Voltlog #278 – InTheMail

Welcome to a new InTheMail, the series that will touch both your passion for electronics and your bank account at the same time. Before I get started I’m gonna take a second to remind you to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell notification icon because that’s the only way you will know for sure when I upload new videos.

Voltlog #229 – What’s The Smallest Digital RGB LED?

Welcome to a new voltlog, today we’re talking about RGB LEDs. Everyone knows and probably uses digital RGB LEDs these days because they’re convenient, you only need a single pin to control then, they can be chained one after the other creating long addressable RGB strings, you don’t have to worry about driving them with constant current, in fact they even have digitally controlled brightness settings so they’re pretty convenient.

Since these are digital, they have a built-in controller chip, and if we take a closer look at one of these LEDs which comes in a 5050 package, we can see the driver chip and the 3 LEDs red, green blue with their corresponding bonding wires. There are two popular drivers chips the WS2812 and the SK6812 and each of these might have different revisions as well. The WS2812 was the original one on the market and then the SK6812 appeared and is considered a clone of the WS2812 but brings some improvements. The SK6812 has doubled the pwm frequency at which it drives the LEDs which is always welcomed as it helps with reducing flicker and also the timing requirements are a bit tighter but existing WS2812 libraries should work fine with the SK6812.

Voltlog #73 – InTheMail

Welcome to a new InTheMail, the series that everybody seems to like, seriously I’m thinking this is starting to look like some group meeting where we all have the addiction to keep purchasing cheap electronic stuff from China.

Here is a list with the items shown in this video:

  • SG3525A PWM generator module
  • Photocell Automatic On/Off Light Switch Relay
  • B0505S-1W Isolated 5V DC-DC Converter
  • 5V 2A DC-DC Converter USB Charger With Voltmeter Module
  • 5V 3A DC-DC Converter USB Charger Module
  • 12V 0.5A AC-DC Switching Power Supply Module
  • LCD1602 I2C Serial Interface Adapter Module
  • WS2812 RGB LED Controller
  • WS2812 RGB LED Strip PCB Module

You can find links to all of these items in the video description visible on youtube.

VoltLog #4 In The Mail – ESP8266 Edison Light Bulb WS2812 TL081 HP E3611A

In this video I’m opening up my mail items on camera. I have the ESP8266 EVB from Olimex, an Edison vintage light bulb from ebay, WS2812 led pcb strip, LCD FPC various pitch breakout pcb, TL081 JFET opamp, breadboard jumper wire kit and the HP E3611A power supply.