PASSIVE RELAY-BASED CONTROLL ROOM KITS BUILD/SUPPORT TREAD

[Siegfried Meier]

Do I jumper anything on the reset switch if I'm not using it?  Or just leave it?

Thanks!
Sig

 

[Siegfried Meier]

Also on the Photo resistor - jumper it?  Igor also said to leave one of the resistors out, does this still mean to jumper it?  I can't see that leaving it out and doing nothing will complete the circuit and allow this thing to work...

Thanks!
Sig

 

[rob_gould]

Also on the Photo resistor - jumper it?  Igor also said to leave one of the resistors out, does this still mean to jumper it?  I can't see that leaving it out and doing nothing will complete the circuit and allow this thing to work...

Thanks!
Sig

I left the reset switch out altogether - it's not necessary to jumper the switch location for normal operation.

Also there's some discussion earlier in the thread about the best value for the photoresistor.  I don't think you should use a jumper, but I can't remember the value I used I'm afraid.

 

[tomcat]

If you like to get a permanent reset .. lets go and jumper it  ;D

No seriously, no jumper for reset button and no for photoresistor. There is another resistor which you have to change to another value if you use a photoresistor. Like said before, everything you can find if you read some pages back  :

 

[Siegfried Meier]

Awesome, ya I have the info for R20, I just didn't know about leaving the other pads for the reset and photo resistor open like that, felt weird to leave components out and not jumper, as if the circuit wouldn't be complete.

As far as PSU's go, I know some were mentioned a while back too, but I wondered if anything in the US/Canada was available through Mouser or Digikey.  Any luck over here?

Thanks guys!
Sig

 

[Siegfried Meier]

http://ca.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=pqZ7J9Gt/moIRZwus6T4eg==

Mouser sells that Mean Well model you mentioned earlier in this thread Rob, this link is for the 42W version, which I think will work fine.  

http://ca.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=S-25-12virtualkey63430000virtualkey709-S25-12 - 25 watt version.

Better to go for the 42W?  Or is the 25W just fine?

 

[Igor]

Tomcat, thanx a lot for help.
I had a little New Year vacations and back here.

 

[rob_gould]

http://ca.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=pqZ7J9Gt/moIRZwus6T4eg==

Mouser sells that Mean Well model you mentioned earlier in this thread Rob, this link is for the 42W version, which I think will work fine.  

http://ca.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=S-25-12virtualkey63430000virtualkey709-S25-12 - 25 watt version.

Better to go for the 42W?  Or is the 25W just fine?

Mine's running fine with a 25W supply...

 

[Igor]

12V, 2A switching mode power supply is enough.
I organized some nice new power supply's for cheap from local surplus store.
They will be added to CRM kits without charge.
Rob: is everything fixed and fine now with your CRM?
Happy New 2011!

 

[rob_gould]

Rob: is everything fixed and fine now with your CRM?
Happy New 2011!

Happy New Year Igor

Yes - everything is fine with my CRM now with the exception of the Trim LED which I am not too bothered about fixing - too much like hard work  ;D. 

UI'm afraid I have not posted the spare CRM chips back to you - Christmas got in the way...  I will send them this week definitely.

 

[Igor]

OK, NP
TRIM led: just be sure you don't save somehow setup with TRIM led ON, it can cause some mess.

 

[bluesbaz]

After a year of sitting around on this one I finally got a start last night. Woke up early before work to finish up. Ill test when I receive the chips and psu.

 

[tomcat]

What LDR did you use?

 

[bluesbaz]

I picked up this one as per Igors earlier sugestion, but it is as yet untested.
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?WT.z_header=search_go&lang=en&site=us&keywords=PDV-P9007-ND&x=0&y=0
-s

 

[bluesbaz]

A small bit of advice; solder in the sockets on the controller after the displays.

 

[tomcat]

A small bit of advice; solder in the sockets on the controller after the displays.

And how do you solder the controller socket when the leds block the solder side pins?

First sockets, then leds. If you have a piece of plastic in your way (from the socket) cut it off. Easy to do that.

 

[bluesbaz]

In that case you would be cutting off the socket itself.
Here is a pic of how one side interacts with the other.

 

[Igor]

WOA!!!!! Old green PCB's!!!! It means, you bought them a year ago at least!
Nice work, looking forward to hear "It works!"

Again, just to remind - already have this memo in documentation folder/archive, but:

Check if there's no short between pin 4 and gnd inside VGA cable!!!
Some cables has pin4 shorted to ground inside. Pins 4,14,15 are used for +12 from audio
unit to controller.
/I had only one cable with pin4 to gnd for last 3 years, but....in case of whatever!/

(had a mail from one guy who assembled the kit few days ago and had this issue with VGA cable).
Some of VGA cables have this short, some-not, just check before, and, if shorted, just cut pin 4 on VGA cable
or desolder it on PCB and cut.

 

[zenmastering]

I can confirm that the photocell sold by DigiKey (p/n PDV-P8001-ND) works just fine with the stock resistor values and gives a useful range of brightness control.

My CRM is almost done. I'm hunting down a problem where the encoder will only count up and not down. It happens intermittently, so it's a little maddening to trace it. There are pulses on both the A & B encoder outputs while this problem is occuring (as well as pulses at both PIC encoder inputs).

Best Regards,

Graemme

 

[Igor]

If quadrature encoder's pulses on pins 33, 34 of microcontroller are OK -  yes, in your case, than,
maybe, there's no enough voltage for changing the uP port's state...
Try to change R13, R14 to 1k, and see what happens.
R12, R15 should be in range (1......4.7k). I use 1/8W 4k99 for R12, 13, 14, 15 for 2 years -
(bought a box of 2000 for $1 on local surplus store), and never had this issue with about 50 microcontrollers-
we using same controller in our bigger version commercial product.
One guy, who assembled the kit, reported this prob and the fix was using lower value resistors.
BTW, his microcontroller is from same batch as yours.....
Let us know if the resistors were the issue.