How small are you? 3- mode Solitaire, some beam shots

I like coming up with new ways of using 7135 drivers in Maglites. Recently, I removed the 7135 chips from a board, cut the board down added 3 chips back and installed it sideways in a AAA Minimag. I like the Solitaire mods I do but wanted a driver with modes, memory, and low voltage warning and while staring at one of the drivers noticed that on some versions all the other components fit in a 10mm circle. Since my solitaire mod already stuffs the 7135 chips into the narrow section under the threads I thought I might try for a bit more by removing ~3-4mm from the tail cap to give me the space necessary for a newly altered board. I still need to bring the positive through to the led and now need to connect the Vdd pin of the IC to the 7135’s and make sure ground remains connected to the IC, the resistors, the memory cap, and of course the 7135’s. I haven’t decided where the ground contact plate will go but since this will be a 3-chip Solitaire, I will be adding my brass bling to it. Run time on high will be limited by heat rather than battery life but at 1C, med should be around an hour and 5%low around 7 hours without heat issues for either. Since the 16mm sinkpads aren’t ready yet and I don’t want to cut a 20mm board down that much I will be doing the DIY version of drilling through an Alu star and copper disc and soldering a piece of edit awg12 (used 14 instead on xpg pad) through both to the center pad of the led. This worked fine.

Steve Martin .

You sir , are old .

Tell us more .

Rufus get off the pain killers. Your not making any sense. I know what its like and there is help out there. There was an aussie band the Angels that had a hit with the dogs are talking. Does this set of alarm bells?

Pics?

Age, pain killers, and pics. Yup, nope, and definitely but hard to take pics of an idea. Going home tonight where a board or two will pay the ultimate price for my delusions.

No pain killers. Just some good wine and I’m on my way.

I got started this evening by first removing the led wires and then the 7135 chips(I clamp the board down, place a line of solder across all three pins, when that melts I slide the chip off the board).

With the chips removed and before I do any more I wanted to check which IC pins go where as well as the resistor and capacitor connections. With those noted its time to cut. >)

The cutting took only a few minutes but carefully sanding the board down to a circle took about an hour. I used a bit of brass tubing as a guage.

And here it is cut And filed along with some other bits for scale.

And the bottom cleared for action.

That’s all for now.

Wow. You've got my interest again even though I only think I know what you are doing. Keep that wine going so we can see some more. Cheers.

It is too small to fit and too small to even see what you are doing, subscribed !

You have probably have a great way to get the 7135's in the light (and who am I to mind your business) but this simple driver (from dx) has three of them nice closely packed on a 15mm board that could be sanded down and might fit inside a solitaire:

Thanks, that’s a nice small driver but even sanded its still too big for a solitaire. I make a stack and use them without the board stuffed up into the narrow section formerly occupied by the “switch”. With just a little sanding it would fit a AA Minmag though.

ah, a stack sure beats this, you can't get smaller than that. Good luck and keep making pictures!

I think you missed your profession as a microbiologist rufusbduck :slight_smile: This obsession with small things will ruin your eyesight!

You need to start hanging out with TGWNN:

(post #1483, a bit down the page)

Here are the two bits I need to join, the chips soldered to the contact plate and what’s left of the brains.

After I stuck the two parts together with Fujik I needed to solder 3 spots on the brain board to the contact plate, the resistor, the capacitor, and the two pins of the IC that I had previously shorted together. Here is a crummy pic of the resistor connection.

Once all three had been soldered I filled the voids and buttered the edge with Fujik. Like a six year old with a very small layer cake.

Then I wrapped it in plastic and pushed it into my guage tube to cure.

We’ll see what it looks like later. I have to run off to the post office and won’t be able to play with this for a few days. I’m leaning toward a black solitaire with some brass like this one

What do you think?

Really impressive, a work of art!! I like the look of the brass collar.

I did a couple of soli mods with smt components…never again, just too fiddly for my sausage-like fingers :slight_smile:

Here it is unwrapped.

And again with an 18650, a solitaire host, how it started (left), an lr44 button cell (right), and the reworked driver (center).

The more observant among you may have noticed only 2 chips where I stated in th op I would be using 3. Space condiderations aside I felt it would be a sort of flashlight hubris to run a solitaire at one full amp. It would work but in this instance my conservative side would not be denied so 700mA it is.

Plans changed so I got to stay home and play. I dug out my stash of brass tubing and cut up and soldered some things together.

The shorter one on the left is for Mum’s pinky and the longer one along with the stepped piece is for this mod. Why longer? Why the extra piece? Because I cut the head of the solitaire in two of course!

Well, “What for?” you might ask. So I can make it long enough to focus a zoomie, that’s why.

Tomorrow they will go out to my high tech lathe set up(not) and have some fins cut. Stay tuned. :open_mouth:

I'm running out of things to say rufusbduck. The driver there aganst the ruler must just be over 3/8 of an inch. Thats so tiny. Dumb question. You still have modes?

That was the idea. 3 modes, last mode memory, low voltage warning. I could probably do this with a Dr J Lux drive if I had one. Wouldn’t that be special.

Why is there a fast tech ad overwriting your avatar?