Hey guys, I made a small mistake with big consequences. 
My loss, your gain. These are way under my cost, and I will still use some, but I just don't have time to scrape hundreds of spring pads
What are the odds of assembling these w/o a reflow station? Not possible?
I have a AOYUE 936 Solder Station with some really small tips, but looking at these I don’t think that would cut it.
Lots of people reflow in a pan on the stove (if it’s single-sided), or in a toaster oven. I use a little butane hot-air blower, and although I haven’t tried it personally I’m sure it’s possible with just an iron. It’s definitely doable without a station if you’re only doing a few.
These are pretty easy, actually. Use leaded solder and some flux and it's not bad. I know that lots of members do them by hand. All of the components have exposed leads and fairly oversized pads, which make access with an iron easy.
I wouldn't recommend trying one of the MTN-MAX's with just an iron, but with these it's not an issue.
I may just give it a shot before long.
I’m going to have to look into this. I thought that was just reflowing emitters to mcpcb’s. Didn’t know it could work on drivers as well.
The pan isn’t as good because a normal pcb isn’t great at transferring heat, but the toaster oven works great. In factories reflowing is done in ovens.
I guess you control the output on these DD drivers by adjusting the pwm. I have stayed away from this scene because I don't want to run my diodes full blast all the time. I'm probably misinformed though. I would be willing to try these DD units out but I would like to be able to translate the pwm into amps, like maybe 185 in the firmware is 3amps 255 of course is full blast. Someone help me out here because I want to try them but not at full blast all the time, maybe 3amps or 4 amps....etc
You need to know what the light/battery combination does direct drive (100%) before trying to estimate what PWM value will give you a lower average current. The reason I say average, is because even at a lower PWM level the emitter is receiving full power bursts, and is therefore less efficient than one that is receiving lower power bursts. You are probably also aware that with an FET driver different batteries, LEDs, temperature, etc., will affect the output drastically, and that the output falls from the second you turn the switch on.
We all love them for hotrod lights because they put out a lot of juice (and not a lot of heat in the driver) and are simple and reliable, but if you only want 3A then stick with a 7135 based driver. It will be more consistent, less expensive, and should be more efficient.
20 pcs bought :)
I'm looking for a good driver for my newly acquired Supfire L3. Would like to see about 4amps at the emitter, not much more +-.3amp and no DD. What would you suggest?
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm guessing that with a few tweaks the stock driver may be able to do it. I was thinking about doing some experiments with it this morning. It uses the QX9920 controller, which is well known.
The stock driver looked terrible to me, all very tiny parts. Didn't look like it could handle much. But what do I know. I've already stripped the board and put a 12X 380mAh Nanjg in it. I probably should have at least done a tail cap reading and given it a chance.
Problem is, obviously I can only run it with one battery now. I would like to run both batteries.
I'll let everyone know what I find out. I think that it may take just a few part swaps to get it up to a reliable 4A. I have a 22mm buck driver, but that's a much more expensive endeavor, so a budget option is always nice.
Please tell me more about the 22mm buck driver. I didn't see it.
RMM
Have you tried a XHP in the SupFire L3 yet? If yes, how bad is the cross or donut hotspot?
I haven't. I've had a few customers who have told me they did it, and liked it, but I'm guessing that there is still some cross there. I haven't seen any SMO lights yet that you could fully get rid of it with, which makes sense...since if the reflector is focusing at all, it will necessarily have to show that lack of light from the space between the dies. That's why I'm still more of an MT-G2 fan 
.
Oooh! Me like me like! Send me a production sample and I will help test it?
One 22mm please, for my L3.
The 22mm has already been fairly well tested, but I made another small revision to the PCB, and so I'm waiting to test that small tweak before I release it.
Why wait? I could be testing it for you right now. 