Meanwell LDD driver: for those who want to dim to 0 using Arduino

dwolson2 said:
Can you link (or PM) me info on how to have that made/ or how to make it? I Like the clean look of it.
Click to expand...

If you are new to PCB design, there are plenty of tutorial on youtube for Eagle, but none the less...

You will need Eagle CAD (free PCB design software) to design a schematic and board. Once the board is designed, you create gerber files that get sent off to a board house for printing. A few weeks later, you get a nice new PCB of your design.

gep etched his own board, which works and is a lot faster than waiting for a board house, but I prefer it because it's more professional and a lot less messy. Etching your own boards is great for prototyping (testing the boards) before sending them off to board house.

If I ever make any boards I will post up the Eagle files.
 
I've got eagle but have never really made any headway with working on it... Nothing would please me more then to have a nice pcb, all the dimmer circuits brought out to the side, power/ground on one side of the board and the led outputs on the other side...

This frickin catastrophe I built works... proof of concept.. but it just looks ugly :(
 
I've been looking at these for a while, I really want two strings to dim to zero which the ELN's dont do... time to jump in... where is everyone buying the LDD's from? PM me if that works better. Thanks much!
 
Would someone who has experience with it get some pcbs made up to fit say 5 or 6 drivers per board? Single power supply input.. Dimming channels out to a nice plug of some sort and screw terminals for the led strings? Id like 2 6 driver boards myself.. And if we all buy them together costs would drop alot. Sounds like we could easily get 10 to 15 ordered at IM guessing like 15 a piece?
 
They're not even that expensive. I just had two different layouts printed for other projects (still LED), $9.90 for 10. So $.99/ea. After shipping it was around $25 for two sets of 10. They are limited to 5x5cm. You can get 10x10, but they are around $2.50/ea. The turnaround time is the biggest thing...waiting sucks.

I could lay something out. I'd probably have to build these parts though, which will take the most time. I also don't have any extras to test fit.

gep, didn't mean to imply yours are not good. I just prefer a manufactured look. I'm sure I'd butcher my own etchings.
 
How many LEDs are people trying to drive? Trying to determine a common number of drivers I could put on a board. 2, 3, 4, 5?
 
Software and hardware are all set, now I just need to get a free day to wire it all up and build my light.

My LCD is busted and needs to be replaced, otherwise here it is.

IMG_20121125_204921.jpg
 
I'm 48 per pendant.. so 96 LED's atm (I'm using 9 drivers currently, but had planned on 11).. I'll be adding another pendant when I set up the 7' tank..

I think at least 6, possibly 8 spots per board would be great... My project is currently running so I don't care about waiting a bit more for pcb's to remake the driver board.

rrasco, where do you get your boards made up? I'm interested in playing around with a few things to make my life easier with some breakout boards and the such. Really need to get into eagle and start learning.. it's how I figure most of my stuff out anyways

oh and I have 1 bad LDD driver.. at 4 bucks it's not even worth the hassle sending it back and getting a replacement imho lol, but I could drop it in the snail mail if you needed something to check sizing physically
 
I am going to be using 13 LDD's, but I could run 12, so 2 boards of 6 would be great. I see a lot of people want 6 per board, so I think that would be a good start.
 
6 sounds like it would work for a lot of people. Let me see what I can do. I may even make a few of them (2, 4, 6, etc) so people have options. I have an install coming up in 10 minutes for the next 4 hours, so it will be later or tomorrow probably, unless we get done early then I might be able to start on it.

dread, I get mine printed through iteadstudio's openpcb service.
 
I really think 6 on a board is a solid number... think of the nano guys....

Royal Blue
Violet
Warm White
Blue
(2 optional... I think those other 4 are pretty mandatory, but hell my build also has cyan, green, 4500k, pink and red)

For the rest of us running alot more drivers... we can easily daisy chain the pwm signal between the drivers to double up on them.

A single consolidated 2 terminal power input on the board (able to accomodate say 14ga wire so we can remote mount power supplys) would clean up the wiring immensely... I mention the 14ga because the terminal blocks I got for the standard 1mm pitch only hold 18ga... and it's seriously pushing it. It's lead me to having the power supply sitting up there too to keep the run short enough to not overheat the wire... they are great however for connecting the LED strings.. I've actually got 40 screw terminals on this cluster fudge of a board i made now lol
 
I will be in for five boards capable of 6 drivers each; single source power supply to each board but individual PWM to each driver; I use a Arduino mega to control the farm of meanwell drivers and would like to retain the flexibility
 
No group buys are allowed in RC. Try not to talk of one.

I would definitely want 2 or 3 boards myself if you do have them made. If it is as easy as placing the driver pins into holes and dabbing solder onto them from the bottom, I definitely want them.
 
bhazard451 said:
No group buys are allowed in RC. Try not to talk of one.

I would definitely want 2 or 3 boards myself if you do have them made. If it is as easy as placing the driver pins into holes and dabbing solder onto them from the bottom, I definitely want them.
Click to expand...

What's this group buy you speak of?

But yes, the board I have invisioned in my head is indeed that simple... just screw your LED strings into the terminal strips... hook up 2 wires from your power supply and plug in your dimming circuits... giggity giggity

I found this btw... ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/userfiles/libraries/meanwell_dcdc.lbr eagle library for the ldd's :-P

(edit: you would also have to solder on the power connectors as well too and the terminal strips that the led strings attach too, the 2 terminal power supply adapter and the dimming control connector... but these would also be through hole components... 30w iron and like 2 minutes for all...)
 
Install is done. I will see what I can do. The biggest problem is going to be fitting a 12 pos terminal on a 5x5 board. I may have to do two 6 pos terminals, but then they couldn't be on one side. It would be more like, supply is on bottom and terminals out on left and right. I'd prefer supply went in one side and out the other, but I can only fit an 8 pos terminal on one side. I know because I've had this issue before. Having said that, 4 drivers per board may be more feasible. I don't even know if I can fit 6 boards on a board to begin with, but I'll try.
 
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