Wiring LED strips - pedal board done

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Hamner1

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I ordered these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/4-30cm-Under-Car-Truck-SMD-LED-Grill-Light-Strip-RED-/150482099477?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23096e9d15

Somebody correct me if I am wrong. The wire ends/leads I would hook up + to + & - to - (I believe thats refered to as parallel)? They dont really have a label, but silver wire to silver wire & then copper wire to copper wire. Then which wire is soldered to the tip & which wire to the ring? Does it matter?

Long story short is I am adding LED strips to my plexi glass pedalboard. Depending on what I think with 2 or 3 strips, I may add a strip or 2 to the rack.

Thank you for any advice/help. :D
 
They did not come with a power supply, although I have a 12v DC wall wart & eventually will add a Voodoo lab iso5 or pedal power2. I found them in the ebay auto section. Original purpose my guess is to add them to grill, wheel well, under dash & wire them into your cars 12v system. Obviously I have other plans. :D

The board is a custom job I made out of .22" plexi glass. This thing is a beast & all it needs to hold is a volume, wah, midimate, tuner, TS9, & wireless receiver. Slowly it is coming together.
Here are a couple of pics.
Original mockup (obviously I'm going through some changes):
PedalboardPic.jpg


Couple of shots in its current state:
PedalboardTop.jpg

PedalboardAngle.jpg


Eventually the midi cable will be routed under top panel & connected to midi jack on the side of the board. I have a couple of stray cables which will eventually be attached to something. I am either going to have to have the expression pedal off the board or eliminate the wah pedal & use the expression pedal & the mfx unit for wah. I have not decided on that yet, although I rarely use a wah, so who knows.
 
SacredGroove said:
Assuming copper is +, it would go to the tip. Were you thinking of soldering a jack to the lights to plug into the wall wart? Plexi glass is a cool idea!
Click to expand...

Yes that is the plan, although I could also just cut the end and solder the wire ends. LEDs themselves don't have a - or + side do they?
Plexi glass is cool, but pain in the *** to work with. At least this thickness. :lol:
 
SacredGroove said:
Yes, LEDs are polarized: anode (+) and cathode (-).
Click to expand...
:lol: :lol: I accidentally figured this out a little bit ago. I connected the DC jack to the power source & then touched wires to the "posts". One way it worked & the other way nothing.
Thank you for the information. It is much appreciated.

SacredGroove said:
Instead of soldering the wires together you could just use some small wire nuts to make the connections. That way the connection is easily disconnected, if needed.
Click to expand...
8) You sir are a genious. I thought about some way of doing this as I wanted to avoid soldering (at least the wires together). The wire nuts didn't even cross my mind. A trip to Best buy or Home Depot tomorrow. :)

I am getting a little anxious about finishing this now. I laid 1 of the strips inside the board & had it lit for a short period of time. It looked cool as hell in my opinion. Now to decide if I should angle them or run them strait front to back. To bad I work early & don't have the time to complete this tonight. Lights should be done by Saturday though. One last wrinkle I think I am going to add is an On/Off foot switch for the lights.
 
If you use wire nuts you might want to tape them together, side y side, after they're connected. That'll provide a bit of strain relief in case you need to pull on the wires. Probably Home Depot. Best Buy may rape you on something wire nuts.
Hope it works out. Post a pic or 2 with it all lit up when you're done. 8)
 
Zander said:
Wire nuts? Why not use slot-and-tab splicers like are used to connect speakers?
Click to expand...

That is an option too, but they would still need etape since the connections are bare metal. Wire nuts automatically hide any bare metal, wire, connections. Unless there are insulated tab connectors? :wink:
 
Holy crap I am a slow *** monkey. Crazy changes at work & more stuff on my plate, so not quite done. So far the lights are mounted & wired (I even have a footswitch to turn them on & off) Overkill I think, but that is me. :lol: I have the patch cables done & ready. Pedals & velcro attached.

