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AC Power Bar Circuit Boards
#21
I still have a bag of those USB connectors if you need more lol... That's a good deal on that wire, I use to find goodies like that at yard sales but been a while seen I've gone.
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#22
Well here's RevB on the power bar. :) I ordered the original board and got them today but right after I ordered them I knew I wasn't happy. These do look good and still going to use them, the thing I don't like is how the top has all the relays etc... makes for a wide power bar. So I went back to the drawing board and this one is much better. Because I'm using that I/O IC for turning relays on/off there was no need for the optocouplers so I got ride of those and changed the single transistors to an 8ch IC, still use a separate power source on the board for powering it with the small AC/DC module so it's still fully isolated. I'm getting some IEC320 sockets that mount on the circuit board and there'll be a fuse holder on the board so the power bars won't have those 3 wires I talked about earlier, instead there will be 0 wires.


Picture doesn't look so good because there's no ground plain but in reality its a very nice looking board as I got the first version today, try and imagine it a matching deep blue with white text. I'll post a pic when I get the parts and have it assembled. Thankfully I haven't ordered these yet because I just realized I should change the 3 solder jumpers for I2C address to those mini DIP switches.

[Image: Power_Bar_US_RevB_Front.jpg]
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#23
Photo 
Well I finally got the new power bars up and running, this board fits the US and AU outlets, I'll be getting a board for the universal soon. The board pictured above has changed, it was sad but the ULN2003 starting causing issues when all 8 channels were active, turned out the PCF8574A driving it didin't have enough power, unfortunately I missed this during testing before getting the boards so I had to wait for new boards again using different transistors.  K0587

Happy to say it's working good now. The software was updated so it'll control 2 of these power bars, the boards has 3 dip switches the user can change to adjust the I2C address to match the power bar number in the software, there''s images on the board showing how to set the switches. Once I get the big software update finished 8 of these power bars can be connected. In the updated software when a addon is plugged in the controller will know what it is and prompt you.

Here's some pics, these boards didn't get the option to set an outlet to be locked on but can be easily done with a small mod if required. I can say they're wireless internally but not externally yet, hope to have if the next 6 months.

The next set of power bars will have a cosmetic change, I finally got the AC power socket I wanted which is a lower profile. It sits the same height as the outlets so it'll be mounted on the bottom of the board and the relays and AC/DC power module will also be on the bottom of the board, doing that I'll be able to drop the height about 15-20mm, I expect it to be about the thickness of the Gen3 controller. 

[Image: DSCN7026-Optimized.JPG]

[Image: DSCN7032-Optimized.JPG]

[Image: DSCN7041-Optimized.JPG]

[Image: DSCN7037-Optimized.JPG]

[Image: DSCN7039-Optimized.JPG]
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#24
That looks sharp could put 4 more plugs on 2 of the sides for a total of 16 :) just kidding
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#25
lol yeah and maybe 2 on the smaller sides to make it an even 20.
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#26
Hey?! Where'd that last post go?? Asking for a friend..
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#27
It was another spam post, its a full time job keeping up with them haha...
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#28
Thought I would post some new pics of the updated power bar, it's now 72% thinner, the total dimensions are 220 x 134 x 43 mm.

[Image: DSCN7101-Optimized.JPG]

[Image: DSCN7097-Optimized.JPG]
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#29
Very nice and reduced the size was a challenge I bet remember the first power bars with full size plugs that was a power bar LOLOL weighed like half a kilo but these will be easy to mount to the underside of the tank as well or on a rear wall makes thing easier to work with and very reliable

Dale
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#30
lol yes it's come a long way from the original, I'm really happy with the outcome. One day I'm going to see what I can do to get lights for each channel but I need to keep it easy to assemble and wireless.
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Current time: 03-28-2024, 10:36 AM