Manual AetherII

Lynx Aether II Manual

Thank you for choosing to build the Lynx Aether II. I believe you will be happy with your choice.

WARNING! This Device has been design for personal use as a means of education and entertainment. As such it is not rated, tested, or approved for any use and I assume no responsibility in the use or operation of this equipment or for the accuracy of any information made on part of itself. This device has been design for my use and my use only. This is simply an explanation of how I built my own personal one for informational purposes. I make no warranties written or otherwise to it. It should be considered an experimental device with possible unknown characteristics.

Do not stare at a functional Aether Light as at worst it can hurt your eyes and at the least make you see spots for hours.

Please use static precautions in the handling of these parts. If you are not familiar in them please research on the internet prior to handling them. You can damage you parts with improper handling!

Preparing to Build

The next thing we want is to make sure you are up to speed on soldering and electrostatic protection of the components in your kit. If you are not an experienced printed circuit builder I recommend you visit the site: http://curiousinventor.com/guides/How_To_Solder And check out there extremely good video on soldering correctly. Even if you are an expert it is a good video to watch.

Another issue you must be aware of is that some electronic components can be damaged easily by electrostatic charges that can build up in you or your equipment. We have all been shocked by walking on carpet and grabbing a door knob before. This is electrostatic charge in action. It takes much less than this to hurt some of our parts. If you are unfamiliar with procedures to protect from this please use the internet to research it before opening your parts up. You can damage your parts if handled wrong!

You will need a few tools that do not come with your kit to build the Aether II. You will need a good soldering iron. I can not stress enough that a good soldering iron makes a big difference in these projects. The little 15w cheap irons are more apt to hurt your parts by taking too long to get the parts up to soldering temperature than a good iron which can bring it up to temp very fast. Remember it is more how long you keep the part hot than it is how hot you get it within reasonable soldering temperatures. A good soldering iron can be had for very reasonable amounts of money. You can purchase one for $30 to $60 dollars. Most anything that is called a soldering station where there is a temperature control separate from the iron itself will more than likely be fine but make sure it is rated for more than 15 watts. I myself use a cheap Weller like this one [1]

Another recommended Solder Station is the MPJA 302A is has a digital temperature readout

• http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=15141+TLMPJA Model 302A

It works fine and is very inexpensive. I even saw this model on sale at Sears. Radio shack has a very nice looking digital model on sale but be careful as it does not allow you to replace the tip. Tips are a part that wear out and need replacing from time to time. While we are on tips get some. I recommend you get the smaller chisel shape as this work very well for all around board building.

You need solder so buy some. I recommend the .032 size as the larger sizes tend to cause you to put too much solder on. How much? Go ahead and get a 1 lb spool as it\'s cheaper in large volume and you will go through it faster than you think. Make sure you are getting rosin core for electronics they make some solder for plumbing that has acid as the core this is a bad mistake to make.

You need some work area to work with good lighting. Do not attempt to solder circuit boards in poorly lighted areas. If you wear reading glasses go get them you will want them I promise you. I recommend a set of helping hands like this: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104639&cp=&parentPage=search

Step 1 - Prepare Case

Prepare your case by removing all of the inside parts to get it empty except for the case itself. Then flip it over and after cutting the male rj45 jacks off your pigtails, as close up to the ends as you can so you have as much cable left as possible, open the plastic box by removing the four screws on the cover and remove the cover without damaging the rubber gasket.

Remove the heavy power cable from the light and feed the pigtails and a cable to be used for as your 12v AC source through the same holes. Make sure to slide the nut off the power cord and over your new cables first so you can screw it back on to seal it up.

Step 2 - Bend Voltage Regulators

Find all of the voltage regulators that have three or five legs. Find the one marked LD33V and set it aside we are not going to do anything with it in this step and it should be left alone.

Now you should have a 7812 & 7805 each with three legs and four LM2941\'s with five legs laying in front of you. Take each one and with the metal back laying down against your bench so the part numbers are facing up where you can read them you need to bend their legs using your needle nose and make them point straight up away from the bench.

If you look at the 7805 and 7812 you will see a small area next to the body of the chip that the pins get wider. Bend them right where they get smaller so most of the pin is pointing up. Then stay the same distance and do the same with the LM2941\'s

Then put them away for later.

Step 3 - Drill Template

Using the Template provided as the last page of this manual, lay the template on what will be the back of the heatsink. If you have the heatsink facing the correct way the heatsink will touch the bench only on the narrow edges of the ears of the heatsink and the rest of it will be raised off the bench as shown.

