H17F - programmable driver with full thermal regulation

Congratulations chadvone. Never would have guessed it.
On the other hand: everything that happened after I learned how to put the ram in the rama lama ding dong is one big blur.

Which mosfet are you using DrJones ?

Congrats chadvone.

DMG6968U. 10A seems to be the practical limit for the driver under good conditions (Nichia219C triple; while a driver with a big FET gave about 15A, as far as I remember), and with an XM-L2 it gives 5.8A, which I find quite sufficient.

Received my H17F driver today. Was not expecting it this soon. Complete surprise. Actually made my day after my order from RMM didn’t make it.

Low is so low you can see the detail in the LED.
High is bright. Much brighter than Stock 3 speed.

UI Every one has there idea of a perfect UI. This is my perfect clicky UI. You can make it as complex or as simple as you would like. Brightness adjustment, there is brightness level for anything I can think of.

I was interested in this driver since I first read about it.

Great Job DrJones. All my click switch lights need these.

Chad

I got mine about a week ago and I’m absolutely in love. I’ve been calling it the ‘dream driver’ as it’s got everything.

One question, on the battery check feature, mine seems to blink 12 times on a full 4.2v battery. I thought mine was getting relatively dim on turbo, but the battery check still blinked 5 times, and it read about 3.2v on the DMM when I checked it.

The manual says each blink is 0.12v above 3v baseline, which is 10 blinks for a full 4.2v, and should have been only 1-2 blinks for my drained battery.

Was this revised in a newer version of the FW?

From the manual

The number of blinks indicates battery voltage, about one blink for every 0.12V above 3.0V without load (~10 is full (4.2V), ~4 is pretty empty).

I am sure there is some variation in accuracy. 4 is pretty empty.

I think mine sometimes blinks 11 times

Wow, this seems like a great driver with an impressive set of features. I just ordered 2; one for my s2+ with single XP-L and one for a single cell 26650 triple XP-L that I’m planning in a trustfire a8.

I gathered from this thread that the FET used has more on state resistance than, say, the regular FET drivers from mtn electronics? If this is the case I might not want to use this for my triple if I want the possibility of maximum current.

I’m interested in the thermal control. Is it important to sink the driver with something thermally close to the emitter? The PID control sounds cool. The driver can access all 24 brightness modes to control the temperature?

Is semi turbo something like 50% PWM of the full turbo?

Thanks.

I measured my triple XP-L at 10.5A on the MTN-17DDm driver with 18awg wire, and 10.4A on the H17F driver with 22awg wire. I was a little concerned about the “loss” of output, but for me the practicality and features of this driver heavily outweighs any losses. I don’t think a difference in output would be discernible outside of very controlled testing.

I just have my driver in the pill of my S2 like so:

and I ran it for over an hour one day on turbo, and the thermal regulation did its thing. There was no controlled testing, but it seemed to lose approximately half the brightness as it throttled output. I couldn’t ask for more.

Moonlight is super low. “Moonlight” on the S30 (1 lumen) vs moonlight on my triple H17F:

The only thing I would change is the spacing between the lowest two modes. I would lower the output on the second level, personally (if possible). It’s quite a jump in pitch darkness.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but will this driver be suitable for this particular emitter?

http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=572

Yes, that’s what’s in my light posted above.

I’m glad you like it :slight_smile:

PrinceValorum: The voltage measurement depends on an internal voltage reference in the MCU, which is known to vary a bit - in uncommon cases up to 10% - you probably got one of these :frowning: Can’t do much about it. Calibrating each MCU would mean too much hassle (and increase the price…), and there’s no space for a better external voltage reference on the board.
Lowest two modes: These two modes are the lowest possible PWM modes for the single AMC7135. The AMC7135 takes about 2µs to switch on, and the lowest mode sort of switches it off again right then. The second mode already gives the AMC time enough to really switch on, that’s why that step is quite big.

EasyB: Yes, the FET has a higher resistance, because it had to be smaller. But the driver is good for 10+ Ampere, as several people meanwhile measured (one even 11.5A).
Thermal regulation works smoothly, i.e. does not jump in steps of those levels. The algorithm seems to work well under a wide range of thermal conditions and setups, so I’d say it’s not important to improve thermal contact of the MCU to the LED. If the control behaves oddly, you could try that though.
Semi-turbo should be halfway between 100% and turbo - though that might vary a bit due to non-linearities in direct drive.

so, when does production start? :smiley:

I’ll need a couple at least!

No worries, I was just wondering. As long as it’s consistent over time, I don’t really care what the values are, I’ll learn them as I go!

Okay, I figured it must have been a limitation of something rather than a design decision, since the step between mode 1-2 is bigger than 2-3, according to this table:

They’re in stock! 17mm DrJones H17Fx Driver w/ lucidrv2 - 7135 + FET

They are available at Mountain right now! I might have to get one even though I’ve way overblown the budget already.

A bit more than expected but this is a premium driver. Much cheaper than a Prometheus Icarus driver and likely better anyways. Gives me a reason to order a few more things from mtn electronics.

Cool.

Are there any estimates on how low the lowest few modes are?

I’m going to guess it will depend on the emitter quite a bit. I’m using it in an XP-L triple.

I posted a picture above of the lowest mode compared to 1 lumen in the S30 Baton.

It visually looks like about half the light compared to the lowest mode of my Wizard Pro (warm), which is 0.2 lumens, according to the manual.

Hope that helps!

The lowest few modes are very low. A very nice moonlight, for sure.

I am surprised you are seeing such a small difference in DD output. In my triple XP-L and Nichia 219C lights the difference in output amps is much bigger than what PrinceValorum is seeing. That said, a big jump in amps on the high-end does not equate to a big increase in visual output, so in most cases it isn't a huge deal.

The temperature sensor is very smooth, but it will let the small triples overshoot the set point by a significant margin; in cases with large temperature swings the driver is too smooth and does not ramp down fast enough. It still will not badly overheat, but it overshoots more than I'd like to see happen. An algorithm adjustment that allows for bigger steps when the temperature increases past the set point by a significant margin or at a significant rate would certainly help alleviate the problem; i.e., smoother at normal temperature increases, but bigger steps with rapid swings.

Thanks for the additional info, everyone. I looked up some MOSFET resistances and it looks like the one used in this driver has 25 to 30 mOhms on-resistance. I think the dedicated FET drivers have less than 10 mOhms? An additional 20 mOhms is like having an additional tailcap in the circuit. Not too bad but enough to cause a significant drop in current, as people seem to experience. I think I will use a FET driver for my triple/quad just because I want it to be a little lumen monster. Looks like I have good excuse to build a nice C8 with the H17F :sunglasses: .

The double-tap feature is one thing I really like about the FW. How quick do the taps need to be to access this mode? Is it easy to accidentally access this mode when switching modes quickly?

On a slightly related note: I was looking at Dr. Jones different FWs and I saw that the guppydrv universal clicky I have on my QLITE 8*7135 has battery voltage indicator. This feature is not described on mountain electronic’s page. It seems to work like lucidrv, where 8 quick clicks brings you to the programming menu, where it will blink for each 0.1V above 3.0V.
Richard, you might want to add this to the description for this FW on your page; I think it is a pretty attractive feature and might be an important point for some people.