Last year I built some controllers using Scott Hanson’s open source BBB16 design. That design is quite good. I modified the design to use surface mount components and arranged for JLCPCB to assemble 10 boards. I tested that board and so far everything seems to work great. I used one last season for running some snowfall tubes hanging from the branches of a Mugo Pine tree in my yard. That experience got me thinking of a problem that all the controllers currently have, namely, pixel output power control. So, I created a variant of Scott's design with some design enhancements. I have attached a rendering of the board below.
As you can see, there are no old fashion ATO style fuses used here. This design uses a semiconductor fuse that electronically resets if there is a fault. The electronic fuse also has a control signal that allows the pixel output to be turned off. It is possible to provide individual pixel port power control but this complicates things a bit so I have arranged the pixel power control in two "banks" (Ports 1-8 and 9-16) so each bank of pixel ports can be powered on or off.
The design further differs from Scott’s design with the incorporation of an FM transmitter, a stereo amplifier for driving a pair of speakers, an on-board real time clock, an audio DAC, a couple temperature sensors, a “jumperless” design so you do not have to fiddle with jumpers before connecting the power supplies and I rewired the DMX RJ45 as a DIFF port (the DMX functionality is available using a 6 pin terminal block). Finally, it is possible to measure the current on each pixel output.
If I find there are a few people interested in this, I will probably make arrangements with JLCPCB to build 10 or so this season and test them out. I estimate I can probably build these for about $100USD.
Please let me know if you have some interest.
Steve
As you can see, there are no old fashion ATO style fuses used here. This design uses a semiconductor fuse that electronically resets if there is a fault. The electronic fuse also has a control signal that allows the pixel output to be turned off. It is possible to provide individual pixel port power control but this complicates things a bit so I have arranged the pixel power control in two "banks" (Ports 1-8 and 9-16) so each bank of pixel ports can be powered on or off.
The design further differs from Scott’s design with the incorporation of an FM transmitter, a stereo amplifier for driving a pair of speakers, an on-board real time clock, an audio DAC, a couple temperature sensors, a “jumperless” design so you do not have to fiddle with jumpers before connecting the power supplies and I rewired the DMX RJ45 as a DIFF port (the DMX functionality is available using a 6 pin terminal block). Finally, it is possible to measure the current on each pixel output.
If I find there are a few people interested in this, I will probably make arrangements with JLCPCB to build 10 or so this season and test them out. I estimate I can probably build these for about $100USD.
Please let me know if you have some interest.
Steve
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