Motor Control: The PD-LED can also control up to 12 servo motors and up to 2 stepper motors. Servo control is better than 1-degree resolution. Servos need to be powered externally, but the control line connects directly to the PD-LED. Stepper motor control works in conjunction with a pulse stepper controller, like a StepStick or EasyDriver. The PD-LED sends the desired direction and number of pulses.
The PD-LED can be driven directly by a P3-ROC, indirectly through a P-ROC with a PD-Master, or indirectly (through a high-speed RS-485 master device) by various other microcontroller-type devices.
Each PD-LED has an RS-485 serial interface so that it can chain to other driver boards. Therefore, you can use as many boards as your application requires. Further, since the serial interface will continue to work at distances well over 10 feet (100 feet even), you can locate the boards in the backbox, under the playfield, or anywhere else in your machine.
The PD-LED responds to the following commands:
- Set Color (8-bits per LED, 24-bits per RGB LED) – The PD-LED automatically drives a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) signal to achieve the desired color
- Set Fade Rate
- Fade – The PD-LED automatically adjusts the PWM signal over the specified rate to fade from the previously set color to a new one.
Note 1 – the PD-LED does not have LEDs on the board itself (except for a few status LEDs). Rather, it provides connectors for driving external LEDs. Because each application has its own needs and constraints, it’s likely each design has different LED configurations. Driving just about any configuration of LEDs is possible with one or more PD-LED boards.
Note 2 – the PD-LED is not intended to drive standard pinball-bulb-style LEDs. Rather, it provides low current (22mA) drivers for directly driving LED components, including any of the RGB LED products offered by Multimorphic.
Note 3 – Motor control functionality for servos and stepper motors is only available in version 3 boards. Version 3 boards are fully backwards compatible with version 2 boards. Version 2 boards can be updated to version 3 boards for a $10 update fee and prepaid shipping. If you want to update or purchase version 2 boards, please email us to request quotes and lead-times.
Note 4 – version 2 boards are almost identical to version 1 boards. The only differences are the communication bus connectors (J2 and J3) are now 3 pins (with an optional ground pin) instead of 2, and the pin numbers in those connectors are reversed. If you need version 1 boards, please email us to request quotes and lead-times.
For high volume quotes, please contact us at [email protected].
Documentation
PD-LED (v3) SpecificationsPD-LED (v2) Specifications
PD-LED (v1) Specifications
