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Question about hijacking other devices gate transistors.

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msuffidy:
OK that's it for a while



msuffidy:
Ok I could not resist trying the method out on a USB led strip that I got for like $10. Looking at it, it seemed like it was pretty much the usual problem. Everything was on a really tiny scale. I tried soldering wires to the edge of smt resistors, but the entire resistor came off the board. I just continued to fumble around with the 2mm resistor on my soldering tip until I managed to sort of get it back on the board. I measured it and it was still the same value as the other 2. Then I scraped the board trace and soldered wire to that instead, which can not be a good thing. Anyway I encased the whole thing in glue gun glue so I am hoping the bonds will hold up if no forces are acting on the solder joints. I'd like to say a total success, but I have caught it doing weird things and there was a second chip. Maybe there was a via to the other chip. I am hoping it dies out after a while and goes away. I don't know if the remote still works or not for the chips. It does not look like it is doing anything.

**OK I noticed today that when I touched around the wires the green went bezerk. I un potted it a bit and the green wire is not the green wire, but another color so I went to the wrong spot. Go figure. Looks like a bad solder joint. Did it again. Working great.

Zero999:

--- Quote from: barycentric on January 23, 2022, 10:14:13 am ---
--- Quote from: Zero999 on December 17, 2021, 04:26:47 pm ---I don't have time to watch a 10 minute video and doubt many others do. Briefly explain what you're trying to do.

If you just want to control one or two RGB LED strips, use the simple circuit I posted above. I could build it much more quickly and easily than I could hack a pre-built board.

--- End quote ---

OP might be like many of us were - starting out with little access to the raw ingredients, not knowing the full theory, but being able to hack on compiled hardware. and hack away OP should

--- End quote ---
I could've built the circuit I posted earlier, when I was 12. The original poster doesn't appear to be open to suggestion.

Zero999:

--- Quote from: barycentric on January 23, 2022, 01:03:43 pm ---
--- Quote from: Zero999 on January 23, 2022, 11:09:47 am ---I could've built the circuit I posted earlier, when I was 12. The original poster doesn't appear to be open to suggestion.

--- End quote ---

i'm going to be charitable and assume you're having a bad day.

--- End quote ---
How am I being unreasonable? One of the first circuits I built, beyond the basic LED & resistor, was an astable multivibrator (you know the one with two BJTs, cross-coupled with RC networks) when I was about 11 years old. It definitely is easier to build simple circuits from scratch, than it is to reverse engineer and modify them.

If the original poster was open to suggestion, he/she would have asked more questions, rather than just posting their videos. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with creating a thread with videos and schematics about a project, but it's little frustrating when someone asks questions, then lacks interest in the answers and doesn't respond, when someone asks them reasonable questions such as: what? how? and why?

msuffidy:
The way I see it is like this:
1) I want to control a reasonable brightness and size led strip under PWM intensity control from an Arduino
2) The cheapest way to get the entire led array done for me is to buy a LED strip from Walmart
3) I don't have to build anything at all if I mess with what they sold me
4) If I did want to build the stuff I would been some level of power supply pre fabricated or all myself: I would have to know the current and voltage specs of the existing LED strip. I have some parts lying around but I would need 3 matching transistors for switching. I would need some means of safely(like in a enclosure) assembling the supply and transistors to something like a bread board or DIY pcb.

The way I see it, it is mostly done for me and I just had to hotwire a part and did not have to do anything else.
I purchased 2 Arduino Nanos for I can recall like 2 for $25 or something. This was like a clearance strip from Wallmart from Monster co and it was like $12 after tax. That is good because I think the ones they are selling now are mixed white/color.  So this project cost me I'd say $25 Canadian abouts.

I think why I really asked here was I was worried about killing my PC with any electrical issue from what was connected by USB. The strip runs off of a USB apple charger at 5V, so I gather pretty much anything that could go wrong would be ok as USB is generally protected from low voltages in the first place? I still expect optocouplers would have been the totally safe way to avoid backwash into my USB but I am not that worried.

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