Epic Huge RGB Digital Clock

Re: To build or not to build ...

RGB? Ohhh I see they are LED strips?
Spark fun electronics made one ALMOST that size from big green LED strips behind Perspex a few years ago. But yours is bigger... I'm jealous.

You'll bloody near see that thing from the freeway if you put it up high enough!

Do it!

Re: To build or not to build ...

Speaking of Nixie Tubes, anyone seen this Site?

Heaps of rare and interesting bits for sale and information on this site including russian and US neon and argon nixies, neon decade counters, indicators, even mini single colour CRT pixel elements they used on jumbotron TV's before LED's were invented...

Re: To build or not to build ...

Things said:

.... I think it would count as the most epic clock on record if I did it ...

So, should I?

Click to expand...

Absolutely! In fact if you didn't it would be a letdown because then it was just an idea. This looks kickass Dan, can't wait to see what comes of it! :beer:

Re: To build or not to build ...

Got my PCB's today. It's awesome being able to see something you designed IRL



And the obligatory artistic shot showing 2 ATMegas in their natural habitat:



I have 10 of these boards - no idea what I'm gonna do with them all.

Haven't ordered components for it yet though.

Dan

Re: To build or not to build ...

Cool!! Wow big boards what did that cost?
I'm stuck to 160x100mm as I only have the $400 version of eagle..

Re: To build or not to build ...

The boards are about $25US + around $5 shipping for 10 boards up to 10x10cm

I use Fritzing for most of my PCB design work, because it's free and has some great developers. SMD stuff is still pretty experimental but seems to have worked fine for me.

Another artistic shot:



Dan

Re: To build or not to build ...

Very cool Dan!
I noticed that the copy of Eagle I have isn't able to be updated- its 5 years old, so I'll probably have to buy the new version (through work). I usually get boards made up at PCB-Cart in China as they take the native Eagle files and I don't have to mess with Gerbers. They're pretty reasonably priced on 10+ quantities and let you muck around with finish and things online so you can see the price before you order. They usually deliver in about a week or two as well.

Re: To build or not to build ...

Not trying to steal your thunder but here are some of mine that were sitting around next to the computer

Note the corrosion on the Nickel Silver but not on the ENIG (Gold). The non-SMD board is dull matte finish and the others are gloss. I tried some other companies with mixed results and always went back to PCBCart.

Re: To build or not to build ...

Cool

I have found itead to be pretty reliable. Usually your PCB's are on their way within 4 days of placing the order. I haven't had any issues exporting gerbers.

PCB prototyping service

Dan

Re: To build or not to build ...

Well, decided to take this project a step further and actually start collecting parts. However, I've ditched my original design and have decided to do individual control of the LED strips via I2C.

This means that:

I only have to run 4 wires to the digits, power and data.
Each digit can just be daisychained - so only 4 wires back to my uC
No multiplexing, so I gain a heap more brightness and can also drop the 2nd MCU off my design.
I was forced to learn Altium

I decided to use the common WS2801 LED driver chip, with 3 MOSFET's for driving my LED strips. I decided to design them so that they'd solder right onto the ends of the LED strip.

Because of this, I had to be able to put SMD components on both sides, which Fritzing doesn't yet do. A friend recommended Altium, and after going in circles trying to work out how to use it, I have a board design and off for fabrication in 24 hours





Total board size is only 10x23mm!

Means I can also fit 8 of them on a standard 5x5cm PCB, so I can get 80 boards for only $14 shipped. Downside is I'll have to cut them myself. Opted for a 0.8mm PCB instead of 1.6mm to hopefully make that process a bit easier.

Seeing as I have to assemble close to 80 of these, I also bought a cheap hot air soldering station, some angled tweezers and some solder paste to try my hand at some hot air SMD reflow soldering. This will also be useful for another possibly commercial SMD project/development in the future, so worth the investment.

This is the schematic (The connection to Byp instead of Vout on the vreg is a simple pinout fix)



This is a far superior way to my previous design, and ends up a little cheaper also.

Comparison to a AAA battery & how it'll mount on the strip:



If anyone is interested in these little boards, I can probably release the source/design, or even do kits if there is any interest.

On the same note, the laser cutter is coming along nicely and should be able to cut out the digits for this clock project out of styrofoam for a nice look.

Dan

You do some amazing Things!!

Hehe

Have applied to do an engineering studies bridging course next year in hopes to get into electrical engineering.

Definitely what I should be doing, just need to get my maths up to scratch

Things said:

Hehe

Have applied to do an engineering studies bridging course next year in hopes to get into electrical engineering.

Definitely what I should be doing, just need to get my maths up to scratch

Click to expand...

if anything, YOU should be the one studying electrical engineering. math is a serious obstacle though, i must admit.

I lucked out My dad had a masters in math so I learned my 12x table when I was about 8.. Though I was good at math I still hated it...

Yeah, my schooling has been mega disrupted, so my maths is quite horrible

Back onto this project, I have ordered all the parts!

My PCB's were also sent to the factory today, so should have something to show for this in 2 weeks roughly. Going to be awesome

Just have to find a source of styrofoam and HDPE sheets for the digits.

Nice, reminds me of Sparkfun's giant clock.