Led Flashy Thing

[expanda]

OK, so its not really expanda related but the lights go on my expanda so here goes!

I bough a set of cheap solar powered flashing led xmas lights from china.

Lights got here fine, solar powered them up and they lasted 2 hours.

Contacted the seller and said it was no good, they advised to charger them with a power point adaptor and it was just a DC connection.

So fine, hooked up a 12volt dc connection with low amperage and the circuit fried!

So bugger it, ripped the wires out of the solar box that got direct to the leds and hooked them up to a 12 volt dimmer and they work fine! :dance:

Doesn't really bother me as I have a 240 volt adaptor that outputs 12 volt dc that powers some led bars in the awning and I am going to plug these in for XMAS.

But no FLASHING anymore, so after the long story does any know of light box / circuit technical name so I can search on ebay that is 12 volt and will make the lights flash?

 

[expanda]

Okay scratch that I found the technical name and its "555 Timer" which looks like what the leds where wired into but there was a diode overheating under 12 volt so I am guessing its cheap crap.

So looking for a 555 Timer kit for 12 volt or I will just keep my XMAS lights on and not have them flashing!

Or I could use a 12 volt indicator thingy and wire that into the circuit...

 

[Xpandafan]

Pity we didn't have a big Lotto win amongst us. Could have hired someone to flick switch on and off.
The 555 timer chip was around when I first got a soldering iron. A visit to Jaycar or similar might shed some light on the subject.

 

[Brad]

Expanda, you haven't thought of buying another cheap set of lights that come with a flashing thingy? I am sure I have seen lights at the $2 shop. Not sure about 12volt side of things though....

 

[boots33]

Okay scratch that I found the technical name and its "555 Timer" which looks like what the leds where wired into but there was a diode overheating under 12 volt so I am guessing its cheap crap.

So looking for a 555 Timer kit for 12 volt or I will just keep my XMAS lights on and not have them flashing!

Or I could use a 12 volt indicator thingy and wire that into the circuit...

Wow 555 those were the days.... I wish i had 10 cents for every 555 sold in the last 40 odd years then i could employ someone to switch the lights on and off

You could also look at some of the beginner micro-controllers like the picaxe if you want easy control of your lights on off times. The 12v auto flasher is probably the easiest way to go, make sure you get one suitable for leds. One like this should do the trick.
Just a bit off topic but while we are talking tech is anyone else out there playing around with a raspberry pi. I have one running Xbox media centre (XBMC) for streaming audio visual content. I have noticed a few people in 5th wheelers are using them now. overkill for us panda types i guess but worth a look none the less.

 

[ElectricGuru]

Just a bit off topic but while we are talking tech is anyone else out there playing around with a raspberry pi. I have one running Xbox media centre (XBMC) for streaming audio visual content. I have noticed a few people in 5th wheelers are using them now. overkill for us panda types i guess but worth a look none the less.

Yes mate, looking at it. Haven't got one yet but someone I know has. He says they are really powerful for something so small and the plug-is ability is really special.

Will get some more info and get back to you...

Cheers.

 

[expanda]

Pity we didn't have a big Lotto win amongst us. Could have hired someone to flick switch on and off.
The 555 timer chip was around when I first got a soldering iron. A visit to Jaycar or similar might shed some light on the subject.

Cheers for the info!!!

Maybe I could rope the kids into flicking the switch on and off for a week or so for a new video game !

Expanda, you haven't thought of buying another cheap set of lights that come with a flashing thingy? I am sure I have seen lights at the $2 shop. Not sure about 12volt side of things though....

Yep I can get them of ebay from china for $5 but may go to the two dollar shop and get some more leds made for 12 volt and piggy back these into it.

Can never have enough flashing lights at XMAS time around the campsite!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-12V-2...=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43b5b6bb44

Wow 555 those were the days.... I wish i had 10 cents for every 555 sold in the last 40 odd years then i could employ someone to switch the lights on and off

You could also look at some of the beginner micro-controllers like the picaxe if you want easy control of your lights on off times. The 12v auto flasher is probably the easiest way to go, make sure you get one suitable for leds. One like this should do the trick.
Just a bit off topic but while we are talking tech is anyone else out there playing around with a raspberry pi. I have one running Xbox media centre (XBMC) for streaming audio visual content. I have noticed a few people in 5th wheelers are using them now. overkill for us panda types i guess but worth a look none the less.

I have one of these running Windows 7, with XBMC in the van which is also runing a host of applications whilst on the road with 6TB's of storage but need to get a smaller unit shortly so the raspberyy has been very appealing.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php...d&gclid=CPzdzM7nx7MCFcoipQodlCsAFw#googlebase

I have 4 of the aboves in the house and they all share an XBMC library and I do a dump weekly in the summmer to the van from the home server of unwatched items to the 6TB's in the van so when we go away for the weekend we get exactly the content we would at home and I do a reverse transfer when home as the kids camers, tablets etc are backed up to the server when we are away.

