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You need to use those small FR-4 pad boards on those pads first, without them it's very hard to solder wires because this board is large and sucks heat from soldering iron too quickly:

Without those pad boards, actual + and - pads are these:

Pads in green are just there for mechanical purpose, to make soldering pad boards easier, you can see vias on pad boards only connect actual + and - pads to upper copper layer.

Note: "- pad" here means pad which connects wire to mosfet Source pins, not LED - (cathode).

Thanks for the reply.

A few things.

  • Those pads you circled in green don’t do anything for the function of the board, they are just an anchor point for the larger pads soldered on and I should be able to solder the wires directly to the “actual pads” you marked. Correct?
  • When I apply voltage to the “actual pads” the leds do not light up. Switching polarity makes no difference. However if I apply voltage to the “actual pad ” to the smaller pad just above or the the top negative pad the leds light up. I desoldered all the components except the bridge and I get the same result. Should this be happening?

If everything is working as intended, should I be able to just apply voltage to the correct pads and the leds should light up, or must it go through the driver first with the other three wires connected? I have been testing with a bench power supply and not using the driver.

I hope this is clear enough.

It’s because the FET is closed. That’s why he keeps using the term in quotes and says that it is not the same as LED -

If you bypass FET with your test leads you can get it to light up (as you found out) but under normal conditions it needs to have the driver control the FET if you are going to use the “normal” pads identified in the picture. It sounds like it is working as intended.

Great. :+1: I’m still a bit stumped on how to hook this up to the driver. I’ve got the LD-B4. I haven’t seen a picture yet of how this would be wired to the board. There are two holes, I think these go the led pads, but where do the blue, red, and white wire go on the connector? I see an M and a G on the driver, I assume these are connected to the MCPCB. Does someone have a picture or explanation?

Datasheet explaining the driver connections (see last page):

Here is explanation of how JST connector wires are coded and MCPCB layout:

Thanks, I didn't realize there was a datasheet. However, I can't get it to light up.

Any ideas to why it isn't working? There is no direct short when I hook up the power supply, just an open circuit.

I did not have a good enough look to know why it does not light up but you do need better solder/more flux/a hotter solder iron :innocent:

and heater under pcb

This board is easy to solder because of those FR-4 pad boards, easier than average standard DTP board, there is no need to pre-heat MCPCB.

Everything looks connected correctly, soldering is a little bit messy, you should try to clean boards and check for shorts, only 3 wires are mandatory for work: thick red and black wires, and thin red (GATE) wire, please check with multimeter if there is connection between pads on driver and pads on MCPCB for those connections, especially gate signal (try to check that connection by placing one multimeter probe directly on mosfet gate pin,which is the most right one if you look from board center).

Ok, I got everything soldered back together, in the process I managed to crush the temp sensor and burn the wire connector so I just soldered them on instead :frowning: Cleaned the boards up, and the light turns on. I just can’t figure out the UI though, it seems really complicated, and the light doesn’t seem to be following the instructions on the PDF…

Moon seems to be the only mode that works.

Ok never mind that last post. I did in fact ruin the NTC temp sensor unfortunately and melted the connector bit a little, but I got it working, finally! I stupidly had the moon and the gate wires mixed up.

I recognize things after a lot of effort just not working, ruining stuff and doing that sort of mixups. Used to do that all the time and it still happens. Glad you got it working! :slight_smile:

Here's what I've been working on with this project.

It isn't a C8, it's a bit smaller. I bought it on eBay probably around 10 years ago and it was my first light I modded. I thought I would make its final iteration special, it has been through a lot of changes over the years and has been my go-to light. I'm using the Samsung LH351D 4000K burners so it's a great combination of many lumens and a really nice colour. This one won't be banging around in the car getting scratched up. :)

Nice and shiny :sunglasses:

Since we are close to store re-opening anything new/updated we should be expecting?

:laughing: Yeah like the dual functioning switch drivers like the old LD-2 and LD-2 M2 in 17/20mm and bigger?

I hope for the Boost HX becoming stocked :slight_smile:

Copy that… nice one jozz! :wink:

Hello everyone and happy New Year!

Store is open and it should work, please contact me if something doesn't work.

For now there is no new stuff, but I'm working on it, especially on drivers, but they will take some more time to finish,since it's a lot of work.

But a lot (90%+ I would say) of stuff in store is on New Year/early spring clearance sale, most of mosX MCPCBs,Luxeon MZ, SST-20, alu spacers etc.

Most of those, once they are sold out, will be no longer available.

Also one note, LEDs and optics are not available in "bare" form due to some business reasons, you can still (technically) buy bare LEDs by purchasing 16 or 20mm DTP PCBs and checking "Don't solder LED" box. You will need to buy DTP PCB of course, but most of them is on clearance sale anyway, so price is good. You can also buy optics together with compatible MCPCBs, there is checkbox "add xxx optics" option.

Also, most prices are now nice and "round", on more silly x.9x prices.

In 2020 I will spend more time on developing new generation of DTP PCBs, springs and drivers, with focus on innovation.

Yep the site is up and working fine… ordered a couple CULNM+1.TG *1mm2 20mm and a couple of the Q8 boards… thanks Neven and Happy New Year!