D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

[pilotdog68]

That’s too be expected. The primary purpose of the bleeder resistor is to allow the OTC to drain properly.

[Lazy-R-us]

Thanks to DrafterDan’s generosity and his mixed up order from RIC, I now have my first ‘custom’ LED flashlight parts! I have 2 GITD tail covers. If only BangGood had shipping this fast… It almost seems a shame to use these on my lame Home Depot Defiant light.

Thank you!
Lazy-R-us

[djozz]

@pilotdog68

That’s too be expected. The primary purpose of the bleeder resistor is to allow the OTC to drain properly.

Something like that (but never exactly, with electronics) I thought would have happened. Let's see if the bleeder r fixes it :-)

[pyro1son]

@djozz

I now realise we have this circuit:

…already quite well covered with the latest version of the board:

How smaller parts are people willing to use? I’m going to attempt to design this board. Keeping 0805 LED are we all OK with 0603 resistors? And what sizes for the other components?

[djozz]

@pyro1son

@djozz

I now realise we have this circuit:

..already quite well covered with the latest version of the board:

How smaller parts are people willing to use? I’m going to attempt to design this board. Keeping 0805 LED are we all OK with 0603 resistors? And what sizes for the other components?

My resistors are 0805, they work well for hand soldering (reflowing is not for everyone), I guess I can solder 0603 resitors as well, but it will be harder.

Thanks for willing to design the board, but perhaps it saves the work if we check if the circuitry in practice really works first? The SOT23 transistors are not in yet, so I can not try this yet. But if it is for the fun of designing it, please go ahead, that would be nice anyway :-)

[Werner]

I read here somewhere in one of the driver threads that someone used 0603 pads which also allow to use 0805 resistors…

[pyro1son]

I’ve made a start! It’s not ready to order need to check all the traces but its getting there.

EDIT:
Tweaked slightly. Anybody want to check my work?

[djozz]

@pyro1son

Anybody want to check my work?

I will look at it tonight, but I think pd68 has more routine checking board designs than me.

[pilotdog68]

I don’t have enough knowledge of the circuit to check it quickly, but I will have a look this afternoon.

[pyro1son]

I have check that it follows the same as the schematic higher up. If somebody would check the rest of the layout. I will continue playing with it during the week but I’m away for the weekend.

[pilotdog68]

Well when I was first starting everyone was quick to tell me to avoid acute angles because it could cause errors at the fab. So that’s something you could clean up. And I was also told “Use the thickest traces you can fit.”

Some of the components could probably be spaced a bit further apart to make it easier for the people that use an iron instead of reflow. When I’m working in Eagle on my big screen, I always forget how terribly small all of these things are.

That circuit is simpler than I was expecting. Since most people are using 1288’s instead of 1217’s, we could easily reduce the switch pads and fit full 0805 components (just a thought)

[pyro1son]

Better?

[scottyhazzard]

Using 0805’s sounds very cool to me. I’m going to need a better magnifying lens.

[DrafterDan]

I would suggest pulling back the positive side of the 1288 switch pads so that it does not extend to the end of the board. Otherwise it may contact the threading and ground the system.

~D

[Rufusbduck]

And shift all the components on the left down to give more edge clearance to the pad at the top. I’ll have a go looking over the circuitry tonight as well. And we’ll need to see both sides to check via placement.

[pilotdog68]

It might be easier to take some top and bottom layer screenshots of eagle

[djozz]

@djozz

This evening I made a red/blue led tailboard (latest 17mm version) for one of my BLF-A6 flashlights. 22kOhm in series with the red led, 12kOhm in series with the blue led. I did not install a bleeder resistor on the driver yet.

There's trouble. Mind that the bleeder R is not there yet, but without it (the blue and red led light up, not really bright and) it messes with the BLF-A6 firmware. I have to dig into it a bit more but at least the long press to go one mode backward does not work (I tried all possible delays in case the timing was off). I have two BLF-A6 (5A) lights: if the tail is moved to the other light, the trouble travels with it.

Something with a cap?

Tomorrow I try installing the bleeder resistor to see what that does.

[quote=pilotdog68] That's too be expected. The primary purpose of the bleeder resistor is to allow the OTC to drain properly. [/quote]

Tonight I installed the bleeder (680 Ohm) and new fun arises, apparently I damaged the driver while drilling a cavity for the resistor (the stuff the pcb is made of has layers and is grittier than an Oshpark board). The first three modes out of seven (setting is 7 modes without memory) are now the same, looks like the 7135 is full out on all three, as if there is a permanent voltage on the 7135 gate. Removing the bleeder resistor did not reverse the driver to normal.

I will have to remove the driver and check everything out :-(

[pilotdog68]

Yeah I would be too worried to drill into a circuit board. I just stack bleeder on top of the input capacitor

[X31 (-X3-)]

I made a low low budget one, with amber LED that I had (a bit weird with a GITD cap, but I might try with green ones when they arrive).
I put a bleeder resistor (680ohms…only ones I had) and another one on the tailcap.
I have a 1,8mA drain current.
It’s not so bright in person, and help locating in the dark

[pyro1son]

v004
Updated with 0805 parts and moved the left side down abit.