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  • Author Author: tariq.ahmad
  • Date Created: Date Created
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Repairing a Neewer 660 Studio light - How Hard Can It Be? -- Episode 594

I’ve got a studio light which has suddenly become faulty, how hard could it be to fix it rather than replace? In today’s episode I try and fault find the PCB to see if its a fault I can fix.

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Bill of Material:

Product Name Manufacturer Quantity Buy Kit
8 bit MCU, STM8S003F3P6TR STMICROELECTRONICS 1 Buy Now
Fixed LDO Voltage Regulator HOLTEK 1 Buy Now
Pluggable Terminal Block WAGO 3 Buy Now
 

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Fault studio light

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  • When I said: "Use what you have and just build a new controller." I did not mean to trash the existing PCB. You have two parts on the current PCB: The drivers, and the 5vdc power supply. So the easy way is to Remove the CPU which gave up the magic smoke. Now you have to identify all of the outputs and inputs. Then you have a choice, use the same CPU as They did or one of your own on a small PCB and wire the IO pins to the others IO pins and write the code. I would stay away from parts that have potential "death upon read" - Good Luck.

  • in reply to phoenixcomm

    I immediately thought I'd just replace the microcontroller with a replacement, and write my own code, especially as the programming header is on the PCB and easy to connect in to.
    I'm tempted to challenge myself and replace it with a 555 based circuit though, to output the PWM signal based on the pots to the LED drivers, potentially still using the existing drivers, but if I re do them, I can get a single drop in replacement PCB made with the 555s(/556), LED drivers and power produced, which I think would be a pretty neat solution, just a little more time consuming.

  • in reply to hifromkatie

       You are building a bigger box, for no reason. As an Integration & Sustaining Engineer, I used to work on all sorts of stuff,   And I had a problem, which you seem to have. STOP BUILDING BIGGER BOXES! It's a disease. please refer to Occam's razor. Where the simplest solution is most likely the best.  You started to build the bigger box:
         "I'm tempted to challenge myself and replace it with a 555-based circuit though, to output the PWM signal based on the pots to the LED drivers,              potentially still using the existing drivers, but if I redo them, I can get a single drop-in replacement PCB made with the 555s(/556), LED drivers and        power produced, which I think would be a pretty neat solution, just a little more time-consuming." 
    I hope you don't. do easier things like wire a new CPU to the board, maybe something different if you have the toolset. You just need to get the I/O of the new CPU to the old CPU and start to program it. AND get rid of the LDO in favor of a better device like an LM780x but with one more component a Zener Diode across the input side of the regulator and you want it about .5vdc above the input voltage. This way a transient from the wall wart, will not do any damage, as when the voltage rises it will be directed to the ground. 

  • in reply to phoenixcomm

    Forget about using C code, go with micropython Heart eyes KISS FTW!

    from machine import Pin, ADC, PWM
from time import sleep

warmPot = ADC(0)
warmPWM = PWM(Pin(0))
warmPWM.freq(1000)
while True:
    warmPWM.duty_u16(warmPot.read_u16())
    sleep(0.01)

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