PaPang Posted September 19, 2009 Author Share Posted September 19, 2009 I bought this kit which was the only led chasing/sequential kit available at a Mexican electronics chain (they are really franchises) called Steren here in Cancun. I do suggest that you buy a much better one as the one pictured from Future or similar. If you want to save a lot of time and pain, look for a kit that has ONE led per channel. That way you could use, like Bodakker, an old ide ribbon for hard drives (40 wires I think it was, not the newer 80 wire ones which has thinner wiring but longer than floppy ribbons) which are paired off from the pcb direct to the led. This setup of one led per channel makes the usage MUCH easier, I assure you, my friend. See? A piece of cake! BTW the kit cost me $120 mn ($9.25 usd) but came with only 6 leds. I spent $5.00mn ($.38 usd) per additional led (12 more to total 18). All in all $13.80 usd for everything related. My electrical tech friend told me that the sensing transistor is of bad quality, that is why it is not lighting up sequentially, so quality pays off. Moving leds catches ones eye, and adds punch to the mod, you just have to find out where to use it so it will fit in with your theme. Cheers and Saludos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaPang Posted September 20, 2009 Author Share Posted September 20, 2009 sunnyxtremist wrote: Yes Sir PaPang, that was my case sometime in 2006 when I grab lots of inexpensive LEDs for commercial consumption but bounce back at me when customers complain on 1 or 2 or 3 LEDs changes characteristics so easily. They are QI Lot rejects from LED semiconductor factory that are intended to be destroyed immediately (but were pulled out by people who want to add some bucks and sell to pirate market). You can still use them effectively provided that you have it working on the 5 volts rail (single with a 200ohms resistor or 2 of them in series with 1-10ohms resistor ( and remember that with the PSU wires, use your VOM - red and yellow are your handy 7volts rail (red as ground point) but not recommended for usual circuitry). White, UV, Green, Pink and Blue are the sturdy type and can handle high 4.7v still but 3.6V will be ideal, Red, Orange, Yellow, Amber and others are the easily breakable (popper) type that goes only up to high 3volts. I know you are using Metku Led calculator (recommended), I am referring the voltages on the average (the cheap and expensive one). Don't worry, Led light is really a wonder... It will change eventually our household lighting!!! So all you overly ambitious noobs to led lighting, take heed from one of the Led Use Masters and beware of cheap leds and resistors, and save yourself a lot of pain and time! Know your supplier! (From the CM 2009 Contest Forum) Cheers and Saludos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaPang Posted September 21, 2009 Author Share Posted September 21, 2009 Today would have been the last day of the original deadline and if it had not been extended, I would have jumped the installing of the sequential/chaser led lights on the leading edge, detrimental to say the least. Now with the extension, I can continue as planned so: First, where to put the kit pcb? I finally decided to place it in the leading edge where I would not have to make a box for it, saving some time and effort. Here, cutting a rib to let the pcb fit under it without disturbing the integrity of that part. Next up, fitting the leading edge ring: Once the position of the ring was determined, I drilled the holes for the 18 leds, placed the ring back on provisionally and lit a led to see the results. Now to fix in place. I had wanted to screw it in place from behind, but the acrylic was not thick enough to hold a screw so I had to do so from the front, which is held in place with round head screws. Tomorrow I will buy flat head screws, countersink them and cover the heads with something. Since I had to drill sideways, the drill bit would slip so I used a red hot icepick to start the holes for the drill bit. I found that it helped to start bits in acrylic from any position and makes the holes more exact. I placed the leds in place so next up is a lot of soldering to connect 3 leds in parallel for each of the 6 channels. The tuffy is to run the wiring from the other half to the pcb. Let's see how that turns out, hmmm...... It is presently 9:40 p.m. LA time and I am ready to hit the sack (go to bed), thanks to the extension. After this stage, the rest is a relative piece of cake, heheh. I hope I don't bite my tongue for saying this. Man Hours used: 7 hours $ Invested: -0- Thanks for dropping by and good luck to the rest down the stretch. Cheers and Saludos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyXtremist Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 Yo Sir PaPang, Good evening (nightime here Bro) about the defective sequencial ledlight as I saw the video, if you could not return and refund, you can still repair it for your next modding, right. I am suspecting the 555 timer ic first, I think it's not that expensive and since you have that in an ic socket it will be very convenient to test replace with new one. Although someone told you already of a suspected transistor!!! really, we can't count the Led blings out of case modding, not unless there's something new... Take your time and really the extension is really helpful removing tensions and pressures...and will lessen your puffing on cigarettes, joke... nice place you've got! