Monday, January 28, 2013

Not Feeling Well, But Work Goes On!

Dateline - 26 January, 2013 - I've been fighting a cold all week and didn't want to work out in the cold garage, so I did some work on the electronics I could do in the house.  Last week I ordered a 14 Amp, 12 volt DC power supply to test out my wiring.  Several weeks ago I bought a breadboard, jumpers, LEDs, ribbon cable and micro switches for the for the dashboard indicator console.  So I decided to wire up the LEDs and switches on the breadboard to see if they would work.  Here is what I come up with:




Since I got that working, I then drew up the wiring schematics.  I have a 12"x12" PCB board that I am going to use etch the wiring diagram onto.  I found a great source for instruction on doing this here (http://electrons.psychogenic.com/modules/arms/art/10/PrintedCircuitBoardPCBHOWTOAnIllustratedGuide.php).  I wasn't able to finish to drawings because I need the male 10 pin plugs that will be soldered to the board, but they are pretty close.  Here are the two drawings.
Center Light Cluster including Gear Selected, Turn Signals, etc.

Circuit board that carries switches mounted in gear selection quadrant.
Finally, I hooked up the power supply to my rack of eight switches to see what the LED's look like when they are lit.  I have a choice of either having the lights on all the time, on when the switch is on or on when the switch is off.  They are very bright, so I may want to put some resistance, or wire two or three in series to reduce the brightness.  Here is what they look light fully lit:


So, once I get the male 10 pin plugs in, I can finish up the wiring diagrams and start the etching process.  I also thought about using my 3D printer to print the diagram on the board if the laser printer option describe above doesn't work.