The Grinch

RJ

RJ

New member
I felt bad not seeing any post in here so I thought I explain what the grinch controller is all about.

The Grinch I believe is the least expensive controller you can build. When I designed it as an off shoot of the LedTriks controller is was meant to be for the person who wanted a 64 channel On/Off controller just like the 595 olsen but on a budget. It is basicly just four chips and 4 caps with rj45 connectors. It has no LEDs as they cost, and are not needed to function. It is extremely small and runs using the same olsen plugins in vixen. It can be used anywhere a 595 would be. I do recommend you use the newer Allergo chips and not the mbi's that we first used as some computer ports do not have enough voltage to properly trigger them. But with the newer chips any computer should have no problem running it even laptops that have a hard time with 595 boards.

Both Wayne and Wjohn created coop boards for it and if you want to build the grinch you need to check with them on avalibilty of the pcb's. I believe wayne even created a single sided pcb for the diy pcb makers.
 
I got three of the Grinch boards from wjohn($8 each) and have a Mouser parts order ready. The parts order with out the Allegro chips (mouser doesn't have them) is $16 + shipping each. Estimate for the 4 driver chips is about 4.25 + shipping. Total cost is about $28 + shipping each.

Also figure less soldering becasue the Driver chip drives 16 ports and sinks the outputs so each one of the Allegro or MBI chips does the job of 4 chips on the 595 board.
 
New Member Looking to Build A GRINCH

Hello everyone

This is my first post since joining a few days ago. I am new to the field of computer controlled lighting systems, but after reading through all of the fabulous information found in this discussion forum, I have decided to build my first project using the GRINCH design. I am in need of two (2) GRINCH boards to begin this first project. Does anyone have any PCB's for the GRINCH (for sale)? Is is possible to purchase a "kit" that contains the PCB as well as all of the other components found on the parts list? I need to purchase this material ASAP - I return to school August 28th and would like to get my boards built and tested prior to that date. Any feedback or assistance would be greatly appreciated!

:arrow: David
 
Re: New Member Looking to Build A GRINCH

dvanteslaar said:
Hello everyone

This is my first post since joining a few days ago. I am new to the field of computer controlled lighting systems, but after reading through all of the fabulous information found in this discussion forum, I have decided to build my first project using the GRINCH design. I am in need of two (2) GRINCH boards to begin this first project. Does anyone have any PCB's for the GRINCH (for sale)? Is is possible to purchase a "kit" that contains the PCB as well as all of the other components found on the parts list? I need to purchase this material ASAP - I return to school August 28th and would like to get my boards built and tested prior to that date. Any feedback or assistance would be greatly appreciated!

:arrow: David
Click to expand...

Welcome David,

You can PM wjohn. He has been ordering the Grinch boards (and is the only source I know of for them) and making them available. The Thread that is a poll in this forum has several posts from him and you can PM on one of his posts. He will probably PM you when he reads of your interest, thats how he contacted me the first time. You will also need SSR boards which connect to the controller boards. There is a co-op for SSR pcb's in the Coop forum that is about to be finalized, but wjohn also can help get those for you when you get the grinch boards from him. You will need to build 16 SSR's for each grinch board.

I'm new to this also, but everyone here is a great bunch of guys, Very helpful

Shawn
 
Re: New Member Looking to Build A GRINCH

Welcome David,

You can PM wjohn. He has been ordering the Grinch boards (and is the only source I know of for them) and making them available. The Thread that is a poll in this forum has several posts from him and you can PM on one of his posts. He will probably PM you when he reads of your interest, thats how he contacted me the first time. You will also need SSR boards which connect to the controller boards. There is a co-op for SSR pcb's in the Coop forum that is about to be finalized, but wjohn also can help get those for you when you get the grinch boards from him. You will need to build 16 SSR's for each grinch board.

I'm new to this also, but everyone here is a great bunch of guys, Very helpful

Shawn
Click to expand...


Hi Shawn,

Thanks for the quick reply - I appreciate all the information you passed on to me. I actually got a hold of John via email a few days back and was able to purchase 2 LEDTREK PCB's from him (I couldn't post or PM him because I was unaware that I need to first activate my account before I could post). I sent him an email today inquiring about purchasing two GRINCH boards but haven't heard back from him yet (I believe his email address originates from Australia).

Thanks for the info on the SSR's ... although I read through John's manual on the GRINCH Controller, I wasn't exactly sure how many SSR's I needed to build per board. I suppose I will try to PM him instead of email.

Thanks again brother! And your right - I have been pleasantly surprised about how helpful and enthusiastic everyone has been in responding to my questions!!

-- David
 
Hi David and welcome to the group.

John is presently travelling to and through the US. He does hail from OZ. I'm sure he's probably going to be checking emails at some point in time during his travels.

Re: number of SSR's, the co-op SSR's are 4 channel, the Grinch board is 64 channels, so you'd need 16 SSR boards per Grinch board (assuming you are using all channels)

Cheers
 
lytnin said:
Hi David and welcome to the group.

John is presently travelling to and through the US. He does hail from OZ. I'm sure he's probably going to be checking emails at some point in time during his travels.

Re: number of SSR's, the co-op SSR's are 4 channel, the Grinch board is 64 channels, so you'd need 16 SSR boards per Grinch board (assuming you are using all channels)

Cheers
Click to expand...


Thanks David - I appreciate the warm welcome, and the heads-up on John and the # of SSR's/GRINCH.
 
<Nevermind... Seems like the other links are bad.>


You should be able to attach files to your post.
 
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Put them in the File Library and then point the Wiki to those files would be my suggestion.
 
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