I built 4 of my 6 Aethers. WOW. For my needs they are absolutely perfect. Better than even I dreamed of. They cover the whole wall. Nice even color, no spots. RJ, thank you. You out did yourself this time. And to Bill, I cannot thank you enough for running this coop. I cannot imagine what it took to count all those little parts that I can hardly see.
Glad they are going to work for you.
For me doing the surface mount part was much easier than I expected. Just don't drink too much coffee before you start. My biggest problem was doing the hand soldering on the back side without the solder mask. A little more room next time would be nice, if that could be done. Luckily there are only a few parts to solder that way.
This design was part about building a Flood light I was proud to put in my display, and part about seeing how our members would take to surface mount. I glad to hear I have at least one that felt it was not a problem.
The spacing was normal but in retrospect with the lack of soldermask I agree and from previous comment, did increase the clearence on the back in the layout for the future (If we ever get anyone else to do a coop of them) I am also looking into something we used in avoinics on some boards, called peelable mask. This would let you have soldermask and then remove it when done soldering so the heat can transfer well. Some increase in pcb cost will be the downside to it.
Again Great job RJ, outstanding design, great coop. I thank you ALL for your sacrifices to make MY Christmas display a little better this year.
Thanks for even thinking about it. You do not know what that means. This time of year most of all, as it get crazy and I am afraid some not in a good way. It is a fact that no matter what you do you will always have a small percentage of people that did not like it. I get pms regularly complianing that "You are not doing a coop RIGHT NOW for XXX and if I need it you know others need it also and why are you not doing it. along with "You should be doing xyz and xyz" and "this design should have had this" and "this one should not of been that way...." so to get a post that just says "WOW. For my needs they are absolutely perfect. Better than even I dreamed of" is a christmas gift as good as I could of every asked for. Thanks
PS: The coop should include sun glasses for safety
You know people that have not played with one will read this and believe you are joking. But I want to call your attention to that he has no smiley behind this comment. Please be careful as these things are way beyond safe to stare at in close range and dark conditions.
Once you do it even by accident for a brief glance you will see dots for a while. This is a indication you are abusing your eyes so be safe.
So to the chase, when I was developing them as you can imagine I was on the bench a lot more than a builder should be. Because of this and that I had got nailed with it a couple of times I started wearing my sunglasses at the workbench when I would turn it on. True story.
RJ