I like it. You have just put a smile on my dial. Thanks comfychair. 
I would have done the same thing, after the hammer 
How hot does the host get now?
How many coulombs/sec are flowing now? 
I wonder how many lumens these new drivers are putting out now.
Thank you Comfychair for your determination to get to the bottom of how to get this driver performing better. Your conclusion that it can’t be readily improved seems reasonable to my amateur electronic brain.
My driver is different from everyones. It has one toroidal and a large through-hole type capacitor. It also has only one LED + and - (all LEDs connect to the same contact pads). I did a quick current reading when I had it apart and it was shy of 6 amps. Got mine from brotherhaug or something like that on ebay.
Received my SRK on Friday. It has the same, new DD driver (picture of driver contact plate for identification without dismantling the flashlight). I’m disappointed at fasttech, because I especially asked if it has 3 terroid driver before they sent it out. PWM is noticeable annoying to my eye. LEDs are not 100% centered, but much better then on mhaneln’s SRK. Opened up mine and removed the reflector just for interest what’s under there. When I put it back, they were out of center just like mhanlen’s but I rotated the reflector to different position to get best results.
Overall quality is good enough. Came in thick carton box with instructions sheet, spare O-ring and lanyard. Bezel is made from aluminum and I can’t see no big dents or imperfections.
I have other cheap SRK on way from Wallbuys, hopefully with a good driver. Plan is to mod it with XP-G2s on copper for more throw.
Exactly what i got from Fasttech a few weeks ago.
Really happy with the service from them, but not about the differences between my other SR Kings.
Same driver in my Wallbuys SRK.
My Wallbuys SRK arrives in a few days… Guess I’ll be doing some tweaks to maximize the regulation. Seeing the price drop that much should have set off a warning bell for me. Oh well, adds to the challenge.
On the plus side, the actual build quality of the driver board itself looks good, mostly machine built, with the zero ohm resistors and wires hand-soldered.
i got from Fasttech http://www.fasttech.com/products/1239701
Same driver in it. But all resistors 1 ohm without bridges 0 ohms.
Does it make sense to do the bridges 0 ohms and change the microcontroller to reduce PWM?
Or replace 7136 for 7135 without resistors 1Ohm?
R100 is 0.1 ohm, not 1.0 ohm. Big difference. -->http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/smdcalc.php
The three channels are not well balanced on that design, you need to use resistors of varying values to set them to around the same current. If you just jumper across the resistors on all 3, you'll get something like 3.2A on CH1, 2.75 on CH2, 3.05A on CH3.
You could just combine all 3 channels, tie all the LED- pads together and connect all the LEDs to that single point. Let it work things out for itself. (this version uses only a single PWM output from the controller, unlike the older 3-toroid version that controls the 3 channels independently)
Yes it is 0.1 ohm
if solder 0 ohm resistor - we will have the usual DD?
And if not zero resistor - 0,02-0,016 Ohm - line driver?
Current to 1 LED = 1.5 A in max mode, 0.175 A in the minimum (this is when the three resistors 0.1 ohms in parallel without shunt on AMC7136)
In the off mode, the current consumption of 0.09 mA
Current to the driver when connected to a regulated power supply with voltage:
4.2 V - 4.2 A (max mode) 0.6 A (min mode)
3.7 V - 4.2 A
3.3 V - 2.7 A
3.1 V - 1.4 A
3 V - 0.6 A
2.9 V - 0.2 A
2.8 V - 1mA
2.4 V - 1mA
1.5 V - 0.12 mA
Now go back and check the output on each of the 3 channels, you'll see why it won't be very good to set all 3 with the same value resistors. They will all be running at different currents.
There are some tricks you can do to improve the PCB traces, which is the cause of the low output on the middle/L3 channel, or so other members have claimed. I haven't tried it and looking at the traces I don't see anything that would cause such an extreme variation between channels, though they are slightly different lengths (traces between the sense resistor pads & the 7136).
Or just buy one of the good drivers: http://wallbuys.com/Product/3-7-4-2V-3-Mode-CREE-T6-Driver-for-SkyRay-King-3T6-LED-Flashlight-Golden-Black-46-2mm--10684
Thanks for the link. I know about this driver. But now I want to run a few tests with the old driver
aahh… Definitely the newer “generic” SRK clone driver. The original would have the three torrid driver. i have sen so many variations of these now too. ( i have 7 Skyray Kings in my collection, and all are different.
Bing, there ya go..that is how my SRK driver is...only one of the three channels even populated with components...I did the resistor bridge like you told me
So, those of you who bought the low output version, but were expecting the 3 torroid version; were you given the option to refund (no shipping charge). What about if you got the newer one but the machining was ‘bad’, much lower quality was that allowed to be returned (no shipping cost). Did anyone even try or did you’ll prefer to modify them further yourselves?
Got mine from Amazon, works, did the resistor bridge bypass as suggested by comfychair
Ain't sweating it...still outdoes all my other rigs...but would like to make it run like it's supposed to :p
The output on the 3-toroid version may be OK, but honestly, it's crap. Only two modes, ugly PWM... the dead simple 3 mode driver in the 'Securitylng' SRK clones has tons more potential.
Still waiting on Texaspyro's 7135 SRK driver :D