Deep breath time, I still haven’t received the balance of LED strips so cannot complete the project today. I’ve devoted the time to cleaning up what is there. I decided to cannibalise two good strips to replace the sections of defective strips while I had the time. Also I thought I’d remove the clunky (but convenient!) joiners and replace them with some cut to size self soldered (nice looking) joins.
I also thought I’d have a go at mounting and wiring the lantern while I had the time. Done, the height of the lantern doesn’t quite give me the look I was hoping for so I’m going to put some extra thought into that. I think it’s too tall proportionally speaking (a design feature of using a bollard light).
Wiring wise, the Christmas LEDs have come up a treat. I’ve also worked out that there are 2 sets of LEDs to give various strobing effects coming from the controller. A small amount of tinkering & I discovered a way to wire up each side of the TARDIS separately so that the strobes will be coordinated.
It’s been a while since I’ve had to remember wiring, soldering, & basic DC stuff. Luckily the prefab LED light strips come prewired & with rather obvious + and – polarity indicators on the printed circuit boards, so it’s just really up to me to ensure I get the polarity (of the neutron flow!) correct.
Dissapointment number two with regards to the LED purchase is the number of defective LED strips that Jaycar sold me. I’d already opened and chopped up to size the strips, so no hope of getting a refund there. Had I looked closer and took notice when I opened each sealed pack, it would have jumped out at me that a couple of packs were already opened and taped back up (instead of being heat sealed), and the PCB solder points looked like somebody had already had a go. Damn.
Still dealing with disappointment number one (being short sent a good number of strips) and still waiting for the balance to arrive. I’ve powered up as I’ve gone along to make sure that (barring defective strips) at least I’ve got the wiring correct.
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