Texas Avenger "TA" Driver series - Triple channel + Bistro or Narsil + Clicky or E-switch - The Ultimate open source driver!

yes, TK proved that a while back.

Is it possible to have this in 38,5mm as well?

I would love to have Narsil on my to be modded Courui with planned SST 90.
And well I prefer a driver that fits nice in rge light instead of using the default driver just for let power go through, I have the idea that a neatly fitting driver can pass heat of the components to the housing and is thus better.

Anything is possible! Just an FYI: Texas_Ace has made his Diptrace files accessible to us. You could actually download one and expand it to any size you want! Not saying he won’t do it for you. (That’s for him to decide) :wink:

Actual PCB designing seems way out of my league, again a very intimidating thing for me still struggling with basic soldering.

Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. I followed a tutorial for Eagle and realized it wasn’t really all that hard. You can get Diptrace for free and watch a couple Youtube videos, and surely you can at least learn enough to extend the outer boundary of the driver a bit. You don’t even have to move any of the components! Come on! I tried it, you should too! :partying_face:

As for basic soldering, I’m beginning to think I’ll never get it right. But, with tips I picked up here (search bar helps) and a little practice, I can at least get stuff together usually. :stuck_out_tongue:

Like was said the source files for all the drivers are included in the OSHpark links for anyone that wants to custom build a driver.

That said I have been debating making one of these for my own DO1. It will need a bit of custom work for the DO1 to clear the battery ring but that should not be too much trouble. Might move the 7135’s to the top side since there is a lot of extra room.

I am waiting to see what happens with Narsil and the R1/R2 before I make any further changes to the drivers. if we can ditch the voltage divider then I will do that on the drivers along with a few other changes.

It would allow for a 3rd 7135 channel in theory as well, which would be nice, or it could be used for an indicator LED. Been thinking about ways to make it optional on the drivers with a resistor if that comes to pass.

I also want to get the 2s/4s SRK/Q8 driver setup as well, in fact I could just shrink the Q8 design once I have it for the DO1 come to think of it.

So basically, yeah I bet I will make a driver for the DO1 at some point after I get the Q8 and other drivers done.

If anyone else have a special sized driver they need/want/know about, please do post here. I really am wanting to create a lineup of drivers to come everything in a single design. Standardization is good.

Oh boy, no pressure... I do want LVP without parts too though, still not started yet .

Yeah, I have a D01 that could use one of these, but I’m in no hurry… yet!

LOL, no pressure indeed. I don’t have time at the moment to work on the drivers anyways :wink:

But also for a clicky only driver I am very happy with the current setup and honestly don’t think any changes are needed, except that ditching R1/R2 would be cleaner and less cramped.

So really the changes are mostly for E-switch setups, in which case I figure I might as well wait till the firmware is done to design the drivers around it. Come to think of it, without R1/R2 i just might have enough room for a 209mil SOIC8 pad, although it would not allow me to spread the rest of the design any.

heheh no rush here too, preparing for the darker months here :slight_smile:

Ahhh, k, I'm confused about the 46 mm SRK driver in the OP. Since DavidEF mentioned it over in the Q8 thread, I looked at it. I don't see any LDO support. If it's designed for 2S or 4S use in an SRK, you need an LDO in my opinion. I don't see zener support as well, but zener is not recommended for e-switch lights since the parasitic drain is considerable.

Am I missing something I don't understand, or have not read? Didn't go thru the entire thread.

The driver GND ring is connected to the Batt- of the first cell through the host, to ensure there is always 1S voltage to the MCU, even when using a 2S2P or 4S1P cell arrangement. Therefore, no zener or LDO will ever be needed. :wink:

What he said, this eliminates the need for either zener or LDO since it only ever sees 1s voltage at the MCU. The only thing that sees the series voltage is the FET & 7135’s.

I think this is far simpler then using an LDO

Now I'm more confused... What about Batt+?

I would think you need one Batt- and Batt+ going to the MCU, and full 2S or 4S of Batt- and Batt+ going to the LED(s)? For example, for XHP-50's (2S) or XHP-35's (4S). DC Voltage is all about potential difference between two sources.

