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DumbRGB Assembly Instructions

NOTE: Version .1 of the DumbRGB board has an error in the Resistor placement as well as the resistor values.
This How-To has been updated and shows the correct locations/placements as well as values for the resistors.

Step 1: Place the gate resistors, do not solder

Place the 470 ohm Gate Resistors, do not solder yet

Step 2: Because of the issues in the v.1 PCB the pull down resistors need to be creatively placed. Once all three are placed you can solder them and the gate resistors from step 1.

Place the 10K ohm pulldown resistors as shown

NOTE: Resistor placement pictures were modified for steps one and two. Remaining pictures will show incorrect resistor locations.

Step 3: Note the location of the Header pins. In this picture they are soldered on top of the board. You may choose to have a different orientation to the controller, Adjust these as needed. Also note that there is an additional pin used to source 12V power from the RF1_12V board.

Once the headers are added, Solder the Fuse holder (orientation not important) and the three MOSFETs as shown in the picture below.

Visual of pins for RF1_12 and DumbRGB

Step 4:

Test connections to the RF1_12V. If the pin for the 12V power input does not line up you can reheat and adjust it.

Step 5: Connect your LED strip to the R,G,B, and 12V header.

All done! You are now ready to get blinky with your RF1 Dumb RGB controller!!!

Now its time to fire up the Arduino IDE and load the Controller Sketch.

(Cross link to the how to for IDE use)

Note: Connecting the RF1 Dumb to a RF1(5v) board.

External Power to DumbRGB when using RF1 5V

In the picture above you see the RF1 dumb RGB 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 Dumb RGB 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. This configuration has not been tested other than for physical compatibility.