I’m still using a $20-$40 1500W heat gun with good results. (Milwaukee MHT3300)
Do you have a nice soldering iron?
Such a hansom and will thought out driver solution. They are worthy of your mark. Looking forward to building and using some of these once I finish all my buck-based lights.
Any chance you could scale these up to a 26mm and 27mm version? I have a couple six and nine XM-L 3S 26650 lights that have been sitting on the shelf (seriously under driven) that I’m thinking of turning into 3S2P and 3S3P DD monsters like Ouchyfoot did in this thread.
Would love to use this new board (zener modded of course) without an additional contact board for a clean install.
Yes, I don’t see why not. Where did they come up with 27mm? 26mm is a somewhat standard size, what’s the next normal size up from that? 27, 28, or 30mm?
Thanks wight!
The 27mm guy (actually more like 27.1) is out of Trustfire 9xT6, it fits tight on the OD and the inner shelf lip is pretty thin
but I tried the 26mm (which measured from 26.1mm to 26.4mm) TR-0169D driver out of the other light, an Ultrafire 6xT6, and it didn’t fall through so a single 26mm board that is maybe a tad oversized (sand to fit for exactly 26mm) will probably work fine in both lights.
Both lights have large retaining rings with much smaller positive spring holes. The 9xT6 is 10mm with a 20mm insulator diameter underneath.
The 6xT6 is 16mm and solid aluminum.
^ That's a fairly popular driver in the 9x and 12x lights. I know Krono and B42 have recently been frustrated trying to mod theirs. I mildly modded mine, but intend to replace it with a DD-type driver. If you make a 27mm available, you will essentially be forcing me to jump on this single-sided driver ride of yours much earlier than I had planned.
Based on hideehoo’s info above, I’m thinking 26mm with 4 nubs to take it out to 27mm (which add no cost since they fit in the OSH Park ‘rectangle’) will be the way to go. Do you see any reason not to go that direction?
Sounds good to me. Should be able to do both lights with only OSH Park order then.
wight wrote:
Based on hideehoo’s info above, I’m thinking 26mm with 4 nubs to take it out to 27mm (which add no cost since they fit in the OSH Park ‘rectangle’) will be the way to go. Do you see any reason not to go that direction?
I just measured my 9xT6. The driver ledge opening is 25mm. The driver bay is 27mm. So I agree with hideehoo. That approach should work fine.
OK, sounds like a winner.
I expanded the diameter to 26mm and added 0.5mm tall nubs on the “corners.” That brings the driver out to 27mm. The process of adding the nubs has made the primary outline very slightly not-true, so depending on where you measure it you may have 26.05mm or something like that.
Since there was space I also added resist-covered pads for Pin3 (on/off output or analog input such as for temp sensor) and Pin5 (PWM output or analog input). This driver should work fine with dual-PWM firmwares where 7135’s are slaved off of Pin5 for regulated modes of any kind, including low moonlights or whatever.
Ordered a set. Thank you wight!
EDIT: Ordered the components I need from Mouser. Looking forward to trying one of these bad boys..
> a $20-$40 1500W heat gun with good results. (Milwaukee MHT3300)
Hm, closest thing Milwaukee has now looks like it costs well over $100. Sigh.
Not to worry. 
Milwaukee probably didn’t make the thing anyway, based on the recall notice it was manufactured by Wagner. In fact, the housing and controls of the Wagner HT3500 look identical in form/function to my Milwaukee MHT3300. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wagner-HT3500-1500-Watt-Digital-Heat-Gun-0503040/203474822
I’m definitely not saying that it’s the best way to do it, but a big heat gun is a handy tool for DIY’ers. Laminating foam, peeling adhesives, softening other materials, etc.
Already got components from DigiKey and stencils from OSHStencils, so I'm ready to go! :)
Thanks wight, nice looking layout, liking the big pads a lot! ;)
With the diode having the numbers 41 on it, and the 1 being where we would normally expect a line, does this line or 1 go to the point of the triangle?
The line goes towards the point. There should also be a line between the pad and the MCU.
I looked up the datasheet on the diode and went with it. :)
The diode is marked with a 41. The "1" goes closest to the Zener pad and towards the MCU, the "4" is closest to the R1 pad and towards the 10uF cap.
Tried to look at your picture to see how you had oriented it on yours but the image wasn't clear enough to tell.
The one in the picture is a SOD-723, which makes it harder to see since it’s so small. If I recall correctly it may not have been marked, I had to test it with my DMM to figure out the polarity. Either way you sure can’t tell from my picture. 
Please check this, you might be able to tell from this picture…
It can be clicked on for a larger view.