Building LED Strobes

**fathead45** · 10-23-2010, 09:10 PM

good find brian, i forgot about that too. i was going to use the lsd on mine or the ren24lv. have both lol. dont really know how many im gonna get done anyhow, those will be last min prob.

**budude** · 10-23-2010, 09:31 PM

Well - I was planning to give my oven a go today but it was raining today so I figured I would try the soldering paste + soldering iron method (used flux + solder from iron on first one) - this works great! I completed 9 more with PICs and and one more w/o PIC (most of mine will be non PIC). The 10cc tube of paste should last for the entire 200 strobes I think - I can't even tell I've used any yet! I'm using the 1/2" "Green" tip which is the 21 gauge. I also have the 23 gauge "Lt. Blue" tips which are too small for this I think. I popped out all the parts into separate bins to make it easier to grab them (also easier to spill them...). I found it easier to put them on in assembly line order - that is put all of one part on, then the next, etc for one strip of 9 boards. I put them on in this order:

NUD
R2 Ext Resistor (to set LED current)
R1 100k
R3 1k
flip over
PIC
R4 1k
Transistor
LED

I bent the LED leads right where the "fat" part of the lead starts - basically as close as you can. After soldering them in, I squeezed the leads a bit to make it as flat as possible.

For the PIC version, you will probably want to short pin 4 of the control connector to pin 2 to have constant randomness. For the non-PIC version, I made a jumper from pin 3 of the control connector to pin 2 of the ICSP connector (since that will not be used) which ties it to +5v. This essentially makes it a simple CC LED light that you control from your controller directly using 5v. See the picture for the jumper location.

Now to start cranking these babies out and figure out how to keep them dry!

**Skunberg** · 10-23-2010, 09:42 PM

Link to firmware.

http://forums.auschristmaslighting.c...pic,271.0.html

Brian

**Skunberg** · 10-23-2010, 09:50 PM

For history sake this link is to the 10-26-2009 thread that started with disposable camera strobes and lead to the development of this LED Strobe.

http://doityourselfchristmas.com/for...83921#poststop

Brian

**fathead45** · 10-23-2010, 10:07 PM

^^^^ look what i started lol. never did try to make them out of the cameras lol

**budude** · 10-23-2010, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by fathead45

^^^^ look what i started lol. never did try to make them out of the cameras lol

I still have a box of 100 camera strobe guts - who knows - maybe one of these days...

**Skunberg** · 10-23-2010, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by budude

I still have a box of 100 camera strobe guts - who knows - maybe one of these days...

Maybe this thread will end up developing those ... VBG ... One good turn deserves another ... HaHaHa

**Skunberg** · 10-23-2010, 11:18 PM

borrowed from budude

Try closing/restarting the PICkit programmer. My scenario was I programmed the first one OK yesterday, I had hibernated my PC, then reopened today and tried programming another today (without cloding the program). I got the same error as you show. Also make sure the "VDD PICkit 2" is "On" so that it supplies power to the board. After doing the restart I was able to program 10 in a row with no issues. The neat thing is that since it supplies power, right after programming, the LED should start strobing so you know everything is working.

Originally Posted by rkhanso

I'm trying to flash the PIC with PicKit2 v.2.61, but get an error message: Invalid OSCCAL Value detected: To abort, click 'Cancel' To Continue, click 'OK'

I click OK and get an error:
Program failed at programming memory address 0x00000000

I'm using a clone Pickit 2 and choosing the 10F200 pic processor. The LED on the strobe flashes pretty faintly a couple times when it's trying to program, but after I program the PIC, I can do a blank check right away and the PIC sees the flash as blank.

If I try MPLAB instead of PICKit2 software, MPLAB does auto-detect the PIC as a 10F200, but I can't get MPLAB to flash the PIC either.

In no way am I knowledgeable about microprocessors or how to write programs or debug. I'm a direction follower.

**dirknerkle** · 10-24-2010, 12:30 AM

Thanks to both Brians (budude & skunberg)!

This puts some direction into this project that was sorely needed. My package of parts came this last week and I couldn't even remember what exactly it was all about. But that's probably just me... :?

I'll have to use somebody else's eyes on this project though -- I can hardly see the parts, and I know I'll have zero chance to identify the part numbers on them. (They do have part numbers, don't they?)

Thanks also to Fathead45 and AussiePhil for all their hard work. It's much appreciated by a lot of folks.

**budude** · 10-24-2010, 01:02 AM

I absolutely recommend something like THIS - it makes things much easier - especially for us old folks... My kids laugh their butts off when I wear them but I keep reminding them how genes work...