Partycat Revision 4

lukecyca · November 18, 2018, 12:33am

Last year I made this revision 4 of the partycat, but haven’t gotten around to making kits… until now!

These are a bit different than revision 3:

No tiny level shifter IC. These use a single mosfet level shifter that is much easier to solder.
No high-current auxiliary output. I had put this on the previous versions because I wanted to be able to reinforce the RGB LEDs with strips of pure white. Now that RGBW strips are commonplace, I removed that.
PCB shaped like a cat.

Want one?

A full kit - $15 (3 available)
Full kit without the ESP8266 - $5 (11 available)

I’m really short on ESP8266 chips. If you have a ESP 7, 12, 12E, 12F, or anything with that footprint, it’ll work. You can also buy them on Digikey for $10.50.

To purchase

Post here so others can see how many have been taken
Send me money on Paypal
I’ll put it in the Drop Box with your name

Janet · November 18, 2018, 12:35am

Hey @lukecyca would love to buy a full kit from you please. Will send through bucks by paypal. edit: cashola sent

packetbob · November 18, 2018, 12:37am

I’ll take 2 of the kits without the ESP…

Janet · November 18, 2018, 12:44am

If anyone wants to do a build night together for these I will open the space for such a purpose. Also if you are new to SMD (surface mount soldering) I will get you going. i.e. just buy the kit.

Majicj · November 18, 2018, 6:53am

Please put me down for one (1) full kit with ESP8266. Paypal sent.

Mark

chadleaman · November 18, 2018, 8:35am

I will take a full kit. Thanks. Will be my first party cat.

lukecyca · November 21, 2018, 9:06pm

The kits are made. I have to update the instruction sheet, so I’ll post that in the next couple days.

@chadleaman @Janet @Majicj @packetbob I left them in the Drop Box.

Catwalk PCB

A common problem on these LED strips is providing enough 5v current. If the strip is too long, the voltage sags on the far end, causing the colours to be dimmer and more orange. The solution is to “inject” power at various points. For that I made these catwalk PCBs. I included two in each kit.

These give you a bit more surface area to glue down the strip and tie in some power or extra capacitors or whatever. Also useful to terminate the ends of each row and jumper the data.

Moar kits

All of the “full kits” are gone, so I’m out of ESP8266 chips. If anyone wants a full kit and is willing to wait a bit, I’ll source more chips to make more full kits.

Janet · November 21, 2018, 9:51pm

Let me know if/when peeps want to hang out and make these. Will open the space.

Michael_Best · November 22, 2018, 1:13am

Hello from ENTS in Edmonton, I’ve been reading about the previous board.

Would love to get one, can I arrange to have one kit without ESP mailed to me?

lukecyca · November 22, 2018, 4:27am

Hey @Michael_Best. Yes, let’s work something out! PM me your address and Paypal me a few extra bux for a padded envelope.

Janet · November 25, 2018, 5:28am

Alrighty - let’s build party cats on Thursday (nov. 29th, 7 - 10pm). I will be at the space. Come and hang out.

packetbob · November 26, 2018, 2:10am

I’ll be there
I’ll bring you those tilt sensors

Janet · November 26, 2018, 4:01am

Woo! Thanks.

wander · November 28, 2018, 4:16am

Hi @lukecyca, please put me down for three (3) kits with no ESP chip.

Will PayPal very soon.

kleenpwr · November 28, 2018, 6:35pm

Hi @lukecyca, After our chat the other day, I’m curious to use this for my lightbox/window project. I’ll take 2 kits and will likely need the power injection pieces as the box will be about 5’*1.5’. Will send over PayPal now…

If anyone is interested in doing a bulk order for the wifi chips, I’d be happy to help coordinate. Thanks!

lukecyca · November 29, 2018, 4:41pm

New instruction sheet:

I built a kit last night to make sure everything you need is in there. I updated the instructions here:

I’ve put the following in the dropbox at VHS:

@Janet 1 full kit (paid)
@packetbob 2 kits without esp (paid)
@Majicj 1 full kit (paid)
@chadleaman 1 full kit (paid)
@wander 3 kits without esp (paid)
@kleenpwr 2 kits without esp (paid)

I will also be sending one kit without esp to @Michael_Best in Edmonton.

There are 4 kits (without esp) remaining.

I’ve also left my programming cable in the drop box which you all can borrow.

chadleaman · November 29, 2018, 5:11pm

Tip of the hat Luke! Look forward to seeing everyone tonight.

Janet · November 29, 2018, 7:02pm

@lukecyca thanks so much - really looking forward to putting this together!

Majicj · November 29, 2018, 8:00pm

Thanks @lukecyca!

Hey where might I find the solder mask for this board? I’d like to try making a solder mask stencil for this and baking my board in the reflow oven.

Jarrett · November 29, 2018, 8:23pm

It’s this:

github.com

lukecyca/partycat/blob/master/gerbers/partycat-F.Mask.gts

G04 #@! TF.FileFunction,Soldermask,Top*
%FSLAX46Y46*%
G04 Gerber Fmt 4.6, Leading zero omitted, Abs format (unit mm)*
G04 Created by KiCad (PCBNEW 4.0.7) date Tuesday, December 26, 2017 'AMt' 07:42:27 AM*
%MOMM*%
%LPD*%
G01*
G04 APERTURE LIST*
%ADD10C,0.100000*%
%ADD11R,2.800000X2.800000*%
%ADD12C,2.800000*%
%ADD13R,1.600000X1.150000*%
%ADD14R,2.000000X2.000000*%
%ADD15C,2.000000*%
%ADD16R,1.598880X1.598880*%
%ADD17R,2.900000X2.900000*%
%ADD18C,2.900000*%
%ADD19O,2.100000X4.100000*%
%ADD20R,2.432000X2.127200*%
%ADD21O,2.432000X2.127200*%

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