LED Driver Board

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parkview
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LED Driver Board

Post by parkview » Sat Jun 16, 2018 10:46 pm

As some of you know, over the last 18 months I have been building various prototype LED driver boards:

Here are the original prototypes. These where used to evaluate and test various components:

LED Driver Boards V1 to 2.1.sml.jpg
LED Driver Boards V1 to 2.1.sml.jpg (208.49 KiB) Viewed 4341 times


Once I understood what worked best, I then downsized the board to fit a 900mAh or 1300mAh Li-ion battery. While I could make the board smaller, I am using it's shape to protect the battery from damage.
Producing these boards at home, allowed me to quickly make changes:

LED Driver Boards V2.2-2.4.sml.jpg
LED Driver Boards V2.2-2.4.sml.jpg (143.7 KiB) Viewed 4341 times


Then once I was happy with how it was all working, I could send the PCB off to China for manufacture. A stack of 10 panels of 4 PCB's cost me around AUD$20:

LED-Driver.jpg
LED-Driver.jpg (70.26 KiB) Viewed 4341 times


The final step was to add liquid solder paste and place the components on, then put into my home made reflow oven and 5 minutes later 'bing!' the board was ready for programming:

PCB V2.4 - White.sml.jpg
PCB V2.4 - White.sml.jpg (66.42 KiB) Viewed 4341 times


Of course, after spending all that time putting down solder paste and components, it gives you a lot of time to ponder on how you can further enhance the board. I can see another version being needed - and so life goes on...

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Jubbp
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Re: LED Driver Board

Post by Jubbp » Sun Jun 17, 2018 10:11 am

Well done Paul. Great to see the progression from prototype to “finished” product

parkview
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Re: LED Driver Board

Post by parkview » Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:55 pm

Thanks Phillip. Is a project really ever finished? Mine always have a tweak here or there that I would like to implement 8-)

The one that bugged me was that clothing might catch on the electronics side, so I quickly drew up a simple clip-on PLA cover for it. In the first version I forgot to insert switch and photo-transistor access holes, so last night the second version rolled off the printer:

LED Driver cover.jpg
LED Driver cover.jpg (23.24 KiB) Viewed 4338 times

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