Happy dance.

So last night, dashing home from work, I started transferring the LED flasher from breadboard, with 3904s and 3 LEDs to perf-board, power transistors and 25 LEDs. Having never tested the power transistors (what am I going to do if they don't work, after all?), having little confidence in my soldering skills under pressure, all of that.

And last night, at about 1 am, I realised I'd soldered a female connection onto the LED string, where it should have had male. I only needed to put 2 more connectors together to test it, but I thought stuff it, I'm going to bed.

Woke up this morning, stripped the connector off, found some terminal blocks to use instead (faster!), and fired it up.

And nothing happened. By this point, I was frazzled enough to be relieved that I wouldn't actually have to produce more of the damn thigs. But I checked my connections anyway. Ooops! Helps if, in addition to the flasher circuit, I provide power to the LED string!

Fix that, fire it up. 8 little LEDs flashing their hearts out.

Whether or not I decide to make more for these guys, whether or not they decide to buy, whatever happens, I'll always have that :)

And the best idea I ever had was using IDC ribbon connectors for the LEDs instead of manually soldering 25 RGB LEDs in a string. 10 minutes per string vs 5 minutes per LED!

sol.
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