PDKH - my youtube videos (mostly beginners projects) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 25, 2021, 08:55:33 pm
content: There's so much I have learnt and enjoyed from so many other youtubers, I thought I would join the many others and give it a shot, and it seems that this is the right place to try a little shameless self-promotionI'm sure that there's a bunch of stuff I need to improve on, but hopefully I'll get a little better in time.Mostly they are just videos of assembling fairly simple, chinese-sourced, electronics kits. The vast majority of these (so far) have come with either very poor, or no instructions at all.These are often really cheap, and thus are attractive for beginners, and with this particular kit featured below, there was a "trap for young players" in that the LEDs were "unconventional"* !!* looks like they are mis-packaged, ie the flat on the package is on the wrong side!!Digi-hourglass Part oneDigi-hourglass Part twoIn another project I designed and 3d-printed a Macro Ring-Light for helping with making these videosThat's just a couple of my videos, my youtube channel ishttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfc_B8NDmae4lcYV4Dy2I3w(so easy to remember) with a few other videos on it (I've only been making these for a couple of months), I didn't want to flood this post with embedding all of them at onceTim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 01, 2021, 06:04:38 pm
content: So here's the 1st video of a more complicated kit I'm working on building up, it's a 1 meter tall RGB LED Tower, with about 550 RGB LEDs and a bunch of SMD parts to make it all go.Amazingly there actually are instructions with this kit, with a bunch of photos with translated-english on them, which is helping to give some order to the build sequence of it all.Anywho, here's the 1st part, just showing what all comes in the box.Part 2 is coming soon

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 02, 2021, 04:14:49 pm
content: Part 2 is released into the wild!!!In this video we get into building the main PCB which has a number of SMD passives & IC's. These are all soldered with a conventional soldering iron and 0.7mm leaded solderEnjoy!

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 09, 2021, 12:07:46 pm
content: Part 3 of this project, the next step is to assemble the PCB that interfaces between the main processor PCB and all of the "rings" of RGB LEDs, I'm calling it the Interconnect PCB.Next up will be the rings of RGB LEDs ( approx 2200 thru-hole solder joints, this may take a moment or 2)Thanks for watchingTim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 16, 2021, 02:35:20 pm
content: Part 4 - assembling and soldering all the "rings" of LEDs, 4 pins per LED, 16 LEDs per ring, 32 rings = 2000+ solder joints using about 6 meters of 0.7mm 60/40 solder !!Tried 1st of all soldering them my own way, then after a couple of "rings" I discovered some advice in the supplied manual and tried a couple of "rings" using their method. Their method did NOT give a warm fuzzy feeling, more like a murderous, seething contempt.(note to self, take the manual with a small shovel of salt!!)Anywho, here's the next installment,Next up will be taking all of these completed "rings" and then constructing a tower with them (another 500+ solder joints, then running another 3 wires from each LED "ring" to the Interconnect PCB.Thanks for watching,Tim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 23, 2021, 11:06:55 am
content: Here's the latest episode in the build, assembling all the completed LED PCB's using 16 fiberglass rods and 16 lengths of tinned copper wire. I made up a 3d-printed spacer to help with getting a consistant spacing ( thingiverse link -https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4910229) and then soldered the 16 copper wires on each PCB, then moved the spacers up a level and repeated until done!!Once they were all soldered up I went back and superglued about 4 or 5 spots of the fiberglass rods where they go thru each PCB, and this stiffened up the whole structure quite a lot.Next up will be wiring 3 links (Red, Green & Blue) from each of the 32 "rings" and soldering them to the interconnect PCB.Thanks for watching,Tim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 30, 2021, 10:14:51 pm
content: Here's the next episode in this 1 meter tall saga!!This time I wire up all the LED PCB's (about 96 wires) to the Interconnect PCB, and also wire the speaker and the Tower-Top LED's to the main PCB.Then it is time to hold my breath and power it up for the 1st timeNext up will be a detailed check that every RGB LED is functioning properly (and then fixing those that are not!!), then tidying up the 98 wires that drop down the center of the Tower. Then a better capture of the various display modes including playing some music-type sounds through it and seeing how it responds to the audio.Thanks for watching,Tim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 06, 2021, 10:45:31 am
content: So I have finally got this project finished, or at least it is completely built as-per-the-instructions supplied.The eagle-eyed of you will have noticed that when I tested it on the last video, there was one "ring" of LEDs that was not always showing the right colour, and there was also at least 2 LEDs in another "ring" that were not lighting up in any colour!!So that's where I begin this time, with fixing those problems/mistakes. Then I tidy up the wiring a bit before testing it again. While this kit is complete, I have got an idea to make it a bit better, (which I mention at the end of the video) but that will have to wait a little as there's a couple of other projects I want to do next.I also made a video just showing the various display modesThanks for watchingTim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 13, 2021, 04:46:55 pm
content: Latest Video, Modding an Owl energy meter transmitter (with 50% extra leaking, crusty Duracell batteries!!)I wanted to modify the transmitter of my OWL energy meter so that it can be powered by a USB Powerbank. On opening it I found that two batteries had started to leak (Duracells, typical!!) despite the fact that the unit had only stopped working 2 days previous.So this is just a real simple mod to convert from 3x AA batteries to an external USB powerbank, pretty much any low current devices that is powered from 3 x 1.5v batteries could also be modded like this.Thanks for watchingTim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 20, 2021, 11:42:10 am
content: This week's project is assembling a SMD practice kit using a conventional soldering iron and using the techniques suggested in the included instruction sheet.This is not the only way, and I'm certainly not saying that this is "The" best way, just that this is the way suggested in the instructions for this kit.The kit came in a pack of 3, and rather than just a bag of random components and a PCB, this actually makes up a working circuit, this is a good way to practice as if there are any failed joints/components, part of the circuit will not work, and so you can troubleshoot to fix the issue.Thanks for watching,Tim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 03, 2021, 01:20:00 pm
content: So I just couldn't leave it be, but hopefully this is the last of this Banggood Canton RGB Tower construction series. (albeit in 4 parts!!!)In this first part we see what I don't like about the original "as per the instructions" build, and discuss the concept of what I'm going to do. Then we start on bending some LED leads for the very tip of the tower and soldering them up.Link to the Thingiverse page for the LED rings :-https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4948458In this next part I insert the RGB LEDs into the 3d printed rings, and then bend the LED leads to form a circuit.In this next part I solder wires onto, and then assemble all the levels of the new RGB Tower Tip and glue them in place on the support fibreglass rod.In this next part I wire up all the connections between the new tower top, and the top existing LED PCB of the main tower. Then after some tidying I show a comparison between the new top and the old one.That should be the end of this project. Thanks for watching,Tim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 18, 2021, 09:08:48 pm
content: Geekcreit® DIY C51 Touch Control Keys Full Color LED Aurora Tower Kit from Banggood.In this 3-part (4 if you count the Display-Modes demo video) series I solder up this kit, including many SMD components and a bunch of 10mm RGB LEDs.I also model up a case for the kit in Fusion360, then 3d-print a prototype (and then correct a couple of flaws and print out a 2nd version)In this episode we "unbox" the kit and take a look at the contents, then start soldering the SMD passive components.In this episode we finish soldering the SMD parts, and then solder in all the RGB LEDs, including showing how to deal with the inevitable solder-bridges!!In this episode after soldering in the last RGB LED we power it up and find 3 LEDs don't seem to be completely working, so some investigation is needed and some solder joints re-worked before finding the cause of the issue. Then the prototype case is trialed, and then a modified case is printed and fitted.Then finally this is a video of the various display modes of this Kit.Thanks for watching

