I think the bridge is an excellent idea. I can’t remember who, but someone else used a bridge over the MCU on a driver a while back. Even if the bridge started to collapse and let pressure onto the top of the MCU, it would still be a lot less pressure than directly supporting the lead with the MCU. And, hopefully, we’re not talking about all that much pressure anyway. You already said that you’ve not had problems supporting the lead directly on the MCU.
But, there may be some people who would like the MCU to be better accessible for flashing on-board. With a bridge and possibly a spring over the MCU, that may be a problem for them. Of course, with the right firmware installed the first time, the options available through the UI could probably make re-flashing a thing of the past. We’ve already got several firmwares available that are made to do just that. One of them would just have to be tweaked (or a new one written) to work with the four channels of this driver. PWM would only really be needed for the lowest modes, in order to get below the 350mA available from the single 7135 chip.
I understand, but you are thinking of the attiny13A-su.
The attiny13a-mmu is very tiny. The extra small size was one of the reason Richard managed to make a single sided 10mm FET driver
And fit all the components needed to make the new high amp 17mm buck driver.
No problem. Being able to flash the driver without taking it out of the pill was the main reason why I considered this design in the first place. I’ve used this solution here, and flashing is now a breeze: Driver: Master & slave driver board for S3 triple.
I do a lot of coding and testing so I don’t like having to take apart the entire light when I want to upgrade. Been there, done that, ain’t going back!
I see, didn’t know about that little thing. Anyhow, I have currently no need for a single side driver, and no need for a spring either. I doubt there is much that can get me to ever consider using a 13A again…
Ok, but i you happen to want to use it for anything in the future, Richard made a programming board for it, to simplify the flashing before the reflow.
Made some changes to it and is now ordered from OSH Park. First time I’m dealing with a FET. I’ll use it in a triple XP-L and see how I like it.
Theoretically I prefer slightly longer run times limited at around 6A, but hey, I haven’t had a FET light in my hands before so things can change.
