I went ahead and tinkered around a bit, resulting in this PCB. Just wanted to share for anyone interested (and possibly getting some feedback). This won't be easy, as the soldering is extremely small (the height of the WS2811 is about 5 mm). The slanted resistors here are for dimming red LED's a bit, since they usually have less resistance, and has an added bonus of bridging over green. I got all information of components to use from the PDF I linked in the first post.
Really I would like this to be on one layer, but I'm not sure if it can be done without adding extra wires. There's also some more research to be done on the actual performance, as too many RGB components on one 12 V line may cause problems. Besides that, I'll also need some form of protection to not fry the motherboard, but instead bust a fuse instead. I'll have to let some electronics people take a look at it, since I'm not competent in this field.
Really I would like this to be on one layer, but I'm not sure if it can be done without adding extra wires. There's also some more research to be done on the actual performance, as too many RGB components on one 12 V line may cause problems. Besides that, I'll also need some form of protection to not fry the motherboard, but instead bust a fuse instead. I'll have to let some electronics people take a look at it, since I'm not competent in this field.
Here's the second iteration. I unified the 6V VCC inputs with one voltage regulator for all. Besides that, I added a fuse, which is needed to not fry the motherboard header. Still looking for suitable headers for in and outputs. I was going molex for inputs at first, but I'm not sure if it's very easy to fit it on there. Thinking about going with regular pins or so. The RR resistors are variable depending on the resistance of the red LED's, might make this a potentiometer instead of a static one.
Note that the left green wire (GND) will loop around with the rightmost green wire (which is mostly hidden behind the red 12V one). I fit 8 of these on here, hopefully this won't exceed any current spec.
Note that the left green wire (GND) will loop around with the rightmost green wire (which is mostly hidden behind the red 12V one). I fit 8 of these on here, hopefully this won't exceed any current spec.
Hey PsY, thanks for showing interest. I'm ordering the components today, so I'll first make a proof of concept. It's coming from china, so it will be more than a month before I'll get them. Which is fine, since my system isn't complete yet (waiting for several components to arrive, which may take another month). But the good news is that I have learned some things that will aid the next iteration:
Since there's interest, I'll order some extra IC's, so that I'll be able to make more. I'm now going to an electronics forum to have their take on my design, since I'm still very inexperienced and don't want to risk frying my motherboard. Oh and I found out that I may be able to have the PCB milled cheaply at the university I'm a student of, so that's sweet. 😄
EDIT: The electronics forum post.
EDIT2: Ordered enough parts for 5 PCB's. 😉
- Added pins compatible with aura sync connectors, without the need to solder.
- This made it possible to have the whole PCB single-sided (with only one overbridging nessecary per component).
- The input data and output data can now be chained, so that multiple of these PCB's can be chained. 8 components per 12V power supply connection should be reasonably safe, but one should check the maximum power draw of each component with the max power draw of the power supply cable.
- I first thought I needed between 6V and 7V for the VCC input of the IC's, but turns out that's the maxmim. 5V will work perfectly and removes the need for a voltage regulator, which would need to be cooled.
- The output RGB pins are staggered, because otherwise they'd block each other.
Since there's interest, I'll order some extra IC's, so that I'll be able to make more. I'm now going to an electronics forum to have their take on my design, since I'm still very inexperienced and don't want to risk frying my motherboard. Oh and I found out that I may be able to have the PCB milled cheaply at the university I'm a student of, so that's sweet. 😄
EDIT: The electronics forum post.
EDIT2: Ordered enough parts for 5 PCB's. 😉
What are you lighting up? Your front yard?
At first glance without researching it too much isn't this defeating the entire concept of addressable RGB? WS2811 is a driver, not a decoder. All strips downstream of this concept will not work as individually addressable but all together much like whats already there on the two headers where you can simply use splitters to add more unless you are coming out of your case and around the room and back.
If you really want to go ballistic with it it can be done easily with a raspberry pi, open source, decoders, drivers and a power supply then you can infinitely expand it to your neighbors house if you want. All of which is already commercially available if you don't want to reinvent the wheel .
Good luck with your project.:cool:
At first glance without researching it too much isn't this defeating the entire concept of addressable RGB? WS2811 is a driver, not a decoder. All strips downstream of this concept will not work as individually addressable but all together much like whats already there on the two headers where you can simply use splitters to add more unless you are coming out of your case and around the room and back.
If you really want to go ballistic with it it can be done easily with a raspberry pi, open source, decoders, drivers and a power supply then you can infinitely expand it to your neighbors house if you want. All of which is already commercially available if you don't want to reinvent the wheel .
Good luck with your project.:cool:
Latency? Response? we are talking about RGB lighting?
I still dont see how you will control these individually by feeding a data line into a driver with no decoder.
I still dont see how you will control these individually by feeding a data line into a driver with no decoder.
