VController - building instructions

Started by sixeight, October 14, 2017, 09:10:16 AM

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mrz80

Well, I think I've got all the parts accumulated. Time to start breathin' solder fumes!
Jesus freak, guitarist, luthier, bicyclist, ham (WA4UF)...
Turning every scrap of wood in the garage into Les Pauls, Telecasters, and 12 strings

AlexR

#26
Hello,
After having the project stopped almost 2yrs (lack of sparetime), I've restarted it to build 1 or 2 prototypes.  ;D
I've just finished soldering the boards and did a first test.
Main board built with RevC (ordered at the time....) so the small correction was done (3.3V on the mosfeets gate.)
I've tested the boards with the main display and 1 displayboard with 2 buydisplay RGB screens (still without the drivers soldered and only the resistors for the monochrome version so I could only test them with Red colour...) but yeah.... they really seam to have very weak visibility compared to the mainscreen!
I'm really undecided about the screens. Sixeight, I saw your video about the screens comparison but, as I find them somehow different on videos....are Adafruit ones much better? shall I stick with the positive Adruit RGB? Or are the buydisplay white on black ones (as the mainscreen) allways much better (eg. in sunlight)?
I'm also considering to add some Led ring to the switches... I'll try to modify one of those ebay 8 WS2812B (to put all leds in parallel but connecting only one of them in series with the other rings .... this should avoid to change the firmware, right...?).
By the way, are'nt the PL9823 F5 leds (alternative to the neopixel on the building guide) 5v instead of 3.3V of the neopixel?

After these decisions I'll decide on the enclosure.. I'm considering doing a structure with 2020 aluminium profile, so I can use a on-line laser cutting service to make the panels (maybe in 1.5mm aluminium/steel sheet). This will make it less dependable on the manufacturing processes....

Thanks for your support!
Regards,
AlexR

sixeight

Hi Alex,

Great to see you picked up this project again. As for visibility the red color has the worst visibility. I added some of the other colors to make it better.

Don't know of the neopixel data lines can run in parallel. You will have to test it and see.

Have fun.

AlexR

I've finally tested Buydisplay RGB on black with the WS2812 IC. In fact, colours are much better than initially thought and I've decided to go back to the RGB option. Maybe I'll build the 2nd Vcontroller with the B&W version so I can compare better.

I've also designed a LED ring to install below the witches. To avoid extra hw work I did small changes do LEDS_H to have all the 8 LEDs behave like one. I've already ordered and tested one WS2812b 8 bit LED ring from ebay, but the received size is too big to fit (32mm diameter). I've designed a smaller PCB, so this will not be a problem but.... I'm not sure what is the current margin I can use when powering Vcontroller from VG99. Since I plan to use it mainly with VG99, It would be nice not needing an extra power adapter (or extra AC power cord if I mount a small AC to DC PSU internally...
Sixeight, I remember a post a few years ago about the VG99 powering FCB1010, which I've done, but I could not find a specific maximum power that the VG99 can handle. Even for powering the optional internal rPI will VG99 be able to handle the power..?
I think I'll make some 3D printed prototypes of the LED tings to see how they result with just 1, 2 or 4 WS2812b LEDs, but I'm still waiting for the rest of the RGB screens to mount all the boards and be able to evaluate power consumption..

I'm sorry if you already discussed this but I could not find any info on the fórum.

sixeight

The power consumption of the VController is in the user manual. You could compare it to the power consumption of the FC300.

Also the neopixel leds run at 4% by default. The brightness of the leds is a user setting.

AlexR

sixeight, thanks for the suggestion. But the issue here is the available power from VG99 over the RRC2 ... FC300 consumption is stated as less than 100mA.
Just the single Neopixel LEDs can require more power if they are powered at 100%. Using indirect lightening I may have to use the LEDs at 100%
Anyway, I'll make some tests to see the minimum LEDs number required to properly light the LED rings, and I'll measure the actual consumption that way.
The buydisplay RGB screens also arrived today so I can double-check the power consumption with this setup.

I've successfully powered FCB1010 with the VG99 PSU but not from RRC2. I ended up making a slitter near the VG99 PSU input to connect power over the midi cables so, I can not be assured of how much power I can use from VG99 RRC2 connector.

Thanks for the help!
Best regards,
Alexandre


sixeight

#31
The PSU of the VG99 is 2A. The VG99 is rated at 1.3A here: https://rolandus.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201959299-VG-99-Specifications
That would leave 700 mA for the VController.

At normal usage I have measured 240 mA for the full VController with Buydisplay displays. This is in the user manual. Dimming the LEDs to 30% has a minor effect on brightness, but does save a lot of power.

The FC-300 is rated at 94mA.

AlexR

#32
Thanks very much for the clarification and sorry for these questions!

I was thinking in the worst case scenario because using 8LEDs per switch @60mA results in 96x0.060=5.76A..!
Considering dimming at 30%, if this is reflected the same way on power consumption, it is still 1.728A just for the LEDs (higher than the probable power available of 700mA). Maybe I'm not thinking right but it looks I need to reduce the number of LEDs to a maximum of 3 per switch (which results in 0.6A just for the LEDs at 30%..) or even 2LEDs.
I'll do some more testing when possible.

Thanks again for the support.

*** EDIT **
After some more testing with the WS2812b leds on the chinese led rings, it looks they are consuming around 10mA/led (white colour and 100% brightness).
I've ended up with a 4led ring design, which will make 40mA per switch (480mA for the 12 switches/ledrings).