I have two more builds coming soon. I think I’ll try moving the capacitor on those builds, as it will clean up the appearance of the driver board a bit. Hopefully, my chip removal will leave better looking results next time.
I removed the chips myself. I mentioned my removing the chips in reply #7 above. Removing the chips was the most challenging part of this project.
Here is a picture of the 7135 chips I removed:
I will store them in a small Ziploc bag in case I want to use them sometime in the future.
I had considered having Richard remove the chips, but I figured the driver would ship faster if he didn’t have to remove the chips before shipping the order.
My next want list is to build a couple of lights together with my twelve-year-old son. I ordered a couple of C10 hosts, drivers, and emitters through 18sixfifty’s recent group buy. My son has worked with me to build a twin coil crystal radio. The soldering will be on a smaller components this time, but I think he can do it.