're mounted at a right-angle to the boards.

 

[jbadd99]

GiulianoM;843376 wrote: Thanks..


I read online that people had no problems with a 12" cable, so hopefully the 24" cable should be ok.

If all goes well, I'll slice up the ribbon cable and sleeve it like this:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81477">http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81477</a>


The plan is to have the electronics box with the Arduino mounted on the inside of my canopy, with the LCD Panel mounted on top, or on the inside of one of the door panels for easy access.[/QUOTE]

So I finally got around to looking at this...

Why not just buy a round one instead? [IMG]http://www.bestpricecables.com/24in-molded-round-1-device-ultra-ata133-eide-cable-black.html?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_content=BPC5-50033">Round IDE Cable</a>

Obviously there are many other vendors out there that are likely cheaper, but that was the first one I found with a single device connection on it.

 

[giulianom]

jbadd99;850981 wrote: So I finally got around to looking at this...

Why not just buy a round one instead? http://www.bestpricecables.com/24in-molded-round-1-device-ultra-ata133-eide-cable-black.html?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_content=BPC5-50033">Round IDE Cable</a>

Obviously there are many other vendors out there that are likely cheaper, but that was the first one I found with a single device connection on it.[/QUOTE]

Can't use the 80-conductor wires - I believe half of the wires are tied together to ground.

It has to be a 40-wire connector with Male on one end and Female on the other.


I can sleeve a cable easily enough, if the 24" flat extension cable I got works OK.

 

[giulianom]

Called PowerGate today to get a status update, and it looks like my LDD drivers will be shipping on April 5 as originally expected.


$4.93 each for 15, about $85 with the shipping.

 

[giulianom]

So the LCD Display from China finally arrived, and I loaded up a demo to test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahYKtgQrw-M&feature=youtu.be">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahYKtgQrw-M&feature=youtu.be</a>


Unfortunately the 24" cable is too long - the signal degrades too much.

Right now I've got the LCD connected directly to the shield, but I could probably make a cable about 6-12" long to move it away a little bit.


I think it'll have to be built as a one-box design.

 

[jbadd99]

GiulianoM;853585 wrote: So the LCD Display from China finally arrived, and I loaded up a demo to test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahYKtgQrw-M&feature=youtu.be">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahYKtgQrw-M&feature=youtu.be</a>


Unfortunately the 24" cable is too long - the signal degrades too much.

Right now I've got the LCD connected directly to the shield, but I could probably make a cable about 6-12" long to move it away a little bit.


I think it'll have to be built as a one-box design.[/QUOTE]

No chance at something to boost the signal? I was really looking into the possibility of mounting my touch screen on the outside of my canopy with a single wire that connected to the Arduino.

 

[giulianom]

jbadd99;853854 wrote: No chance at something to boost the signal? I was really looking into the possibility of mounting my touch screen on the outside of my canopy with a single wire that connected to the Arduino.

Not for this type of LCD interface, no.

This uses parallel signals, and they all have to arrive at the other end of the cable in sync.

With the longer cable, the signals get out of sync and all you get is a mess on the display.

 

[jbadd99]

What about an 18" cable?