New Floodight Board

S

stampedeboss

New member
I've designed a new floodight board the supports anything from 10w to 100w using the same board and components. I eliminated soldering the led directly to the board since LEDs very by wattage and layout. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in it. I designed this to address my changing needs for different powered floodlight and I can now change power simply by changing out the LED.

The board is 30mm x 40 mm and fits into the back or lower compartment of the floodlight housing and you connect to the led via wires. It supports voltages from 12v to 60v. This design is based on a new controller chip that recently became available and is price competitive to the PT4115 that is used in Pixiflood and Rob G's boards. An additional feature is there is a "sidecar" capability for a submodule which adds pixelstick capabilities to the flood light. The nice part of the sidecar is it can be connected and disconnected without tools or soldering. It make it easy to use it to test the assembly.

I have also used the board to drive strings of dumb pixels from smart controllers, It can control up to 3 strings from a single board since floodlights can be treated as 3 channels.

Let me know what you think.
 
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I’m interested.

I see you’re in the DFW area. Are you a member of the North Texas Light-O-Holics group? Would love to get my hands on one or more of your boards to play with
 
pixelpuppy said:
I’m interested.

I see you’re in the DFW area. Are you a member of the North Texas Light-O-Holics group? Would love to get my hands on one or more of your boards to play with
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No, I hadn't heard of them but would be interested. I just sent off for another batch of boards. Here's what the board looks like with the side car.
pixiflood_3.png
 
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FYI my intention is to make the board open source.

This picture shows the relative size between from top to bottom, the original PixiFlood 10W board, my Pixiflood with a built-in pixelstick, and the new board on the bottom.
pixiflood_3.jpg
 
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stampedeboss said:
typo on the constant current driver I used, https://www.diodes.com/assets/Datasheets/AL8862.pdf for those interested. What made it work from those available was 60v max and under a buck a piece.
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Very interesting design. I like it. Question though. Your board design looks like the led driver chips are layed out for an SOT89-5 design but the AL8862 pdf says it only comes in SO-8EP design. Am I looking at that wrong?
Also, what transistor chip is that you’re using in between the ws2811 and the driver?
Ok, couple questions. Are you relying on a linear voltage regulator to reduce up to 36v to 5v or is there a switching circuit I’m not seeing? That’s a lot of heat to mitigate.
 
Fanatic said:
Very interesting design. I like it. Question though. Your board design looks like the led driver chips are layed out for an SOT89-5 design but the AL8862 pdf says it only comes in SO-8EP design. Am I looking at that wrong?
Also, what transistor chip is that you’re using in between the ws2811 and the driver?
Ok, couple questions. Are you relying on a linear voltage regulator to reduce up to 36v to 5v or is there a switching circuit I’m not seeing? That’s a lot of heat to mitigate.
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Sorry I posted the wrong board layout, it has been updated for the so-8ep, I have also swapped out the linear for a switching circuit. That layout was for a chip with a 40v ceiling and was before I found the AL8862. I was lucky in the math working out that the existing support components still work with the AAL8862. I'm not using a transistors, I'm using a 3 of 4 NAND gates in a tsop8 package. As to the buck to replace the linear I have a couple of choices, I'm initially using the TS30041 based on a couple of factors, price and fewer external components, however it has a ceiling of only 40V but runs under a dollar. 40v is good for everything up to 100w but to reach the targeted 60v I will also use something like the MAX15062A, issue is cost at 2.75+ per chip. I'll post the correct layout once I get back to the computer with the layouts. The connectors will also change in the final board, my design goal was to have a clean bottom so it can sit on the metal floor without issue.

For those wondering, the 40v versions of the pixiflood using the NAND gate design have been running across the front of my house for the past year without issue. That's 13 10w floods running nights from sundown to sunup. This board is just an attempt to eliminate the need for multiple layouts, while increasing the power handling capabilities going forward. The NAND gates work very well and is a single device and requires a smaller footprint than 3 transistors. The new design is to support the back of my house to provide more powerful lighting around my pool and patio.
 
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are the boards coming already assembled, or will there be some DIY involved. also, what is the projected price point?
 
One "nice-to-have" feature that I noticed missing from using prior boards, was that the floods lack the signal-amplification (u-Amp, line-driver, f-amp) needed to cascade the data-signal from one floodlight to the next. I don't see that on your current board.

Can you clarify if this is part of the current board? Would it be possible to add this component to the board?
 
rdj6107 said:
are the boards coming already assembled, or will there be some DIY involved. also, what is the projected price point?
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If there is enough interest and I decide to do a group buy both options would be available. That is how I handled it with the pixiflood a couple of years ago. Current design is fully SMD, I've come to believe SMD is as easy; if not easier than through-hole. The key is having a decent hot air machine, and there are some very good ones that aren't too expensive. SMD was used to obtain the smallest footprint possible. There is only one part on the board that is a little tricky and that is the NAND gate, I would do that one regardless if fully assembled or not. None of the other components are smaller than 805.

Actual cost / Projected cost is hard to gauge without understanding the number of PCBs since it is the most expensive component. If I was to guess, Floodlight only around 6 dollars, adding in the sidecar another 2-3 dollars. That just a wild guess, I lost money on the pixiflood but didn't care at the time. If I do it this time, I intend to break even.

The design, gerber, and Bill of Materials files will be in github, you are free to have your own boards made or modify to your liking.
 
Bwinter said:
One "nice-to-have" feature that I noticed missing from using prior boards, was that the floods lack the signal-amplification (u-Amp, line-driver, f-amp) needed to cascade the data-signal from one floodlight to the next. I don't see that on your current board.

Can you clarify if this is part of the current board? Would it be possible to add this component to the board?
Click to expand...

This is a tricky answer, there is a line-driver on the board so the answer is "yes it is part of the board." But its not on the data out signal so the actual answer is "not for that purpose." I am a little confused since I've never had an issue cascading the data-signal, nor has anyone reported an issue with my pixiflood boards. I have 13 in that configuration year round on the front of my house without issue. During Halloween, I've spread them apart as far as 15' without issue as well. Can it be added, yes easily requires the driver, 1 cap and results in extra cost of under a buck. What's other peoples thoughts on the need, how far apart are you thinking?
 
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