[myx_2000]

Hi… It’s me again…
Hey, I have had this on my right speaker in my living room since it returned. This morning I noticed that I had orange for a moment. Going into alignment mode I found that LEDs D46 and D64 are now out or barely lit (it seems to fluctuate). But this seems to be causing double lighting of other blue LEDs. It testing mode the problems only exist in the blue ring. Please advise. Thanks.

[myx_2000]

Got it (mostly ;D) Thanks again. 

[myx_2000]

Wow. Thank you Windell. I received the clock today. Was this something I could see? I am perplexed how this would have happened after it was all put together. I promise, I really did look all over to find the issue. Hopefully this did not take you long to fix. 

So one LED was enough to goof all that up? So, the charlieplexing can be a blessing and a curse all at the same time. But none the less thank you. It is SO cool. 

[myx_2000]

Right. Sorry. Message sent.

[myx_2000]

Hey Windell,

Sorry, I have been crazy busy with work again. I finally got a little time today so I replaced D21 like you recommended. I have the same result. D21 does not light and I still have several sets of lights that light simultaneously. So, I need to ask for further help. Thanks.

[myx_2000]

Good idea for the hole, but I am in love with this massive array of LEDs. Also if someone asks how it works, the clear is ideal for this. But I won’t worry about this for now. I still have an extra LED from the build. I don’t mind replacing it. If it is still goofed, then I could send it to you. Or are you interested in why it is goofed at this point? I won’t mess with it until I hear either way. Thanks.

[myx_2000]

Sorry, work kicked in and I haven’t had a chance to work on this more until tonight. 

The flipping and flopping was referring to trying to follow the traces above and below to figure our what goes to what. 

The reflowing was done quickly. Sorry. Won’t happen again. ;0) My thinking was that in running through all the points, if there was a short, blob, stray wire, unsoldered joint connection… I would see it. 

LED1 to LED 2 shows 690ish OHMs.

Just out of curiosity I checked between all the LED lines (not D14, D24, D34 etc, but LED1-LED10) and there is quite a variety here. There are some that show OL, several that read between 30k-50k and LED1-LED2 being the lowest at 600-700, but I am just shooting in the dark. Windell, I want to troubleshoot this thing and not waste your time, but charlieplexing is always a mess when it goes south. But, just being honest, I do not have a clue where to begin on this one.

I am also questioning myself here. I would have swore that this was working properly when I was done because there is an entirely different look when one LED per color is on vs. multiple LEDs on. But… Aside from ooohing and ahhhhing at it, it was just sitting there. So, I do not know what the heck happened. 

Once I get this finished and working again, is it possible to get a clear front plate cut without the circle hole in the center? I am noticing that dust is getting in there and I want to seal it up as much as possible. I am looking very seriously at the rear projection clock face so the absence of a hole will not detract. If this is possible, what would the cost be? 

Thanks

Mike

[myx_2000]

BTW I have been metering places where I can figure out where the traces go, but there is a lot of flipping and flopping here. I did meter all the vertical 0 ohm lines and they all seem fine.
Also while reflowing everything, I checked for miscellaneous blobs, wire, chunks -o- matter and can not find anything out of the normal.

[myx_2000]

Hey Windell,

Ok, I spent the last hour reflowing all the solder points. While it solved the red lights coming on with the blue.

But it seems that it made matters worse for the blues. There are many more blues on at the same time and they also space out like the greens are. Now D21 is nothing but very dim. No flickering. I thought it might be that it was reversed or something, but the LED innards are all identical all the way around the clock. I checked this for all three rings. Blue and Green and all the same. Red runs the opposite direction even though the polarity stays the same. I checked my cell pix that I took during the build (I was posting them to Facebook). I checked to verify that the leads were in the proper way. Anyone who says that high megapixel count is not important on cellphones can suck eggs. It is these details that keep me from pealing the paint from the walls in when troubleshooting this kind stuff. 

Sorry getting off topic. Since this is not clearing up easily, I will start to document which specific components are giving me headaches. Also, if I were to record a small video and post it up on YouTube, would that be helpful at all?

[myx_2000]

Good point. I meant the actual physical bulb, not the projection bulb. After I posted I realized that being that there are 30 LEDs, that my 10:30 example didn’t really work either. But the approximate position.I have done a visual inspection of the boards and everything looks good, so I will re flow the boards a ring at a time starting with the blue and hitting the resistors first and testing in between steps. Do to a mis following of instructions, I had not read not to snip the vertical resistor leads on the green board. Having been in bass snipping mode due to all the LEDs, I snipped them. After realizing my mistake, when I got the red ring in place I used several snipped LED leads to bridge between the green and red boards. Those were the first things I went after to test as I suspected a bad connection.

Actually I am curious why you chose to use 0 Ohm resistors instead of a wire jumper both on the board and between layers. It is not at all a criticism, just curious from a design standpoint. I am in the middle of a personal board design and I am always interested what brought someone to a decision point.

Thanks Windell

[myx_2000]

After submitting this, my wife was asking what was wrong. As I was showing her, I noticed that it was different combinations that were goofed up. LEDs I just stated as being out (blue 12 straight up) now light and others are mis grouped. It is like a charlieplex mismatch or something. 

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