Thanks for the write up.
I also have this light and have been wondering about the modes.
Is there nothing we can replace the part with that has the built in PWM (modes) on this driver?
The tiny10 is a reworked 105C two sided driver with an Attiny 13A, C1, R1, and R2 on one side and D1 and a single 7135 pad on the other. Led+/- are through hole vias to allow the driver to face either way. There’s no space for a center positive spring pad so one must be added on top of either the mcu or the 7135 or with a separate contact plate. The tiny12 is the same layout with a larger ground ring.
The red and green emitters are much more powerful in output, the blue is low profile. And my wife likes blue. It’s a soothing calming color. Red, not so much. 
Edit: Thanks, just ordered the AA brass light and will exchange the emitter. The 650mA boost driver is what sold me. Almost got the AAA SS instead, but the driver being ready to go for the blue emitter won me over. 
Err, wrong thread?
Yeah, looks like someone missed something….spam alert? If it would’ve linked to that light I would’ve spammed it. As it is, perhaps the new guy just was reading too many threads at once.
I have made that mistake before myself, it was embarrassing! lol
Hard to say for sure, but his post count went from 5 to 11 in just a few minutes, and he made at least two new threads about that exact product and he says he’s trying to sell something. Looks like spam, just not very coherent spam.
In any case, I haven’t tried a blue XP-E2. I’m not aware of any reason it wouldn’t work, but I assume you’d need to reflow it onto the existing star or cut a small star even smaller.
In this light, I don’t think there’s room for a positive spring, much less if it’s on top of a MCU or other chip. The stock driver just has a small brass disc on the positive pad, to raise it up a fraction of a millimeter. At the tail end, the spring is rather short and doesn’t have much room to move. So, I think it needs a single-sided driver.
Also, the retaining ring has an inner diameter of like 10.5mm so there isn’t room to put chips around the edge of the battery side.
I just tried a protected 14500 cell, and it’s long enough I can’t even get the tailcap to start threading. Anything bigger than an Eneloop isn’t going to work.
I would definitely love it if a suitable driver were available (even if it’s for li-ion only), but I don’t have the EE experience to design one myself. So for now, I’ll just leave these un-modded. It’s a nice host, but we don’t have a wealth of AA-compatible parts like we do for 1x18650 hosts.
Doesn' t the BLF15DD (by warhawk) fit with just a little shaving??
I’ve been meaning to look into laying out a driver to transplant the guts from this style driver onto. Maybe I’ll take a closer look into that with the DFN-10 ATtiny.
Sure looks like it to me. Good suggestion.
Well. I tried 2 alternate drivers. One 14mm (too tall) and a 15mm driver (to tall and wide). Nothing fits so I have up and just reflowed a Nichia 219A into the light. Anyone find a suitable replacement driver?
No, not yet… have been a little busy with other projects.
I’m hoping that a 14mm one-sided board will work, even if it’s just 1x7135 plus an attiny. That setup can get bright enough for my purposes (~120 lm), considering that most of my use is on moon, low, or medium.
That sounds good, too bad it can’t run AA though. Let me know if you build an extra!
How about a FluPIC V2.2? I had an extra so decided to try it out in the Brass AA.
Well, it’s 14500 only, and is programmable. The low mode is decent, around 1 lumen, but the PWM is pretty low frequency.
It’s not the greatest but it’ll do for now. I was not a fan of the original circuit. The level spread was poor (7-100-200?), the memory mode was weird and somewhat unpredictable.
I’m hoping to find something more up to date at some point.
Nice, it’s awesome that you successfully improved yours.
I still haven’t really touched mine, aside from taking it apart and taking pictures. Picked out some candidates for possible drivers to use as a starting point. Thought about maybe getting the tools I’d need to assemble drivers. Decided this will probably be my new favorite light for a long time if I ever get it working.
But mostly I’ve just been doing other things.
Yep, so:
- updated driver, programmable FluPIC v2.2 (14500 only)
- Nichia 219A LED swap
- DC Fix diffusion film
The light is much more usable now, but the UI is somewhat hokey (flashes after 1 second to indicate mode resets) and the PWM frequency is still too low, but it’s more functional than stock.
Yes, a fun little light. Cheap and nicely made brass. But MAN that circuit cavity is small! I couldn’t use the retaining ring, had to sold the circuit to the pill.
Another update. Flupic has annoying pwm. Decided to use 15mm 5x7135 circuit from mtn electronics.
Only using 1x7135 to keep the battery side blank. Max around 80 lumens. 14500 only. Also had to carefully sand it down to 14mm.
Using Guppydrv. Nice firmware option, though moonlight is not low enough .
Found a good clip that fits too. From a Lumapower Edc lm31. A basic, decent AA light. Now I have a good circuit (too bad it’s 14500 only) and good clip. I’ll have have to strip and Polish the clip someday.
Coupled with a Nichia 219A, glow sticker and diffusion film, I’m pretty happy. Until a good AA circuit comes along that fits.
Sweet! Does the retaining ring still fit, or is the driver too thick for that? Did you have to replace the driver spring with a solder blob?
Is that 80 lumens on an EagleTac scale? Normally I’d expect about 120 lm from a single 7135 chip plus Nichia 219, but that’s 120 selfbuilt lumens.
I didn’t think the 15mm driver would fit… but since it does, I may be getting a few very soon.
The driver is too thick, I ended up soldering it.
It didn’t come with a spring, I used a solder blob.
I’ll have to recheck the actual output. It’s a guess but I have not really tried estimating the output yet. I could be off.
I do have a spare driver. Bought two in case I screwed one up. Give me a shout before buying one.
I have one of those drivers here, originally for testing in a D25A. However, I’d rather put a floating 12mm driver into the D25A so I can keep its original contact plate. That’s how it’s originally designed so it shouldn’t be too hard…
So, I wonder if I might be able to make the 15mm driver thinner around the edges. I think if I thin the outer edge of the battery side it shouldn’t break anything, and then I could still use the nice retaining ring. I plan on not soldering it because I prefer to be able to take it out easily for reflashing. On the LED side of the driver, I’m guessing the 7135’s big pin would be the main thing touching ground. Not a lot of contact area, but at only 350mA it probably doesn’t need much.
I have some bare 219Bs too, waiting for me to learn how to reflow emitters on the stove.
This seems do-able. A little delicate, but do-able. And if it works it’ll be one of the nicest items in my collection. This little brass host is one of my favorites.