Rev x01 is built using the MSP430 micro from TI, which is a 16
bit micro with many nice features. I also had some sitting
around when I wanted to start this project, and another
engineer, John Zalesky, had the development tools handy for me
to use after hours.
The controller board has an LDO to power the micro, which runs
at 3.3V. The LED boards are powered from battery voltage
directly, and signals from the micro to the LED boards are
translated using discrete transistors and pullups.
The LED boards use a CMOS shift register, which operates at
battery voltage. Boards are strung together with a 6 pin 1mm
flat cable and connector. For the antidote shell application I
used pieces of kapton base flat copper cable to connect the
boards together. The cables were soldered directly the the boards.
Errata:
- SOT 23 pinout does not match footprint for voltage
regulator and the BJTs. I worked around this by mounting these
on their back and with some jumpers where needed.
Full Protel project:
microPOV.zip
Programming is via the 6 pin FPC connector on the controller
board. I used a point to point hand soldered adapter to go
from 6 pin FPC to the $99 TI "FET" development board, which
then went to the PC with a serial cable.
