Project:The Octopus

The board being tested

The PCB uses a TLC5940NT with 16 PWM outputs to control 2 * 8 strips of white LEDs via 16 transistors which should be able to drive quite a lot of power per channel. Anyone know what these boards were originally?

Datasheet: [1]

There are two "RJ45" (8P8C) ports on the main board (they use Ethernet connectors, but they're NOT Ethernet, OK?).

The one to the right of the blue power connector is for connection to a microcontroller. I have one of the Arduino NANO copies.

Pinout:

1. VCC (+3.3v - 5v)
2. SIN
3. SCLK
4. XLAT
5. BLANK
6. NC
7. GND

The one on the left is to daisy chain more TLC5940 chips.

The connection between the main board and the light is via DE9 connectors, both female, and requires a male-to-male DE9 cable to connect them.

• 10/10/2013 - 4 1.8m DE9 Cables have been bought
• 25/01/2015 - PRL says - very nice but WHERE ARE THESE CABLES??