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Around this time of year, most people are
thinking about Christmas decorations. And
most people just rock on down to the store
and buy whatever is the “go” this year.
By Ross Tester
B
ut wouldn’t you like your place
to be just a bit different to your
neighbours? How about a lot
different!
As technical people, you could set
your heights a bit higher . . . like building your own unique display.
For example, you could build one
(or dozens!) of the mini Christmas
tree we featured in last month’s (November) issue (www.siliconchip.com.
au/Article/12086). Or perhaps build
the infinitely-extendable Christmas
tree from November 2018 (www.
siliconchip.com.au/Article/11297).
But with the big day now only about
three weeks away (or less!) maybe
you’ve left your construction run a
tad late.
So what to do?
Of course, we have an answer for
you. You’ll need only a few minutes
of your time (truly!) and you’ll end up
with a multi-colour display that you
can not only place, well, wherever you
like but you can change it whenever
you like and, best of all, it certainly
won’t break the bank.
cellent one of those! Australian mailorder house Oatley Electronics (www.
oatleyelectronics.com) sells this “kit”
for the princely sum of just $18 (plus
P&P of course!).
For this, you get a 5m roll of RGB
LEDs – there are three combination
red, green and blue LEDs every 50mm,
Oatley’s Bargain Lightshow
The IT130PACK2 kit consists of a 5m roll of RGB LEDs, a 12V/5A switch-mode
power supply, the infrared controller (at left) with its pushbutton remote control
(at right), a connecting cable (one end plugs into the controller, the other you
solder to the LED strip and even a CR2025 button cell for the remote control.
It’s not specifically sold as a Christmas Light display – but it makes an ex104
Silicon Chip
Australia’s electronics magazine
so you are getting 300 LEDs (and their
resistors) all mounted on a self-adhesive, continuous strip.
Incidentally, if 5m is too long, you
can cut off the required length of LEDs
where marked on the strip. You could,
in fact, just run one 50mm length if
that floats your boat!
siliconchip.com.au
There’s an on-line Demo . . .
+12V
This shows
just one 50mm
section of the
5m RGB LED
strip. You can cut
the strip to any
multiple of
50mm if you
wish.
330
150 150
330
150 150
330
Want to see what this controller can do?
Check out the video at https://youtu.be/
rgMIOyeNNK4
150 150
THREE
RGB LEDS
PER
50mm
RED
GREEN
BLUE
Each 50mm section contains the three multi-colour LEDs and associated resistors.
The copper section is where you solder the wires from the controller –the +12V
(which may be black or white[!]) and the red, blue & green control wires.
The anodes of all three LEDs are
connected to the +12V supply via
suitable current limiting resistors.
The LEDs are switched by connecting
their cathodes to the negative supply
(via pads on the strip).
The full 5m string will demand
about 1A per colour. Light up all LEDs
at once (ie, R, G and B) and you’ll need
a supply rated at 3A or so.
But included in the price is just
such a 230V mains supply: in fact,
it’s rated at 12V, 5A, so there’s more
than enough headroom.
combinations to give a wide range of
colours and flashing modes.
Some of the modes are music or
sound-triggered from the small electret microphone inside the controller.
The LED controller simply plugs in
to an adaptor cable which is soldered
to the LED strip (we’ll look at that onerous task in a moment!).
And just in case you think Oatley
might have left something out, there’s
even a CR2025 button cell included
for the remote control so you don’t
have to go searching for one . . .
But wait, there’s more!
Connecting it all together
Now you could simply connect
the LEDs like that permanently but it
would be pretty boring, wouldn’t it?
Or you could stand there and flick/
change colours manually (not!).
Also included is a small infrared
LED controller – complete with a
20-button infrared remote control.
This allows you to set a variety of
patterns and colour combinations
and, obviously, can be changed at
will by pressing a different controller button.
As well as selecting static red, green
and blue colours, you can also select
Here comes the hard part – connecting it and getting it going. OK, we’re
kidding: all you need do is solder the
four wires (+12V and R, G and B control) to the LED strip.
Just a quick word of warning here:
as is common practice in Chinese
goods, the positive wire is probably
white – but in our case it was black!
The other three wires are green, red
and blue so it’s pretty obvious where
they solder to. Be very careful that you
don’t bridge between the contacts because you will either have no control
over those two channels or in worst
case, you might do some damage to
the infrared LED controller.
All you need do now is work out
where you’re going to run your 5m
strip.
As we mentioned, the backing is
self-adhesive (double-sided tape) so it
can stick just about anywhere. Will it
be around the tree . . . or up and over
your front door . . . or along the patio
or verandah . . . or
Where from; how much
We already mentioned it comes
from Oatley Electronics (www.
oatleyelectronics.com) with a cat no
of IT130PACK2.
The whole “kit” used to sell for
$22.00 – a bargain in its own right.
But get in before Christmas, tell them
you’re a SILICON CHIP reader, and it’s
yours for almost 20% off – just $18.00
plus P&P of $8.90
That’s a bargain of a bargain!
SC
Soldering to the LED strip:
the +12V pad is clearly
marked – get it right and you
can’t get the rest wrong!
Plug the adaptor lead into
the controller lead (notice
the X symbols line up to each other),
plug in the power supply – and that’s it!
MULTIFUNCTION WATERPROOF 250W MPPT SOLAR CHARGER SOLAR POWER SYSTEM
5V SOLAR PANELS
Combines a 12V/10A/180W Solar
PICK UP ONLY: One Used Large 250W Solar
TWENTY 45 x 90mm PANELS (8W)
+ 4x 1A Schottky diodes: SP4590
$10
TEN 80 x 120mm PANELS (10W)
+ 4x 1A Schottky diodes: SP80120 $20
0.5M / 7W / 12V LED BARS
FOR AS LOW AS $3.33 EA.!
Panel Plus a Genuine 30A 12/24V MPPT
Solar Regulator SAKO SC-M-30A.
Will deliver 16/8A into a 12/24V Battery
IT144..... $120
Available in Pure White,
Warm White, and Blue
Search for IT117
on our Website
Regulator and a 220V/50Hz 500W
Modified Square Wave Inverter, with a
Universal Power Socket:
Meanwell Power Supplies
CLG-150-20A: 15-20V: 7.5A …. IT134 : $29
HLG=240H-24: 24V-10A: …....... IT135 : $29
HLG-185H-48: 48V-3.9A: …....... IT136 : $33
SP-100-12: 12V-8.5A …..............IT140 : $19
IT131....
$39
OATLEYELECTRONICS.COM TEL:0428600036
NEAR WOY WOY ON THE CENTRAL COAST OF NSW
siliconchip.com.au
EMAIL: branko<at>oatleyectronics.com
Australia’s electronics magazine
December 2019 105
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