New Jarduino build gets started

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by spit.fire

Where did you find the sockets for the ldd drivers?

A place in Vancouver called pixel print. If I recall they are just a 18 pin machine IC socket (Dom - correct me if I'm wrong). You can get them from a number of electronic supply places.

[reefme]

Originally Posted by spit.fire

Where did you find the sockets for the ldd drivers?

Got mine from eBay 24 pins (wide one).

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

A place in Vancouver called pixel print. If I recall they are just a 18 pin machine IC socket (Dom - correct me if I'm wrong). You can get them from a number of electronic supply places.

Yup, that's right, but they are 24 pin. Type this in on ebay:
5pcs x 24Pin IC Socket (Machine tool) ROHS Best Quality

There's a listing there right now and it ends up about $5 for 5 sockets and it's in Vancouver, so you won't wait 8 weeks for delivery from China.
I've seen some guys cut the legs off, but if you get a small little nail punch (and a pretty little flower covered hammer ) you can just punch them out easy enough.

[daplatapus]

So I bought new PCB boards with the drop down resistor to prevent the LED's from going full 100% if the board looses the pwm signal. Thanks to Scubasteve for that modification! I'm sure this will save many a coral from being baked.
But, that also means I have to de-solder all my old boards and resolder everything on the new ones... wheeeeeee!
Here's the new baord and the start of soldering the drop down resistor:



And if anyone doubts the teeny tinniness of these resistors:



All the resistors in on one board and the dip sockets:



And with the terminals and jumper pins soldered in:

[reefme]

is there a way to add a potentiometer to this?

[daplatapus]

Sorry of this is a stupid question, but add a potentiometer to do what?

[reefme]

To manually control the brightness of the LEDs rather than going to the software.

[ScubaSteve]

I was confused too but now I see...

With these particular drivers, no. The LDD drivers are controlled with a PWM signal rather than a 0-5 or 0-10V source. If you got a simple IC, like a 555, you could add a potentiometer to that to vary the PWM signal to the drivers. It's not difficult to implement if you want to forgo a controller. There are simpler controllers than the Jarduino if that's what you are looking for. I use a Typhon but will hopefully be experimenting soon with a cool new controller that Spencer at Blue World Victoria is working on.

[reefme]

It's OK now. I just add another screen for individual LED brightness and save it to eeprom.

[daplatapus]

Glad you got it figured out. I'm out camping and doing this on my phone with my big dumb thumbs
Trying not to have to put long posts up, lol.