I've reworked the PCBs for a past project on my website for making custom fixed message signs.
For a while I sold the PCBs in my website shop, but even then the cost of international postage was so high that it wasn't viable to sell them due to the combined weight of several PCBs.
With easy online small-batch PCB manufacturing, where the circuit boards are made on demand and shipped directly from China, the project has become viable again. Albeit that China gets all the spondoolies.
Although the original PCBs had a matte black resist on both sides, with dark red screen print to make it less visible in the finished sign, it will add a huge amount to the cost of getting a small batch made. It's only viable to go for black PCBs if ordering hundreds so they go through as their own batch. That said, the green PCBs with white resist can be spray painted in your chosen colour, and the screen should still show as a raised outline. If spraying them, it makes sense to fit the resistors on the back first to avoid scratching the paint when trimming the leads on the front. Spraying in light coats shouldn't block the holes.
The new PCB files have smaller holes for the resistor and round LED leads, and a facility to use wire links on the back of the PCB to loop power between them.
The signs are designed to be run from a 5V USB power supply. Try to use good quality supplies and don't load them to their full capacity. You can use several on a big sign.
Batteries are also an option, including two or three cell AA packs fitted with NiMh rechargeable cells. The choice of resistors and power supply will determine the sign intensity and run time from batteries.
My reference to low intensity outdoor signage was relating to nighttime events.
You can find the files at this page, noting that they haven't been tested at the point of making this video:-
http://www.bigclive.com/freebies.htm
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
For a while I sold the PCBs in my website shop, but even then the cost of international postage was so high that it wasn't viable to sell them due to the combined weight of several PCBs.
With easy online small-batch PCB manufacturing, where the circuit boards are made on demand and shipped directly from China, the project has become viable again. Albeit that China gets all the spondoolies.
Although the original PCBs had a matte black resist on both sides, with dark red screen print to make it less visible in the finished sign, it will add a huge amount to the cost of getting a small batch made. It's only viable to go for black PCBs if ordering hundreds so they go through as their own batch. That said, the green PCBs with white resist can be spray painted in your chosen colour, and the screen should still show as a raised outline. If spraying them, it makes sense to fit the resistors on the back first to avoid scratching the paint when trimming the leads on the front. Spraying in light coats shouldn't block the holes.
The new PCB files have smaller holes for the resistor and round LED leads, and a facility to use wire links on the back of the PCB to loop power between them.
The signs are designed to be run from a 5V USB power supply. Try to use good quality supplies and don't load them to their full capacity. You can use several on a big sign.
Batteries are also an option, including two or three cell AA packs fitted with NiMh rechargeable cells. The choice of resistors and power supply will determine the sign intensity and run time from batteries.
My reference to low intensity outdoor signage was relating to nighttime events.
You can find the files at this page, noting that they haven't been tested at the point of making this video:-
http://www.bigclive.com/freebies.htm
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
<3
What is that pcb mou t box thing, can we still get them… Frickin awesome.
Not Sure I Like the Winky Blinky Go Go Lights…..
Maybe put the background leds reverse polarity then you can swap the polarity and have the letter light in positive or negative.
I've tried ordering the pcbs on jlb pcb but on three of them the size box are blank 😟 and I don't know the size.
If the "gold" was tarnishing, it wasn't gold. At best, it was an alloy with some gold in it. It was probably what Terry Pratchett called goldish.
You could reverse the background leds so depending on the polarity the letter or background will light up. And with adjusting the pulse width you even could dim the backlight.
Just FYI – these days JLC charges the same for black PCBs as for green.
The flashing yellow leds looks pretty good with the letter A Red leds
Nice update on the files 👌 Clive @BigCliveDotCom
is this a sign of things to come?
That red and yellow one would look good spelling CASINO behind a white opaque diffuser 🙂
I like it 🙂 But would be nicer with individually addressable LED's 😛 But it would look nice as a status display or so Light a certain area of pixels to be notified when a person is detected on camera or so 🙂 but that's not this channel… This one is way cooler. I like it when you piece together or pull apart stuff. Thanks! 🙂
What packages do you use to design circuit boards again? And how do you obtain your packages?
I presume you're running some kind of Linux distribution based on previous videos. Would you be willing to share some of that information? I'm an Ubuntu nerd myself (have been for many years) and would love to get into designing PCBs.
wait, where's the long version with stories and such as you populate every resistor?
You could add a conductive ring around the mounting holes and have them connect to the power rails via solder jumpers or 0Ω resistors,
Can you run the letter on AC with an extra resistor on the negative polarity to make the inverse leds dimmer?
Is there enough room in your hallway for such a big sign?