Addressable Leds

The J Design is Dr. D-Flo's name for Dan Julio's isolated WS2812 strip drivers. Julio's open source design is found on his website here. Dr. D-Flo has created a video series so that anyone can build and benefit from the Julio's clever design. Dr. D-Flo and his team have also created novel code to control the addressable LEDs powered through the J Design.

 

Why the J Design?

Addressable LEDs are sensitive to voltage fluctuation and signal noise. Unfortunately both of these phenomena occur as the LED strips grow in length and move farther away from both the signal and power source. The J Design solves these problems through differential signaling and transformers. Most importantly, the J Design is scale-able allowing for hundreds of even thousands of LEDs to be controlled from a computer. 

 

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The Controller Board

The brains of this system is the controller board. This board is powered by a FadeCandy, which provides the interface for the computer to communicate with the LEDs. The 4 black cubes are Ethernet terminals. Each terminal supplies data and power for 128 LEDs to a driver board.

Required Supplies:

Order from OSH Park

 

 

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The Driver Board

The driver board receives the signal from the controller board via an Ethernet connection and connects to two strips of 64 LEDs. The driver board also steps down 24V to 5V.

 

Required Supplies:

  • Surface Mount Components - $14.92/board - Found at Mouser
  • Coilcraft Inductor - $3.02 - Found at Coilcraft
    • Part Number: SER2915L-153KL   
  • 3 Position Screw Terminal Block - Found at Digi-key
    • Part Number: ED10562-ND
  • PCB - $30.75/3 - Found at OSH Park
  • Stencil - $12.68 - Found at OSH Stencil
Order from OSH Park

Other Supplies

Requires Supplies:

  • CAT5 Ethernet Cable - $5-$15 - Found at Amazon
  • 24 VDC, 350 W Power Supply - $48.23 - Found at Mouser
    • Mouser Part Number: 709-SE350-24
  • 1/16" Acrylic Jig - $5 - Purchase when you buy your stencils from OSH stencil
  • Lead Free Low Temperature Solder Paste - $9.99 - Found at Amazon
  • AC Stripped Power Cord -$13.00 - Found at Amazon or Lowes
  • RGB Addressable LEDs - $16.95 - Found at Adafruit

Resources: