Product similar to REV Servo Power Module but for LED power?

Technical Electrical
1

I was looking at controlling LEDs from the RIO, and I was looking into solutions to inject more power over the PWM wires, and pass through the signal. I know its not that difficult to solder, but its nice to have a plug and play solution. I saw the REV Servo Power module, and its almost fits the bill, only thing is, it outputs a regulated 6V, instead of the more commonly used 5V used on most LED strips.

Does anyone know of a similar product to the REV Servo power module, that outputs 5V, or that doesn’t have any internal power regulation at all (I would then connect my own 12V-5V step down transformer as its input).

2

I don’t think the REV module will do what you’re expecting - it passes the PWM signal through without any gain, and adds the 6V onto the power line (the red one in the center) without any modulation.

REV Blinkin may be more what you’re looking for.

Blinkin LED Driver - REV Robotics

3

I know that, I explicitly stated that in my post… I want to control LEDs from the RIO directly, using WPILib, NOT using an external LED controller like the Blinkin. Besides, Blinkins are effectively not available.
I’m looking for a similar product to the REV Servo Power module. Hence the title, and the post text.

4

We sell a similar product that doesn’t have any power regulation.

2 Likes
5

CANdle will actually do what you’re looking for.

You can supply a WS2812B-compliant pulse train for direct LED control to the CANdle instead of CAN (so Data to CANH and GND to CANL) - CANdle will auto-detect the the signal type and switch to direct LED control mode.

This gives you power injection & regulation (up to 6A@5V) while allowing you to pass through your own data line instead of using CAN-based control.

We were out of stock for a bit in the last part of the season but I’m happy to say CANdles are now back in stock:

5 Likes
6

Awesome! That seems perfect. The signal sharing feature seems really cool too.

7

We actually did this on our robot last year to inject power and it worked find. Just need to be careful that the LEDs are rated for power values coming from the servo module (we had some on our practice bot that were rated for a slightly lower voltage and saw a some burn out), but the newer ones we ordered for the comp bot are still running fine.