LED strip tester. Make or buy ?
Good day folks. So perhaps one of the most common issue we repairmen encounter is dead backlight LEDs, so naturally tools have been invented to make our life easier by speeding up the process of finding the dead ones, especially in large panels. This of course leads to the age-old question: how would one go about building one of these themselves ? These little cheapy, plastiky, nasty looking boxes are pretty expensive and although it would be handy to have one, it would sure be a lot more convenient and DIY to....well.....DIY 
There doesn't seem to much to them the way I see it at least. I imagine an adjustable constant current source, since that's how LEDs are normally driven in backlights (except in this case we have to adjust the current to drive various types of strips, since some may have more/less LEDs, requiring a different current).
Perhaps adapting a pre-existing supply like a power brick or an actual TV PSU might be easier than trying to start from absolute scratch.
How's THIS look ? Of course it's nothing fancy: plenty of people have discussed this before. The point is not so much building the tool itself, since I'm fine with testing LED by LED the way I'm doing now with a 5v adapter and limit resistor, but it would be a learning experience, plus it would still come in handy in practice since it would allow me to power up the whole strip at once. I'm aware that if there's a dead LED somewhere the strip wouldn't light up at all and I'd still have to test LED by LED to find it, but if the LED failed shorted, THAT'S when I'd instantly see it, since the rest of them would still come on.
Any thoughts ? Perhaps someone has already made one or has suggestions Cheers and thanks.
There doesn't seem to much to them the way I see it at least. I imagine an adjustable constant current source, since that's how LEDs are normally driven in backlights (except in this case we have to adjust the current to drive various types of strips, since some may have more/less LEDs, requiring a different current).
Perhaps adapting a pre-existing supply like a power brick or an actual TV PSU might be easier than trying to start from absolute scratch.
How's THIS look ? Of course it's nothing fancy: plenty of people have discussed this before. The point is not so much building the tool itself, since I'm fine with testing LED by LED the way I'm doing now with a 5v adapter and limit resistor, but it would be a learning experience, plus it would still come in handy in practice since it would allow me to power up the whole strip at once. I'm aware that if there's a dead LED somewhere the strip wouldn't light up at all and I'd still have to test LED by LED to find it, but if the LED failed shorted, THAT'S when I'd instantly see it, since the rest of them would still come on.
Any thoughts ? Perhaps someone has already made one or has suggestions
Cheers and thanks.
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