Main > Main Forum

Easy Led Buttons

Pages: << < (7/12) > >>

rlehm:


--- Quote from: bfauska on August 01, 2007, 02:32:29 am ---Which buttons are you referring to that will be much cheaper that won't also be more work?

NovaGem + 5v = lit button.
LedWiz + 5v(if lighting more than 5 buttons) + USB + NovaGem = controllable lit button.

Cheaper button + drill + LED + resistor + solder + wire + 5v = lit button


While not being the cheapest option for illuminated concave pushbuttons, the NovaGems look good to me.  Using other sources you could save less than maybe $2.50 a button if you were willing to shop several sources, cut and strip wires, drill holes, solder resistors and wires, and cover the resulting product w/ heat-shrink tube.  And even after all that work you would probably end up with a product that doesn't glow as evenly or as brightly.

--- End quote ---


My point was simply, if it aint plug and play, it wasn't worth 332.00 when I could have paid half, and done a little more work. Simple as that.

rlehm:


--- Quote from: Green Giant on August 01, 2007, 02:54:13 am ---

Connecting 5V to a computer power supply or external supply is much more complicated as you will have to regulate the power with resistors so you don't blow the diode.

--- End quote ---

Well, that would explain my last failed attempt. I cut the red and black dvd wires inside my computer, powered up the novagems that way, 3 dead at start up, while checking the wiring of them, more began to fail. Guess I needed resistors.

I did email RandyT before receiving these. Told him in an email that I read the instructions on his website and did not understand them. He replied that I need wait for the buttons to be infront of me before he'd help, as then it would make more sense. I mailed saying I had them, 2 days later and after 3 emails, I started posting here. I too am sorry this landed here, but hey, he was checking this place, and not his email.



--- Quote from: Green Giant on August 01, 2007, 02:54:13 am ---You should have said "you still need to hack your computer for 5V and thats it."  Really, if you supply the 5V from your computer, using some really simple extension plugs, all you do is plug and play.

Connecting 5V to a computer power supply or external supply is much more complicated as you will have to regulate the power with resistors so you don't blow the diode.

--- End quote ---

Doesn't what you say conflict?

You say, just hook it to a computer with extensions, and plug and play,
then you say it is much more complicated and you can't just hook it to a power supply without a resistor. it is this kind of conflicting advice that leaves me thinking wtf.... this type of confusing advice got me into this mess..



TOK:


--- Quote from: bfauska on August 01, 2007, 02:32:29 am ---Which buttons are you referring to that will be much cheaper that won't also be more work?

NovaGem + 5v = lit button.
LedWiz + 5v(if lighting more than 5 buttons) + USB + NovaGem = controllable lit button.

Cheaper button + drill + LED + resistor + solder + wire + 5v = lit button


While not being the cheapest option for illuminated concave pushbuttons, the NovaGems look good to me.  Using other sources you could save less than maybe $2.50 a button if you were willing to shop several sources, cut and strip wires, drill holes, solder resistors and wires, and cover the resulting product w/ heat-shrink tube.  And even after all that work you would probably end up with a product that doesn't glow as evenly or as brightly.

--- End quote ---

The 12v automotive option I showed is bright and evenly lit. They are bright enough that the buttons light reflects off the ceiling in the dark. I wouldn't want 7 flashlights blasting me in the face, so any brighter would be silly. Drilling takes all of 5 seconds, no resistors.

My whole lit build was around 40 bucks, and that is with spare LED's since I did different colors and they came in a 3 pack.

Green Giant:


--- Quote from: rlehm on August 01, 2007, 05:33:37 am ---
--- Quote from: Green Giant on August 01, 2007, 02:54:13 am ---

Connecting 5V to a computer power supply or external supply is much more complicated as you will have to regulate the power with resistors so you don't blow the diode.

--- End quote ---

Well, that would explain my last failed attempt. I cut the red and black dvd wires inside my computer, powered up the novagems that way, 3 dead at start up, while checking the wiring of them, more began to fail. Guess I needed resistors.

I did email RandyT before receiving these. Told him in an email that I read the instructions on his website and did not understand them. He replied that I need wait for the buttons to be infront of me before he'd help, as then it would make more sense. I mailed saying I had them, 2 days later and after 3 emails, I started posting here. I too am sorry this landed here, but hey, he was checking this place, and not his email.



--- Quote from: Green Giant on August 01, 2007, 02:54:13 am ---You should have said "you still need to hack your computer for 5V and thats it."  Really, if you supply the 5V from your computer, using some really simple extension plugs, all you do is plug and play.

