Just got 5 drivers from Banggood. However on two of them there’s a missing component. I would like to know what it does and if I should request that they should send me two new ones.
The resistor near the + wire is missing in the first picture. I apologize in advance for the crappy pictures…
If it is the BLF X5/X6 driver (with ATtiny25 chip), it used to come with the ‘bleeder resistor’ in that position, which is only needed if you build a flashlight with a ‘lighted tailcap’. It is 470 Ohm btw, may you want to add it. Without this resistor, when not planning a lighted tail, the driver probably works fine although originally the software was tweaked with resistor and lighted tail present. You may notice a bit less than optimal timings.
If it is instead the BLF A6 driver (with ATtiny13 chip), it never had that resistor. Older versions sold by BG did not even have a solder pad for it, but later version use the same circuit board as the X5/X6 driver that has the solder pads, that are simply left unpopulated
Ah, yes. I saw that they have different SKU numbers. So they probably sent me two A6 drivers.
What SKU do you have?
I ordered an X6/X5 driver and received mine today, not tested yet
I got these.
They are kinda the same, but not exactly.
You should also miss the bleeder resistor.
Djozz, I found this review of the blf x5/x6 on BG.
- mode backward completely messed, takes at least 4 5 seconds to switch back if you are lucky and have a very good sense of time, very dissappointed must be different version shipped, a few weeks back another driver worked fine
Could this be because of the missing resistor?
Did you both receive drivers with Attiny25? (look at the lettering on the MCU component).
About the timing: the X5/X6 driver’s timing is very sensitive to what flashlight it is in. It was build and meant only for single higher voltage emitters (XP-L Hi to be precise), then Banggood started selling the separate driver and then it was found that using very low voltage emitters, especially in triples, can completely mess up the timing, which the clever user interface is built around, and sometimes the light drops out of turbo as soon as you enter it. Of course because BG does not know anything about this, folks start selling the driver, find that it acts weird and they start complaining.
There is a fix for the X5/X6 that fixes the turbo-problem but not necessarily the timings. It does require unconventional soldering very small components.
The one with the resistor says attiny25 and the one without say attiny13.
Ah, the last one is a A6 driver then, also a gteat driver, more stable actually in various builds, but it has less options.
Bummer… Is there a way to disable the hidden modes and change the turbo step down on the a6 driver?
Nope, no options for those
Ok. Anyway, thanks for the help!
I’ll have to check, had a quick look but couldn’t distinguish whats printed on the uc.
I’ll update later on.
Received the correct driver with Attiny 25
Hopefully it is still ok and just demolished the emitter, since i placed it in my C8 with shaved XML2 U2 1A and tested it, it was really nice!
Then i saw that i probably caused some flux spattering since i now had a black spot at the side of the emitter.
Tried to clean it with a wooden (dental like) stick and succesfully removed the black spot, cleaned the whole head and LED with alcohol, and assembled the head and tried it on.
Nothing.
I may be wrong, but i had the idea i saw a weak quick flash and after that, just nothing.
I did not see any alcohol, everything seemed to be dissolved/evaporated, before assembly, but now im afraid that there might have been a drop which accidently might have come inside on the driver (do you think this is possible?) and trashed the driver!
Lets hope its just the led.
Have to order a new assembled mcpcb with XPL Hi or such since i have never reflowed a led, so that will take another 3 weeks before it will be here.
Do you have a DMM? If so this is a very easy issue to troubleshoot.
I do, measured quickly over the led (with driver connected in the flashlight) measured in the range of Mega ohms
Maybe try quickly a 16mm pcb with an ugly blueish xml2 from an old s2+ to test if the driver is still working, hopefully i just destroyed the bond wire of the led.
Hmm, i just realise instead of measuring resistance i just could have inserted a cell and set my DMM to DCV…
diode test on a DMM lights up the LED ig its still OK
Lexel, i actually tried that, without luck.
The strange thing is that i tried it on a good xml2 and it did not light up as well (yes, i did change polarity to check if i werent measuring incorrect)
Maybe just my DMM?
Another question, are there some (cheap) European shops for flashlight parts?