6. Batch "TA" 1S or 2S Bistro HD OTSM/NarsilM drivers 15-47.5mm size fit, S2+, C8, H03, MF01, MT03, Q8 Clicky or E-switch

the whole middle area on both sides has positive battery + copper, insulating it is nessesary or remove copper
batt+ can be used with a resistor for one LEd color permanent lit the other MCU controlled

driver is 1,6mm thick and has no stock brass ring, you need to solder it from one to the other driver with hot air
the thickness can be increased using 3 spots on the ground ring with solder blobs, or some other material like a copper wire in between head and driver

Thanks, sorry a few more questions then…

  • What are the existing mounting holes screw size, m3 ?
  • Would my + contact ring fit properly? it measures 34.66 OD and 14.90 ID, is that close enough to work on this driver?
  • Does the switch led with this driver work the same as a stock Q8? (which if I’m correct is also always on with batt pwr and blinks at low voltage)

My light has 2 color switch leds, green always on with battery power, red for low voltage warning. So I guess I could just use the green led only and it would work the same as Q8.

Also I’ve never de-soldered/reflowed a brass + ring, it’s pretty thick so I guess you’d have to get it pretty hot, wouldn’t the heat cause other components to de-solder?

For brass ring I use hot air the other side components dont fall off I have done double sided drivers a few hundred never had problems with other side components

You can light one LED with MCU the other permanent

I would imagine the non-conductive substrate of the printed circuit board (maybe made of silicone) is not a very good conductor of heat. So you can heat up one side pretty good and the heat will not transfer to the other side very well.

Beamo, you could do any number of things with a switch LEDs. It just depends on what you want. You could change the colors and have both of them work off of the MCU in tandem or you could have them both runoff constant power. I like connecting them directly to the battery (through a resistor) so that I know if the main power is connected or not. When you use the MCU output there are instances where the switch light might turn off and you might thank that you mechanically locked out the light when you really didn’t. It’s all up to you as far as what you want to do.

Ok thanks for the info.

In tandem I’d have to change the colors because one is (green) the other (red) so I think I would have brown light! (because both will be lit together unless locked out)

I’ll probably just connect the green to constant power, I think on the Q8 the main leds flash at low voltage (If Lexels driver works the same)

Lexel, will my + contact ring fit the driver? (my ring measures 34.66 OD and 14.90 ID)

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Thanks, does the MCU work the leds in the same way as the stock Q8?

I think the stock Q8 switch lights permanent (unless locked out) and flashes at low voltage. (And low voltage also flashes the main LEDs)

No, your thinking of pigmented or additive colors, like paint. Mix blue, red and green paint and you get brown.

With light, it is different. Blue red and green make white! Lol

See my my avatar that is blue and pink? Those are 2 different color leds. If you kept the green and red it would just look like green on one side and red on the other.

It is cheap to order new leds in a variety pack of colors. Then you can do both leds (looks better) in your own custom pattern! :+1:

Just like with the Q8, the switch light functions the same and has programming options. You can program the mcu to make it stay off. Or you can have it on, but under certain circumstances you can turn the light off and the switch light will stay off. It can be a little confusing. If you program it to be on, then you can also set it to blink the battery level on the switch led only. At least on the latest version of NarsilM v1.2 or 1.3.

I don’t know if the switch light blinks at the same time as the main LED blinks for low-voltage. I’ve never had that situation.

Haha, yeah I was thinking mixing paint. :person_facepalming: I should have known better, thanks for setting me straight and the info.

I’m assuming it will come with the latest version NarsilM 1.3?

I’m real excited about this driver, all I need now is to find out about fitment of my + contact ring, it looks of it should fit, I’m assuming the orange part in the drawing is bare copper, and that looks like most of the bottom side.

I don’t think that is official yet. Texas_Ace is the only one I know using it. It is basically the same as v1.2, but just a few tweaks. No difference in features or functionality.

Lexel uses the official NarsilM v1.2. I think he just started using it a month or two ago.

Yes, orange is copper. I don’t have either a Q8 or a BST, but I don’t see any reason your ring wouldn’t fit. It doesn’t even need to fully cover the copper area to be fully soldered.

What tools do you have to attach it? Hot air or a soldering iron, soldering wire or soldering paste?

I made the Q8 copper area bigger than on the original driver ring will fit

Thanks, I don’t have a hot air tool, I have many soldering irons, 25w, 30w, 60w, 300w and guns100/140/250w, I also have several small torches and a large heat gun.

But I’ve been looking for a while at a rework Stations w/hot Air , this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-in-1-Soldering-Iron-Rework-Stations-SMD-Hot-Air-Gun-Desoldering-Welder-862D/162292444459?epid=922000661&hash=item25c9622d2b:g:O5QAAOSww3tY8YYK
If that’s what I need for this then it will be an excuse to get it sooner.

