[WIP] 17mm DD+single-7135 driver / single sided / Dual-PWM

Just got qty 3 of these in and on all 3 there's no exposed copper for the spring. Think it's workable by scraping off sections to solder the spring, or wire, to (been doin a bit if scraping of late, getting better at it). I can see the raised circular section, but it's covered in purple stuff. Not sure if this was mentioned before, sounds familiar, like I read bout this...

They are labeled A17HYBRID-S, v009. Haven't seen any pics of the backside - anyone else see this? Maybe just luck of the OSHPark draw?

Btw, this thread is all over the place - all good I guess...

The OSHPARK rendering of that driver shows it being exposed. I think that wight usually uploads gerbers, so WYSIuWYG (what you see is usually what you get ;) ). I'd check with Oshpark to see if they have any insight as to what happened.

K, will do. 1st time I've gotten something weird from OSHPark, but I always waited til the board settles down. There's not much posted here on the builds/results with the board - bdiddle, maybe that's it I think??

Occasionally the fab will oops. Shoot them an email and they’ll likely do another set.

Sorry, I think that’s partly my fault… I’m bad at this whole staying-on-topic thing.

They work great. :slight_smile: There is a tint shift that we’re not used to with the low modes as they’re not being pushed so hard. I personally like it, some might not.

When going through the modes you see the gear change when leaving Turbo and dropping back down into moon. Not anything major, but if you know what’s going on you can see it happening.

Holler at me if you’d like me to share the files I’ve been using, of course you’ll be able to tweak them to your specs.

The tint shift is a neat side effect of using two very different power channels on this driver. It looks like this when both channels are set to the same lumen level.

Could you please share your files? I'm sure the community would greatly appreciate it.



Ok. So, here comes vesture with some of his own noob questions.


Am I understanding correctly that this board works essentially the same as the BLFDD17 FET driver ( accept that it is one sided)? Meaning that that it runs directly off the battery on max etc.

Would I be able to use the open source firmware that works with the BLFDD board without modifying it?

Yes. You can use STAR or any other FW that works with a Qlite/105 or with the BLF17DD. The LVP values might need to be tweaked a tiny bit to be spot-on. This one also can use dual PWM, but it doesn’t require it. You can just leave the 7135 pads empty if you don’t want to use that feature.

VOB - I can help somewhat... I believe this is the board (or same feature set) as will be used with the Eagle Eye A6 group buy. It's different than the BLFDD 17 FET board in that it adds a 7135 that is separately addressable via an I/O pin (dual PWM output), so you can use the 7135 for low modes much more efficiently (i.e. more lumens per amp). It's more like wight's well regarded (and used) A17DD-08 board, accept with the added 7135.

Of course you don't have to make use of the 7135, then it's just like wight's A17DD-08 board, but if you have the driver software that takes advantage of it, it would be an advantage. TK's repository has lots of support for it, including her blf-a6 and tk-otc versions. I'm pretty sure the latest STAR e-switch and STAROffTime will suport the dual PWM I/O feature as well (supports a FET and 7135). There are other wight boards that are 7*7135 and 1*7135 on two PWM I/O channels as well.

Of course there are other differences, like the FET form factor that is used, no dedicated zener diode pad, etc.

Can I do a request for a UI for this driver?, something that I can not do myself, to anyone who knows how to program firmware for this? As much as I would like to do as much as possible myself, programming and flashing firmware is just not going to happen... :-(

I am not a fancy UI fan (the lights I like the most have just two modes: low and high). But I love the concept of this driver, and I love the moonlight option.

My ideal firmware for this driver is moonlight->350mA->fullFETblast , start on moonlight, off-time no memory. If I could have this driver with this UI, I would put it in all of my flashlights.

(If this possibly might happen, next request is for someone to flash a dozen Attinies for me :-) )

That's a piece of cake and is doable with STAR or toykeeper's firmware.

djozz with all the time and money invested in this hobby, you don’t have a USBasp yet? :wink:

but like RMM said, that’s a really easy FW. Your dreams can actually come true! If you start with the blf-A6, you can have two different mode groups too: one with moon, one just 2-mode.

So this UI is entirely possible with what is already out there :-)

I'm have a computer (a Mac) for basic work but although I'm not dumb, I'm a very analog person . All my tests involve a pen and paper step to write down numbers from displays from the various equipment. My power supply has some computer connector but I have no idea what to do with it.

I’m sure there are many people here willing to write that FW for you, including myself, but I don’t have enough Attiny’s to send you.

Jos,

Just order the mcu's from Richard and tell him what you want on them. :)

you are right, and he has a good price on them :-)

djozz, your ideal firmware for this driver is moonlight~~350mA~~>fullFETblast , start on moonlight, off-time no memory.

That sounds about perfect for a simple & not to complicated set up for a twisty light with a FET+7135 driver for gifting :slight_smile:

I hope that TK’s batt check feature could be included in such a setup.

but standard STAR does not make use of the FET+7135 driver or does it? I would want to use the 7135 chip for the 350mA setting, so that the driver only uses PWM for the moonlight setting.