[dorkbotpdx-blabber] LED breakout boards?

[Paul Stoffregen]

I made a little board like this a couple years ago for a burning man 
project.  It had 3 LEDs and a resistor, all connected in series, and 2 
terminal blocks.  It was intended for 12 volts, so 3 blue or white 
resistors added up to about 10 volts, leaving 2 for the resistor.  I 
glued them inside those little clear plastic boxes from Tap plastics, 
and drilled 2 little holes on the ends just big enough for the wires to 
fit through.

Having 2 terminal blocks (1 on each end) made it a lot easier to wire up 
lots of them, as each one passed the power through.  The little boxes 
kept the dust out (well, a little got in, but not much) and they worked 
great all week without any maintenance.

Sure, you can just solder a resistor to an LED and leave wires 
exposed... which is fine for a little project on your desk, but if 
you're building something for a harsh outdoor environment, making it 
strong and protected from the elements and easily serviced with only a 
normal screwdriver makes all the difference between "just works" and 
"constantly fiddling with".

I probably still have a dozen or so of those little boards laying around 
somewhere.  I made them and a bunch of other little boards by 
"panelizing" them onto a larger board and having that made by Sunstone.  
Their prices were much lower back then.


-Paul





Hans Lindauer wrote:
> How tiny: as small as possible using a 3mm LED and a standard-sized 
> resistor, looks like maybe .3"x.5".  Or maybe a little bit longer, 
> with a mounting hole that could be broken away.
> How cheap: <= a quarter each.
> How many: I could use about a hundred.
>
> I went to Sunstone's site, and it looked like I could get something 
> made for somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 cents (15 cents with the 
> breakaway hole).  If I make 5000 of them.
>
> Anybody else in the market for these things?
>
> -Hans
>
> Eric Garner wrote:
>> How tiny? How cheap? How many?
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On May 12, 2009, at 12:20 AM, Hans Lindauer 
>> <armatronix at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Does anyone have a source for tiny, cheap PCBs that will accept an LED,
>>> a resistor, and a pair of wires?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> -Hans
>
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