Oh boy - not sure if I'm stepping on toes. Yours is a more generic board since it serves many possible options, while ours is more single/special purpose.
- Is the outer diameter of the Q8 board (46.02 mm) enough or would the “ears” of BLF SRK FET still be needed?
The ears would serve well for a generic SRK board that could be used in various/most clones that don't have a retaining ring. Actually I requested it for ours, since our OSHPark BLF Q8 is only gonna be used a prototype, typically in the cheap SRK clones available today. It turns out though we haven't found a need - we can still get a tight press fit, least on the clone I'm using so far.
- As momentary switch pin2 is most commonly used, is pin3 for the switch an option at all anymore?
I'm not aware of it being used on pin #3
- There was talk of a snubber circuit for the FET, is that still in discussion?
Hhhmmm, not sure - can't recall details, but we are not using it at this point, but DEL is going to be scoping our new board, so if he's satisifed, it won't be used or considered I'd think
- what for are in Q8 (v3) the two small rectangular pads above BATT LED?
Ok, that's a good question - I see them, they are there.. Just not sure. Maybe either sets of pads can be used for wiring up a indicator LED, not sure...
- Is the Zener Diode in Q8 the usual Zener-Mod-Diode and not necessary with an LDO version?
No, it's not meant to be the typical zener diode. It was intended to be optional, only if we could not get a stable VCC input to the MCU with the other enhancements. Richard's new MTN17DDm v1.1 uses az ener the same way as our intention, but it doesn't look like we need it. In fact it's not recommended because of the leakage that adds to parasitic drain significantly.