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Thread: Tri Crees and Crystal Focees

  1. #1

    Default Tri Crees and Crystal Focees

    subtitle - I may have missed some small print when ordering all my electronics.

    I have a Red Photored Green tri-cree lined up for my vader saber and I was just flicking through the guide to the CF8 and noticed that the colour pads 2 through 4 don't have high amperage drive capabilities (or do they?) and only the current regulated 1st channel is able to drive high power LEDs.

    First, IS THIS TRUE?

    Second, How am I going to wire the R Rp with +G Flash on Clash?

    I guess to you hardened guys this seems like some noob question, but I was under the impression the first 3 colour pads were capable of 1A direct drive off the board (pretty sure Msr. Petkau did a tutorial on the CF7 wiring, but I might be mistaken...)

    anyway, thanks if you can help me :>

  2. #2

    Default

    Only the first channel is current regulated. The others have "high amperage drive capabilities". You need to RE-read the manual a few more times to find out how it's handled. It's all explained in the manual.
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    "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before... you want blindingly bright, super loud, running 1138 blinkies off of the cheapest sound card you can find AND you want all of it to run on a battery the size of a dime, and run for a very, VERY long time. That one cracks me up every time..."
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  3. #3

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    okay, I found the video that had the original soldering guide for what I thought was good (it was Msr. Plecter in fact!) and I can see I have forgotten a good few details between watching it and trying to use its info to inform parts purchasing for the vader.

    The video shows rudimentary colour mixing on a tri-cree using the single cell hack and access to the two power extenders. Although watching the video, and trying to find it and hence watching more videos, has made me wonder; can I wire the Red and Photo Red in parallel over the current controlled channel and then have the Green run off the on board PeX? I have a double cell though, would I need a chock off power resistor on the PeX connection? Assuming the amperage over each red LED is 700mA, the total amperage won't go over the board's max 1.5A (although it cuts it mighty close).

    I'm not sure Erv has calculated for the genius-idiot wiring schemes in his manual, I will go and read it again right now, but in the meantime what do you think to this?

    [There's stuff in the way to the manual, reading later]

    [Erv seems to think it's a bad plan: ]
    Last edited by Manadono; 07-26-2016 at 08:10 AM.

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Manadono View Post
    okay, I found the video that had the original soldering guide for what I thought was good (it was Msr. Plecter in fact!) and I can see I have forgotten a good few details between watching it and trying to use its info to inform parts purchasing for the vader.

    The video shows rudimentary colour mixing on a tri-cree using the single cell hack and access to the two power extenders. Although watching the video, and trying to find it and hence watching more videos, has made me wonder; can I wire the Red and Photo Red in parallel over the current controlled channel and then have the Green run off the on board PeX? I have a double cell though, would I need a chock off power resistor on the PeX connection? Assuming the amperage over each red LED is 700mA, the total amperage won't go over the board's max 1.5A (although it cuts it mighty close).

    I'm not sure Erv has calculated for the genius-idiot wiring schemes in his manual, I will go and read it again right now, but in the meantime what do you think to this?

    [There's stuff in the way to the manual, reading later]

    [Erv seems to think it's a bad plan: ]

    I'm not even sure/clear what it is your asking?

    ...but if Erv, the creator of the board & and an EE by trade, says whatever you are trying is a bad idea, I'd listen to him........no?

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by xl97 View Post
    I'm not even sure/clear what it is your asking?

    ...but if Erv, the creator of the board & and an EE by trade, says whatever you are trying is a bad idea, I'd listen to him........no?
    I'm asking how to wire a tricree to a CF without a CeX, he said using the basic colour mixing wiring for a single cell hack board is a bad idea (and I agree with him, it's not what I'm trying to do.) I just wanted to know what the deal with the colour channel power ratings was as the single cell hack takes electricity directly from the battery (essentially) and it would be super inefficient to run the board with giant power resistors to soak up all that extra voltage.

    Actually, if the on board PeX channels run at the battery level, could I use a potential divider to run one line as two? And can anyone confirm the parallel wiring of an LED?