Now the problem I came across yesteday. The stinking midi connection. I took a midi cable cut it in half. I wired it (I thought correctly) to the midi jack on the side of the board. I then proceeded to plug the other end into the midimate & the midi cable from the RM4 to the midi jack on the side of the board. The midi mate will change when buttons pressed but it is not sending the signal to the rack. I unplugged the board midi cable & connected strait from the rack to the midi mate & it works. Obviously I have something connected wrong on the midi jack on the board. Does anyone have a 5 pin schematic they can share.

I think I may have a thought as to my problem. the 5 pins at the bottom are all wired, then there is a prong at the top middle that I have no wire connected to. at any rate the cable I have has 4 sheethed wires & then copper (ground) for the 5th. Any help is appreciated.
 
I am by no means an expert on the midi cables. I honestly have no clue what goes on with those, but that said, if you have already cut up a cable, I would butcher one of the ends, get it stripped to see exactly which wires go to where. Just a thought if you're already butchering stuff, though I am a destructive person :-D

Take care, I hope this works out well. I am thinking up a pedal board myself aswell... Just thinking of the best way to get an angel board and sink the MTS switch so it is not EXTRA angled. Mind is not clicking yet today.

Peace
~The Hat isn't mad. Look under it!
 
No need to butcher the cable. It has a screw that you undo & the housing slides off. Actually this is what I did. Since I figured I missed something I went into the music store today to ask the tech. He suggested I wired it backwards. Otherwise he said it should be wired up correctly. Back home I went & low and behold, the tech was right. I'm an idiot. It now works. Now I just need to make sure the 1 spot connections are correct -/+. It would piss me off to fry the midimate or the Polytune at this point.

So pics should be up by tomorrow of the finished product.

MadHatter_Lurch - I'm not sure what materials you plan to use, but if you go with Plexiglass, beware that working with the 1/4" thick stuff is a pain.

My suggestion for sinking the mts switcher would be to cut out the appropriate sized "hole". In that cavity build up a platform that puts the MTS switch at the height you need.

As far as the angle goes, 3"-4"(max) on the back side(crowd side) sloping to 1/2"-1" inch on the front should give you a nice angle that will work well with volume, Wah, & expression pedals as well.

At some point I plan to redo the board & I have a plan as to how to make it easier to work wit hthe Plexi. I'll use 1/4" for the top. Then the side & middle supports will be made out of wood. Likely 5/16"-3/8" thick. The outer supports will be routed out to allow the light to illuminate out the sides. Thinner plexi glass will cover these routes & allow for the mounting of the jacks. The other thought is to have a "false bottom to hide the light & power cords/cables better. At any rate I need to stop rambling & get back to finishing this project.
 
Finally. Just ran through some quick playing as well to test the various pedals. It all works. :twisted: It was a good learning experience for sure.

House lights on:
DSCF1859.jpg


House lights out:
DSCF1861.jpg


Side angle:
DSCF1862.jpg
 
crankyrayhanky said:
Showtime!
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: I didn't notice this the other day, likely becasue I was just grabbing pics. Today I thought for fun I would hit the lights. I turned around & there was the shadow of the guitar & me on the wall. I laughed as I thought to myself, "if I was 16 again I would think this was totally cool and have visions of being the next (insert name of 80s guitarist here)". At least in my old age I chose not to strike any rock god guitarist poses :lol:
 
Now all you need is a smoke machine and you got some crazy stage prescence... I like it!!! :D
 
Daryl said:
Now all you need is a smoke machine and you got some crazy stage prescence... I like it!!! :D
Click to expand...

I have a smoke/fog machine. If I get obnoxious one day maybe I'll bust it out just to see the effect. :lol:

I'm already planning a more condensed board. Maybe find a way to select different color LEDs. Layout plan is: Midimate at the bottom & the other pedals lined at the top. This would make the board about a foot or so shorter. 18"x24" is a little more practical than 18"x36". Plus as you can see I have alot of open space. Also the Midimate would be recessed so as not to interfere with the volume, wah, or other pedals operations.
 

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