Connecting 5V to a computer power supply or external supply is much more complicated as you will have to regulate the power with resistors so you don't blow the diode.

--- End quote ---

Doesn't what you say conflict?

You say, just hook it to a computer with extensions, and plug and play,
then you say it is much more complicated and you can't just hook it to a power supply without a resistor. it is this kind of conflicting advice that leaves me thinking wtf.... this type of confusing advice got me into this mess..



--- End quote ---

I thought the space inbetween the paragraphs meant they were two separate thoughts.

The extension I refer to is just an easy way to hack up your computer power supply to get 5V out.  Then you run this into the ledwiz.

Then the space inbetween those paragraphs was refering to your idea.  You mentioned using your own led's and an external power supply.  Either way you do it, you would have to find the correct balance of resistors to leds to make sure you don't blow them.  The resistor cuts some of the voltage sent to the led.  This voltage drop determines how bright it will be.  The ledwiz can control the intensity of the led's automatically.  Otherwise you will be stuck with one brightness on them or have to wire in a potentiometer on every led.

The first thing I said is the easy way, at least it seems much easier to me.  The second is the hard way. 
The option from TOK sounds good and cheap, but it requires more soldering and work than the nova gems you already have.  But if you are really dead set on not using your ledwiz, there are a ton of people on here that would snatch it up for a reduced price.

The extension cable is the one shown below.  To get 5V, you cut it in half, tape up the yellow and black wires so they don't short, attach a long wire to the red and another to the black.  Wire the red, 5V line, to the ledwiz as seen on the diagram.  Attach the black, ground, to the ledwiz ground.  Now you have power for all the nova gems.

mcfreak:


--- Quote from: RandyT on August 01, 2007, 02:27:17 am ---
--- Quote from: rlehm on August 01, 2007, 12:53:46 am ---How. How are these to be hooked up. And please leave out the LED-Wiz, I am not going to use it. I keep hearing what not to do, but what am I to do?

--- End quote ---

First of all, I want to apologize to all who are reading this for the destruction of this thread with a GGG support issue.  In an attempt at atonement, I'll provide some food for thought relative to the topic while answering the above question.

While lighting projects are fun and not terribly complicated, I cannot stress enough that they require some basic electronics skills.  They are not the same as wiring up a KeyWiz or other input only device. 

The abilities one should at minimum possess :


* read and understand instructions
* use and understand a multi-meter
* read simple wiring diagrams
* understand the power requirements of a device / devices
* understand the power delivery capabilities of a given power supply
* safe and neat wiring practices.
* patience.
Even something as simple as connecting 12v LEDs to a PC power supply needs to have the quantity of the LEDs, the power requirements of those LEDs and the power delivery capabilities of the supply taken into consideration.  If you have a huge power supply with very few devices / drives attached and are connecting only a few LEDs, then this becomes less important.  But connecting 20 NovaGems to a power supply will draw approx. 2 amps of current!  You must know that you have this available and that your wiring methods can support it, or you risk a lot of problems.  This is not the type of project where one can just "wing it" and everything will be fine.  A case in point is where one fairly well-known panel manufacturer caused a whole panel full of RGB-Drives to be destroyed through a wiring error.  We did what we could to ease the burden on the very distraught customer, but it illustrates the fact that not even those who often build control panels are fully up to speed with some of the work required.

So, the simple answer to "How do I light a NovaGem without an LED-Wiz" is that the Cathode side (the side with the heat shrink covered resistor that would normally go to the output of the LED-Wiz) goes to Ground.  The other side (Anode) goes to a well-regulated 5v DC power supply, such as the one in your PC.  With this information, one must then consider the number of NovaGems to be connected, the best and safest method of making those connections (jumpered euro-style terminal blocks in many cases) and whether the power supply has enough 5v DC current left to drive that quantity of devices after the motherboard, video card, processor, USB Devices, Hard Drives, DVD Burner, etc. are considered.

In conclusion, this is not a project to fear as some fantastic looking panels with enhanced functionality will result when done properly (as we continually see.)  But no-one should think for one moment that  any method of lighting a panel is just going to be "plug and play" with no knowledge or ability required from the user.  This is specialized fabrication, no different than what kiosk manufacturers do.  It stands to reason that some skills will be required.

RandyT

--- End quote ---

Randy,
I have to commend you for being so level headed about this.  There are threads in the past where your products were attacked and it ended up being a huge battle.  I love my GGG products and would only shop with you (And tornado terry's  ;) ).  This response makes me want to go replace all my buttons with NovaGems...  :cheers: :applaud:

Pages: << < (7/12) > >>

Go to full version