DiyLightAnimation
Store => Current Coop's => Topic started by: BryanV on December 18, 2016,
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Just wondering if there will be a express co-op this year
I have a few controller issues and could use a few spares.
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Let me dig in the garage, I think I have some spare unassembled kits.
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I think the soonest we will see an actual coop for the express is next year and that is only if the coop manager or RJ can figure out a new vendor for the heat sync which is where the coop fell apart this year if I remember correctly.
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It's not just the heat sink. The multiplexer chip has also reached EOL and the only compatible one found so far appears to be a SMD chip.
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Is this SMD a QFP? Is it a very fine pitch on the lead spacing?
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Either way, they are not thru hole and many members had issues using them in the original Aether and those were larger chips.
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By multiplexer are you referring to the LED Display drivers or a different part? Just trying to make sure I am keeping things straight in my own head. I know mouser has everything on the BOM except the display driver.
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Yes, the display driver.
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I guess the driver is a problem. I put in a couple queries, but I doubt chip procurement places will help look for onesy/twosy quantities.
Regarding the heat sink, I bought an LE from someone here awhile back who rolled up some metal flashing and drilled the holes manually to use as a heat sink. I have not had any blown triacs on that board after ~3 years of my use.
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Ugh, yeah chip finders want $40-50 each for that display driver (I had no idea it would be that kind of markup).
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I know that Robert has pre-soldered chips on the board in coops before (Ether-dongle). Would this be another candidate? If anything we could have Robert charge us a "pick-and-place fee", to get the SMD chip pre-installed. That would also mean a change to the board to accomidate the footprint for the SMD. Although, I will leave that up to Robert if he wants to go that route.
I wonder if an SMD Express could be around the corner using 1206 components (Large SMD size)? .........Perhaps not.
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Looks like another case of companies driving up costs and keeping the little guy out of the equation. Without specialty tools and expensive equipment you cannot build things yourself you have to buy. Sad.
Mike.
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In this case, it's not so much a case of just driving up costs, the chip has reached EOL and is no longer in production so as demand continues and the stock diminishes, the price goes up.
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Sad to say, but other than the satisfaction of DIY, it almost doesn't make any sense to try and build LEs anymore. By the time you factor in all the hassles of procuring thru hole parts that are becoming obsolete by the day, the costs, coop shipping, cases, cords, etc. The $179 ready to go Express from Minleon doesn't look so bad. http://www.minleonusa.com/express-controller.html
Just my two cents...
Mike E.
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HOLY COW!!!
Is that a cloned Lynx Express board, but in SMD!?!
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If I remember right RJ actually designed The Minion Express for commercial production. Here is the original post about it from 2013. http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=12485.0 (http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=12485.0)
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I started out last April or May needing 20 LE kits. Kept trying to pester the Coop to get the design issue worked out, or look for aftermarket parts. Certainly they are out there. By October I was able to find all I needed, plus a couple spares.
I have a Minleon and it works exactly the same. The Minleon is a little more compact and it has an external power switch on the custom case. But I really never found a use for that power switch. I'm not going to walk around and manually turn them all off. Minleon does not support wireless, but I don't use that feature.
As for the future growth, I'd rather build two LE kits for the price of one Minleon.
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Is maybe the renard lune of dmx to ac lights an option? I have never used them but dave pitts has. He said they worked fine. I think they come in 16,32,48 and 96 output flavors
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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You have to be careful with the Renard boards. I've had problems with them in the past, flickers and ghosting to name some.
I have soldered a couple of those cheap SMD kits on eBay. I would definitely recommend it to people to help them get up to speed with soldering. We could have the board retain all the regular through hole components and then just have that one SMD driver chip to worry about.
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Ditto. I've had lots of problems with Renard 24 SS controllers in DMX mode. YUK ! My friend William Bottomley sold over 40 LOR and replaced them all with Lynx Express. He loves them! I am doing the same.
These are nice simple controllers. Their firmware has been solid for years. ...the way to go for AC lights. I have not tried other stuff here because I use Sandevices and Falcon. But that's the beauty of DLA .. Their products integrate well with most anything.
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If nothing else, a PCB coop would be great. These are a really reliable AC 16ch controller, better than the LOR PC16 IMHO ... and 1/2 the price ... and DMX wireless capable.
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I sadly would not count on any future LE coops since they would require a re-design and I really doubt that RJ is going to do that now. Especially with everyone going head over heals with pixels and RGB nodes, the demand for AC controllers has dropped significantly and even reaching the minimum order quantity may prove to be difficult. If you want an LE, I would snap them up now from others moving from AC to RGB while the availability is still pretty good because like most things in life, that will not last forever.
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I am staying with a mixture of DMX and RGB and buy Expresses here when they come available. They do come for sale fairly often and I have never had a failure out of 14 controllers.
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I originally had 2 Renard SS24 as my first display controllers but had bad flickering that I could not resolve.
I moved to Lynx Express and they have been rock solid with zero problems. The last few years I have run 18 Expresses with wireless DMX.
I am switching to almost entirely pixels next year so I have 14 for sale (keeping 5 for myself)
I have for sale 14 assembled Lynx Express v5.0 in cases with cords and also 10 EX/RX wireless DMX adapters in case anyone is interested you could make me an offer.
I would be willing to pull them out of the cases to make shipping more reasonable.
http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=15668.0 (http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=15668.0)
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Whenever I see the comparison between pixels and single color strands I always get angry.
Maybe from a financial perspective pixels cost less, etc.
But from an artistic standpoint, and I am not that artistic:), there is a place for both. I have about 60000 mini-led 110v strands in my yard for specific elements, and the rest I am trying to do with pixels. The right tool for the right location. I never see my yard being all pixels.
There is still a need for standard old DMX type 110v controllers. Maybe Minleon will be the option, maybe something else. There will also be a need for pixels.
Hopefully we will still see coops for wireless dmx, since minleon doesn't support we will need external boxes. Dongles, etc.
Just my .02
MIke
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Wow... Too bad they did not enhance it with fuses on the 16 leads.
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Wow... Too bad they did not enhance it with fuses on the 16 leads.
Curious why you think you need a fuse on each of the outputs? ???
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Because excess current draw due to a short can damage the TRIAC which can be difficult to replace.
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Agreed. It's really the main feature I see lacking in the LE. Actually, I do rather wish the LE had an external switch. It would come in handy for hard resetting the unit in cases where I have more than one device in the enclosure.