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 08, 2021, 05:13:56 pm
content: So this series is a little different, I want some more video lights, so I thought to myself "how hard can it be to design and custom build my own video light?"...... Well, I'm in the process of finding out how hard it is!!!I ordered 1000 95% CRI LEDs from Digikey and set about the project!I like to complicate things slightly. So I want to design a modular system that uses a single custom designed PCB, but that can have many copies of that custom designed PCB in one enclosure to make a bigger "panel-style" LED video light, or just one or two of them for a smaller light.Also to complicate things further, I want the ability to choose either 12v or 18v power (without wasting a lot of power in a big dropper resistor for 18v) so that I can use an 18v LION powertool battery to power a portable version of the light.In this 1st part I go over some of the scope of the project, then make a crude prototype to test out how hot these LEDs get at the desired current and film that with a thermal camera.In this next part I use some free PCB design software (altium circuitmaker) to make a schematic, then to lay out a PCB, before generating the files needed to upload to a PCB manufacturer. Then I go through the options offered by one manufacturer before I finally order the PCB'sI ordered the PCB's and a stencil and they came in just 10 days, next up will be assembling a PCBThanks for watchingTim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 12, 2021, 09:23:02 pm
content: Here's the next installment.In this video we take a good look at the PCB's themselves, and also a look at the solder-paste stencil that I also ordered as I've got about 30 of these to make up.Then we'll see one way to temporarily attach the PCB to the stencil in order to apply the solder-paste.In this video we begin by applying the solder-paste, then the stencil is removed so that the LED's and current-limiting resistors can be placed on their respective locations. Then using a hot air soldering station we reflow each component. We finish with a visual inspection of the assembled PCB.Thanks for watching,Tim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 04, 2021, 04:59:42 pm
content: Well I haven't given up on this (yet), just had a busy month and a lot of prototypes being made/re-made/re-made again......Finally got some progress to show, here are the latest updates.So we start off by comparing the PCB we finished in Part 2 with one of my old video lights. I have 3d-printed a bunch of parts to make a Panel-type video light measuring about 240mm high by about 380mm wide. This will contain 6 of the PCB's that were shown in the last video. This video we show the parts and how they fit together.Then we assemble the parts and glue them together with some slightly-dodgy superglue (took ages to set)Then it was simply a case of wiring the modules together and then testing it out by comparing the LUX output of it to my previous video lights.There will be further parts to come, but not for a while, feeling the call to get back to some other projects 1st!!!Thanks for watchingTim

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 11, 2022, 02:20:34 pm
content: In this project we are building another (relatively) cheap kit that I bought from Banggood, this one has the catchy title of - "Cascadable Dimmable RGB Full-Color Voice-Activated 32*8 Dot Matrix Spectrum Clock Kit"This is my first experience of using these digitally addressable RGB LEDs, and I have to admit that, given the state of my programming ignorance, there's not much hope for me if I had to program something like this. Thankfully it comes with a pre-programmed MCU.Part 1 is an overview and review of what comes in the kitPart 2 sees the start of soldering the main controller PCB, starting as usual with the small passivesPart 3 finishes off the main controller PCB with the MCU, the RTC, and the rest of the boardPart 4 deals with the Display PCB, soldering the 256 RGB addressable LEDs and the 224 decoupling caps (a little strange that they left out the decoupling caps for an entire row of 32 LEDs)Part 5 sees the powering up for the 1st time, and then some troubleshooting as something is not as it should be.WARNING - THIS VIDEO CONTAINS SOME FLASHING LIGHTS!!In the final part we figure out the case assembly and then see how much of it we can break and still put it together!Thanks for watchingTim