In just 12 days, my PCB has arrived, thanks to JLCPCB. It has been quite a worry as after finalising and submitting the design, I realised that there is an issue. My design would never be able to recreate that uniform light of the engines unless I use a COB LED.
There is a solution should I wish to pursue in this direction: Custom COB LEDs.
And they are not cheap either. They will have their MOQs which are in the hundreds at least. Still, there are other solutions out there but this means constantly searching for them:
1. COB LED downlight with reflectors
This is a much better solution but it would also mean breaking open the lights and isolating the COB LED part. Then, I’d need to design or find a LED driver as well. So, this is not a plug & play solution. And it can be very expensive.
2. More COB LEDs
There are more COB LEDs out there which will have the right size and voltage. It is just a matter of time.
It will replace the clear part and should, in theory, slot in perfectly.
They are the worst SMD components to hand solder since I (still) do not have a reflow system. What I did was to apply the solder flux, then tin the pads before heating up the resistor for soldering. The flux makes sure the amount of solder used is enough and not to cause any potential shorting.
I am using 100 ohms instead of 75 ohms since 15mA should be sufficient for these SMD LEDs (I hope).
But this would mean I need to remove some plastics. If I went with this idea, the board’s thickness would have been 0.8mm instead.
