justDIY Project Log

A little quick work with the rattle can this weekend “finished off” my revision 2 and revision 3 bike taillights. Revision three is nearly the ‘final product’ but still lacking some automatic control circuitry that I want to implement, and a few tweaks to the firmware to make it simpler to use.

I haven’t mastered cutting a straight line with the dremel yet, once the cutting wheel bites into that thin steel it goes the direction it wants to go!

I also painted the circuit boards, masking off each LED lens on the 2×8 array so they’d stay nice and bright. I also masked the smt button, the switcher and the contact springs on the battery clips. I probably didn’t need to mask the switcher – I wasn’t sure what the paint would do it it, seeing as how it’s handling quite a bit of power at a high frequency.

I’ve also posted some new videos to my youtube channel – nothing too exciting. There’s a naked revision 3 doing its thing and a side by side of 2 and 3 post paint job.

I completed PCB revision three of the mint tin bike light on Tuesday, but due to lack of batteries for the camera, no pictures were taken! Luckily I’ve found and recharged a second set of batteries and the camera is once again operational.

Feature-wise, this revision adds nothing over the previous light, all the changes are in board design. Firstly, the artwork was redone using polygon pours instead of straight point to point wiring (traces). The revision two switcher was running pretty warm, mostly because it didn’t have much copper to dump the heat into.

The switcher’s ground pin is now tied directly into a very large copper pour, as are the Vin and Switch pins. Using a burning finger temperature probe, the chip remained at or below T_body even operating in constant on mode at full power. Compared to the revision two board which saw the switcher running quite hot in constant on mode.

The current sensing resistor was moved a lot closer to the feedback pin. With a feedback voltage of 190mV, the tiny resistance of the trace was actually affecting output. Shortening the trace to roughly 1mm has helped a great deal.

Finally, the layout for the battery clips was fixed, and generous polygon pours were drawn around the pads. The spring clips are now soldered down very firmly and hold the batteries quite well. I have yet to take this unit on the trail, so we’ll see if a rubber band is required or not to retain the batteries while bouncing along.

I plan on making one more prototype before sending the design off to Custom PCB or Gold Phoenix. I think I’ll eliminate the battery clips on the chance excessive force could cause one to separate from the laminate and severely damage the pcb. I also want to try a board that hosts both driver circuit and LEDs. Additionally, I plan to add a tilt / vibration sensing switch (roller ball switch), so inactivity of the bike can be detected and the light switched off to save on batteries.

Thanks for reading!

I finished my first snapled array, and they are damn impressive! I was expecting slightly better performance than the superflux, but was blown away. I haven’t come up with a method of comparing the two yet, as I don’t have a light meter. A side by side with the reflect signs outside the house would be nice, but it’s raining cats and dogs right now!

Here’s a size comparison of the snapled versus a 3mm superflux led. Both have a body measuring 7.6mm, but the snapled has those huge contacts, and a much heavier internal structure compared to the superflux. The 5mm snapled lens also looks huge compared to the superflux.

Hand soldering the snapled smt style is fairly easy – this connection lifted up on me because I was pressing down on the opposite side. Soldering the rest I just placed the led and then slid the iron in next to the contact without touching it, then fed in the solder, which sucked the contact right onto the pad like it’s supposed to.

The finished product, before washing. Once I decide on a layout I like, I’ll probably have some boards made and will try reflowing these either in a toaster over or on a skillet.

I don’t have much to say on these, other than I scored a bunch from Future for a seemingly great price.

These appear to be HEAVY DUTY leds, destined for the automotive market. They’re discontinued now, as Lumileds is pushing the all mighty rebel for every application under the sun.

Apparently lumileds marketed these leds strictly as automotive indicator grade leds. Their design guide shows a stop light made of six of these leds, spot welded in a 2 x 3 array to heavy solid aluminum buss bars instead of a typical PCB mounting. I won’t be doing any of that, but I did draw up a layout in Eagle and came up with a 2 x 8 array for my mint tin bike light.

This board is etched and waiting to be cleaned and assembled, more pics to follow!

Nothing much new on a technical note. I do have a new pcb layout ready to iron on to some blank copper, should get that done this weekend. I ordered more switchers and LEDs from Future on Wednesday. Originally I was excited, the estimated delivery date was 8/21. However, it has now been pushed to 8/26, oh well!

Here are some new pictures, and some video worth posting in the blog:

This is my new 2010 Trek 3700 Mountain Bike… I’ve upgraded to alloy pedals and a super tough downhill rim for the rear wheel. I had been buying cheap-o department store bikes, on average two or three per year and trashing them basically riding on streets and trails. So I wanted to upgrade to something that should hold up a bit better.

Same composure, dialed down the flash output and decreased the shutter speed a little.

Video “tour” of the bike with both lights going.

Strobe effects demonstration on some reflective signs near my house. Sorry for the wind noise, a storm is rolling in!