Well once again, it’s been a while since my last post but I have been busy building stuff for this years show and – as usual – I’m very much behind…
I updated the Ren48LSD board (to version v3c) quite a while back but don’t think I posted about it so I thought I would start with that. The main differences from the v3b version was the replacement of the power supply section from using a linear regulator (7805 based) to a switcher type supply using the LM2575. The main driver for this was the 7805 would get very hot and was limited to 12v because of the power/heat dissipation – 24v was out of the question making them unusable for driving devices like the MightyMini. The new switcher design allowed anything from 9-24v (I tested it up to 30v) and the regulator did not overheat at all. I also cleaned up the silkscreen, enlarged some pads and changed the mounting hole pattern to fit the CG-1000 enclosure that many folks use. Since it’s release at least 100 or more of the new Ren48LSD’s have been built and is quite popular.

Renard48LSD v3c - partially completed
I knew I was planning to expand my channel count this year quite a bit and my current DMX dongles were probably going to fall short even though both together support 1024 channels. Instead of adding more dongles, which gets very cumbersome, I decided to go with DIYC member RPM’s E1.31 to DMX/Renard bridge device. This board takes in E1.31 (aka streaming ACN – or basically DMX over Ethernet) and spits out four ports of any combination of DMX or Renard protocol. In other words, using DMX, I could get 2048 channels from it and better yet, not be tied physically (USB is limited to about 6′) to the computer since it’s over Ethernet. This means I just have to run a single Cat5 cable from my home network to the bridge and have four universes (a universe is equal to 512 channels in DMX) available. I built two of these but will probably use just the one and keep the other for backup.

E131-DMX-Bridge
Another exciting piece of new hardware is DIYC member jstjohnz E1.31 Pixel bridge known as the E680. This device also takes in E1.31 as RPM’s bridge does, but outputs data to LED strips that use special intelligent chips to drive individual RGB LEDs. This means that each and every LED is controllable with millions of color combinations. There are several pixel chips available now and the E680 supports several different kinds. I will be using some strips based on the 1809 pixel chip. Each chip controls three LEDs and can be cut about every 15cm which allows you to use them in lots of different ways. I did find an issue with the E680 with these strips initially. The E680 uses the Parallax Propeller microcontroller as it’s brain. This chip uses 3.3v for its power supply and I/O – however the strip likes to have 5v logic levels. I found that I could add a simple driver setup using a 74HCT125 driver chip to convert the 3.3v levels to 5.0v levels. After doing this, the strips worked great! The strips came on 5m (about 16′) reels but as I mentioned, can be cut into smaller sections.

E680 E1.31 Pixel Bridge
I plan to use the pixels to drive a new window frame display. This will replace my existing PVC pipe frame wrapped with 5mm LEDs. While this is still quite usable, the switch to pixels allows me to get away from AC control and all the heavy extension cords. It will also free up my workhorse LOR 1602W boxes for sale to fund the new stuff. I decided to build a wooden frame to overlay my existing window frame. The 1809 pixel strips will be mounted to this frame and then I can just hang it over the window.

Window Frame for Pixels

Window Frame for pixels1809 Pixel Strip

1809 Pixel Strip

Last of all, my own new project was the Ren4Flood controller and DIYC Flood. The DIYC Flood is an LED flood that uses 60 SuperFlux LEDs grouped into 15 each of Red, Green, Blue and White. This allows a broad spectrum of colors as well as pure white which you don’t always get from RGB LEDs when all on. The flood itself is nothing really new – there are similar designs such as the Rainbow Flood (which I have) that use the same LEDs and general layout. The unique part of them is that they use SuperTex CL2 constant current drivers. This allows multiple input voltages of 12-24vdc so they can use common supplies to other LED display items without any changes to the board. Regardless of the voltage, the current stays at a constant 20mA and even compensates for temperature changes. It also allows you to mix-n-match LED colors (like say all White or all Red) and the CL2 driver takes care of everything. It does cost a bit more but I think it’s well worth it as it maximizes the output of the LEDs while keeping them safe from over current conditions and a simpler design due to no resistors.
Another part of the project is the Ren4Flood controller. This was primarily designed to drive the DIYC Flood and is meant to mount to the back of the flood. It uses a modified version of the Renard controller code (either serial or DMX) that only uses four channels of data instead of the more common eight channels. Using the same PIC as the other controllers saves costs when combined with other group buys even though other PIC micros may have been a better choice. The other interesting part of this controller is the addition of two trigger inputs. While I don’t have any code written for these yet, the idea is that external switchs can trigger particular light patterns for security reasons. So late at night, these could be left on and if someone came walking through your display at night, it could sense this and blast on all the lights to scare them off. This code probably won’t see light of day until next year but it should make the controller/flood combination very popular.

Ren4Flood flood controller (prototype)

DIYC Flood (prototype)
Anyway – that’s about it now – I hope to complete all my hardware stuff by mid-October in time for the Halloween show and give me the rest of the time to start sequencing for the Christmas show planned for December 1st!