Depends how thick the dielectric layer is, on a Noctigon MCPCB I had no problem cuting the traces while keeping enough thickness for isolation
When did noctigon triple mcpcbs stop being configurable?
A long time ago. I tried to buy some from Hank incase he had some laying around in October 2019 with no luck 
I think having the switch on the driver board is probably the better design for a light overall. The reason I dislike it is because it eliminates my ability to to mod (particularly, driver-swap) the light since i can’t spin up a custom pcb to adapt to the switch placement. Maybe with gchart’s progress on in-place MCU swaps this will soon be less of an issue!
I’ve been a weird lurker-fan of Amutorch for a while: I’ve really liked some of their stuff, and given them points for trying new things with other stuff, but I have yet to own one!
Indeed I tried to find where I could purchase these but I haven't been able to find a source yet..
That slipped past me. I have a only one I think still in my possession. I know I’ve had more over the years, but can’t place where they’ve gone… KDs boards aren’t the highest quality, but maybe they perform fine. The optic holes are of a larger diameter though. Maybe MTN would make one if we get enough momentum, or if we can convince hank to bring it back. I’m surprised this is an issue.
YES! FUGGIN YEEEES! Finally someone solveded the non-moonlight modes problem.
I have ALOT of emisar lights that would get a new driver if/when this goes in production 
How about SinkPAD? I believe Meodex has some triple, but they are aluminum. I am interested in a light with the triple in series, too. Those MCPCB’s are star, not round. The size should be close enough, perhaps some sanding. Where to source them could be an issue.
Cutter has some addressable DTP copper boards as well. Rounded 20mm “star”.
I am a Chinese flashlight manufacturer and want to try this circuit in our flashlight,
but I cannot contact the owner
Annyli fhashlight, did you try to send him a PM using the forum? You can try this: https://budgetlightforum.com/messages/new
This is how I manage to message to forum members.
So BLF, I finally had an opportunity to purchase a Zebralight SC700d.
Expensive, even with a good deal. But since my goal is to develop as good a flashlight (driver) possible, I figured I needed to have at least a good benchmark to challenge myself against.
The Zebralight SC700d is often considered one of the best flashlights on the market not only in terms of its physical construction and machining, but also its driver efficiency and performance, as well as its thermal design and durability. I have to say that my first impressions are very good. The flashlight, despite being a 21700 light, is extremely compact, even smaller than the 18650 KR1, and noticeably lighter as well (even with battery) - almost makes the KR1 look clunky! The machining, anodization and finish, are one step above the competition, even when compared to Noctigon / Emisar flashlights. The flashlight is unibody, with the only screw thread at the base - threads are fine-cut but anodized, precise, well lubricated. Switch design is well thought-out - recessed but tactile. I could go on, but that's for another post.
The bottom line - just using it for a short while really validates all the work I've been putting it for high efficiency switch-mode drivers. The performance of the ZL is really noticeably better than cheaper flashlights using linear drivers. I understand the definite need for lower cost flashlights (e.g. $30 or less) - for those flashlights, a linear driver is the sensible choice and is here to stay.
However, having used these switching drivers, I personally find it difficult to justify paying for a flashlight over ~$50 which still uses a linear driver; it's like purchasing a nice sports car with amazing bodywork, interiors, sound systems and tricked out suspension, but with an engine from a compact sedan.
One of the reasons why I purchased this was because the SC700d is also considered to be one of the contenders for 'King of the Moon Mode', having exceptionally low moon mode.
Here you can see the ZL SC700d on the left at its lowest mode (which is, in fact, very low, especially vs. almost all AMC7135 drivers). However, it's very bright when compared with the Lume X1, even when the Lume X1 is running at around ~10x its minimum brightness level (potential to go even lower)! This image was taken at ISO1600 f/4 1/10s and illuminated by early dawn light. I was glad that this test also validated the UDR performance of the Lume X1 driver.
