Tiger SSR16 Detail
Contents
The TIGER SSR16
This can be either a plain old 16 channel SSR board or it can be converted to be a 16 channel DMX controlled unit.
Plain SSR
As a plain SSR it is designed to be connected to any of the current controllers that require SSRs.
The main SSR PCB consists of 16 fully dimmable Triac based channels. These are divided into two groups of 8 channels with regards to incoming power. The two groups have individual fuses. If the amount of current you are drawing is low then there is provision for a link to be added so that only one AC input is required. Current should be limited to 1A per channel with a total of 16A across all channels. The Triacs in the BOM are 4A and will operate quite ok without a heatsink at 1A.
A 40 pin Box Header is used to provide connection to the outside world. As Cat5 is the main way the range of christmas light crontrollers are connected a small additional PCB is used that converts the 40 pin connector to four RJ45 sockets. Other adapters could be made if you wished to run other than Cat5 as this author may do in the future if he can get hold of some 20 pair cable really cheap. The Adapter board can be built to plug in directly or be built to allow connection via a standard 40 wire IDE cable so the RJ45 Sockets can be mount remotely or built into the side of a case.
So for normal connection to your favourite Christmas Light Controller you will need to have both the TIGER SSR16 board and the Tiger IDE2RJ45 Adapter Board.
RJ45 Adapter board
As described above just a simple pcb that converts the 40 connector to four RJ45 Sockets.
DMX daughter Board
Now it gets interesting, by adding some power supply components to the main board and plugging in this daughter board to the TIGER SSR16 you get a standalone DMX controlled 16 channel controller. I'll describe the power components shortly. The DMX board has the input and output connectors for the DMX cabling, the PIC and Logic IC's to control 16 channels. The board has been designed to plug directly in but like the RJ45 adapter it is possible to use a 40 pin socket rather than a 40 pin plug on the board and thus allowing for the remote location of the DMX board via a 40 wire IDE cable. Please note that the newer 80 wire IDE cables are not suited and cannot be plugged. The firmware used is a slightly modified version of the Freestyle controller Firmware and therefore is well tested and proven. (My thanks to RJ) This board requires a stable 5v supply and this is provided from the main board via the 40 pin connector. The ZC signal is also provided via the main board via the 40 pin connector and requires AC to be connected to the second bank of channels
TIGER SSR16 Power Options and onboard ZC
Now we get a little complex.
The Zero Crossing circuit. This is the tried and tested ZC circuit based on the H11A1 with the ZC pulses being sent to the 40 pin connector.
Power supply components. The DMX daughter board requires a solid 5v DC voltage. This voltage is supplied by the onboard TL783 SMD Regulator. This regulator allows for a wide range of input voltages so we have three ways to provide an input to this regulator. 1.A DC voltage can be supplied to the board from an external supply such as a computer power supply. The voltage must be greater than 8v to allow for the TL783 to function correctly so a 12v input is recommended. This removes the need for the onboard transformer and bridge rectifier. 2.For 110v and 240v AC supply connections a transformer with 8v secondaries is used to get around 11v DC input into the Regulator. This requires both the DSW316 Transformer and the Bridge Rectifier to be used. 3.For 24v and 36v the main AC is jumper directly to the Bridge Rectifier, the transformer is not required. If used with 36v AC power it is recommended strongly that a heatsink is added to the PCB to assist with removing the heat generated by the linear regulator dropping over 50v to get to 5v. It may be better to use an external 12 volt feed in this situation. Not so much an issue on cold nights but those 30 degree centigrade nights experienced across a lot of australia may prove to be too much. We have tried to cover most of the available options.
With regards to the TL783 Regulator used, this is a Surface mount device that whilst quite large can be a little tricky to get soldered into place due to the amount of heat required to solder the body of the Regulator down to the PCB – this is required as it provides the required heat dissippation connection to the copper PCB trace that has bee provided for this purpose.
The easiest way to mount this item is to use solder paste that can be bought for hobbiest use and apply a small amount on the solder pads for the TL783 and then apply heat until it melts and makes the solder joint. If you only have normal solder then a high temperature soldering iron should be applied to the expose metal tab on the body of the TL783 until such time as the solder melts when place against this metal tab and flows around and hopefully under the metal tab. The three legs can be soldered as normal. It's not real as hard as it sounds but can take a couple of goes to get it right.
A number of people have asked can a single power supply be used for two boards and the simple answer is no as the transformer is not rated to supply the estimate full load current of two boards.
