Update on LED light project

Original post author: Ryan

I haven’t posted to the blog in awhile. And when the time without a post is this long, I feel like I need to return with some good quality content.  I’d love to write a fun post about my progress on the LED light project but, unfortunately, it has suffered from several set-backs over the past few weeks.

After getting one LED panel working, I decided to buy three more panels. The panels are designed to be tiled together to form a larger display. Sadly, all three of the new panels were broken (one was cracked and the other two didn’t turn on). So, determined to keep the project moving forward, I bought another four panels. To my dismay, all four of those were broken too! So, I returned seven broken panels to Amazon all at once.

I did some research online and learned that I need to be careful with Amazon returns. If I were to buy and return another big batch of these panels, I’d be at risk of getting my Amazon account suspended. I had my Dad buy four panels with his account, and I bought another two panels of a slightly different design with my own account. I’ve tested two of those six so far, and fortunately, they both work.

The broken panels were a big set back. Testing and troubleshooting the panels takes a lot of time, and it’s frustrating working for a few nights and making zero progress.

Aside from the LED panels, I’ve also been tinkering with an ASUS Tinker Board S. This was my Christmas gift from my Secret Santa, Mike (thanks, Mike). It’s a single-board computer, very similar to the Raspberry Pi, but more powerful. At the same time, it’s less widely used and therefore more difficult troubleshoot by searching online. I’ve learned that 90% of tinkering is troubleshooting, so that’s a big deal.

I loaded an operating system for the Tinker Board onto an SD card, and somehow I completely bricked the SD card shortly thereafter. So, the project is on hold again until I get a new SD card.

I hope to have another update on this project soon. I have a working concept of what this project will become, but I still need to check if there’s any show-stoppers in terms of feasibility.