BTW, got any tips on how to unsolder a driver from a pill with just a soldering iron and some copper braid? I’ve removed as much solder as I can but the thing is still stuck. I don’t want to apply so much heat that I start melting components off, but it seems that some solder got down between the driver and the pill.
Am I just using the wrong tools, perhaps?
If there’s room in a wire hole to poke through with a tooth pick. Try knifing the remaining solder with an exacto knife. The solder shouldn’t wick to the side of the board so it’s probably just a tight press fit.
What driver/pill? It’s very uncommon (in my personal experience) to see a driver which is soldered to the pill from the inside. This definitely won’t happen just from solder running down the crack between the driver and the pill, it must be done one purpose.
If you can see joints and just can’t get the solder blob to separate (surface tension is keeping it together) then we can do something about that. In that case you can try to use a stainless or graphite implement to separate the liquid solder. An X-ACTO knife is a good tool for this. Solder will not wet to either material.
Good point RBD! In the case of a tight press fit where there is no alternative: comfychair mentioned in another thread that you can solder a wire onto the driver and pull on that. I’ve done it, it works. I’ve pulled quite hard on a driver to get it out that way. It’s scary, you could totally destroy the trace you solder to when pulling like. I tried to choose the largest copper pour available which was also close to the edge (so that I’d get good leverage).
Ideally you’d probably poke the press fit out from the top if possible.
Hmm… I hadn’t thought about cutting through the solder. I’ll see if that works.
This is an AK-47 driver in a UF-602C host, built by RMM. It’s nice, but I wanted to take it apart to reflash it. Remember when he tried to do 16340 EDC lights but the supply of hosts dried up? It’s one of those, after the better hosts were gone.
The driver is press fit into a brass adapter if I’m not mistaken, should be able to get it out if you hold your tongue to the left and squint your right eye while pounding a 1/8” drill bit through the LED wire hole in the shelf.
! I wasn’t suggesting cutting through the solder while it was solid, although that can be an option at times. Once the solder is liquid you can “divide” or “part” it with a stainless implement. If you push a stainless blade through a sphere of molten solder it will turn into two smaller spheres.
Like this? WarHawk-AVG - Convoy S5 and UltraFire 602C
Looks like WarHawk-AVG’s 101-AK was a loose fit inside the brass ring. In that case gently dragging an X-ACTO through the molten solder blobs should separate that driver nicely.
Woot! Cutting it (while solid) worked.
Anti-woot! The off-time cap is stuck directly onto a MCU pin so it’ll be a pain to reflash.
Anyway, thanks. Sometimes I’m really good at missing the obvious. 
Edit: I think I might just pull it off and put it onto a different driver. I was recently hoping for a way to get an OTC or two to add to existing lights. Or maybe just put it on the other side, on a star. I think there’s just barely enough room to fit with a button-top battery. (the driver I wanted to put it on doesn’t appear to have room unless I air-wire it)
Good job! It shouldn’t be very difficult to remove the OTC. Take a look at my videos thread. I normally add solder to both sides and the cap is off before I know it. Be ready to remove it from the tip of your iron with a pair of stainless or bamboo tweezers.
I’m new here so forgive my ignorance but am I able to buy one of these (17mm) competed? My soldering skills aren’t the best and surface mount is something I have never done. Lets just say I’d prefer to just buy one completed. I was going to buy a BLF17DD from Mountain Elec. but they’re out of stock and I think this single sided driver is pretty cool.
If I recall correctly, RMM is planning to sell these soon, after he gets time to build them. Might be a little while though.
Otherwise, it’s possible someone in this thread might be willing to help. I suspect, if that’s the case, they’ll probably PM you.
And it was a pain to get it on there too! 
I wanted to keep it single sided so that was the only option I had at the time. As others have mentioned, add a little fresh solder to it and your iron should be able to pull it right off.
Hah, when I ordered I didn’t realize that the star used for “no memory” was on the same pin used for OTC. I’ve been meaning to reflash it with no memory for months.
I figure I’ll add some other features too, while I’m at it.
(short/med/long presses, battery check mode, blinkies, etc)
Of course, I could also try to rig up some other sort of clip or connector, to flash in tighter spaces or when the two unused pins are blocked. The current OTC location is physically the best spot, it just blocks the SOIC clip.
Look what came in today! I should really start looking into rework stations… 
Chazzy, you’re gonna have to change your sig line…that lackadaisical response is about to take a twist in perspective! 
Chazzy i might have a 2008D hot air station in about a week for a nice price if interested ? if so ill pm u when i get it might ask $60 shipped retail says $80
Hehe, that always seem to be my go to sarcastic response. I don’t think I’ve ever been successful conveying sarcasm through text.
The main turn off for me right now is the grounding problem with the cheaper reflow stations. If I knew which wire goes where I would be fine purchasing one.
So errr, don’t order SiS414DN to use on this driver. I must have missed the fact that it’s actually PowerPAK 1212-8, a much smaller package than LFPAK56. That’s why the “package limited” values seemed so low!
Now I’m stuck w/ two of them (which I ordered for testing with the QX7136 over here)… maybe that’s an excuse to make a smaller driver of some type?
It’s slightly larger than SOT23 (and significantly higher performance IIRC). It appears that PowerPAK 1212-8 is also known as: LFPAK33, DFN3.3x3.3, PQFN08B, EDFN 3x3, TSDSON-8, Micro8 Leadless, and MLP08S according to this document from NXP.
There are even smaller modern power-MOSFET packages which might be good choices for the task you mentioned. It appears that there is a SOT-363 compatible footprint being used now which is referred to as things like “PowerPAK SC-70-6” and “UDFN2020-6” and probably other things. It’s more like 2x2 rather than 3.3x3.3. Maybe something in that size could be found the for the smallest DD drivers. That said, if the larger 3.3x3.3 pacakage fits it’s what I’d probably go with.