LED based flexible panels that are 2,4,6, and 8 LED wide
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Easy to cut or daisy chain into longer bands. We designed them to fit in a typical flexible PCB fabricators limits. They tend to use 500mm sheets. So we kept our lengths just under 20" and 10".
Any software related will be released under BSD or MIT license. SAAS or cloud based software will be AGPL.
The flexible boards come in a translucenty brown and we will likely be producing initial fabricated versions in a similar look to our own hand etched versions to keep cost low. Eventually we might be able to afford a black or similar color that is better for LED displays.
We might in the future also try to increase the density. Right now we are concerned that the LEDs do not interfere with flow and drape of the fabric. We will need to test more.
Our main limit is DipTrace. We will port our footprints to KiCAD in the future.
There aren't many customizable shapes. We have been experimenting with triangles and complex geometry that results from them, but nothing yet.
Order a stencil for the board from exporting out the gerber paste layer from Diptrace. oshstencils.com is good, but larger stencils can be made in steel cheaply in China too.
Use Diptrace to print for toner transfer etching. Use preview for alignment and set mirror and print in black only options. Select the pads, holes, traces, copper pours, and board outline. For instructions on etching: https://medium.com/@cinlin/diy-flexible-circuit-boards-58c3794ed0cb
Apply low temperature or leaded solder paste (LEDs do not like 250'C) with the stencil, populate with proper ESD precautions, reflow with an oven.
https://medium.com/@cinlin/soldering-smd-components-on-flexible-pcb-b0b2f6c3de21
Chris Hamilton
Dirk-WIllem van Gulik
ClockLoop
Vikas V
Chris