Tape the cutout template on the heatsink as shown.

Now there are three sizes of holes shown on the template. The holes are marked by a crosshair where to drill. The giant circle is where the led sits and has no crosshair. Three small ones center around a large circle, Two Medium size holes at the top right and the large one.

Drill the three small ones with 3/32" bit. Drill the Two medium ones with a 1/4" bit Drill the large hole with a 3/8" bit

Step 4 - Solder small Parts

• Now it is time to assemble the pcb. This is a fairly straight forward build. Each of the parts are marked clearly on the pcb. I recommend you start with the smallest parts and work up to the taller parts.

• First install the fuse and solder it. It looks like the .1 uf capacitors but is longer and a darker green.

• Now install the 8 small .1uf capacitors where marked and flip the pcb over and solder them in place. Next do the same for the 120 ohm resistor and the 4.7K resistor. NOTE: the PCB mistakenly has 4.7 and not 4.7K written on board. 4.7K is correct.

Step 5 - Solder Larger Resistors

• Now install the 2 ohm large resistors in place. There are four of these.

Step 6 - Sockets

• Now install the two Chip sockets, not the chips but just the sockets and solder them in. Be careful as you can bend the legs of the sockets if you are not careful. Make sure they all come out the bottom of the pcb before you start soldering them in place

Step 7 - Rectifier

Now lets install the Rectifier which is the big square black part. Look at it closely it has a marking on it and one corner is cut off a little. Make sure to locate the matching + symbol and put it in, align with the pcbs marking for the same. Doing this wrong will lead to serious issues so double check that the plus on the pcb and part are at the same corner.

Make sure the Rectifier is flush down tight against the pcb before you solder it.

Once this is done you will need to drill a hole in the middle of the heatsink that came with the kit. It is easy to find the middle as it is made with troughs and the middle troughs come together in the middle of the heatsink. Drill a 1/8" holes in it. put some heatsink compound on it if you have it. If not you can get some from Radio Shack. You need this for the led later also so get some if you do not have it.

Set the heatsink on the top of the Rectifier and put your long machine screw through from the top so the head of the bolt lays on the top points of the heat sink. Then flip the pcb over and start your nut on it and tighten it up. Do not over tighten, it should be tight enough that the heatsink cannot turn easy but not tight enough to damage the pcb.

Step 8 - ICSP & 3.3 Voltage Regulator

Install the 6 pin header in place for the ICSP and solder.

Now find the LD33v regulator that I had you put away earlier. This is the one that you did not bend. It will be installed on the top of the pcb with the metal back facing out from the pcb to the side with the wide white line on the silk print of the pcb.

Step 9 - Large Capacitor & Chips

This Capacitor with polarity have a longer lead to show +. Find the longer lead for the 6800uf capacitor and insert it into the + marked on the PCB. Solder it in place.

Insert your chips carefully into their sockets making sure they face the correct direction. The chip notch should face the same way as the notch printed on the pcb.

It should look like below at this point minus the power wires and pigtails being hooked up. And the six regulators on the bottom.

Step 10 - Switches

Now we flip the pcb over and insert the toggle switches into the locations marked. Solder them but make sure they are standing up straight before you do so. Now on each toggle switch there is a nut, a washer and another nut, on the threaded area that will stick through the heatsink. Remove all of this, they will not get used.

Step 11 - Regulators

Now we must install the regulators that go on the bottom.

Stick the pcb in place as shown in the previous picture so the toggle switches stick out the front of the heatsink. The big hole you drilled should line up with the hole in the pcb.

Look at the pcb and find the locations of the 7812 and the 7805. Install them making sure they are in the correct location. Only stick the legs to where they just come out of the pcb on top and then solder them. If you are doing it correctly there will be no need to trim the legs. This should make the pcb fairly level if you have the height correct.

Loosely fit each of the regulators into the back of the board, where the printing shows their placement. Turn over the heatsink, and fit the back of the sink (the outer side of the U-shaped heatsink) over the switches... placing the switches entirely through the holes and against the sink. It MIGHT be necessary to expand the size of the switch holes IF the switches do not fit in place. Turn the board over. Find a spacer or 'rest' for the board to hold it level above the heatsink and even with the distance created by the switch casing. Adjust the height of each of the regulators -- finally soldering them into place so that the board is kept evenly spaced by both the switches and the regulators, and the regulators are evenly resting on the heatsink.

