What is minimum parts for a FET driver?

[ohaya]

Hi,

I was wondering about the Subject. Are the only electronic parts that are needed to make the MCU and the FET, plus the 2 resistors (for the voltage divider)?

In other words, say I have just an ATTINY13A MCU and an AOD150 FET and the 2 resistors, and discounting the PCB, spring, and wires for the emitter, is that all that is needed?

My understanding is that the S4 diode is only there for reverse voltage protection, so it is not 100% necessary, and I’m assuming the cap that is on some of the NANJG battery side is for noise so that might be eliminated, so the above are all that is left, correct?

Thanks,
Jim

[ohaya]

BTW, the reason this question came up (to me) was that I was thinking about the problem described here:

SOLVED (see post #31) - Help me diagnose a dead, stripped NANJG driver?

Hi, I have what was originally 8x7135 driver with an ATTINY13A MCU on it. I wanted to make it into a FET driver, so I stripped all the 7135s off of it, so then there were very few components left on it, basically the MCU, the 2 resistors next to it and the SS14(?) diode. And the small cap on the battery side. I burned minidrv firmware with about 6 modes to it (this is working on another FET-converted driver I have). So then I added an AOD510 FET soldered “upside down” with the FET Gate going…

and I was thinking that “the FET driver has almost nothing on it, so it’s hard to believe that a problem like this would be so hard to find!”

[Rufusbduck]

Noise generated by the pwm control of the FET can induce voltage spikes that can shut down the mcu or cause unpredictable operation. The voltages divider allows the mcu to indicate low voltage condition but isn’t otherwise a necessity to the function of the light. Absolute minimum to have modes is mcu, cap, and FET. It would be possible to kill a cell with a driver set up this way if you didn’t notice it dimming and recharge the cell.

[ohaya]

@Rufusbduck

Noise generated by the pwm control of the FET can induce voltage spikes that can shut down the mcu or cause unpredictable operation. The voltages divider allows the mcu to indicate low voltage condition but isn’t otherwise a necessity to the function of the light. Absolute minimum to have modes is mcu, cap, and FET. It would be possible to kill a cell with a driver set up this way if you didn’t notice it dimming and recharge the cell.

Hi,

Ok, thanks for that info!

Jim