# Parallel wiring of shining beam 2.5A driver



## Hill (Feb 12, 2010)

I was wondering if anyone has tried wiring two of the 2.5A Shiningbeam drivers (sku 1217) in parallel to drive an sst-50 at 5A. I asked Bryan but he did not know.

A $6.95 each, it would be a relatively inexpensive driver solution. Plus, the driver has 3 modes (140, 1000, 2500 mA). If two are run, these values would be doubled (280, 2000, and 5000 mA) which would give a nice "low, med, high" for the sst-50. The only drawback is the max Vin is set at 6V, so it would not be possible to power with 2 series connected 3.6V cells (I was hoping for 2 x 26500). One option would be Techjunckie's homemade 2P 26650 carrier here, an FM 3P 3x17670 holder, or 4 series C/D NimH cells.


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## Prater (Feb 12, 2010)

I actually ordered some of those this week and was thinking about trying it.
Only problem that I can see is getting the modes to match up each time you hit the switch.

I put together a 3D [email protected] with an sst-50, and with the 12000mAh Ni-MH in it it pulls way over 5 amps. (Angry blue within seconds:sigh 
I ordered some 1 mode P7 drivers from DX but they haven't even shipped yet. So I might give this a try.

I can't wait to see this thing running at 5 amps because it has crazy throw using an aspherical lens with just regular D alkalines in it.


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## Mettee (Feb 13, 2010)

I would not try it that way, however I would make a slave amc and attach it accordingly. If you have two multi mode chips it will not behave how you would like it. I have not made a 5a amc myself but I have done several 3 board sandwiches(1 multi mode and 2 slave amc) for 3a. 

It is hard to explain but there are several posts about amc sandwiches you can pull ideas from. If you used three 1400 ma boards you can theoretically get to 4.2a. I would think that if you added even one more board you could get to the 5a number you are trying to regulate. 

I am not sure how much longevity it will have, but it should work as well as the 3a ones that many make for the P7.


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## Fulgeo (Feb 14, 2010)

Running two of the shining beam drivers in parallel will give you mixed results. As mentioned stacking a few 4 x AMC7135 boards together and running it with one shining beam driver works great. You have to keep your supply under 6.0 volts which is the spec of the AMC7135 chip, which are also used in the shining beam driver. The shining beam driver has 8 of them on board driven by PWM. If you keep your source to under 4.2 volts you really do not have to worry about heat with this driver. If you push it with 4 NiMH it becomes less efficient but is doable if you heatsink the driver well. Pushing this driver with 2 lithium batteries is a no no in my experience. I have stacked 3 of the 4 X AMC7135 boards together and it drives a SST-50 at a measured 4.2 amps. Initially when I tested the shining beam driver I was only getting 2.36 amps on high, which was a little disappointing. I really did not like the looks of the supplied red and black emitter wires that came attached to the driver. I replaced them with 24 gauge silver plated copper stranded wire and ran another test. I measured a constant 2.81 amps.


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## kosPap (Feb 15, 2010)

Mettee said:


> I would not try it that way, however I would make a slave amc and attach it accordingly. If you have two multi mode chips it will not behave how you would like it. QUOTE]
> 
> 
> not of you remove one of the chips and bridge to proper cotacts of...
> ...


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## Mettee (Feb 16, 2010)

Good job, so basically you made one SB driver into a single mode "amc" style board. So theoretically you can make a 5a board with a 2 board sandwich. That is cool. 

Any pictures of what your finished product looks like.


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## kosPap (Feb 17, 2010)

indeed it is only wiring, and it will be close to the other sandiwch mods - if you have the pace to feed the wires to....(imposiible in a P60 module?


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## Mettee (Feb 17, 2010)

The only reason I asked...was because I tried to remove the IC from a multi mode amc before and did not have good luck. 

There is room in a custom P60 module, I am currently working on my own since the moddoo ones are so hard to get and they are constantly pushing out newer, cooler, and all around better versions as time goes on. So I figure since I can, I will mod myself and learn something. But I would like to buy one from Moddoo and EG to support their great ideas. 

I am curious about how you removed the IC chip and what connections you made to make the two boards work well together. I can order a few SB boards and test on them but I rather not ruin one or more of I dont have to. And I think it would help if I had a schematic of the board and the current paths. I have heard people talk about it but I have never been able to find one, or even seen one.