I don’t currently have soldering paste, I have lots of solder 40/60 incl. kester “44”

I also don’t currently have flux, I was planning to get one of these for soldering:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/30ml-1oz-NEEDLE-TIP-BOTTLE-KESTER-186-ROSIN-NO-CLEAN-FLUX-FOR-XBOX-360-REFLOW/141250481358?epid=1131457413&hash=item20e32f4cce:g:zikAAOxy0x1TRHc8

And someone recommended this for reflow, (but it’s pretty expensive) SMD291AX50T3 Chip Quik Inc. | Soldering, Desoldering, Rework Products | DigiKey

63/37 paste:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017RSZFQQ/

63/37 wire:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072JQ1JH4/

You can do it without solder paste.
You should be able to take some of your solder wire and make a coil from it. Depending on its diameter will determine the number of coils you need. Then set it on the driver and put the brass ring on top. Then just use one of your small torches to heat the ring, not the driver. When it gets hot enough, the ring will drop down flush to the driver and you’ll see the liquid solder come out the side. Just make sure it’s perfectly centered before you take the heat away. That should do it. Then you can dab it with a damp cloth to cool it down a bit faster if you want. That’s optional.

You can probably use one of your irons to heat up the ring, but you run into a small problem. In order to get good heat transfer from the iron to the ring means that you’re going to get liquid solder on the top of the ring where the batteries rotate. So after the ring is soldered you’re going to have to clean up the extra solder or else the batteries will rub across it. This kind of pain in the butt extra step can be avoided if you use a torch.

Adding a little extra flux always seems to help, but you could probably get by without it. I like the felt tip style applicators over the bottles because you have a little more control over the amount that comes out and how it’s spread around.

I can’t really comment on most of the stuff you listed because I’m not really familiar with it. That 862D+ soldering station looks pretty good. I’ve got a 995D myself. It seems all right.

Thanks! This helps a lot in case I don’t get the rework station before doing the ring swap. I suppose I’d use the thicker wire (.062) instead of the .031?

I think I’d prefer to use an iron over the torch if that’s possible.
If I use one of my Weller guns I have many new tips that are un-tinned, so there wouldn’t be solder getting on top the ring, if that’s what you meant.
I guess for this I’d need to use the higher wattage 100-140w or 250w?

I also have this “American Beauty” 300w, it has a huge chisel tip, also un-tinned, but it might be overkill (Max tip temp 1000 Degrees):
https://www.amazon.com/American-Beauty-3178-300-Heavy-Duty-Soldering/dp/B007S20CMY?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffsb-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B007S20CMY
These are used for soldering copper roofing and gutters, I’m planning on selling it and using some of the proceeds to buy the rework station.

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The felt tip flux sounds like a good idea, didn’t know about those, I think these are the ones:

https://www.amazon.com/SRA-Soldering-Products-PEN_RMA-99-20/dp/B008OC3VMU/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_mrai_2_dp?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B008OC3VMU&pd_rd_r=RHEPRJBRAEQQG803KWBS&pd_rd_w=9Vmu1&pd_rd_wg=UXln1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YL1D3US/ref=psdc_8107037011_t2_B008OC3VMU

Thanks, I’ll keep that paste in mind, for this ring swap I may use the wire as JasonWW described.

Is there a reason you linked that specific wire (63/37)? I already have lots of 40/60 wire solder, about 4-5 small rolls and a 1 pound spool of kester 44 / .031

I’ve been using the 60/40 without any problem, seems like there wouldn’t be much difference between 63/37 and 60/40?

That is fine too. I initially used lead free mix and its so much harder to work with for a novice like me. When i switched to leaded solder it made a huge difference

Beamo, certainly try the irons first if you gave some that are untinned. It’s hard to get heat transfer through an untinned tip, but since you have so much power it might work.

I’ve got this #312 pen and it works great. I really don’t know much about all these different flux formulas and such. What you linked to might be fine as well. All I can say is that adding a little extra flux makes a huge difference in getting really nice soldered joints. :slight_smile:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008OC0E5M/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525787538&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=%23312+flux+pen&dpPl=1&dpID=31u2-ijUmFL&ref=plSrch

I did a few times brass ring transfer

clamp the driver inside a vise

add paste or solder wire on the driver, even adding solder with solder iron works

Place the ring on it

Heat up the whole driver with 2000W heat gun on low ait flow setting

heat up till solder melts, yes it will melt on both sides, but the parts stick to the driver if you dont mode or drop it rapidly

center brass ring and let it cool slowly

contactcr - Jason, thanks for the additional info.

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Lexel, for this it sounds like you used before the large heat gun (2000W) like I have, instead of the small reflow hot air station.

I also found this nozzle set, maybe this would make it easier to direct the heat on the ring, more like the small reflow gun.

https://www.amazon.com/Vipeco-Nozzle-Welding-Resistant-Soldering/dp/B07CR2QH7Q?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffsb-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B07CR2QH7Q