DumbRGB v0.3 assembly instructions

Step 1:

Assemble your materials and printed circuit board.

Step 2:

• Note: Though through-hole resistors are provided in the BOM, SMT resistors in size 1206 can be used as well.
  

  Place and solder the 10K ohm pulldown resistors in positions R1, R2 and R3 (resistors have no polarity and can be installed either way).

Step 3:

Place and solder the 470 ohm gate resistors in positions R4, R5 and R6.

Step 4:

• Note about header pins: In the photo below, a female header is soldered at a right-angle to the board; depending upon how you've set up your RF1_12v board, you might want a vertical female header, a male straight header or a male right-angle header.
  

  Solder header to the PCB.

Step 5:

Also note that there are two additional pins used to source 12v power from the RF1_12v board. While a female header mounted vertically is shown here; other options include soldering male vertical pins, male right-angle pins or female right-angle pins.

Solder dual pins to position VIN on the PCB.

Step 6:

Once the headers are added, solder the fuse holder (orientation not important) to the board.

Solder fuse holder.

Step 7:

• Note: MOSFETs have polarity and must be inserted into the board so that the backside of the MOSFET faces off the board (note the silkscreen).
  

  Solder the three MOSFETs into positions Q1, Q2 and Q3.
  Tips on soldering TO-220 components (like these MOSFETs): Turn up the temperature on your soldering iron; solder only one pin on each TO-200 component, turn over the board and bend the components so they are straight and all line up and then go back and solder the other pins.

Step 8:

If you are attempting to mate a male to female pin for 12v power between RF1_12v and the Dumb RGB, and the pins do not line up, you can reheat and adjust them.

Test connections to the RF1_12v.

Step 7:

Connect your LED strip to the R,G,B, and 12v header. Load some code and blink!

• Note: Connecting the DumbRGB to an RF1 (5v) board.
  

  External Power to DumbRGB when using RF1 5v.

In the picture above you see the RF1 DumbRGB controller connected to a RF1 5v board. The RF1 will physically connect to the 15-pin header just like with the 12v board. The 12v input will need a different orientation as the 5v board will not supply this to the dumb RGB controller.

Also, the MOSFETs sold with the DumbRGB controller are not compatible with the 5v board. Because the 5v board uses a 3.3v voltage regulator, there is not sufficient power to apply to the gate voltage of the MOSFETs. You can buy some logic-level MOSFETs to replace the ones shipped with the board, if you want to try and use the controller on the 5v board. Such a configuration has not been tested other than for physical compatibility.