For top-end performance, the SC700d with its more efficient but lower CRI LED (still high at 90 CRI though) XHP70.2 performs very well, producing 3000 lumens (from ZL's spec sheet), which should correspond to something like ~22W output. The KR1 with the Lume X1 and GT-FC40 reaches a peak brightness (from my eye) a little less than the SC700d, but this tells me that the Lume X1 performance is higher than the SC700d driver since the GT-FC40 is extremely inefficient (but CRI 95), and I was expecting ~2500 lumens after the optic, with about 33W power drive. Running the XHP70.2 with the Lume X1 should produce north of 4000 lumens without issues.
At this point I understand better why the XHP70.2 is a controversial LED - while its output efficiency is undoubtedly high, the tint of this 5000K 90 CRI emitter in the SC700d exhibits a greenish tint (compared with the peachy white of the FC40), and worse, exhibits moderately strong greenish yellow tint-shifting from the OP reflector. The center of the beam is pleasant but it falls off quickly into a frankly fairly ugly corona. Outdoors, this is not a problem. But indoors it's very noticeable and is the definite minus of the SC700d. I can't help but think that something like a Ledil Olga in the SC700d would improve things significantly (but too bad the Olga optic doesn't fit as it's a fair bit smaller). Alternatively, dedoming the LED could produce a better beam profile, likewise with the addition of a simple green-reduction filter / film.
Side note - I tested a few different ramping tables and I found that I did like x^4 curves a little better than x^3 or some others I tested, so I'll be testing that out for now.
annyli fhashlight, yes please feel free to drop me a PM and I'll be happy to see what your request is.
I’ve wished for years that some Chinese manufacturer would attempt to compete with Zebra quality, maybe even beat it while offering good LEDs, BLF UIs, higher outputs and no glue…
You drivers bridge a part of the gap. It is still wide in other areas though.
I’ve been wondering how a casting process would pay off for unibody or larger lights. Nitecore does it. Really opens up possibilities in thermal design while managing machining overhead. Requires volume to pay off I’m sure.
[quote = loneoceans]
所以BLF，我终于有机会购买Zebralight SC700d。
昂贵的，即使有很多。但是由于我的目标是尽可能地开发出更好的手电筒（驱动器），所以我认为我至少需要有一个良好的基准来挑战自己。
Zebralight SC700d不仅在物理结构和机械加工方面，而且在驱动器效率和性能以及散热设计和耐用性方面均被视为市场上最好的手电筒之一。我必须说，我的第一印象非常好。尽管手电筒是21700的光，但它却非常紧凑，甚至比18650 KR1还要小，并且明显更轻（即使带电池），几乎使KR1显得笨重！即使与Noctigon / Emisar手电筒相比，其加工，阳极氧化和表面处理也比竞争产品高出一步。手电筒是一体的，底部只有唯一的螺纹-螺纹是精细切割的，但经过阳极氧化处理，精确，润滑良好。开关的设计是经过深思熟虑的-凹进但有触觉。我可以继续，但这是另一篇文章。
底线-短时间使用它确实验证了我一直在将其用于高效开关模式驱动器的所有工作。ZL的性能确实比使用线性驱动器的便宜手电明显好。我知道绝对需要低成本的手电筒（例如30美元或更少）-对于这些手电筒来说，线性驱动器是明智的选择，并且会长期存在。
但是，使用了这些开关驱动器后，我个人发现很难证明为价格超过50美元的手电筒仍使用线性驱动器而花钱。这就像购买一辆出色的跑车，其车身，内饰，音响系统和出色的悬架都令人赞叹不已，但其发动机采用的是紧凑型轿车。
我购买该产品的原因之一是因为SC700d还被认为是“月亮之王模式”的竞争者之一，具有极低的月亮模式。
在这里，您可以在左侧看到ZL SC700d的最低模式（实际上，它非常低，尤其是与几乎所有AMC7135驱动程序相比）。但是，与Lume X1相比，它还是非常明亮的，即使Lume X1的运行亮度约为其最低亮度的10倍（可能更低）！该图像以ISO1600 f / 4 1 / 10s拍摄，并被晨曦照亮。我很高兴这个测试也验证了Lume X1驱动程序的UDR性能。