It is outside the box for sure compared to what we usually do around here but actually very simple.

If you look at the board here you can start to see what I am doing:


Basically, you have 4 pads on the bottom of the driver + the ground ring. So 5 contact points.

The pad with the TA on it is the 4s positive contact.

The pad with the line of vias at the bottom of it is the batt negative.

The other 2 pads are simply there to connect the cells in either 2s2p or 4s and connect to nothing on the top side.

Lastly you have the ground ring like we are used to. It connects like usual to the flashlight body.

The key to this is how you setup the tail PCB. In this case in addition to properly setting up the tail PCB for either 4s or 2s2p you will simply connect the 1st cell V- (the one with the positive contact on the TA pad) to the flashlight body. This gives you a normal 1s ground to the flashlight body and thus to the ground ring of the driver.

The rest of the 4s setup is unaffected by this and goes directly to the ground pad that feeds the FET and 7135’s.

So the end result is that the ground ring sees 1s voltage while the FET/7135’s/LED sees 4s voltage.

All of the electrical components are grounded to the single cell via the ground ring.

Now obviously the above driver is not ready for use, the pinout needs to be changed and I want to redo it to look better but the design should work.

Sorry, still don't understand. Can you tell me what voltage/connection is on the GRND pin #4, and what is going to the VCC pin #8? The difference needs to be 1S, and I dunno what is going into VCC compared to GRND. That's all that matters to run the MCU properly.

Also I don't understand in a 4S configuration how you could possibly get one of those cells to peal off just it's 1S voltage?

From the pics above, I can't see any connection between those 4 pads on the bottom side of the driver? Are they supposed to be connected to complete the 4S configuration?

Sorry - this is why I didn't look into this much -- I just don't get it - something basic I'm not understanding I guess...

Hhmmm, Think'n in a 4S configuration for example, you could peel off the 3S output of Batt+ for your GRND, then the 4S total output would be your VCC? Is that what you are doing? Because then, the difference is a true 1S - doesn't have to be negaitve, just the difference between 3S and 4S can run the MCU?

Yes, like it says on the silk screen you need to bridge the pads according to the cell setup you want, 2s, or 4s.

The voltage the MCU sees is 4.2v across VCC to ground. It is connected to only 1 cell.

This is possible because with a 4s setup all the power runs through the cells and never needs to enter the body of the flashlight (part of why big manufacturers prefer series setups). So since the body of the flashlight would not be connected to ground I am simply using that as a free contact point to the tail of the light.

By connecting the 1st cell in the series ground to the flashlight body the body of the light sees 4.2v to V+ (the TA pad).

The only thing that sees the 4s voltage is the ground pad (with the line of vias).

So basically it is a normal SRK setup far as the MCU is concerned, the positive is on bottom of the driver and the ground comes through the flashlight body.

The FET on the other hand sees the end of the cell series ground, so it has a full 16.8V if you check it to V+.

It is just like a series cell pack from a laptop or anything else. You can take a voltage reading across the whole pack or you can read each cell individually. This is the same way that balance chargers work.

Kinda, it is hard to explain and understand this in words lol. It sounds like you are saying the opposite of what I am doing basically.

I use the cell that connects the positive to the TA pad as the one to power the MCU AND LED as it is better to have ground running through the light then positive. So the other side of that cell (which is ground) connects to the body of the light AND to the rest of the 4s series. The body ground then connects to the MCU to give it a 1s voltage across it.

The other 3 cells keep going in series like normal and ground to the pad with the line of vias which connect ONLY to the FET and 7135. Thus giving them a full 4s voltage across them to positive.

So I am really peeling off 1s and letting the other 3s go to the LED.

So, if I understand this for a 4S setup, 3S is going into GRND and 4S is going into VCC? The 3S is from the ground ring, and 4S is on the TA pad. That should work. Is this correct?

1S is the potential difference. I think if you take 4 cells in series, connect/measure between the 1st cell and 2nd, (1st cell has the batt+ exposed), you are actually at 3S+, not 1S negative.

Oopsie - we keep crossing posts, me, with my editing...

Chuckle, chuckle… I’m with ya tom, this is hard to see. TA, what about a diagram?