Fez Panda II and G35 Christmas Lights

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1

Hi All,

I’m a software guy, but am interested in mixing software and hardware.

How can I connect the Fez Panda II board to the G35 Christmas lights?

I’ve seen Andre’s link at http://www.tinyclr.com/codeshare/entry/146, but am just new and paranoid enought that I was hoping someone could give me a little more detail on how to power the Panda II and G35 Christmas lights

Thanks,
Duane

2

Hi Duane,

I haven’t seen these GE lights so can’t say what connections they have.

[quote]Connections:
Lights GND -> Fez Gnd
Lights V+ (5.5v) -> Fez V-In
Lights Data -> SPI1.MOSI
[/quote]
Seems pretty straightforward. In this configuration, the G35’s are providing power to the Fez via the VIn pin. So you don’t need any other power source other than what the lights use.

Can you take some shots of the connections on the lights to help guide you further?

3

Hi Brett,

Thank you for your quick response! :slight_smile:

I have two pictures.

One shows a green box with red connectors. That is what came with the lights. I separated the lights from the box and added the connectors. The three connectors are the Gnd, V+, and data. Here’s a better shot representing the lights and what the three lines do.

The next picture shows the Fez board where I’ve put in the wires for Vin and GND.

I guess the questions are:

  1. Should I not have totally disconnected the lights from the controller box?
  • Since I did disconnect the lights, do I plug them back in and just have a wire feeding off the V+ and V-
    – Doing that will make it parallel for the fez board and reduce the voltage. Do I add the fez board in parallel?
4

I guess it would help to upload the pictures…eh?

5

So the Green wires go off to the actual lights themselves? The black wires I see in the 2nd image goes off to the power brick?

I think, but could be wrong, that you need to have Fez in parallel to the existing controller, except for the data line. That way you can use the power from the brick to power Fez, and you don’t need to worry about the power capability of how you’re powering Fez.

6

Yeah, I guess I should have disconnected the power from the brick to the controller. I added the plugs so I could reconnect the lights just to make sure they still worked. (They do).

And you’re right…the voltage would be the same if I hook it up in parallel.

Thanks for you help…I’ll try it out now.

7

Thanks for the help. I have lights now!

However, they’re not working quite right, but I’ll play with that and see if I can fix it on my own.

I’m still running the power after the green box. I’ll change that up after my day job and get the power straight from the power brick.

Thanks again!!!

-Duane