Your source for industrial grade WS281X RGB LED pixel driving equipment
Made in USA driver boards for use with Falcon Player software on BeagleBone systems
Features we developed for this industry
Existing products left a lot of room for improvement
The Pixel Lighting community has a lot of great Software Engineers, but in perusing the existing hardware offerings we realized what was missing. Electical Engineers.
One of the great things about the RGB pixel community is that many different people are available to contribute their individual skills. We saw a weak spot that needed improvement in the form
of BeagleBoard hardware interfaces. All of the existing hardware had limitations in some of the aspects that we found easy to improve. They seemed to focus on packing many niche features onto
an oddly shaped product. A lack of industry experience left many of the suppliers without product during the last "chip shortage", even though the BeagleBoneBlack was still reasonably available.
Designing a series of robust interface boards to serve as a foundation for the BeagleBone opened up many possibilities where users once needed multiple components (which usually included the once unobtainable raspberry pi)
seemed like as good a place to start as any. Since that point we have been refining the physical layouts of the controllers to meet the needs of various applications, adding new features as we think of them, and moving toward
an all-in-one controller that eliminates the BeagleBone entirely (along with it's weird shortcomings and long boot up time) all while maintaining compatibility with the industry standard sequence programming and synchronization
of multiple controllers.
Getting pixel data down 20 feet of unbalanced wire is RF engineering
Something that isn't often explained is that the "800KHz" WS2811 data signal is a squarewave with features as small as 250nS. That equates to a 2MHz pulse. Even with a 5% rise time slope, you're looking at the equivalent of
20MHz rise and fall times to have any resemblance of a square signal. It's amazing that it works at all. Most of the available hardware makes no effort to drive the output more appropriately and vendors suggest
various attempts at reshaping the signal part way down the wire. We like to avoid the "spaghetti factory mishap" wiring that you end up with in that case.
Balancing drive impedance
The solution to getting this square signal to go any appreciable distance on a single unbalanced wire is matching the drive impedance of the output for good signal amplitude at the far end of the wire
without excessive ringing. All this while trying to keep the signal above ground with high states close to 5v.
Industry first advancement #1, "Selectable Output Drive Impedance"
Starting with our first Pixel Driver board, we have offered the "Selectable Drive Power" DIP switch for each output channel. We carefully picked the strength of the two settings over months of R&D
to ensure that as many installations as possible would be covered by one of the choices. Most of the time, you can leave the settings on "Low", but when you find yourself with a long cable out to the
first light and the data signal is glitching, you can simply flip that channel up to "High" and instantly solve the problem. In situations of high importance when it is found that both settings work fine,
an oscilloscope can be used to check which setting yields the best looking waveform to ensure perfect performance under varying conditions.
Industry first advancement #2, "Data Preview LEDs"
Why nobody else was doing this, we'll never understand. At some point it occurred to us that the LEDs seen on pixel strips with the built in IC could be included right on the controller as an instant indication
of whether the controller was running and what sort of stuff it was sending out! The first two designs included the "5050" package we've all seen for years. On newer boards we procured a special LED from our
long time supplier that is so small it can fit right next to the output terminal blocks for each channel. Now THAT is cool.
Industry first advancement #3, TVS protection on data outputs
This was a no brainer for us, having produced mostly industrial controls before the pixel craze. Many other pixel controller companies just leave you with a socketed 1970s chip that can be replaced.
That's not very convenient if you have controllers mounted all over an installation and lightning strikes a block away and takes out some of them. Nothing is 100% invincible but we've done our best to
pick a design that will take the most abuse possible for the level of complexity that can be had at a reasonable price point. As a bonus, this circuitry actually helps mitigate the effects of signal ringing
on a long data wire.
Industry first advancement #4, Direct fit board for weathertight enclosures in a ready to run configuration
Many times you find yourself needing a controller in an outdoor location with no other mounting locations available. Our first design, the 4 channel pixel driver cape for BBB fits directly in an off the shelf
weathertight electronics enclosure with cable seals at each end. Combined with a wireless BeagleBoard and waterproof power supply, you have a completely sealed ready to run unit. Since then, we have added the offering
of a direct fit differential receiver board that includes power distribution. It doesn't get any easier to install pixels outdoors.
Industry refinement #1, Mounting the BeagleBoard above the controller and making the controller easy to mount
Existing BeagleBoard capes left us scratching our heads here. Some vendors sell massive boards that stack above the BeagleBoard, yielding a wobbling tower of unmountable circuitry. Weird.
We knew from the start that a good controller HAS to be able to be readily mounted to the plates that go in standard electrical enclosures using simple threaded standoffs. Our boards are designed to have
a simple mounting pattern and plenty of room around the holes to allow for screws or studs with nuts to be implemented with no worries.
Industry refinement #2, BIG power supplies for BeagleBone and driver chips
All of the other pixel controllers we have seen utilize a dinky little "LM7805" replacement switching voltage regulator. Why limit the quality of the signals and the reliablilty of the BeagleBone with weak power?
Our original design utilized dual industrial grade small supplies to keep shorts on the data wires from affecting the BeagleBone. Since then we have upgraded to using a single massive power supply with great success.
Industry refinement #3, Carefully engineered PCBs
There's a good reason why circuit board designs are called "Artwork". Some designers just hook up the appropriate signals with the size and type of track that some calculation told them is good enough.
An experienced engineer makes the most of the space available in the layout and ensures extremely strong connections for each signal depending on its needs. Even when dealing with those 250nS pulses, good
circuit board design makes a massive difference. Next time you look at a PCB from a different vendor, take note of the tiny wires that were routed indiscriminately from a lack of experience.
Industry refinement #4, Hardware debounced menu buttons
What's worse than a finicky user interface? We include a simple hardware debounce circuit between the menu buttons and the BeagleBoard so that each button press registers correctly and reliably.
Industry refinement #5, OptoIsolated trigger inputs
You can blow up a microchip just from picking it up with a little bad luck and static electricity, why would you run a wire directly out from one to interface with the outside world?
All of our boards that include trigger inputs utilize optoisolators that not only protect the BeagleBone, but also present an input that's easier to use! Instead of being stuck between 0 and 3.3v and
using an optional pull up or pull down resistor IN THE MICRO... YIKES! Our circuitry allows simply pulling the input pin to ground to activate it. If an unexpected voltage finds its way onto the input pin,
no damage will occur to the BeagleBone. In addition to hooking up a simple switch, button, or relay, MANY industrial sensors support this type of connection by default.
Industry refinement #6, Hardware reset controller to enforce clean reset of BeagleBoard ICs
We identified a major issue that affected the BeagleBoneBlack rev C where poor understanding of the needs of a reset circuit by the BeagleBoard engineers resulted in the onboard ethernet PHY not being accessible to
the processor on some significant fraction of powerups. This was mitgated in Rev C1 of the BeagleboneBlack by removing most of the capacitance that was being used in the RC reset circuit. Fortunately, this reset
pin is brought out on the 46 pin headers of the BeagleBoard and we were able to implement a proper reset controller on our boards that appropriately brings up the ICs all at once after a short delay, ensuring that
the ethernet PHY is always available. It's nice when the network works after waiting so long for the BeagleBoard to boot up, even nicer when it needs to work every time unattended.
