DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx Aether => Topic started by: duane.mosley on November 11, 2014,
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so I just now got around to building my 3rd aether 2 and the red led is not very bright. green, blue and white all work great and it is responding just fine to my sequence, but real weak red. sucks after all the work that goes into an aether and for it to not work properly. my first two work just fine. these are from last years coop.
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I would take a second look at the connections to the red LED and its controller. That sounds like a bad connection.
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reflowed all solder joints. to clarify, the red led is actually flickering. I go into vixen and turn on that channel for the red led and it flickers with a pop of blue or a pop of green every now and then.
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Make sure you do no have a solder bridge. The flash of blue and green makes me think this. also flash the pic again and leave the addressing alone do try to change it. It should be Ch1 . Then check it to see if it functions correctly. If not flash it with the test firmware to see if it cycles the colors correctly.
RJ
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Make sure you do no have a solder bridge. The flash of blue and green makes me think this. also flash the pic again and leave the addressing alone do try to change it. It should be Ch1 . Then check it to see if it functions correctly. If not flash it with the test firmware to see if it cycles the colors correctly.
RJ
pulled everything apart and double checked all solder joints and they are good. there are no solder bridges any where. reflashed pic with test firmware and everything cycles fine but very dim red. there is no flickering this time and for a couple of minutes now, there has been no flash of any other colors. no issues with start channel or communication with software. the red comes on when it's supposed to as do the other colors, it's just that red is real dim. I am ordering a list of stuff from mouser today so i will know soon enough. those led's aren't cheap that's for sure, no wonder these little units cost so much.
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I don't have an Aether 2; I am going by the pictures in the wiki... Try removing the PIC and connecting (with jumper wires) pins 6 (red), 7 (green), 11 (blue), and 14 (white) to ground (pin 8 or 27). This should turn on all of the colors. Tie one to ground and the other three to 3.3v (pin 13 or 28) to turn them on one at a time.
/mike
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what are the chances that this could be an led issue? I have changed the regulator for red, changed pic with a new one, reflashed start channel 1 from default, swapped the 485 chip. still have the same issue. light works fine and responds to all commands and all colors when supposed to, but still a dim red led. I hate to swap led's and it not be the issue. my meter isn't cooperating so I have to go buy a new one tomorrow to test the 2 ohm resistor.
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Not sure if you can do this but what if you switch the leads from the LED unit to make the Red a working bright one - Green or Blue - this would tell you the LED unit is working or not.
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If you find out the LED is indeed bad, if you send it to me, I can see if Mouser will exchange it since I just ordered a batch. One thing to look at, there are some small black dots on top of the LED. Make sure those didn't get knocked off or hit by your iron. I think they are capacitors or resistors and damaging one of those could mess up the LED.
Thanks,
Keith
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If you find out the LED is indeed bad, if you send it to me, I can see if Mouser will exchange it since I just ordered a batch. One thing to look at, there are some small black dots on top of the LED. Make sure those didn't get knocked off or hit by your iron. I think they are capacitors or resistors and damaging one of those could mess up the LED.
Thanks,
Keith
not the led but what is the chance you have extra 2 ohm resistors? looks like mouser only sells in bulk of 100? could be wrong but that's what it looks like in the mouser direct link. says find alternative.
Not sure if you can do this but what if you switch the leads from the LED unit to make the Red a working bright one - Green or Blue - this would tell you the LED unit is working or not.
thanks. it wasn't the led, I finally had some time and did some research threw mouser and found out which pad controlled which color. I took a jumper from green and touched to red pad and the led lit up full bright red. family functions yesterday and a very productive day in the yard putting stuff out today didn't allow me to go and get a new multi meter to test the 2 ohm resistor. it's the only thing left that I can think of that is isolated to the red output. unless there is something I am missing of course. trial and error is all I know.
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not the led but what is the chance you have extra 2 ohm resistors? looks like mouser only sells in bulk of 100? could be wrong but that's what it looks like in the mouser direct link. says find alternative.
I actually do have a couple of extra resistors. Let me know if you need me to send you one.
-Keith
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not the resistor. things I have done so far.
1. take jumper from green led pad and red led lights up bright so it's not the led
2. new pic from the package same day it was delivered from mouser
3. swapped 485 chip with known working chip.
4. reflowed all solder joints and verified that there are no solder bridges.
5. swapped 2 ohm resistor from green location
6. swapped power regulator controlling red
not sure what else to check. takes 3 aethers to light the front of my house and I only have 2 working units. guess I will try the for sale section and see if anyone might come off of one.
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I'm about 50 miles from you in Madison, IN. Would be willing to take a look if you think a fresh set of eyes will help.
-Keith
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I'm about 50 miles from you in Madison, IN. Would be willing to take a look if you think a fresh set of eyes will help.
-Keith
I appreciate that Keith, i might take you up on that. i know how busy we all are right now trying to get things together. would probably be this weekend if i don't have it figured out by then.
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I'm about 50 miles from you in Madison, IN. Would be willing to take a look if you think a fresh set of eyes will help.
-Keith
I appreciate that Keith, i might take you up on that. i know how busy we all are right now trying to get things together. would probably be this weekend if i don't have it figured out by then.
I believe I'll be here all weekend. I'll send you a PM with my phone number.
-Keith
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thanks Keith