Roche F6 hacking

The Banggood F6 has totally different internals than the FT F6!

Different driver: (also note, the indicator LED is right beside the switch, on the opposite side from where the little lens to the outside world is located, I guess it's expected to 'work' by just lighting up the driver cavity and hoping some light makes it to the lens)

3 levels; low isn't nearly as low as the good one from FT; the long press for on/off is about 2 seconds while the FT version is about 1/2 second; has memory; double click enters some silly non-usable ramping mode instead of the hidden strobe/SOS of the one from FT.

Aluminum MCPCB instead of copper:

It's even longer, mostly in the front section of the battery tube, but also by a little bit in the part of the head forward of the switch:

Different font used for the 'M18650' line:

This one from BG was ~$17.50 with the BGF6C discount code, the regular price is nearly identical to FT... the one from FT is better value. (at least until FT replaces their stock with this bare-bones version...)

(copper ring at the upper left is to protect the bezel while removing it with pliers - too tight to do the normal press-against-your-hand-and-turn trick, and too skinny to grab with a strap wrench)

FET is an AO9926, dual channel N-FET, just using both channels in parallel. I haven't tried it yet but it should work just fine with the resistor bank shorted out, I haven't seen one yet using an AMC7136 that misbehaved when shorted. And it uses a normal PWM signal from pin#3 to the 7136 to the FET, so should be easy to kludge in an attiny13, it'll just need jumper wires to get the right pins to the right pads (sacrificing the voltage warning LED, which due to its location on the wrong end of the board doesn't work worth squat anyway).

But the little SOT-23 thing? What the hell is that? B+, GND, and MCU pin#2???

Nichia 219B, Sinkpad, 10* TIR, resistors bridged and a Samsung 25R? :evil:

Yeah…definitely need a OSHPark BLF15DD [equivalent] (with tiny FET IRLML2502) and that momentary switch on the side, I think having the extra modes will definitely make the F6 that much better

Too bad they drilled out the very middle of that shelf…daggumit…why do the manufacturers do that…uggh

Didn’t someone post the dimensions of the Roche F6 driver somewhere?

If noone has one up…I will work on one asap

I need to get with Helios and look over the one he did, I keep forgetting... :tired:

I still don’t understand your fascination with using a smaller FET.

Helios says that he’s already created one:

The demand must not be too high for this since AFAIK nobody has offered to test his.

EDIT:

Well there you go, I guess there is a little demand :wink:

I'm definitely planning to, I just need to re-order a bunch of other stuff at the same time and have to wait a little while ($$$).

I’m keeping an eye on the F6 for when I get some other projects knocked out. Your recent info on the BG F6 isn’t exactly encouraging though. It’ll be a little bit before I buy any, I hope the FT continues to sell the nicer ones.

Even the LED in the 'good' one is nicer... advertised as a U2, dunno about that but it's a nice tint. Looks very close to the XPG2 2B. The T6 (claimed) in the BG version is bottom-of-the-barrel nasty green tinted junk. And it's on a cheap AL board. The two lights are comparable in fit/finish/machining though.

Yep, Free to a good home but its Untested, No warranty, could use an attitude adjustment.

Really, its a good little driver. I’d like to see that it has a good start. Should have asked Rufusbduck if he would post an adoption flier in the OP. Uploaded to oshpark, just haven’t hit the share button.

Cereal_killer has been doing some really good testing and building of drivers…he might give it a go

If you made it, it has to be a good driver, is it ATtiny based?

I want to see it first (yeah, so I have 'commitment issues', lol), I'm sure I'll have questions. Like, what's required in the FW to make the voltage warning indicator work? I have no clue about that stuff, if it can't be fixed with a soldering iron and a hammer I'm lost. J)

[quote=comfychair]

The Banggood F6 has totally different internals than the FT F6!

There are two different F6’s on Bangood, one listed as “upgrade” with upgraded switch, which one are you comparing?

Link in post #43.

And the 'switch' they 'upgraded' isn't the switch, it's just the stainless button & bezel, the switch is inside and soldered to the driver PCB.

F6 from Fasttech measures 108.5mm overall, Banggood F6 is 111.1mm (edit: actual measurements from the two lights, not just quoting what's listed in the descriptions).

Never in my life have I found something than can’t be “fixed” with a big enough hammer…

hahaha ASUS Repair Kit :smiley:

Yup, thats fixed real good now!