EL Driver Shield

The EL Driver Shield will drive 8 channels of EL wire, generating required voltages on the shield itself. Each channel will support dimming individually.

Project Status

• 2011-10-07: Added LEDs for each channel to assist in troubleshooting, and test points for each side of the HVAC. Completed adding silkscreen and ran checklist, CAM files now sent to Laen for manufacturing. Parts still need to be ordered.
• 2011-10-06: Completed board routing, still need to do silkscreen and checklist.
• 2011-10-05: Completed revision 1 schematic, passes checklist. Started board layout, got about 50% complete.
• 2011-10-04: Almost finished HV AC switching/control.
• 2011-10-03: Finished BOM/schematic for HV AC converter/inverter.
• 2011-10-02: Finished designing/simulating HV DC generator in LTSpice, put BOM and schematic for this section together.
• 2011-10-01: Many hours spent in LTSpice putting together a design for the HV DC generation.
• 2011-09-30: Started putting basic design ideas together.

Ideas / Brainstorming

• One single high voltage converter with separate switches for each channel
• Dimming using PWM via optoTRIAC on each channel, synced with the HV AC converter
• Shield will likely need a microcontroller on it
  • Inputs: 2x I2C address setting
  • Outputs: 1x HV DC converter sync pulse, 1x HV AC converter polarity signal, 8x optoTRIAC gate outputs
  • Bus: I2C, RS232