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:
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:
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:
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:
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...
LED Driver Board
Re: LED Driver Board
Well done Paul. Great to see the progression from prototype to “finished” product
Re: LED Driver Board
Thanks Phillip. Is a project really ever finished? Mine always have a tweak here or there that I would like to implement
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:
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: