Best posts made by activemind

Here are some pics of the "final" product:

Thanks to everyone for their input.

-AM

managed to add the OSH and mysensors silkscreen I was thinking. Here is the final silkscreen...

PCBs are in....

Time to populate them now and see if they work

-AM

Ready to rock n roll...

Packaging is done though I dont know how weatherproof this is going to be..

I had been following @LastSamurai RGBW development as that satisfied my needs but then he changed directions to making it smaller with lesser rating components!

Having never done a PCB, I decided to try doing one. I expect these nodes to be hardwired so power consumption is not as big a deal.

The goal will be VERY simple:

1. 3 channel driver with ~5A rating on each channel.
2. Selectable 5/3.3V arduino pro mini.
3. Cheap and easily sourced components.
4. MySX header to allow various sensor daughter boards.

I have done a schematic which I am putting up for review. Please take it easy on criticism as this is the first time I am doing a PCB.

I might be asking a lot of noob question so please bear with me.
Details to follow.

Thanks
-AM

I changed the banana plugs to regular DC 2.1mm plugs and it looks less cluttered now.

Deployed it yesterday. Looks good.

Will upload pics if someone is interested.

-AM

@Samuel235 - I just want to say thanks for taking the time to walkthrough a noob with his first PCB. Appreciate it!

For the resistor, just keeping them horizontal for now.

For the caps, I see Tanta1C_Size type and Discret type in my KiCad apart from SMD types.. Not sure what they mean

Let me google around to see what footprint people choose in KiCad.

-AM

So I deployed 5 more of these yesterday, so I have a total of 6 on the chain now.

The total current draw is ~5A at 12V...not bad!

Though I have an issue where the lights will go off for a little bit and then come back on.

Almost all of them are doing this and it doesnt happen at the same time so its not that the power is interrupted.

Makes me think as if the LED is heating up and shutting down and then when it cools down after a bit, it comes back on.

I tested them prior to deployment to make sure that they worked but didnt run them long enough that they would heat up. Plan on putting up one on the bench and leave it on longer to see if it does that.

But overall, not bad landscape light for 10 bucks!

-AM

Found an issue! The footprint I had for LE33 was wrong! pins 1&3 were reversed!

Fixing and rerouting now..

Update: The landscape light are programmed to come on in the evening and they did not turn on this evening. Further investigation yielded this:

The FET was touching the plastic case and melted it

-AM

Kicked off a thread here about a 12V distribution box. Basically takes input from a 12V power supply and provides 4-5 12V output with a VA display.

Just got done sending off my first PCB to Itead. Its a RGB LED driver using 12V supply. Once again, a shout out to @Samuel235 for his constant feedback and support during that project!

I think it would be cool if we can make this 12V distribution box smarter(MySensor aware). I am thinking of doing a PCB for this so that we can report the current draw on each of the ports and maybe control (on/off) each of the ports remotely too.

Project in investigation phase currently but I need to keep busy till my other PCB shows up from Itead

-AM

Thanks @mfalkvidd for the link. I feel more confident that this might work.

Didnt get a chance to work on this for past couple of days. Maybe soon...

-AM

Ok, so the board is routed. This was fun....very crowded board...at least by my noob standards

Done all DRC and connectivity checks...looks good.

-AM