The V1 was wrong The printing on the + and -
and the size of the PCB was 12, now it is 16mm
The V2 is tested and it is ok.
Same light with the same driver and an XP-G2 S2 2B has some nice throw, nice tint, pretty awesome at 4.66A, 943 lumens…emitter is domed. Those “copper” (brass) pills that I got with the light are threaded wrong, thought about forcing one in and brute force changing the threads on something but ended up leaving the aluminum pill in. Still get’s hot quite fast. Not so bad as the harder driven XM-L2 though.
I used this: fasttech-C8-pill, but it's been out of stock forever. It's a standard brass pill for C8's, also sold here: lck-led-brass-pill. The copper C8 pills from VOB also fit (I threaded it in fine), but again had a lower height. The SupFire L6 aluminum pill had an o-ring to elevate the LED/star, like they designed the body or pill wrong. With the brass pill, I left out the o-ring and used a copper shim bought here to elevate the SinkPAD.
On that BLF 17DD-Zener Revision 2, Mattaus put it up on June 1st, looks like, but I don't see any discussions on it? Probably too early for someone to test these? Were Rev 1's tested? I like the layout - better than the zener diode piggybacking the cap. On a BLF17DD I just built up, I mounted the zener diode laying on its side on the inside of the cap -- looks clear of possible spring mount.
The only change I can see on Rev 2 is a slight shift of the Zener diode with larger solder pads. My original BLF17DD Z is exactly the same except for that one component. I’ve used several of them and like how they work. I AM finding though that some of the components on these boards tend to be very close to the outer edges of the board, possibly making contact with the shelf in the pill that is normally used for grounding purposes. Just have to make sure that shelf is very narrow and doesn’t cause conflict.
I had also been laying the Zener on it’s side around the cap instead of stacking it, for the clearance and ease of soldering. I’ve been using pretty much nothing but BLF boards since all this started, on everything. I DID utilize a Qlite once recently and had thoughts that I might have forgotten how to stack a chip…
They both work, but Rev 2 works with the SOD-123 diodes that we normally use; on the first version I was still stacking on the capacitor. The main reason for these is low voltage monitoring, otherwise the BLF17DD is the same deal.
RBD, there is a typo in the OP: "changed diode from SO-323 to SOD-123 and relocated star2". The old component should be SOD-323
Thanks!
Oh no! :zipper_mouth_face: I’ll fix it. I think I was just copying the info on the Oshpark link. Thanks for picking that up. I had wondered about it at the time but don’t know enough about components for that level of editing.
K, thanks! Funny, I just did the same exact thing - laying the diode on it's side.
See my new BLF17DD ref thread: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/27210. You and several others I'm sure don't need it now, but I'm trying to keep an online ref, specially for those this is all new to. If you notice anything amiss or may be needed there, shoot me a pm. Trying to keep the thread uncluttered. But the idea is to use the OP as a one source reference for the BLF17DD versions.
Hhhmm. Low voltage monitoring? What do you mean exactly? Is the SOD-123 diode the one you provide in your zener kit? The SOD-323 is the standard one used in the FET driver, and Nanjg/Qlite I assume?
Zener mods typically disable low voltage monitoring since the 19.1k resistor is the wrong value for a higher voltage and the Zener latches the input voltage so that the mcu no longer “sees” the battery. Separating the voltage divider from the Zener allows the mcu to once again monitor the battery voltage as it drops and only requires a new correct value for R1 to read it correctly.
Ok, soooo, wut does this mean? I think I might understand you, but I'm very confused... I didn't realize voltage monitoring didn't work with applying a zener mod kit, or did it? To Nanjg/Qlites or FET based?
With the zener, the MCU's voltage stays the same whether the battery voltage is 8v or 6v or 5.5v. It wouldn't see the actual battery voltage until it dropped below the limit set by the zener... and by that point the voltage would be far too low to be safe for two cells in series. The MCU would still kick in the protection only at the original 2.8-3v, which would be 1.4-1.5v per cell.
It’s true of any Zener modded nanjg board. It’s been know about but nobody bothered with it. Now, with the advent of the FET mods opening up more board space combined with the enthusiasm for new boards it got done. RMM and others worked up getting the layout corrected and new value(s) for R1/R2. The Zener can still limit the input voltage to the mcu while a new trace layout bypasses the diode to the voltage divider allowing the mcu to once again detect the change in battery voltage as it drains.
So the big question, does it work with 3 cells?
Why not? The zener can handle it, I don’t think you even need to adjust the 200-Ohm resistor. You’ve got to select your voltage divider resistors correctly for LVP though. Calculator.
Scott - I'm really confused now... Are you saying a zener version of the board has a different R1 and R2 valued resistors? Is this defined anywhere? I was wondering what the new R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5 values are to use on the BLF17DD-Zener Rev 2. Is this defined anywhere? I was figuring I had to trace the routes to figure out part assignment. I thought resistor values could change, or the firmware could change to adjust thresholds.
Yes - Richard's Super Shocker is 3 cells, 3 LED's in series using a zener mod driver. Others built 3S/3S zener lights as well. It's my plan, eventually...
Sorry, to specify I was talking about specifically the voltage monitor with 3s, I actually just finished up a 3s cell / 3s emitter light myself so I know it works but being able to figure out LVP would really be a nice touch.
I’ve got you now guys. The short answer is yes, LVP can work with multi-cell zener setups. It doesn’t just happen though - we use a voltage divider and that must be setup correctly. You don’t need any math to get the job done, or understanding either actually. You just need to know what to punch into the calculator I mentioned earlier: http://www.raltron.com/cust/tools/voltage_divider.asp
You know the voltage you want to shutdown at the light (2.9v per cell, 3v per cell, whatever... those would be 8.7v and 9v respectively in 3s setups). The stock values used in the STAR firmware will shutdown the light at around 0.5v coming out of the divider, but I do not know the exact value. RBD put some effort into it but I don't recall if we came up with a precise value. 0.513-0.517v may be about right for shutdown (not rampdown). To calculate the resistors for the divider, put in 3 values and the calc will give you the fourth, for example:
Input Voltage - 8.7
R1 - ?
R2 - 4700
Output Voltage - 0.513
That yields an R1 value of 75007.6 Ohms.
If you want to use the calculator to simulate the original Nanjg 105c divider, you must remember one more thing. In that setup there is a protection diode which reduces battery voltage before it hits the divider. You must subtract that diode's Vf value from the input voltage before running the calculation (Vf is in the neighborhood of 0.25v to 0.4v, look at RBD's thread linked above for more info).
RBD or RMM may chime in with more specifics about the actual working resistor values or a more precise "output" voltage than what I wrote. I haven't done much work on this myself.