Oshpark Projects

Somehow over the years here I overlooked those facts. It will make my projects come out a bit easier using more appropriate gauge wire. I learn a lot from your discussions here. Keep up the good work and thanks.

I have noticed a difference in wire. If I use the Teflon coated, silver plated wire, (with larger strands), versus the silicon coated plain copper wire, (with fine strands), I have to use a larger gauge of the fine strand wire, to equal the lack of resistance in the silver plated larger strand wire.

In other words, I have found 22ga silver plated large strand is much less resistant and I have to use 18ga silicon coated fine strand, to get the same amperage as 22ga silver plated.

I believe it's all about the wire diameter, as DC current travels through the wire, so larger strand allows for less resistance. Of course, the Solid 22ga will do about as well as any of them, since it's one large strand, versus many strands. Silver plating really does not seem to matter, since the current runs through the wire, not on the outside of the wire, like AC current does.

Being as how I have 22ga and 20ga silicone wire on hand, that’s what I used. If I’d known these things I might have used the smaller wires from previous Qlite’s.

Thanks for that info, really is nice to know.

I do have some 22ga Teflon wire as well, with the larger strands and silver plating, but it’s so dang stiff! Tuff stuff though, might keep that in mind…

The Teflon is tougher and has a thinner casing so if you need higher current and have longer wires but not much room it can be useful. I just find I have to be more careful to pot the driver to keep the pads or wires from shearing off. The flexible stuff is nice to use but thicker and easier to nick.

I have lots of parts & boards on the way, will be building the 15, 17, 20, & more of the SRK drivers. I'll post up a revised parts list for each one once I'm confident everything is right.

Also on the way are a few different big FETs, to see if that changes anything with the gate/pulldown resistors.

Just got in the 20DD w/o the resistors (not V2.0) do you think they will still work…or should I wait to order?

Gonna put together a SRK one…and build the 15DD w/ ground ring tonight, and probably a 3.04A 20mm TexasPyro as well

You'll have to try it and see, I built 3 of the SRK-DD boards and they all worked without the resistors, but the exact same parts on the 17DD (v1.0, missing GND ring) don't.

I would bend the gate pin on the FET up off the board before soldering, then try it first with just a short jumper wire between the leg & pin. If it works like that without a resistor, remove the jumper, bend the pin back down to the board and solder it. If it doesn't work, remove the jumper and put a 100-130 ohm resistor between the leg & pad (and add a high value resistor between the gate pad and ground, the pulldown resistor). If it works without the gate resistor it won't need the pulldown resistor either.

Hey Matt, what’s up with the 72 x 7135 board?

Matts retired. Everyone wore him out.

And you were the last straw.

I've been sort of shocked seeing 18 AWG in the big Fenix lights (TK61 and TK75) with the heavy insulation, making it look more like 16 AWG. The wires going from the contact board to the driver are that thick and less than 1" long. I suspect they have a good reason for that, since everything about the design of these lights is about weight reduction. So they seem to value heavy gauge wires over using an aluminum reflector instead of plastic, for example.

Did I break him? Bugger. I did send him a present this morning but now I have to send a get well card as well? This budget light hobby is certainly expensive. Have you seen the price of cards lately?

I'm alive lol. Just trying to focus on finishing renovating my bathroom so I can sh*t again. Nah just joking. I've been doing in my back yard*.

The 72x7135 board an OL request. Lips are sealed on what he wants to do with it! Note it will NOT fit an SRK. Way too big.

- Matt

* It's an en-suite so we've been using the main bathroom. It's just at the opposite end of the house to our bedroom. First world problems.

Now all of the enlightened forum knows where you take a dump, whew, we were so worried! Can you sign this piece of TP for me, pleaaaase!? :smiley:

Now, get back to work!

Speaking of dump, either y’all are rough on a house or y’all bought a dump cause you’ve been fixing on that place for 2 years!!!
(yk I’m just kidding right? Gotta personalize it…hey, look who you’re talking to, the guy that customizes EVERYTHING!)

I don’t know what you could use to dissolve fiberglass leaving behind the dielectric, copper and mask layers. Maybe instead of doing that a person could delaminate the board? As I understand it you could just add a ton of heat until the dielectric layer no longer wanted to be stuck to the fiberglass layer. The other layers might delaminate before the one you want though.

Either way…going to be a “destructive” method [and probably toxic/chemically as heck], getting that top layer masking and traces off the pcb then mounted to a copper slab is the end goal without destroying the integrity of the overlay…getting there is the tricky part…unless you pay a hogillion dollars to have someone MAKE them from the get go

oh and anyone want to see the process for making the boards…as in the actual construction and whatnot…pretty interesting…it’s european…but I don’t think the process is much different here

http://www.eurocircuits.com/index.php/making-a-pcb-eductional-movies

In fact in the last video, you can see some tell tale purple boards…not sure if OSHPark…but makes ya wonder

I’ve purposely de-laminated boards. Some boards are are not bonded as strongly as others.

(This post will de-laminate / self-destruct momentarily)

Oh boy... Not all the boards have their own thread, like the 15mm. Is there any one place I can find the latest, greatest info on the BLF15DD? I just got mine today but they don't have the R4 and R5 resistors, so, am I out of luck? Should I just go ahead and order the latest? Anyone test it yet? Do I have to navigate thru this massive thread?

IIRC the IRLML2502 used on BLF15DD hasn’t yet been reported to be buggy without R4 & R5. No need to jump to order replacement boards just yet.
Also, if they are needed, you could cut a trace & scrape a bit of soldermask off to add R4. R5 would fit across 2 vias.

Rufusbduck, was trying originally to keep this thread less cluttered. Seems he was forced to abandon that goal.