- Member DIN
- S980
Long time between updates but work continues. I continue to tune the needle animation but didn't have 100% reliability so there are still some changes coming to further refine version 7. Still, here are the results of a good day with a perfect run on a mag dump demo.
I moved on to work on the lighting while parts are in production. Turns out I needed to make lots of mods to my marker lights.
Eventually I was able to get the lights in and do a quick test with a flashlight.
Then I grabbed what I needed to build the LED harnesses and took them with me on a business trip. I got busy with the solder iron in my hotel.
From there I built the 5V power supplies (stepping down from an 11.1V LiPo battery) and started testing.
After getting the harness and power supplies finished, I bundled it all up and headed back home. I did a quick fit and test of just the needle lights.
I had my software ready and I had my MOSFETs ready--I thought I was ready to make the LEDs pulse and 'breathe". Nope. The first problem was that I had wires the pink and blue LEDs to a common negative, forgetting that the MOSFETs work through the negative side. More soldering. Then I found that my MOSFETs were not fast enough to handle the pulse modulation used to control brightness. So it was back to the Internet to learn more about MOSFETs. I sourced new MOSFETs and hooked everything up with some test code to carry the brightness of the LEDs to get the breathing effect. Finally I had light animation to go with the physical animation.
These are just demo software and didn't reflect the final speed or dimness and brightness I will use. Even so, this system works and will give life to the needles. Here is the night test.
That's where I'm at right now. I'll be back with the animation updates and improved lighting.
Redshirt
I moved on to work on the lighting while parts are in production. Turns out I needed to make lots of mods to my marker lights.
Eventually I was able to get the lights in and do a quick test with a flashlight.
Then I grabbed what I needed to build the LED harnesses and took them with me on a business trip. I got busy with the solder iron in my hotel.
From there I built the 5V power supplies (stepping down from an 11.1V LiPo battery) and started testing.
After getting the harness and power supplies finished, I bundled it all up and headed back home. I did a quick fit and test of just the needle lights.
I had my software ready and I had my MOSFETs ready--I thought I was ready to make the LEDs pulse and 'breathe". Nope. The first problem was that I had wires the pink and blue LEDs to a common negative, forgetting that the MOSFETs work through the negative side. More soldering. Then I found that my MOSFETs were not fast enough to handle the pulse modulation used to control brightness. So it was back to the Internet to learn more about MOSFETs. I sourced new MOSFETs and hooked everything up with some test code to carry the brightness of the LEDs to get the breathing effect. Finally I had light animation to go with the physical animation.
These are just demo software and didn't reflect the final speed or dimness and brightness I will use. Even so, this system works and will give life to the needles. Here is the night test.
That's where I'm at right now. I'll be back with the animation updates and improved lighting.
Redshirt
