DIYC Flood and Ren4Flood

[michaelc]

oldcqr: What you are describing is the RJ's Lynx Aether. A self contained unit that you just plug in to a 110 volt receptacle and either send wireless DMX to or plug in a DMX port. It's a bit pricey and you have to use SMD. I'm looking for something very similar but not SMD.

[budude]

OK - minor update (had a personal detour there for a couple of weeks...) - I have updated the layout to the point where most of the traces are on one side and I was able to put in jumper locations to bridge those that aren't so you could home etch the flood if you want to. I'm going to see about getting some prototypes built in either case to see how it looks. I did etch one but need to beef up the traces a bit to make them more survivable for home etch (I lost a few in my first feeble attempt).

I also received the samples of the SuperFlux LEDs we're looking at using for this so I'll be testing those out as well. I do really like the Supertex CL2 devices though - just put them in series and run any voltage you want - easy peasy. They have a package dissipation of 600mW so this will allow up to a 30v drop across it (you exclude Vf of LEDs) so 24v will be no problem at all.

As for the Ren4Flood portion - I have not done anything with that yet - the board is laid out and I have the circuit breadboarded out and running but have not gotten to the input circuit stuff yet...

[Skunberg]

Being we are talking about a flood light and not spot light. Are the LEDs being tested 120 degree viewing angle?

Brian

[Jrd]

Are there any pictures or videos of this flood in action yet? Or has it not gotten that far?

[budude]

Nope - nothing quite yet - I etched a prototype but want to beef up the traces/pads a bit more to make it home etch friendly. I don't expect it to look much different than some of the other floods out there really but it will be RGB+W. I'm not sure I have enough samples to build a complete flood so it will have to wait until we decide on the LEDs. As I look at the datasheets, these don't appear to be wide angle but I may be reading them wrong...

The Ren4Flood is really what makes it a bit different. Once my youngest rug-rat finally graduates next week, I'll be able to spend more time on this...

[dirknerkle]

Nope - nothing quite yet.... Once my youngest rug-rat finally graduates next week, I'll be able to spend more time on this...

Slacker.

[budude]

Slacker.

lol... touche' el Dirko

[Jrd]

Ok, a couple more questions.

Why do the LEDs have 4 pads?
Will the red LEDs be comparable to the green, blue and white in output or less as usual?
With this design having constant current drivers would it be easy to scale it back to just 3 LEDs of each color if a smaller dimmer light was wanted?
What software do you use to design your projects like this?

Thanks, great work.

[budude]

Ok, a couple more questions.

Why do the LEDs have 4 pads?
Will the red LEDs be comparable to the green, blue and white in output or less as usual?
With this design having constant current drivers would it be easy to scale it back to just 3 LEDs of each color if a smaller dimmer light was wanted?
What software do you use to design your projects like this?

Thanks, great work.

These are SuperFlux LEDs which have a 4-lead footprint - in this case the leads are bridged over from side-to-side so there's only two logical connections.
Not sure about red yet - it would be difficult to add more to the layout as it is however - if it's really bad, then I'll take a second look. I haven't really noticed it being an issue with the Rainbow Flood which is a similar layout.
Yes - you can have a single LED in each path if you want - of course you'll need to add a jumper across the missing LED(s).
I've been using DipTrace for everything but just switched to Eagle for everything this year - - it's a bit of a learning curve as I think Eagle is does not have the most intuitive interface (IMO anyway). I like PCBArtist as well but don't use it anymore. I went with Eagle again (I've used it for some touch-ups on the original Renard16 Simple a while back) because it has a better library and I my DipTrace version was out-of-date and I didn't feel like paying for the update. The Autorouter in Eagle is way faster and creates a cleaner layout than DipTrace (again IMO).

[Jrd]

Ok, thanks would you suggest Eagle for a newb to PCB design?

I am thinking about watching your progress and either asking you to design a half size board(depending on cost of the full size) or borrowing your design to make a half sized myself if that would be ok.