Now with the pcb laid on the heatsink, use a permanent marker and mark the holes in the regulators on the heatsink. This is where you will drill with a 1/8" bit. Once you have this done the short screws and nuts hold the pcb to the heatsink.

Step 12 - LED

Before you attach the pcb lets put our LED on the heatsink. Again using some heatsink compound on the back of the led, place it on the front of the heatsink which is the opposite side from the pcb. Lined up with the three small holes so the notches align with the holes. Then use the small screw to screw the led down making sure to not touch the solder pads of the led and not over tighten the screws. We want it in good contact to get the heat out but not so tight we damage it.

Now with the PCB still off the heatsink, solder eight \~ 20ga wires to the LED connections pads. These should be long enough to fit through the hole out the heatsink and solder to the LED solder pads. The connection \#1 will go to the LED pad marked \#1 and ect but this is only after the PCB is mounted on the heatsink. Because the LED fixture is a big heat sink distributing heat to the larger heat sink, it will be necessary to turn up the temperature of your soldering station.

Step 13 - Attach to case

You can mount the pcb now and hook up the led. You may want to pick up a 3/8 rubber grommet to put into the hole in the Heatsink to protect your wires over time.

Once this is done you sit your heatsink into the case and press it in firmly while drilling 2 holes on the top and two on the bottom to line up with the ears. They should be approximately 5/8" back from the edge as shown below.

You do not want gaps between the plate and the case as this is where your heat gets transferred to the case.

Now remove the unit from the housing just far enough to hook up your two wires from the pigtails (orange & orange and white) and the ac power where they are marked on the pcb.

NOTE: the Cat5 area on the board has 2 holes for orange/white and 2 holes for orange. Each pigtail should be connected such that one orange/white wire (Pin #1) is connected to a orange/white hole, and the orange wire (Pin #2) is connected to a orange hole. Either pigtail can be uses as input or output... using both pigtails allows the Aether to be daisy-chained with other DMX devices.

Put it back in and you should be ready.

If you are using lenses they should be put in with the light tilted back and then the cover closed to hold them. The heatsinks can have some variations on them that may leave too much room on some. If you find this simply put a small amount of clear RTV on the four pegs that stick out from the lenses and hit the glass to make up some distance.

As I said and people joked me about please do not stare at this light when it is on at full. If you read the datasheet for the led used it has a warning that it is too bright for people to do so. The Aethers will cause you to see spots even if your time is short looking at it straight on close up in a darken environment.

RJ

Power

Take note that the Aether II uses 12v AC current, and NOT DC current like LED strings, hubs and many other Lynx devices. You must use a 12v AC transformer. A common solution is to use a separate (or existing) landscaping power supply. Figure about 35 watts per Aether2. Purchase them from your home supply store. An example would be Homedepot Transformer

Program Start Channel

Download and install the Lynx Address Utility from the Wiki NOTE: The Lynx Address Utility is for USB dongle in DMX mode only

1. Power off the AetherII
2. Move both switches towards the LED
3. Power up the AetherII
4. Start Vixen or whatever app you are using to trigger the Aether; make sure you are communicating with the light regardless of what colors it's displaying. Stop whatever sequence is running but you can leave the app up.
5. Start the Lynx Address Utility; update the com port to make sure there are no conflicts
6. Select the start address in the Lynx Address Utility and hit program. The AetherII may turn green..ignore it.
7. Move the program switch (left switch) to "program mode" (towards the case), the LED will begin to flash red.
8. Move the program switch back towards the LED, you should get a single bright pop of white light. If any other result, move the switch back towards the case, wait for the red flash to begin, then repeat.
   Its all a matter of timing for moving the program switch back to run mode. Try to flip it right after the red flash. Repeat as many times as it takes to get the white pop of light...and your DONE.
9. Stop the Lynx Address Utility (if it crashes, thats OK too)
10. Run a test sequence and verify your Aether obeys on the proper channels you selected.

Info

Switch Settings:

Left switch (SW2): Program Switch

Toggled left: Program, Toggled Right: Operate

Right switch (SW1): DMX Termination

Toggled left: Term Off, Toggled Right: Term On

You can download a PDF version of the template from the link below that should print at the correct size, as long as you have scaling turned off when you print. It will print 2 templates per letter size page.

Aether II Template in PDF