Interested. 2 units.
I’m interested in 2 units.
Thank you Barry for the updates 
much appreciated. we will provide all the information you need to help make the BLF lantern a reality.
Put me down for one of these please.
Possibly two.
Interested in one
Barry from the factory have provided a photo of the new LT1 BLF lantern driver board prototype ready for the firmware testing for the lantern! (components & brass positive contact ring to be added)
Yeah, buddy!
I hope that is just a quick and dirty prototype finish i.e. the HASL solder instead of e.g. ENIG plating for production.
Presumably it will be fitted with the Q8 brass contact ring ?
Looking forward to seeing it assembled and tested. Nice to see progress, and that you are continuing to make this happen, despite any personal worries.
Good luck.
I’m not really sure if that amount of vias may become problematic in the long run and/or if maybe a single row somewhere the tube doesn’t make contat would already be enough.
Other than that: Nice layout, programming pins, permanent and switched indicator light and what looks like a thermal sensor?
I’m kind of hoping that there won’t be a permanent / always-on button light. I want to be able to turn it off sometimes, and will probably disconnect it if it’s not controllable by firmware.
There is no plan to use a thermal sensor, because the built-in tiny85 sensor is way too far from where the heat is, external sensors are totally untested, last I heard no pins were allocated to an external sensor, and the light is designed to be incapable of overheating anyway. So I’m not sure why that’s there.
From the PCB, it looks like there is a permanent LED with a solder jumper and a potentiometer on the battery side so it can be set without disassembly.
Yes, there is no pin reserved for that, it looks like that can be modded afterwars by a few solder joints. I suspect it’s there because it adds no cost to include it as unpopulated pads on the PCB.
another list of entries for the interest list:
1121 burnsd
1122 light_man89
1123 PhantomPhoton
1124 gkushev
1125 lumiere
1126 lumiere
1127 Marty6664
1128 Marty6664
1129 Xenon
1130 Xenon
1131 Vaxd
I’m interested.
yep most likely the brass contact ring is to be added.
I’m interested
Switch to pin 2
Switch LED is driven from pin 3, active high.
WW 7135 bank pin 5
NW bank pin 6
Remote thermal sensor appears to be provisioned on pin 7, which is pulled up to +V via a fixed resistor. Pads are provided to wire in a remote temperature sensor, maybe a PTC. Perhaps could instead be used to power aux-leds etc. if e.g. the fixed resistor was removed. Not too familiar with what pin 7 can and can’t do.
That’s what I think I’ve deduced from a first glance.
PS: if looking to evaluate remote temperature sensor PTCs, I’s suggest looking at the KTY range.
I’ve been using KTYs in automotive applications for decades, starting with the KTY13, they work well, and if you calibrate them individually (probably not necessary), can be extremely precise. This would be easy in a torch, a 2-point cal. say after soaking at say zero C (plastic bag wrapped, in bucket of melting ice), then the second cal. point after soaking at ambient, or a known higher temperature.
Agreed. Unnecessary for electrical, or thermal reasons, possibly damaged if the tube contact surface rides over them, and maybe structurally weakening. Imagine a heavy drop, upside down, and perhaps the cells smashing the centre out of the driver, or just cracking it.
Every via on a PCB adds to the manufacturing time, i.e. production cost. They are drilled one at a time using very expensive machinery, and drills that wear out. It is not good practice to use them unnecessarily. Simplistically put, if you can halve the number of vias in your design you can also halve the run time in the drill shop, get twice the throughput, or only need half as many machines.
The Q8 approach is tried and tested, and I think would be a better design to follow, for this important detail. Even then, early Q8s had problems with contact between the tube and the driver, mainly down to mechanical issues with PCB flatness, screws, finishing of the tube etc. which were later satisfactorily resolved. I’m simply pointing out that getting this seemingly minor detail right, turned out not to be quite as easy as it seemed.
There were many lessons learned during Q8 development and early production, hopefully there won’t be too many new ones (or old ones re-discovered) this time around.
Again, if that is a HASL finish (it certainly looks like it), and it is also intended to be used in production, then it would be incorrect for this application. It would wear through rapidly at the contact surface with the tube. It would also have to be RoHS compliant lead-free HASL.
The finish specified for the Q8 tube contact face should be used. It was carefully considered. Even then Thorfire did not follow the specified design, and what was delivered is not as good (too thin), but works well enough.
I also suggest double-checking the clearance of the components at the very edge, in the USB area. Are they definitely going to clear the metalwork inside the head ?
Otherwise it’s very interesting, I see lots of good ideas on this layout, and some experimental stuff too. Nice work.
Currently I’m on the list for one but please add me for 2 more lanterns in total of 3.
Updated OP, Thanks!
Wow! Has another stock driver been designed with more consideration for mods after buying? I may or may not get a BLF Lantern, but I certainly hope this trend in driver design continues!