LED Driver prototype 1, fully populated.
Having recevied my PCBs, all that remained was to assemble the parts onto one and test it. Assembly took a couple of hours, but that’s because I was being careful at each step. I can now say that I am pretty comfortable soldering SMD components; having a good iron does help. Continuity testing shows that everything is connected correctly, and plugging it into the wall didn’t cause it to explode. Still, I might have lingered just a bit too long on the two ICs. The shiny spot is where my home-made heatpipe from the TLC5941 chip was supposed to connect to the board, but I just couldn’t get the brass strip I was using to stick to the thermal pad on the underside of the chip. I won’t know if I burned the chips out until I can get around to proper testing. If I did, no big deal: I’ve got more (and they were free samples). When I do get around to testing, I’ll make a video so you can see what I’ve designed this thing for, and why I’m excited about it.