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaPang Posted September 23, 2009 Author Share Posted September 23, 2009 This post will answer your question sunny. The past couple of days have been dedicated to wiring all of the leds and fixing the ring so that the leds will enter the ring half way. First to correct the wrong connector that was soldered to the pcb for one that has a switch: In goes the pcb. Cutting for wire from the junk psu used for fitting purposes (blown out). Wow, the wires are sort of thick inspite it being a generic psu! Pinching the vinyl off the wire in 3 spots that have been burned with a lighter. This took its toll on my fingertips and took a long time to do! I used single pieces of wire with 3 openings to connect the 3 leds per channel to save time soldering. Finally today a few minutes ago, I finally soldered most except for the "bridge" that goes over the I/O assembly which I will have to buy a couple of meters of thinner coaxial wire to make the bridge less bulky and for it to fit. I did get to test half of the leds and made a small video of them "working". Sigh....like sunny says, I will have to redo the thing once the contest is over to look better. If I cannot, out it goes, I swear! Background music: Texas A &M University Victory March (maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself but it is a small "victory") The leds do not look sequential or are chasing each other. Like MstJuan said: Blehh! Man Hours Invested: 10 hours $ Invested: -0- Thanks for dropping by, back to the rest but first to bed. Cheers and Saludos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicky_82uk Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 PaPang very clean job ur doing there keep it coming and less talking lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolone Posted September 25, 2009 Share Posted September 25, 2009 Nice Mexico UFO mod! Can't wait to see it fly! Also very detailed Worklog - you have done a real great work! Congratulations! Coolone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyXtremist Posted September 25, 2009 Share Posted September 25, 2009 PaPang very clean job ur doing there keep it coming and less talking lol hehehe, stop it or he'll kick both butts! Peace between the two of You... Good Morning PaPang and nicky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaPang Posted September 25, 2009 Author Share Posted September 25, 2009 Nice Mexico UFO mod! Can't wait to see it fly! Also very detailed Worklog - you have done a real great work! Congratulations! Coolone Hey, hey, I've said all along, you got one POTENT mod yourself. Thanks and lots of luck. PaPang very clean job ur doing there keep it coming and less talking lol hehehe, stop it or he'll kick both butts! Peace between the two of You... Good Morning PaPang and nicky! That is the "secret" way we get along, don't worry sunny. Some "normal" folks get scared by the way we chat but we go back a looonnng way in our chats, heheh, almost from the beginning. Right Nicky? It is just not the "normal" stuff normally seen in most forums, and it takes time to get the idea of what we convey but it is not bickering as someone mentioned, it is what we call banter. Definitions of banter on the Web: * kid: be silly or tease one another; "After we relaxed, we just kidded around" * light teasing repartee wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn * A conversation is communication by two, three, or more people but talking is only using the mouth, although you can also have conversations online ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banter * Good humoured, playful, typically spontaneous conversation; To engage in banter or playful conversation; To play or do something amusing; To tease mildly en.wiktionary.org/wiki/banter * bantering - cleverly amusing in tone; "a bantering tone"; "facetious remarks"; "tongue-in-cheek advice" wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn * bantering - teasing; joking; jesting; That teases en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bantering * bantering - Good humored or playful in tone, exchanging teasing remarks http://www.psd267.wednet.edu/Content/as ... bulary.doc Well, got to go, the things painted are in my oven and are going to be worked on Cheers and Saludos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaPang Posted September 26, 2009 Author Share Posted September 26, 2009 I am happy to report that the top dome and leading edge is concluded, however, due to uneven lighting of the chaser leds, I changed 9 of the original leds with brighter ones to even out the light of these somewhat. Channel 1 was switched with channel 3 for better output too. I also felt that the wire used originally was too thick for such low output so I rewired the whole setup with a thinner duplex wire (from 20 to 24 gauge) for less resistance and I think it helped. The round head screw were countersunk for better appearance and painted red with some of my wife's fingernail enamel. After that, I sealed the bottom with its cover and that is all I can do right now with this "Bleh" led kit. In the future I will either replace the led kit with a better one and throw this piece of junk that gave so much trouble or take it to some one who is willing to figure out why is performs so poorly. To even out the appearance of the third ring, I found some buttons as before, to use as anchors. The rings are only held in place with silicon so that they can be easily taken off if need be. I finished up the top and placed the strobe light in the hole left for it, which means that I cannot flip it over any more to work on the insides. This is it for this stage. I took about 10 photos and could not catch the strobe flashing. The top is finished! The last step is installing Win7 on my hard drive, connecting the motherboard and finally, placing this assembly in the top dome to finish. Cheers and Saludos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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