I put in an order today as well. Scheduled for the 29th
Hi, I am new here (if you couldn’t tell from my post count!) I want to build the 17mm version of this driver, I am having trouble locating and selecting the correct items, I looked up the fet found choices on mouser but the size etc still gives me a list of values I need like gate voltage etc. Same with the resistors .10 and $1 ones in the same 603 size, not sure which to order! Thanks!
I know your feeling! I can say for resistors, I usually narrow down the options using these filters:
0603 package(or 0805, 1206 depending)
In stock
Cut tape
1% accuracy
Then I sort by price and choose the cheapest resistor that has the highest temperature range. At the low prices the temps are usually the same, but sometimes there is a low temp version in there and I usually stay away from those.
The price is usually .10 for one, but buy 10 for .25. Something like that.
Edit: I use a similar method for choosing other components, but yes, there are some basic values that you need to know. For fet, you need to know the size or package you want. Look for single n-channel fet ,best temperature range and for a low resistance.
There are a lot of things that go into choosing a FET in particular. The SIR800DP(?) is regarded as the best (and also expensive). You can search the forum to find discussions on a couple model #’s that suit our purposes as well.
Ditto the above, I just got my parts order for the drivers in today. After I build a few and make sure everything works I will try to make a shopping cart with everything you need.
I follow lightriders selections for narrowing down the selection to the parts that are at least the type I am looking for.
Thank you guys, I look forward to the cart. The last few builds I did I used MTN17DDm-NUV but this looks like DRJONES-H17F with Bistro, that seems like the best of both worlds. I wanted to try a 1+7+FET but I didn’t want to give up Bistro.
Just got in the 22mm's today. Look'n good/!See they are labeled 26 mm 
Hope to have a chance to reflow one tonight, we'll see.
LOL, opps. I will put that on the to fix list.
I am hoping to reflow one tomorrow.
My 2oz 17 and 22mm boards arrived today. Boards look great, but boy are those pads tiny. I knew they would be tiny, but didn’t realize how tiny they would be. I’ll see what 0805 parts I can get away with and then order the rest. Probably, won’t get around to it for a couple days at least.
LOL, yeah I knew the entire board would be tiny but seeing it in person really drives the point home. Dealing with it in software at 10” diameter, you forget how small it will end up.
I looked over the boards and they look good to me, a few minor things I will correct just because they annoy me (26mm printed on the 22mm, the FET resistors not perfect lined up ect).
Only thing that I noticed that was not how I wanted it was the copper pour not going all the way to the edge of the board. I know oshpark says in the specs that they won’t do that but PD seems to get them to do it on the tripledowns?
These should still work, just remember to solder them in place and/or add a soluder blob to make the ground contact.
PD, how do you get OSHpark to take the copper all the way to the edge of the board?
Luck, I guess? They seem to be getting more picky about their edge limits lately.
Hello my blf friends. For those fortunate that are with these driver boards on hand, is it possible to post pictures and test results please. For sure there are others blf members like me waiting some feedback to pull the trigger and order some boards to assemble. Is there a board layout revision ongoing, or can we order now? Thanks for additional information.
Didn't have a chance yet to reflow one, but fully buzzed out a 22 mm last night, and all looks good. Think I need to print out your pics in the OP since I don't have a screen handy by my bench. The labeling is tough to read, and in some places not so clear on what pads it labels. Even on the 22 mm board, real estate is super tight, and OSHPark's labels don't work well at those sizes.
I'm really confused now bout pad sizes and parts... Thought the 22 mm pads were all 0805's - I measured a few of them and they matched Richard's red board, accept for the 0402 resistor he uses of course.
Think you state in the OP they are all 0603 accept C1? Is this across all size boards? Weird because the pad sizes match exactly with Richard's, so was it common to use 0603 pad sizes then on all our common OSHPark driver boards? Didn't do more compares, but I got a ton of OSHPark boards laying around from several sources, in several sizes -- way too much unused, and looks like they will never be used now, with all these great new ones 
. It's a good problem I guess...
All of wights and my own boards use 0805, and Richard used to, but since he is using his own designs and his part picker machine he switched to smaller stuff.
Ahh, I see. He spec's 0805 or 0603 parts. I've only used 0805's with his boards and seems to work out fine, plus his kits are mostly 0805's.
I just built one, when I have more time I will run some tests and post some pictures and results. Most likely tomorrow.
I would wait to order until I get a few minor things with the silk screen and mask swell fixed, nothing major, just convenience things. Should be able to get the updates made later this week hopefully.
Yeah, I just reflowed one a little bit ago, not much time right now to say a lot but there are a few silk screen changes I will be making (make sure the diode is pointed towards the FET, I got it mixed up the first time). The solder mask swell seems to have cause some of the silk screen to get covered up.
Sadly beside moving the silk around a bit there is not a lot of room to do much better. Although now that I see how OSHpark does the silk I will give it a go.
Far as the pad sizes go, everything is 0603 except C1 and OTC (17mm version is 0603 on OTC), this applies to all the sizes as I wanted to standardize my parts drawer. I built mine with 0603 components but there is a lot of extra room around them, I think 0805 should be possible.
My built driver looks exactly like the Diptrace 3D rendering. Only issues I ran into was the solder mask was slightly misalligned on the back of the driver exposing some of the 7135 trace that is near the spring. As long as I used a smaller spring it worked fine but a large spring caused it to bridge. Simple fix though.
Texas_Ace, thanks for your reply.
I’ll wait the revision to order the board. I already ordered the necessary components to this driver. Curious about the results/images…
I am actually knee deep into polishing up these drivers as we speak. I will update the OP with the newer, cleaner and better sorted selection of drivers later today along with pictures of a built driver.
Quick spoiler, it works great from the little testing I have done so far.
Ok, I just finished building, testing and knocking out the updates to the design I wanted after building a few. Nothing major, mostly silk screen changes, A few minor tweaks for ease of assembly, extended the SOIC-8 legs a bit and I moved 1 via.
Here are some pictures of the assembled drivers:
Fully assembled and working:
And for size comparison, it is easy to forget the size of these things.
I had a few minor issues with the first board I reflowed bridging traces due to what turned out to be a misaligned solder mask. The rest of the ones in my order turned out fine, so I will just address those.
I agree with Tom, there were some minor changed to the silk screen that could help. I did the best I could with the silly tight space. You will need a magnifier in order to read them, that is for sure.
I tweaked a few minor things to help address minor mis-alingments in the manufacturing.
I moved a via that was close to the back side 7135’s that could bridge to ground if you used too much solder paste near it (not that I would know :innocent: ).
I also extended the SOIC-8 pads to allow fitting tiny25’s easier.
Besides those changes the drivers appear to work as intended. Bistro is working great, I posted my revision of it in the OP that is tweaked for this driver. Although I need to recheck the voltage readings since I was using 19.1k R1 before, should not make much of a difference but gonna check anyways.
Overall I am VERY happy with how they turned out and I think I can officially endorse people ordering them at this point assuming that Tom and others have similar experiences with them.
The OP has been updated with final designs, firmware links, and a digikey cart among other updates!
Please do have a look at point out any mistakes or issues you may notice. Thanks!