Testing the pillars

Post date: Nov 23, 2014 10:28:33 PM

To test the pillars, I set up a breadboard that I could slide each pillar into. I got a bunch of resistors so the vertical wires will be connected to the correct resistance wherever they happen to land. The process was really fast and easy, as you can see in the animated picture below. I just slid a pillar in, took the powered wire, and touched it to each of the leads to complete the circuit and test to be sure all the lights are working. Then I swapped it out with the next pillar to test. The lights light up white because there is equal amounts of red, green, and blue light. Only one bulb did not light up correctly out of all 512 bulbs; it lit up cyan because the red LED did not work. To fix this, I desoldered and popped out the bad bulb, placed the pillar back on the jig, soldered a new bulb on, and tested it again. I was surprised at how much the color varies in white light between the bulbs. Some are more blue, some are more yellow, and some lean more towards red. The difference is minimal, but interesting. It could be from differences in the way the LEDs are made, and/or in the way the current limiting resistors are made.

-Jeremy