Have you got any pictures of your raspberrry and are you watching HD content 720p / 1080p or SD?

And did you do the install of XBMC on the SD card or how did you do it?

Cheers!

 

[expanda]

I also found this today on ebay -

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-In-...34843?pt=AU_Lighting_Fans&hash=item20cbae0cbb

Will order one of these and put a DC connector on the end so it will plug into my existing lighting.

Will just run some large shrink over it to water proof it!

 

[boots33]

I have 4 of the aboves in the house and they all share an XBMC library and I do a dump weekly in the summmer to the van from the home server of unwatched items to the 6TB's in the van so when we go away for the weekend we get exactly the content we would at home and I do a reverse transfer when home as the kids camers, tablets etc are backed up to the server when we are away.

Have you got any pictures of your raspberrry and are you watching HD content 720p / 1080p or SD?

And did you do the install of XBMC on the SD card or how did you do it?

Cheers!

Wow plenty of puter power and storage at your place ! I have long been a tinkerer when it
comes to computers and electronics I find it a fascinating and at times very challenging
hobby.
I have a full size server cabinet in the garage where most of the hardware is mounted
this includes a Synology NAS, a dual tuner Hdhomerun and a quad core pc running as a
server. Before I got the raspberry (RPI) i was running an old dual core celeron as my home
theatre pc with XBMC as the front end.
I have only had the RPI a couple of weeks so really still just playing with it as time permits.It has all started on a positive note as the wife was glad to see the htpc (lovingly referred to as "that hideous thing") replaced in the tv room by a device that fits in the palm of your hand.
I haven't streamed 1080 content but have played 720 without problem. I have read on some rpi forums that it struggles with DTS sound and some people have had trouble streaming HD. the Hd streaming problem seems to arise with those using samba as their network protocol as it apparently has a fairly high
overhead, the solution that most recommend is to use NFS instead. The other thing that may be
an issue is that it does not support hardware mpeg-2 decoding out of the box but you can
unlock this feature by purchasing a licence for a few dollars.
There are a few ways to get xbmc onto the rpi, I chose the easy way and went with one of the self installing xbmc editions available . I went with Raspbmc as it has a windows installer that makes it very
simple. It is installed on the sd card and the xbmc interface is very responsive. will take a few pics when i get a chance.

Shane.

 

[expanda]

Wow plenty of puter power and storage at your place ! I have long been a tinkerer when it
comes to computers and electronics I find it a fascinating and at times very challenging
hobby.
I have a full size server cabinet in the garage where most of the hardware is mounted
this includes a Synology NAS, a dual tuner Hdhomerun and a quad core pc running as a
server. Before I got the raspberry (RPI) i was running an old dual core celeron as my home
theatre pc with XBMC as the front end.
I have only had the RPI a couple of weeks so really still just playing with it as time permits.It has all started on a positive note as the wife was glad to see the htpc (lovingly referred to as "that hideous thing") replaced in the tv room by a device that fits in the palm of your hand.
I haven't streamed 1080 content but have played 720 without problem. I have read on some rpi forums that it struggles with DTS sound and some people have had trouble streaming HD. the Hd streaming problem seems to arise with those using samba as their network protocol as it apparently has a fairly high
overhead, the solution that most recommend is to use NFS instead. The other thing that may be
an issue is that it does not support hardware mpeg-2 decoding out of the box but you can
unlock this feature by purchasing a licence for a few dollars.
There are a few ways to get xbmc onto the rpi, I chose the easy way and went with one of the self installing xbmc editions available . I went with Raspbmc as it has a windows installer that makes it very
simple. It is installed on the sd card and the xbmc interface is very responsive. will take a few pics when i get a chance.

Shane.

hehehe just a tad bit of computing power...

I am also running Unraid for the NAS which houses all the media that XBMC's stream from and a centos box which houses the backups of the website and is a replication server for expandadownunder that houses backups / sql / etc.

I have been reading up on the Raspberry and as most of content is in 1080p I will probably stick with the HTPC but build one into a mini itx setup next year like this -

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-ZOTA...top&hash=item3f1a58a90b&_uhb=1#ht_5081wt_1165

Back onto the led thingy !!!

I found this -

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/20079778...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_2056wt_1165

The LED's have three colours Red, Green and Blue so there is three wires and one is negative.

I am going to solder all three wires to the positive side on one end of a 2.5 metres dc extension lead and the other wire to the negative side.

Hopefully running all three colours from the one unit should be ok but I just want to have one controller for all three lights as they are now.