Mystery LED's in Series

[audioguru]

If you label your LEDs and show their polarity then it will be easy to see what is wrong with the wiring.

 

[kenny782]

I've been checking polarity through this entire ordeal carefully.

I think it's this f'in breadboard.
I took the three led's I pulled from the breadboard.
I soldered jumper wires to the stranded wire coming out of the 3 led's I got from my PC.
I had the wires directly going into the breadboard but securely.


It still doesn't work right but the results have completely changed.
I think my wiring has been fine since the first two posts you guys answered,
but this stupid bored must have been shorting all over the place.
_________________

I was using a set of jumper wires for everything the last three days until yesterday. I made up my own which you see in the pic.
Of course everything would've went into different holes, different results.

So wired are ruled out.

Now I moved everything over one row(same wires), different results again.


I picked up this large board so I'd have more room for this project
Oh I'd like to some taiwanese and smack him in the head right now...

-Kenny

 

[kenny782]

Here's a copy anyway, you might find something wrong. If it's the board at least I'll know how to wire it on the replacement.

**broken link removed**

Thanks again,

Kenny

 

[audioguru]

I never use a breadboard so I am guessing about how yours connects.
You missed one wire and have the polarity of every LED backwards.

 

[kenny782]

each row of 5 across is connected to a single conductor.
so any wires in that row are connected.

I added the missing wire, and checked the polarity and everything is reversed now as you listed.

Maybe the three temporary led's are throwing off the resistance too?
They're only 3mm, versus 10mm. And they're connected to the 30" of wire they were attached to when I pulled them out of the computer.

Kenny

 

[kenny782]

Right now 5v+ to pin 0 give me:
gnd pin 1 - led 3
gnd pin 2 - led 9
gnd pin 3 - led 10

 

[audioguru]

Right now 5v+ to pin 0 give me:
gnd pin 1 - led 3 No, LED 0.
gnd pin 2 - led 9 No, LED 6.
gnd pin 3 - led 10 No, LED 8.

You don't know what you are doing and I don't know what you are doing.

 

[kenny782]

Sorry, I'll just play with it myself for a few days then and see if I get anywhere.

But I appreciate your help with this anyway, I know you've spent quite a bit of time on these posts.

Thanks again,

-Kenny

 

[kenny782]

Well just one last comment, I threw some 150ohm resistors on and it's 90% functional.
The combination of pin3+ and pin4- brings up multiple LED's, otherwise is fine.

So I built a 6 LED model to make troubleshooting easier, same 150 ohm resistors.
It only took 10 minutes anyway.
Combination of pin2- and pin3+ produces multiple led's, otherwise works fine.

It's the last two pins in both configurations.

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**

Since that's the furthest LED maybe I need to swap out the resisters again?

 

[greggles]

other solutions

You must have soldered LED 0 in backwards. Fix that and then proceed to see if there are other construction problems.

Charlieplexing is wonderful, but when a part is put in wrong (LED0) it is hell to find it...same is true for if a part in the array becomes defective. Read the Wiki page at the link I sent earlier.

This is a nice little Atmel 8 Bit Micro with One 150 kHz, 8-bit High-speed PWM Output he can do all sorts of wonders like a common anode 32 level PWM circuit and drive with active Hi NPN column drive transistors. Charlieplexed of coarse. If the guy wants a circuit just ask.

 

[audioguru]

Kenny,
Your problem with too many LEDs lighting is caused by too many inputs at +5V and at 0V.

 

[dawhale]

Did you ever get this working?

DD

 

[kenny782]

I did some more testing and the results just make no sense.
So I'm just gonna exchange the breadboard or solder this thing.

But I've put it aside temporarily.
The three terabyte raid-5 storage array on my desktop blew up when Windows 7 touched it.
And it was a Windows array..thanks MS.


Then while trying to fix it I got the virus from hell.
After 4 days I just had to wipe out Windows.
It's the only virus I've ever failed to remove, pray you never get this thing.
And trust me when you manage 600 machines you get one now and them lol


And during those two things one drive died in my primary array.
Luckily I just ordered a new drive and that one will rebuild.


And a week before all this a can of spray paint blew up in my truck.


I think someone upstairs doesn't like me this month...
I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.