I realized today that I had the PWM outputs connected in reverse as compared to RMM’s Moonlight Special. Of course that will work, but it was not a drop in replacement when done that way. IIRC the way it’s currently implemented in STAR requires code changes, not just define changes, so that’s a pain. I think I might have originally done it as a matter of convenience, or maybe it was just a side effect of this layout being derived from this one. Either way having the pins connected in the same fashion as the Moonlight Special is better for everyone in this case. I’ve updated the driver to be that way. As a result, the section under the MCU is a little bit less clean looking… but who’s counting?
Now I’m gonna have to get the firmware so I can flash em and check em out.
Beefy traces? 3-4 high on the spring side? :bigsmile: JK, I find myself needing some more sane drivers than the FET’s on occasion and these will certainly fill the bill better than a qlite.
Are both 7135’s on the MCU side of the board controlled separately or just one? If one, which one? The on top of the Zener label? This IS primarily a low moon mode 3.04A qlite replacement, isn’t it? Or have I, once again, missed something?
I’ll have to re-flow the spring side for looks, hand solder the MCU side…with those big pads the MCU side will be a piece of cake. I elected to fully hand solder an A17DD S-08 the other day and it was pretty easy, even with the wrong tip on my iron. (I use the big bevel tip that comes stock with the Hakko 888, haven’t found a need to change it. I do resistor mods, stack chips, everything with this big bevel tip. lol)
Nice work Wight, some good looking boards you’re designing these days.
Only one 7135 is controlled individually. 7x and 1x. The one which is by itself is actually the 7135 next to the “B” in “BLF” - everything else is part of the 7. Unfortunately making one of the topside 7135s into the single would have involved sacrifices for the rest of the layout. It’s less obvious here because I removed the 7135’s Pin2 from the footprint, but remember that there is a pin connected to GND which goes all the way from the tab to the “front” of each 7135. I don’t worry about putting covered traces under this, but I do not place vias under it.
I also use the stock bevel tip for my iron (a Hakko FX888). I got finer tips, but never got around to installing them.
Thanks!
Don’t forget that with a small code tweak you can stack an FET on top of this thing (although with only on/off control, no PWM).
EDIT: Actually the single is next to the “F” in BLF. Sorry!
In order to build these and get the 7+1 functionality (dual PWM / low moonlight) you’ll need the ability to flash an ATtiny13A, that is your biggest expense if you do not already have it. In order to flash drivers you’ll need 2-3 things, a USBASP and a way to attach it to the MCU (ATtiny13A). I’m using a Pomona SOIC-CLIP from Mouser, some colorful wires from eBay, and a USBASP from eBay.
For the actual driver hardware you may transplant an entire Nanjg 105c, Nanjg 105D, or Qlite. For offtime you’ll need to add a single 1uF capacitor, X5R or X7R is recommended but you can probably get away with putting almost anything in place of that cap.
With the stock 19.1k and 4.7k resistors from a Nanjg/etc stepdown and shutdown values for low-voltage warning and protection must be adjusted (for a 3v stepdown and a 2.8v shutdown maybe use 138 and 129?).
My advice is to consider bumping your cart to QTY=100 on all the <$0.10 components in order to maximize your savings and have some on hand. They get very cheap in QTY=100.
Sweet! Just ordered 6. I’ve got enough loose 105C/Qlite components on hand to build 8 or 9. Also have what I need to flash attiny’s as well. So the newest STAR firmware should work?
Correct, the firmware on JonnyC’s GitHub should work. JonnyC merged the dual_pwm branch back into the main branch some time ago, so stick with the main branch.
The constants to focus on when setting up the firmware should be these two: #define MODE_MOON 3 #define DUAL_PWM_START 8
RMM sells parts and board kits with star firmware as well as the moonlight special so I think he might also be able to flash just the mcu for this application and it would not at all surprise me to see this in kit form on his site soon for those of us still not set up to flash our own drivers. Hint, hint. Nice to see this. Has anyone ordered them yet?
International outdoor store has a selection but not the cylindrical spring that comes on a 105C. I actually like the “F” size more since it is more compressible than the stock spring.