H17F - programmable driver with full thermal regulation

Is the design / components list / firmware available to create them from scratch ?

richnpc, did you get an answer?
Here is the user guide for this driver.
http://drjones.nerdcamp.net/h17f.html

Hiya. So is it very normal to have big differences in the firefly modes when comparing 3 different circuits? Can the firefly mode work if the single amc7135 channel is damaged?

Hi Guys,

I just installed this into my BLF Ti X6 tonight and I am having trouble with the brightness programming.

So I started fresh and deleted all the modes in mode group one, then one by one added modes and set them. I have currently set two modes which are moonlight (step 2) and 380mA (step 16). I have added a third mode and I am trying to set it at 3.04A (step 22) but for some reason when it steps up it does 16 steps, pauses for a moment then does two steps which are significantly brighter which I am assuming are the half turbo and full turbo and then starts stepping down again. It’s like its completely skipping steps 17-22…

Is there something I am doing wrong or has anyone else had this happen?

Cheers,
Tim

That doesn’t seem right. Were you using a full battery? One simple thing it could be is if you were using a depleted battery, maybe the few highest modes using the linear regs would be very similar in output, then the two highest modes using the FET would be brighter because of the lower voltage drop of the FET.

I noticed the same huge jump on the last 2 modes. However, this was when I put the H17F into my Quad XPL HI E14. I assume the jump is because it went from 3 amps to probably 9+ amps in one step.

After more thought, this shouldn’t cause the behavior you’re seeing, since modes 17-21 are PWM of the full 3A linear output.

It sounds like there is something wrong with the 8x7135 channel which is modes 17-22.

That’s what I’m thinking. The last step before it does the two big jumps is reading at around 380mA so it is definitely only getting to 16 steps, then jumping to half turbo and full turbo.

Using an Efest 35A that’s a bit over 4v at the moment so I don’t think there is a problem there.

Indeed there is a problem with that PWM circuit---it's shorted to ground. Some of the drivers develop a short between the center 7135 pin (ground) and the PWM via that sits directly underneath it (design error). Removing the 7135 and then cutting the center pin off fixes the problem. After I started getting a few reports of the problem I started checking every driver for the issue, and on future drivers that I build I am going to either cut that 7135 leg or insulate it better, so there shouldn't be many, if any, issues going forward.

If any of you experience this problem (I've had a few others report this same issue, but I had them send the driver back because I hadn't figured it out yet) here is the 7135 leg to cut:

You can easily diagnose it by checking for continuity between the PWM pin (right pin) and ground pin (center pin) on the spring side 7135 chips.

As usual Richard, you were 100% correct! Thanks for your help. I removed the 7135, cut off the centre leg, added a tiny piece of kapton tape to the board then bent the two remaining pins slightly down so they still had contact even with the kapton tape underneath. Battery back in and all is working perfectly! Thanks again!

Has anyone used this driver with an mtg2? If used on hi, will it regulate to a good usable level? I’m making a light for my grandfather and I don’t want him to have to worry about remembering how to deal with temperature.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I didn’t think you could zener mod this driver for use with 6V emitters???

Idk. I would like to know…

Has anyone tried this?

I don’t think there aren’t any traces for zener components…

From a hardware standpoint, couldn’t you add a zener to dump the voltage to the mcu and swap the protection diode with a resistor? Like a qlite driver… I might mess with the complicated firmware though?

Do it old school and cut some traces and air wire it.

Just kidding.

Hey… I’m not afraid! :disguised_face:

You could zener mod it, but you'll burn up the 7135 chips, especially the single channel 7135 chip, in a hurry. Not recommended. The duty cycle would have to be greatly reduced on the single 7135 chip, which would require a firmware change.

Ya. That’s what I was afraid of… Thanks for the information!