evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Here goes. First off, parts list: 555 Timer x 1 Diode (1N4148) x 2 100K ohm Potentiometer x 1 0.1uF Capacitor x 3 10K ohm Resistor x 1 LM317 Voltage Regulator x 1 470 ohm Resistor x 1 3.3K ohm Resistor x 1 PCB x 1 (I'll leave size up to you) Wire Top side Botom side All parts are available from Radioshack. I made sure of that. You can also get all these parts online at places like Digikey and Mouser for a lot cheaper, especially if you have to build multiple. If you really want to get adventurous, you could build this using a 556 timer for dual control in the same chip. This is what I will probably end up using. I'll post pics for anyone interested when I get it done. Link to comment
Marteen Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Okay so I'm a bit confused. What is the purpose of the shiny? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Thats the solder side of the board. You create traces by soldering the pads together. Think of it as a DIY pcb. Link to comment
Marteen Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Oh I meant what is the point of the whole thing? Is this a driver? Are you guys trying to replace buckpucks? If so how many LEDs do you think you can run in a string? How many of these could you power off of one 32v converter? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Read the rest of the thread. It explains a lot. Link to comment
Marteen Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Read the rest of the thread. It explains a lot. Are you saying I can't buy the cliffnotes version? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Ok, "Evilnotes" version, just for you Marteen. Buckpucks don't seem to be capable of what they advertize. They seem to be inconsistent beyond 6 LEDs, with some having luck (myself included) and some blowing pucks left and right. So the search was on.... Zingtaw was kind enough to point us to a Meanwell power supply that he thought might work, but wanted to get our opinion. To cut a long story short, it's a line voltage supply (no DC power supply needed) with two models that can support 30 or 60 watts, with different max voltage models. They are capable of dimming, but you have to jump through hoops to do it. The circuit I posted earlier is one of the ways to accomplish dimming control. Link to comment
npain316 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Are you saying I can't buy the cliffnotes version? Edit: Evil, you beat me this time. Cliff notes?!? You're in LED gradschool now, there's no such thing as cliff notes Thanks Evil for the quick work. This looks straight forward. I'm interested in a 556. When you have some pictures of that, could you send me some via email? I hate viewing pictures (esp. ones with detail) in a thread like this and would rather download them an view in something else. I can PM you my email when you are ready. Link to comment
Marteen Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Thanks Evil! hmmm... well it would figure something like this would go up the day after I ordered my buckpucks. Oh well let's hope they work. Any idea what the potential for this would be? I'm thinking of really large arrays that before we were talking about having to use like 12 buckpucks with multiple PS. If this works how big of an array do you think it could support? npain- LED gradschool! I just wanted to go to technical college! Link to comment
npain316 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Thanks Evil! hmmm... well it would figure something like this would go up the day after I ordered my buckpucks. Oh well let's hope they work. Any idea what the potential for this would be? Is this big enough? http://www.meanwell.com/search/clg-150/default.htm They have a 260w under develoment Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Thanks Evil! hmmm... well it would figure something like this would go up the day after I ordered my buckpucks. Oh well let's hope they work. Any idea what the potential for this would be? I'm thinking of really large arrays that before we were talking about having to use like 12 buckpucks with multiple PS. If this works how big of an array do you think it could support? npain- LED gradschool! I just wanted to go to technical college! It depends on what drive current you want to run the LEDs at. The example in the datasheet for the ELN-60 shows a driver running 24 LEDs (6x4) at 600-700mA. If you want to run at 1000mA, it would drop to 12 LEDs. The 48v version could run 13 LEDs in series, or 26 (13x2) at just under 700mA. You will be fine with the Buckpucks for the setup you are running, and they are less hassle to get them to do what you want. Plus, they are tiny compared to this thing (8" long). This driver is a good second solution, and great for those of us running big arrays. Hopefully I'll get an answer back from Powergate tomorrow. Heh, I'll get one one way or another. I can be persistent/irritating when I want to. Link to comment
Marteen Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Yeah I just noticed in the specs how big these things were! These buckpucks are teeny tiny in comparison. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 This thread is unfolding nicely. I'm definitely excited to see what kinds of LED arrays you guys create with these LED power supplies. Hopefully it helps to reduce the costs of setup on larger LED arrays... I have a 29 gallon now, but next year I would like to get (up to) a 90 gallon, so power (i.e. the ability to drive lots of LED's and be stable) and the ability to upgrade are important. pictures and schematics Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 These are looking pretty cool. If you can deal with only running the array at 700mA, you can start getting into some pretty big series-parallel arrays. In my infinite wisdom last night, I forgot to add the wire that actually goes out to the driver for dimming. I will be adding the wire and taking pictures when I get home this afternoon. I will be testing the unit today though. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Test ran beautifully. Very smooth and linear transition from 0-100%. Only thing I saw was that you get to about 98/99% duty cycle before the end of the pot travel. Not a big deal, but something to note. There was a very minor change to the layout of the pcb, but all it is is the movement of one end of the 10K ohm resistor, and adding the two wires to connect to the driver. I'll take fresh pictures when I get home and post them asap. Link to comment
npain316 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Test ran beautifully. Very smooth and linear transition from 0-100%. Only thing I saw was that you get to about 98/99% duty cycle before the end of the pot travel. Not a big deal, but something to note. There was a very minor change to the layout of the pcb, but all it is is the movement of one end of the 10K ohm resistor, and adding the two wires to connect to the driver. I'll take fresh pictures when I get home and post them asap. Cool. Any word from powergate? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Just got off the phone with Powergate. We could have a problem. Turns out that Meanwell USA does not regularly stock the ELN30/60-XX-P (digital dimming control), but stocks tons of the standard, non-dimming versions. They were willing to modify the standard unit to accept dimming control, but wanted a 1-2 lead time (which I could deal with), and another $20 on top of the original price!!!! OMGWTFBBQ!!!! Powergate is looking into if the increase in cost is a one time deal for the modifications, or whether this is what the price will be all the time. Standard lead time on volume of the drivers with dimming is 10-12 weeks. If Powergate saw enough interest and demand, they would stock the units for us, but I'm sure they would need to see consistent sales to a certain volume to do that. Hopefully I'll get a call back today or Monday to see if this is going to look a little better. If the driver works, I'm sure we could get a group buy together to get a bunch of these in, and maybe if there is sufficient volume, the lead time will shorten to something a little more practical. Stay tuned. Link to comment
npain316 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 That is a bummer....bigtime Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Lets see what Monday brings. Link to comment
Sherman Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Anyone can advise how we can order ? I go to their site but I think cannot order online. I am in Singapore. Link to comment
Sherman Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 ok.Finally find Singapore distributor Cheers Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Hopefully you don't have the same trouble finding the dimmable version. Link to comment
SkiFletch Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 In my infinite wisdom last night, I forgot to add the wire that actually goes out to the driver for dimming. I will be adding the wire and taking pictures when I get home this afternoon. I will be testing the unit today though. Phew, I thought I was goin a little crazy there wondering why you only had main power wires to the PWM driver. I was like, "ummm where's the output?" I thought you made some kind of new mythical circuit Test ran beautifully. Very smooth and linear transition from 0-100%. Only thing I saw was that you get to about 98/99% duty cycle before the end of the pot travel. Not a big deal, but something to note. And what happens when you go over 98/99%? Does it fold over on itself and drop the drive way back down? Link to comment
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