Hello world,
I have been working on a PWM RGB LED kit here for the past month utilizing x94 RGB high intensity LED's, x6 8-bit 74595 shift registers, and x36 3904 transistors. What I have essentially done is utilized a transistor on each pin of the shift registers to drive 8 LED's off each pin. Being as there are 4 leads per LED: 1 Red+, 1 Blue+, 1 Green+, and 1 Ground-.
Each individual output pin of the shift reg's go to the base of a transistor, and drive all 8 red pins. The same applies to drive the 8 blue leads, and 8 red leads. I have duplicated this setup 12 times and have quite a large array of LED's here. I've been tampering with the ShiftPWM library and have been able to shift the hue of all the LED's to attain any wavelength within the visible spectrum (or close to it).
My plan is to replace the LED kit I have built for my motorcycle -- which a green LED kit with 20 high intensities. This new kit will have almost 5 times the light output (4,000mcd per LED * almost 94 LED's = 375,000mcd) as well as interfacing new colors, patterns, and hue shifts.
What I utilized in my previous design was 5 arrays of 4 LED's. I did this by taking 8-pin IC sockets and some perf boards to make the arrays. I heat shrinked everything, wrapped in electrical tape, then sealed all connections with silicone, then re-wrapped in black tape. Each array came out very well and waterproofed to my liking. This worked well with only 4 LED's, however this time around, I intend on having 6 arrays of 16 LED's. So I have been racking my brain, and shopping around, for any solution I may be able to come across on how to mount 16 LED's into an array that will be compact.
I am wondering if anybody has some ideas I haven't yet thought of. Or perhaps if anybody might have some good component suggestions, I am hoping this LED holder/mount is already in existence. I have been thoroughly hunting through McMaster, Digikey, and Jameco and have found single LED holders, but I am looking for a block of some sort that will hold at least 4 - 8.
If there is no similar product to what I describe, I fear I may have to create a 3d render of the item I require and have it 3d printed by some fellows. I would prefer not to take that route as that would require a vast amount of 3d rendering which is fun but not my specialty.
So any input here on some mounting blocks holding anywhere between 4 and 16 LED's. Links, the name of the product, information, pictures, anything is appreciated. Thanks guys.