Driver problem

Recently I installed a Qlite 17mm 8x7135 driver board and the tailcap current reading on high was 1.80 amp on a fresly charged Sanyo 2600.
When I examined the board I found the negative wire was soldered to the adjacent pin of the 7135 chip.
Could this be the problem or was the chip faulty?
The only soldering I did was to attach the board to the pill at two points.
TIA for your reply.

That soldering is correct as long as the solder is not touching the middle leg on the 7135. It is supposed to be soldered to the outside leg on the 7135. The 1.8 reading is probably due to the internal resistance of the flashlight and the test probe wiring.

Often the wires of the DMM are to thin for correct Ampere measurements. Try thicker cables.

I recently posted on the same subject on another thread, never think some leads are "enough" there is no such thing when you are measuring currents even if you have already measured higher current in another setup.
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/32856

When measuring amperage from my flashlights I use my homemade 1 foot 12 gauge probes. I expect their relatively accurate, maybe to within .1 - .2 amps.

Definitely a low reading, on the order of around an amp.

Have you worked on getting the resistance of the flashlight down? Braid the springs, better switch if one will fit, thicker wire, good driver ground?