Has anyone tested this FET yet? RBD? DBCstm?
Thanks.
I have a few of them, but haven't gotten around to testing one yet. It was super expensive, so I really want it to do something! 
Me too… on both counts.
Being close to Mouser it won’t take but a couple 2 or 3 days for them to show up.
I won’t sit on em. 
I’m interested in putting this driver in my Convoy C8. Currently, it’s just an XM-L2 with 7135*8 but I want to take it to the next level. What all would I need for the conversion? Would I need additional heatsinking to make it work? Looking forward to hearing back!
- With a good cell and a low-Vf emitter this driver will provide extremely high currents. Most XM-L2 don’t have a low enough Vf to get the craziest currents, but you could easily see something like ~6A, which is a lot. You’ll need to ensure that you are using a DTP MCPCB such as the ones from SinkPAD, Noctigon, or Maxtoch. A regular non-DTP MCPCB (copper, aluminum, whatever) can be expected to destroy your emitter at 6A. Look at MTN Electronics or INTL Outdoor for those parts, although I think there are plenty of other places that carry SinkPADs.
- Of course you must ensure that the (DTP) MCPCB is adequately seated against the head and transmitting heat out to the flashlight body properly. Normally this involves having a thin layer of TIM (CPU heatsink grease) under the MCPCB. This high-current situation is very hard on the LED, so heat management (cooling the LED) is critical.
- No heatsinking at all should be necessary for the driver. It produces very little heat (only “switching losses”).
- Mouser and DigiKey partslists to build the driver are on Page 2 of this thread.
- You’ll also want a driver spring, probably (again, MTN or IOS are good places to look). You’ll definitely want to bypass both springs. (Unless you don’t use a spring on the driver. In that case you’ll only need to bypass one spring of course!) The quality of the spring doesn’t matter much once it’s bypassed, you don’t need a high end spring. Here are two threads which show bypasses:
Mod: Convoy L4, a good mod host? Is it even necessary to mod? (look in the OP)
I'm only achieving 2.25A from a 3.04A driver (look at post #55)
Much more involved than I thought it’d be, and that’s ok. I’ll probably just wait for this A6 GB to happen!
It’s not really involved. The only crucial thing is to heatsink the LED properly.
In general doing spring bypasses is only necessary to improve performance. All high current lights benefit from doing this. (If you won the Vf lottery and have an XM-L2 emitter with a really crazy low Vf it’s possible that you could damage a spring. I’ve only done that with an oldschool XM-L @ 8-9A, the XM-L2 will not likely pull enough current for that to happen.)
Which diameter MCPCB would I need for a Convoy C8?
Would this driver work in lieu of building my own from scratch? Pros? Cons?
I don’t have a C8, but I imagine it’s 20mm. There are many different C8’s, so I recommend that you take yours apart and check for yourself to be sure. I think older or less nice C8’s may have used 16mm.
Nothing wrong with that driver! The layout is inspired by this driver (v024). I think that my driver (v024, v031, v043) is considerably more attractive in appearance than the ones from MTN. Performance should be in the same class.
I’d still recommend building your own: you’ll learn more, become more comfortable with the parts, and save money. RMM charges a very fair price for his assembled and programmed drivers… but you can still build your own for a fraction of the cost. You can purchase PCBs and parts for 3 of these for the price of one pre-built driver. (Much) Better price breaks happen at 10x though, so I’d order 3x PCBs (the minimum) for $2.20 and at least 10x of all the parts from Mouser, just like the cart in post #38 shows. You may want to pickup 100x of the 1uf capacitor and the two resistors, as the price breaks are huge on those once you hit 100 pcs. It’s $4.00 extra total for an extra 270pcs (90 extra of each). The 1uf capacitors are especially useful for converting Nanjg-105c drivers to offtime.
Take a look and form your own opinion. IMO the parts are cheap enough compared to built drivers that you can afford to destroy… well… a LOT of them in the learning process if necessary.
“I think that my driver (v024, v031, v043) is considerably more attractive in appearance than the ones from MTN. ”
Really? More attractive? A driver? It goes inside, never to be seen again, how does it’s appearance matter? I bet you pay a lot of money to have the underside of your vehicle undercoated don’t you? 
Much prettier when changing the oil from underneath if it’s spray painted all neat and all…
Function rules. Simple as that. Absalom, don’t let the obsessive compulsive issue of the designers get under your skin. Richards driver will work fine for you and you’ll see a huge difference in output over a stock C8 driver.
We’ll rate how pretty they are when Wight has a few hundred built up for sale…
(bustin your b@lls ol boy!) lol
I can’t help it! Sure impresses the folks at Jiffy-lube though…
You guys are pretty funny! I hope that nobody takes this stuff too seriously, because I know I don't. 
I also agree that wight's design is much more attractive. He has a better eye for layout and symmetry than I do, and I think it's obvious that he has a lot more patience than I do! 43+ revisions? I don't think I have 43 revisions with all of my boards combined. Wight takes the time to think about the aesthetic appeal--he's like the Jonathan Ive of flashlight driver design.
I'm the kind of guy that once I get something that works well, will probably stick with it until something clearly better comes along. I guess you could say that I value function over form. Not to say that form doesn't matter to me, because it does, but when there is limited time and resources I am willing to sacrifice form. Wight doesn't sacrifice; uncompromising aesthetic design is his vice. 
I don’t mind the usual drivers, don’t pay any attention really, but I DO notice these nice aesthetic designs! Changing cells you see the patterns, the arrangement, and then it’s appreciable, obvious the time was taken to lay it out pretty.
I especially like the PZL driver, looks really neat in the light.
Edit: Looking for components with 24K gold overlay on the connections. I mean, if the board is so pretty so should be the components, right? 
Edit II: The devil is in the details, when something is done all the way as best as it can be…it shows. Look how much better it would be if they applied that way of thinking to this fabulous emitter…
I have to wonder just what they were thinking with that charcoal grey mess under the die?
I’m just getting ready to order parts. 20 Boards are already on order.
(need to build some XHP70s 2x18350 - After seeing Dales Pics the need is great )
I assume any 1% decent resistors will do.
I’m not sure what specs the D1 diode(low Vf) should be and a proper Zener?
C1 at 4.7 or higher value for the zener mod?
And maybe some additional R1s at 19k?
I’m also looking into getting a Programming adapter - currenty I’m still not able to find a decent clamp for icp.
Thanks and greets
It is the
Pomona 8 pin soic test clip. part number 5250. IC test clip
you want for the programming adapter.
Thanks!
Where one can found tips on how-to program and firmware for that driver?
You can start with this Guide: how to flash ATtiny13a based drivers (NANJG, QLITE, etc.) with custom firmware.
You can use Star firmware or nlite, there are also some firmwares tweaked by ToyKeeper and DBCstm you can pm them to get the .c files.
Just a word of advice, there is a lot to take in, do it one step at a time otherwise you’ll be “f*ck this s*t$^” in no time.