    To be clear, I'm not bothered about being able to colour mix on this build, it's a RRG for all intents and purposes and as long as it can be wired RR with G over the top FoC I'm cool, in fact it's the reason I only got one CeX...

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by xl97 View Post
    I'm not even sure/clear what it is your asking?

    ...but if Erv, the creator of the board & and an EE by trade, says whatever you are trying is a bad idea, I'd listen to him........no?
    From experience few people ever listen to an expert who tells them their idea is a bad one...just sayin'.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by FenixFire View Post
    From experience few people ever listen to an expert who tells them their idea is a bad one...just sayin'.
    That's probably why a lot of experienced people don't say all that much anymore.
    TCSS MODERATOR
    All n00bs READ these first (PLEASE)!!!:
    1. Forum Guidelines
    2. FJK’s “Down and Dirty” guide to Ohm’s Law

    "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before... you want blindingly bright, super loud, running 1138 blinkies off of the cheapest sound card you can find AND you want all of it to run on a battery the size of a dime, and run for a very, VERY long time. That one cracks me up every time..."
    My email: fjk_tcss@yahoo.com

  8. #8

    Default

    Okay, so the PeX on board is good to power the green flash, but the question remains how am I going to power both red dice off one pad? Can they be put in parallel successfully? or should I be doing them in series?

    [edit]

    basically, is this correct?
    Last edited by Manadono; 07-26-2016 at 06:32 PM.

  9. #9

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Manadono View Post
    Okay, so the PeX on board is good to power the green flash, but the question remains how am I going to power both red dice off one pad? Can they be put in parallel successfully? or should I be doing them in series
    Since one is red and the other photo red, they are not identical dice so series wiring has the potential to damage one or both.

    edit: looked up the specs, photo red and red XP-E2 is 2.4 @1000 so wiring in series should pose little possibility to runaway if wired in series, but the main pad only outputs 3.3 volts (?) so that is not the 4.8v required if wired in series.

    Why not just wire it as the manual shows how to wire multiple dice using the CEX you said you already have, the way it is designed to do what you want, as shown on Page 41 and 42 of the manual. The CEX color mixing does not require the single cell hack. Just mentally replace the image of the rgbw led with an image of your Tri-star, wire them to channels 1, 2, and 3 for FoC. The pads still drive the LEDs and control the blade FX, you just have to add a resitor to each so that you do not over drive the LEDs on accident. Then just adjust the final settings in the config or add a rice port and you can adjust In real time. When the actual designer/engineer of the device actually lays out how to do something, why not listen?

    This is actually how the boards are intended to be used,to drive multi-die led arrays like your tri-star. It will provide the best possible color and FX control, and since it is how the boards were designed to work unlikely to damage the board if wired properly. This method will allow you to dial each the red and photo red dice to achieve the actual color you are hoping to achieve, without fiddling with resistor values. You have a Cadillac board, but you want to treat it like it is the NB...

    To do it without a CeX you have to do the hack, says so right in the manual on page 56. Read it, it is a well put together and fairly easy to follow manual. If you read it over several times, nearly memorizing it before you attempt to draw your diagram and definitely before you wire the board, you would have learned that the hack was developed so you could do pseudo color mixing without the CeX in small hilts. So unless you have the cash to buy a new CF when you fry this one your ideal option would be to use the CeX, assuming you have the room in your hilt. Or to do the hack so you do not have to use the CeX. Either way you are still advised to use the minimal resitor on each die.
    Last edited by FenixFire; 07-27-2016 at 12:23 PM.

  10. #10

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    With the CeX wire One Red to the main, the Deep Red to the CeX channel 2, and FoC green to the onboard PEx of channel 3.

    You can try to do it by wiring the two reds in parallel to see if it works, but be prepared to worst case buy a new board or send it off for repairs, more likely new LED, or best case it works and you can document it.
    Last edited by FenixFire; 07-26-2016 at 08:21 PM.

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