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Soldering the grid

A project log for Analog Blinken Grid

64 LEDs in a matrix on a wireframe controlled by 16 astable transistor oscillators to resemble a computer panel from a 70's TV show

matsengmatseng 01/21/2019 at 12:201 Comment

Since I learned how to make straight and nice pieces of wire when I did my WireZ80 for the Circuit Sculpture Contest I quickly made sixteen pieces of 22 cm wires while my 3d-printer churned away at a small jig I made in Fusion360.

The jig doesn't cover the full 8x8 area, but rather just a smaller 4x4, but that is enough to keep the LEDs straight and spaced perfectly.

Since the LEDs are white high-brightness I did some tests and found out that a 2k2 resistor in combination with the voltage drop of two transistors lights them up enough to not be annoyingly blinding. 

Soldering the LEDs onto the horizontal wires, and then the resistors followed by the vertical wires took about two hours.

Using the jig to solder it up nice and straight
Using the jig to solder it up nice and straight
The finished grid
The finished grid
Closeup of the grid
Closeup of the grid

Discussions

Mike Szczys wrote 01/21/2019 at 17:27 point

The resistors as spaces is a brilliant idea. They're uniformed in size which keeps the rail a consistent distance for a flat matrix once soldered. Two hours of solder seems very fast to me, well done!

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