为了获得顶级性能，SC700d配备了效率更高但CRI较低的LED（尽管仍然高达90 CRI），XHP70.2的表现非常出色，产生了3000流明（根据ZL的规格表），相当于大约22W的输出功率。配备Lume X1和GT-FC40的KR1达到的峰值亮度（从我的角度来看）比SC700d稍低，但这告诉我Lume X1的性能要比SC700d驱动器高，因为GT-FC40效率极低（但CRI 95），我期望光学器件后大约有2500流明，并具有约33W的功率驱动。在Lume X1上运行XHP70.2可以产生4000流明以北的声音，而不会出现问题。
在这一点上，我更好地理解了XHP70.2为什么是一个有争议的LED-尽管其输出效率无疑很高，但SC700d中这种5000K 90 CRI发射器的色彩却呈现出绿色（与FC40的桃红色相比），更糟的是，从OP反射镜上会出现中等偏强的淡黄色偏黄。光束的中心是令人愉悦的，但很快就掉落到坦白而丑陋的电晕中。在户外，这不是问题。但是在室内，这是非常明显的SC700d的绝对负号。我忍不住想像SC700d中的Ledil Olga之类的东西会显着改善（但可惜的是Olga光学镜不适合，因为它要小得多）。替代地，将LED束缚可以产生更好的光束轮廓，同样，增加一个简单的绿色减少滤光片/薄膜即可。
旁注-我测试了一些不同的渐变表，发现我确实喜欢x ^ 4曲线比x ^ 3或我测试过的其他曲线好一点，所以我现在将对其进行测试。
[quote = annyli fhashlight]
我是一家中国手电筒制造商，想在我们的手电筒中尝试使用此电路，
[/引用]
annyli fhashlight，是的，请随时给我下一个PM，我很高兴看到您的要求。
[/引用]
I cannot send you private messages,
I can contact you on Facebook
facebook : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100056276523603
Our appearance is very good, but we are always looking for the best circuit partner
[quote = Agro]多年来，我一直希望一些中国制造商能够与Zebra品质竞争，甚至可以在提供优质的LED，BLF UI，更高的输出量且没有胶水的情况下击败它。间隙。不过，它在其他领域仍然很广。[/ quote]
I spoke to some manufacturers and they seem open to the idea of unibody designs. The only concern is that it is a little more expensive to machine since regular flashlights can be machined from short stock for the head and pipes for the bodies, as opposed to a single long stock with a lot of material cut away.
Today I managed to open the ZL SC700d, and reassembled it back after (it's challenging for those without the right tools so I don't recommend anyone doing so without a risk of damaging it) and it's nicely designed; they used a PIC microcontroller, a TPS61088 regulator and PCB-side-mounted e-switch, all on a single but fairly large PCB (basically one inch square).The main inductor is a Coilcraft 7030 1uH, a perfect choice for the 61088. The design is very similar to most of the switching driver circuits including the Lume drivers, so I guess I'm glad that this shows the Lume is on the right path. I can see ZL swapping out the 61088 for the 61288 for future flashlights for even more power, but I think the Lume X1 is still the first driver to use the 61288 
!
The LED is mounted in a channel cut in the PCB where a copper block provides thermal contact and heatsinking to the body. The regulator and inductor are potted, but in a soft silicone. It's compact, but perhaps too compact - and here comes my main criticism. The design does come at the cost of difficulty of reparability and warranty for the product, though it's robust enough that I think the failure rate is going to be quite low.
This also makes LED swaps difficult since the design is intrinsically package and footprint specific. It doesn't really save much room either since it uses a separate PCB as the positive-battery-spring contact (using pogopins), so it still uses 3 boards in total, just like regular flashlights if you count the MCPCB (driver, positive spring, tail spring), but it does improve thermal performance.
