what is this chip do and how is it different from 7135s?

http://m.ebay.com/itm/131155949697?nav=SEARCH

this is a micro processor… the 7135 is a current limiting switch in effect
the two are often used together to allow custom mode switching of the current to the led. This Mcu though seems to be a squarer package then most ive seen … though could just be perspective

That chip is a microcontroller. It is programmable. People on this site use those a lot for the control portion of their led driver. Do a search on this site for ATtiny. The 7135 chip is a current regulator. It is used to cap the current running to the LED at a fixed point. AFAIK, there are two different ones you can get - one does 350mA, and the other does 380mA. These can be stacked or wired in parallel to add current together, so you could have 1:350mA, 2:700mA, 3:1050mA, etc. The microcontroller and the 7135 can both be used in a driver together. Here is all I know on the subject. For a better explanation, wait for someone else to answer! :stuck_out_tongue:

That chip is what turns the 7135 chips on and off. The package linked is the wider SOIC 8 package, we generally use the SSx package instead of the Sx package.

This up, so basically the various AMC 7135 controll increase/decrease the current or amperage tp the emitter and the MCU controls modes?

That's right. The MCU basically works as a glorified light switch, sending a PWM signal to tell the 7135 chips to turn on and off. To get the lower mode levels, we basically turn the 7135s on for less time during a given period at a very high rate of speed--so fast that you can't see it happening (I can't see it at 19khz or 9.4khz).

Since the 7135 chips are current regulating (about 0.35A each, depending on the bin and tolerances) they will only up to that much current, which is why we add more of them to increase total current output. They are a linear type regulator so any extra voltage overhead above the voltage needed to reach 0.35A each (depends on LED forward voltage, etc.) is basically turned into heat.

The FET on the FET drivers is switched by the MCU in a similar fashion as the 7135 chips to get the lower modes, but the FET doesn't try and regulate anything--it just switches the full load on and off (minus resistive losses in the transition phase and small internal resistance when fully on.)

Exactly….the MCU is actually a small computer (very simple one but runs at up to 20Mhz, the programming put inside that chip then determines the modes and the frequency of the PWM to the regulator chips

The SU package is way too big for our applications here…we use the SSU or SSH sized chips (150mil), internally they are the same, the outside dimensions is the most important to us for designing these teeny tiny drivers

Coincidentally the ATtiny 25 is the same as the ATtiny 13, but with 2x the flash space

Almost the same. I have a few of them I've been playing with for extended features and you can't use the same source code for the 25 as you do for the 13 because the register addresses and bit locations are different. It isn't a huge change to port the code, but it does take a little tweaking.

what he said :slight_smile:

I’m a little slow but 8 think I made it to the party, lol RMM did you get my message off your sight I sent?

Just a bit to add about pwm( pulse width modulation) and modes. 7135’s are binary devices, they’re either on or off and so to get low modes and strobe or any other blink modes the mcu switches them on and off rapidly and varies the duty cycle to control the output we see. In early versions the frequency was too low resulting in an annoying flicker readily visible when working around fans or other fast moving devices. Also, LEDs are more efficient at lower current but using pwm with 7135’s can’t take advantage of this because even the lowest mode is using brief high current pulses that we only perceive as low output.

So, since the OP’s question has been answered and at the risk of derailment, if leds are more efficient woth a lower constant current and since we are using PWM, is there a way to control the output with a constant, that would be more efficient for the led. Something like controlling the voltage instead of the amperage? What, if any, drivers will give constant instead of PWM, or is PWM the only way to control the output at lower levels?

If you want controlled brightness you need to control current not voltage. An led’s voltage requirement changes with temp, feed it constant voltage only and its brightness (and current use) will vary.

Led4power should be selling his linear driver that uses the mcu to control the gate voltage of a power FET to accomplish this. Buck drivers do it as well buck they seem to be hard to produce in a small package and often suffer from poor efficiency and/or poor regulation. The 105C ain’t the greatest but it’s there, it’s flexible, it works, and enough of us understand it’s use to make it the ’OL Reliable of driver controls.

I’m surprised that there isn’t a driver using only one 7135 for the low modes. Take one of the ‘extra’ I/O pins from the controller to drive only one for the low modes for better efficiency. For the higher modes, gang the rest of the 7135’s together as is done now.
(could still use the PWM for lower than 350mA low)

It is coming soon

Thanks, I’ll keep an eye out to get in line for one….