Yeah, you'll put your eye out. Spec sheet warns not to stare at them. Output is visible at 4+ mile according to USCG specs
In all of our design iterations we are only driving the LEDs at about 60% of design max (20ma vs 30ma) so a couple percent difference in the legs is negligable.
What keeps the spare comparator stable?Checking through the stats on the website this morning and picked up the link back to this thread. Lot's of conversations in just a week....
As the project manager for The FrankenBebi Project I am glad to see the interest and debate going on here at YBW. We have joined the forum and subscribed to this thread to try and keep up. While there is no way I can address all the issues and suggestions in 7 pages of posts, I would like to clarify, update, explain a couple of issues I noticed while reading through the posts...
The ugly schematics are entirely my fault. My personal background is in the nuts&bolts side of engineering, not the EE side. Early on in the project I needed to teach myself Eagle Cad to allow efficient design of the printed circuit boards which are (in our opinion) much preferable to other methods of assembly. Since that time, we have added some new members to the electronics design team who draw much prettier Eagle schematic files than I. You can see an example below.
From the begining, one of the goals of the project was to come up with a design that could be assembled with readily available parts, with reliable sourcing and reasonable costs. The finished product must be "bullet-proof" for at least 5 years in adverse conditions with zero maintenance.
Given that everone has their own opinion as to "what's best", not only in the forums, but within the project as well, there is as always in life a little bit of compromise. It is always a battle to decide how good is good enough, and what goals to give up in order to accomplish others.
The posted designs have been our best effort based around a linear regulator and its associated issues with power dissapation at elevated voltages, non-regulation below drop-out voltages etc. It may not be elegant, but it works, and it's tough... Sorta like my boat.
This has not kept us from looking for improvements, and delaying release of final plans, drawings and bill of materials, until we are sure we have the best solution we can. Our reinforced circuit design team has come up with a totally new (and elegant) regulation and photo-switch design that solves a lot of nagging issues with the older design. Don't get me wrong, the ugly 0.11.03 design functions as advertised, on within 15 minutes of dusk, off within 15 minutes of dawn, rain or shine. On deck, in the weather with battery voltages from 11.8-16 Vdc.
Here is a (prettier) schematic of the latest design iteration. Y'all at YBW are the first to see it, as it hasn't even been posted to the website yet. Something more to discuss.
View attachment 38501
Thanks again for the interest in the project.
Cap-Couillon
Here is a preview of the new "Ice-Cube" case design
Igor's latest Newsletter will be sent out this weekend....
Honestly, no.... My roll in the project is in the area of mechanical design, not EE. Our head circuit boffin has however just posted an in-depth discussion of the latest circuit design, along with some test results, design decisions, and a general description of operation.