Regardless, I think there is still some value in a 3-piece design (head, body, cap) - it's cheaper to machine in general, and I guess it's required for easy re-flashing without using a ridiculously long pogopin programmer (going with the AVR-1 and 3-pin UPDI makes this almost possible, though). I'm not sure how many manufacturers will want to go with the casting method - perhaps there are other possible options but I'm not familiar with them. The unibody does improve on thermal sinking, though.
Unibody is one thing, the quality of the machining and anodization is another. I think so far Emisar/Noctigon comes the closest. I think the main thing that strikes me about the ZL is the economy of design - it's so compact and tidily built and I see no reason why other flashlights can't be designed similarly even if the machining isn't as good. I'd like to keep the LED and MCPCB swapping though, since that's really part of the ethos of the BLF community, and I think all these are not difficult to achieve at the same cost of machining.
Nice tear down and info, loneoceans 
There was someone else struggling to open the SC700d recently, mind sharing how you did?
The front bezel is a typical interference fit - very compact and well machined. I tried one quick attempt to pry it with a small pry tool, but the fit was too tight - didn't want to damage the ring or the flashlight... it is a $120 flashlight after all!
So, I heated up the outer shell with hot air and cooled the ring with an aerosol freeze spray. Then immediately, one sharp blow to the ring with a small hammer and I got the ring out. The glass didn't break but perhaps I was lucky. I have a fair bit of experience taking apart consumer electronics so this is probably the most tricky to do, but not too difficult with some experience I think.
The reflector looks custom and is very well machined - fits perfectly in the body, and the hole at the bottom is surprisingly big. There is one big O ring around the lip that creates the waterproofing seal and it's compressed in very well. However, you can't just press the glass down to move the O ring because the O ring looks like it's being compressed radially instead of axially, so there is basically no play in the bezel ring fit in the z-direction. The tight tolerances of the ZL machining help make this work. I was hoping to replace the reflector with a TIR optic to fix the tint shifting, but none I could find fit without modification and maintaining a good deal, so I decided to just leave it be just to keep this one as original as possible. I figured that the ZL SC700d makes for a great 'benchmark' light.
Removal of the board is more tricky because it's potted in, and one of the main connections is soldered down to the spring PCB with a solid metal post instead of a wire. The spring PCB is glued down and impossible to reach with a soldering iron, but I managed to desolder the joint. I used a very high power Metcal iron and I'm not sure if a typical soldering iron would do the job without risk of damaging the joint on the other PCB or damaging the plated TH pads.
Potting was the easiest to remove. I flooded the bay with isopropyl alcohol and used needle tweezers, and it came out safely.
The only thing I think can be done to mod this flashlight is to either replace the LED with another XHP70 (it's in 6V configuration), but I suspect most people will have trouble replacing it because it's bonded in two parts (half to the PCB and half to the gold-plated copper block, so reflow is going to be tricky if you don't have the right tools), or an easier mod would be to de-dome the LED to reduce the tint-shifting (likely you get 1 good attempt at it!), or to add some sort of filter film to the glass.
Fitting it back requires care as well. I cleaned up the internals, re-tinned and refluxed, and resoldered on the main connection to the spring PCB. I also cleaned up the silicone potting to make sure there wasn't any contaminants or loose pieces of potting, and reassembled it back, taking care to reprep the surfaces with thermal paste (I used arctic silver). The two screws serve both to clamp the LED onto the body, as well as a high current path for the negative terminal, so the screw are in fact soldered on. Those were easy to desolder, though. I resoldered them back during reassembly.
Finally, I relubricated the seals and pressed the ring back in with an arbor press, but I did file a very tiny notch in the bottom of the bezel ring with a micro file just enough for a pry tool, in case I wanted to reopen it again more easily.
I've been using the ZL for a short while and I'm starting to like the UI more. It's not as fun as Anduril for sure, but it definitely is very practical and works really well 'in the field' as a utility tool.
For a moment I thought about building a driver to replace the ZL driver with the Lume X1 design with Anduril, but it's challenging enough for most folks without the right tools to mod that I'm not sure if it would be practical. A ZL with Anduril though, that would be fun!..