A Better Power Driver Shield Kit

Archive New Product Ideas
1

I have acquired 2x 5M 12V 3528SMD RGB Strips which I would like to control with an Arduino.

I first looked at the NDrive shield from Freetronics, http://www.freetronics.com.au/products/ … htqRkZMDYg and at this stage, it seems to be my only option, as it lets you input whatever Vin you like, and it has handy indicator LEDs for each channel.

But I still need a 12V source, which I have in the form of an ATX Power Supply.

Then I saw your “retired” Power Driver Shield Kit, https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/10305 which would suit me fine, as I need 6x 12V outputs. But for some reason, the “New and Improved” version has the outputs split between 12V and 5V!!!

What would be better would be a shield with both the 5V and 12V connections, but using a Jumper to select which voltage to use on each output, and maybe a 3-way with an external Vin as well. We’d like to also have the power jumper changed to a switch, and a jumper to disconnect the 5V Pin from the shield power.

A handy extra would be the ability to turn on the PSU with a digital pin on the Arduino (via the 5VSB)

This is probably a lot to ask in a post (my first post) but I’m surprised that you went to all the trouble to design and manufacture a shield like this with such a lot of shortcomings.

2

If you look at both schematics, you will see that all six channels are low-side drivers (ie. the FET switches the negative side of the strip) The FETs are the same for both sets of outputs, so all channels could control 12V loads; the only difference is where the positive side of the connectors gets their power from. All you need to do is connect the negative side of each LED strip to the negative screw terminal of each channel. Connect the positive of the strips to the positive screws on the 12V side only (you should be able to fit two wires in each terminal or pigtail them).

/mike