Introducing the MELD-X RGBW(uv) flashlight driver!

Correct. I can put a picture together if you need to make other adjustments, but it it’s just for the white channel it’s easy - all the regulators on the bottom of the board (battery side) are for white.

Yep, that one looks fine. Nice low threshold voltage.

It’s user preference, but I think most would agree that 2 momentary switches is better

nice now i wait for the lights to arrive. because i want to order a few more boards from oshpark (lighted switch. . .)i thought of making my own board (with some help) where the fet and the other adjusments are integreated. There should be enough space on the driver. The Miller meassured ~26mm for the driver (not a full circle because of the switch board). And if not i want to ask if someone knows a small oshpark board that is made only for 1 fet.

What do you mean about the small board made for only one FET? A small driver board or an expansion board or what? I’d be happy to whip one up for you in Eagle if it’s something that doesn’t exist already

If possible i would change the original board layout. Original the White channel uses 4 7135 chips, the other colors only 1x7135 and the UV 2 chips.
I use a MC-E. So White 2x 7135 (700mA), all other colors also 2x 7135 and the UV channel should use a SIR800DP FET.
But if a redesign is way to much work a small expansion board for the FET would help to. And maybee a new board for the momentary switches (if i go from one to two switches)+ 0805 pads for lighting the switch. When the Wall-E light (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/Dual-Cree-XM-l-U2-Led-Torch-2-x-Cree-XM-L-U2-2-U2-5/1987840494.html?spm=2114.13010208.99999999.276.DMVlFg) arrives i will make some pictures so i can see how to best fit all the parts into it.
It will be a lot of work. Making the tripple UV reflector and ledboard fit, adding a second momentary switch (maybe), making the second reflector fitting the MC-E LED (i want to try Old Lumens SMO reflector to OP workaround) and then all the electronics if possible add copper to the build to cope better with the heat.

Well, I could make a “re-design” board for you, if tterev3 would be willing to share his schematic. :smiley:

As for a small expansion board, that would be even easier! All I’d need is to know the dimension(s) of the board you want and whether you want the solder pads for the jumper wires on the same side as the FET or the opposite side.

Depending on the light (can not wait to take it apart) a redesign would be great :smiling_imp: But if there is enough space a small customized expansion board will do the trick. But lets see what tterev3 has to say. If tterev3 would be ok with this, i would pay for the boards at oshpark and let them send the boards to tterev3 (for installing programming the mcu . . . ).
But it will take some time for the light to arrive. In the last few month orders from china sometimes arrived after ~14 days or more than 8weeks. Same store same order same shipping company. And the aditional price for faster shippment is often more than the item costs. So not a real option.

That all sounds good to me, here’s the schematic: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8AQ5y6R0lboWWRJVVVwM1dib0k
Let me know if you need anything else

@tterev3: thanks for you contributions to the forum!

Thanks tterev3! :+1:

Thanks for your help tterev3! :beer:
If a redisign is made i have to order 3 boards at oshpark if i am right. Because i do need only one i would not mind if you keep the other two ones for selling. I will post a buildlog here on BLF and if someone else is interested in building his own MELD-X Wall-E Light he could easily get the perfect fitting driver. They probably would take a Color XML and to get the max out of it they would need to add 1x7135 on each RGBW channel (1Amp instead of 700mA). But maybe we can fit the needed solder pads into the design (to improve modability). I would just leave them blank.
Too much thinking ahead. Maybee the best option will be to go with a customized expansion board. Ah i hate waiting.
I take a loock at the schematics and want to ask if i need the 4.7uF cap or if it is preeinstalled? Yesterday i ordered a lot of small parts. But no 4.7uF cap and i do not have them here (i have a 1% 0603 and a 1% 0805 full assortment here but only a few different SMD caps) . Maybe i could add them to my order if i call them in time.

I didn’t get started on the new design yet, but maybe this afternoon I can begin. If you’d like to make things easier for me, it would help if you would make a single, complete list of all the changes you want implemented. That way, I can have it in front of me while I’m working on it.

If you want i make the list with all changes ready today but i do not know if it makes sense until i have the exact measurement for the driver board. The Miller said its ~26mm but not a full circle because of the switch pcb that is also placed there.

I don’t need the exact measurements of the board until last. I can re-design the layout based on tterev3’s schematic and your list of changes, then fit it into a board perimeter at the end. If The Miller has one, it would be great to go ahead and get exact measurements if he would be willing. Then, you could order boards from OSHpark without having to wait on your light to show up first. It cuts down on your total wait time a little.

Original:
-White channel = 4 or 5 x 7135 depending on driver size
-RGB channels each = 1x7135
-UV channel = 2x 7135

Mod:
-White channel = 2x 7135 (for modability to a color XML 3 x 7135 pads would be nice and for XPL. . . a fet pad but all that will not fit on the board :confounded: )
-RGB channels each = 2x7135 (for modability to a color XML 3 x 7135 pads for each color would be nice)
-UV channel = SIR800DP FET
-I do not know if there is a output channel or solder pads for lighting up the momentary switch but would be appreciated. And maybe a pad for a bleeder resistor for PDs lighted tail switch PCBs.

  • Still not sure if i want to mod from 1 clicky and 1 momentary switch to 1 clicky (main switch at the tail) and 2 momentary at the head. I have a momentary switch assortment on the way to have the options to play arround a bit. If i can fit in two momentarys and can make it look and work fine i will go with 2 momentarys. If not it will go with the stock switch arrangement (mhhh aslong adding smd leds around the switch is still called stock).
    And really thanks for your help!

Have you bought the SIR800DP yet? I know it is a great performer, but if space becomes a premium on the pcb, it would be great if I could make a smaller FET footprint, like the NXP that Richard sells in a LFPAK33 size. It’s even smaller than a 7135! And it’s still a very good performer for our drivers. Here are the specs Richard lists at Mountain Electronics:

Of course, I will try to get the Vishay footprint on the board. I’m expecting everything to fit anyway, since we have a 26mm diameter to work with. But, a smaller FET might make some of your other “wishes” possible if they might not be otherwise. What do you think?

I have a few SIR800DP already here. Please let me check if i can get the other one here. Or maybe you could fast check at this shop (https://www.reichelt.de) if they have something that would work. I ordered there yesterday. So if i am fast i could phone them and try to add a few ones.

You could add a 0ohm resistor that could select which output the fet goes to on the mcu.(white or uv). This way if someone else wants to use the board for xpl white they can connect the fet gate to the white channel instead of the uv. Just a thought:)

Well, it might not be needed anyway. As I said, a 26mm board might be big enough for everything already, so I will try with the SIR800DP footprint first. But, those smaller FET are very cheap anyway, and work very well (just not as well as SIR800DP probably). The one that Richard sells is NXP PSMN2R8-25MLC N-channel MOSFET. It has a LFPAK33 footprint.

EDIT: I just did a quick check and didn’t see anything there like that one.

Oh yeah, I had thought about trying to make the board output channels switchable somehow. That would work great if I can make it fit!

I have ordered many times from richard. But since the shipping costs explode i think twice before ordering from the US (I put 5 of the FETs in the cart = 3,75$ and then the estimated shipping cost 13,25:money_mouth_face:. :confounded:
Not the best option! But i will check on aliexpress and ebay if i can get a few somwhere cheaper.