17mm & 20/26/27mm single-sided DD/FET driver release: A17DD-SO8 / A20DD-SO8 / etc

I Want it ALL!

:bigsmile:

As I mentioned to Wight, I will try one of these new FET’s in an Olight M3X Triton if I can’t get the stock driver to cooperate with me.

Sorry wight, I just know that a relatively few out there are looking for every last mA. I totally agree it’s not much and to most of us not worth the added expense but until my own head hits the wall something keeps me leaning forward. Although the low on state voltage of the one I suggested was what caught my eye at first, it’s the lower “elbow” in the curve that made me want to bring it to attention. We may not gain anything at all but at this relatively early point developing these drivers I’d still like to confirm what the different options offer.

Nothing to apologize for RBD. My point was that anyone looking to experiment should probably buy all 3. (Also that nobody should assume that I will do the experiment.)

RMM, vias help prevent the lead wires from ripping the pads off the PCB, if you solder the wires thru the via it is VERY hard to rip it out, especially if you over heat it while soldering and/or mod alot, makes the boards a bit more resiliant

Either way C_K and wight are one of the MASTERS of building and designing these lights…I learned alot but these guys excel at it!

You're right about that, the through hole vias are stronger, but haven't ripped an LED pad off yet so it really isn't an issue for me, but I did want to know what others thoughts were since we all have had different experiences building lights.

I’ve only had a pad rip off once, and fortunately only part of it, and it was on a cheap aluminum MCPCB. Wasn’t hard to fix by re-soldering.

At least now I know to be more careful with my half-assembled driver test hosts.

Generally when I’ve ripped pads off in the past (yeah, many times) it’s been because of misbehavior on my part. Ripping LED+/- pads off isn’t something I’ve done much of though. Generally I’ve damaged component pads due to lots of heat and pressure. Before I learned to add solder when removing components I frequently applied pressure to components while attempting to remove them. Between the extended heat dump from my efforts and the pressure it was common to damage a pad. I’ve also damaged SOIC pads after air-wiring directly to them and then manhandling the assembled PCB.

I don’t see it as a problem that needs to be solved, although I’ve been adding big vias when I had space and they didn’t seem to interfere badly with other things. Maybe I should re-evaluate? If it doesn’t have any downside I can see the advantage of a hole for wiring the LED directly to BAT+ or BAT- depending on the type of driver. These PCBs are small and if drilling is to be done it’s better/easier/nicer to let the fab do it IMO. People don’t have to use it, but for those who want to it’s already done… OTOH aesthetically I do not think that the large vias are beautiful and they do take up space that could be devoted to large SMD pads or other misc stuff.

I used to try to use 20 ga teflon insulated wire that is very stiff. Trying to stuff the driver in a tight space where the wiring has to be manipulated would pull the pad off the driver.

Now that I use 22ga Silicone insulated wire that never happens.

Oh, er, yeah. I’ve removed other pads by accident while un-soldering things. Probably for the exact same reasons. But those were generally pads I wasn’t planning on ever using again.

Through-holes are definitely sturdier, and preferred when possible. Attaching 3x22g wires (twisted and soldered together) to the LED+ and LED- contacts in my SRK wouldn’t have been very feasible without the through-holes on the BLF-SRK driver.

I asked Matt to put them on the Tiny10 for the sake of versatility and with so many doing spring mods having a single wire go from the top of the driver spring straight to led+ makes some sense(spring carries only mcu current) but yes, since I’ve switched to more flexible wire my pads are in less danger. 0:) Being able to solder the connection from a less crowded side can be nice too.

This is where I learned what via’s are for (or one of the things), were it not for the via’s, there would be no way to hook up power and emitter leads on this 10mm PICcolo. Heck of a first place to learn, huh?

I usually build one driver at a time, as I build the light. Once in a while a couple at once. This time I got some A17DD-S08 boards in that had 6 still together, in 3 “pages” along with a few loose boards. So I thought I’d try doing 12 at once and taking pics along the way, show y’all the video library my camera builds.

Now, my shoulder has been giving me fits for weeks. I’m on meds and kinda loopy. But if I can pull this off, even take pics, then I reckon almost anyone can build one of these single sided boards. No iron soldering involved here at all. And if I’d wanted to really make it easy I’d have put a dab of solder paste at the LED leads so when I go to put wires on these they’d be super easy. I left that out on purpose so the pads would show better. The MCU’s are all flashed, ready to go. So as I get a light to build it’ll be much quicker and easier to do. If it’s an e-switch design I can re-flash the MCU before I start, but the tedious work is all done. :slight_smile:

Love these single sided boards! :bigsmile:

You should team up with Rich.

That is some beautiful work Dale, i had planned to use a syringe to apply paste for the reflow but that stencil is just too convenient, how do i order one? and where? is it https://www.oshstencils.com/ because they seem to expect me to upload the design, do i just download the design of the ospark page and upload it to them?

If found this also CREE MTG/XRE/XML/XPG solder paste stencil from texaspyro
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/dw8NYoED
this will really make things easier :slight_smile:

Which paste do you use?

If the plan is to just protect against solder pad rip-offs, wouldn’t a small via (in the middle of a solder pad) work just as well, because it will act as a rivet of sorts? But, pushing wires into the big vias and soldering there is certainly convenient.

I was also going to buy the stencil but had to have some sort of file to buy one, great work dale similar to what i did but using my vice and hot air station

I have not been able to get the stencil business to cooperate for me.

Do you mean that you don’t find it more convenient or that you haven’t been able to order one?

I only have a stencil for LEDs (TP’s stencil) and I always have a lot of trouble getting the paste to deposit properly. (Either not evenly, not at all, etc.) I don’t use a PCB jig, but I do use extra PCBs to level the stencil. Ordering the stencil is easy, just download the zip of Gerbers from the appropriate OSH Park listing and upload it to OSH Stencils. While the amount of solder paste deposited on any one pad is significantly less important with drivers than with LEDs, I still can’t imagine myself getting results like DBCstm showed.

Also the syringe is pretty easy to use and is flexible. I make a lot of layout changes, both minor and major. That would require a lot of stencils.

As I recall, you can upload the entire zip file and when ordering it will use the proper layers.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/njyq3ncg5zha6fw/17mm_A17DD-SO8_v024.zip?dl=0

And yes, texaspyros stencil for the emitters is immensely helpful, I use them a lot…need to get some new one’s as a matter of fact.

I had ordered 2 of these for the A17DD-S08 and that was good, because it allowed me to cut a left and a right to do the 6 board page. :slight_smile:

Edit: Sorry, I use Kester EP256 in a syringe. I find it has the best flow and is easier to appy. The Mechanic’s in the tub is thick and sticky, very difficult to use with a stencil.