I have made a ton of amc sandwiches, so I feel good/comfortable about modding the SB boards.


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## kosPap (Feb 17, 2010)

well i did not made a sandwich out of the SB boards...I only made it single mode...

in the thread I pointed you too there is this pic
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4315/p1010162fx5.jpg

pin pad #1 is the one close to the hole/dimple
count counter clockwise and bridge pads 6&8....

somehow like this pic (differnt board)
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/2923/igp430708.jpg

if you have made sandwiches I really do not understand why yo could not mode AMC7135 boards this way!


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## Mettee (Feb 18, 2010)

well after reading your post I did some looking around and I have some ideas on how to approach it. Since you have not done it yet and have no definitive information I will try it out after I order some boards next week and post back. 

I have tried to remove the IC from other multi mode boards to make a sandwich and it did not work. I may have done it wrong...who knows. I did try it several ways.








I am pretty sure this is how you would do it, substitute the SB board for these


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## TorchBoy (Feb 18, 2010)

Fulgeo said:


> As mentioned stacking a few 4 x AMC7135 boards together and running it with one shining beam driver works great.


And that would be slightly less expensive than using two of these 3 mode drivers.



Fulgeo said:


> You have to keep your supply under 6.0 volts which is the spec of the AMC7135 chip, which are also used in the shining beam driver.


That is indeed the spec of the chip, but did you (and others) notice the "Reverse-polarity protection prevents wrongly installed batteries from damaging the circuit" claim? That means there's a diode on the Vdd pin which will drop ~0.6 V, so the driver as a whole will actually have a 3.3-6.6 V range.  As far as heat goes the thermal protection will likely cut in well under 6.6 V.

Is there an easy way to keep the modes but disable the memory?


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

Completely agree with what you guys are saying. I've been working on an SST-90 maglite, using 4xAMC7135 driver boards (1.4A each) as a slave sandwich, with the Shiningbeam 3-mode driver (2.8A/w 22ga wire as pointed out earlier) controlling everything. I just thought I'd post some pics for anyone who's looking for information in this thread and hasn't seen this stuff done before.

As a side note, I've removed 2 of the AMC7135 boards from the sandwich until I figure out a way to run my Batteryspace 26650 batteries in parallel to deliver the current that I'm trying to run. It seems one 26650, with this setup, will only deliver 7.4A according to my DMM. My DMM isn't the best in the world, but it's been pretty accurate so far. Anyway, after removing 2 of the AMC7135 boards, my current readings at the tailcap are 5.7A. Here are a couple of pics:


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## 420light (Feb 18, 2010)

What is holding it in place once you assemble it? AA?










[/QUOTE]


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

420light said:


> What is holding it in place once you assemble it? AA?


 



I used some silicone based thermal adhesive to hold the Shiningbeam driver in place with the 4xAMC7135 sandwich, but it's probably not necessary because once the 22ga teflon coated wire is soldered and the sandwich is connected, it's stiff enough to hold it in place. I don't have anything holding the whole driver assembly to the heatsink. The 22ga wire is pretty short (coming out of the heatsink) and it's stiff, so it really can't go anywhere plus I twisted the driver assembly, while pushing it towards the heatsink.


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## 420light (Feb 18, 2010)

Pretty cool.


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## Mettee (Feb 18, 2010)

nice work on your amc stack! Its a monster.

The only thing I think is that it would be nice to be able to hit 5A with only two boards and no more. So that is why the OP was asking about paralleling two SB boards. This would benefit those of us trying to fit this in a really small package.

oh and Torch, I am pretty sure that the IC has the memory in it, and also the modes. I think the only way would be different programing? Maybe someone else knows different.


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## saltytri (Feb 18, 2010)

So, ti-force, is it correct that the four 7135 boards are in parallel with one another and the SB board is in series with and "downstream" of the 7135 set? If this is the case, all of the current must go through the SB board, making me wonder how much current it can pass?


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## ma_sha1 (Feb 18, 2010)

Cool stack but since 1xIMR26650 is not going to be able drive SST-90 to 9Amp even in Direct Drive, 
there's really no need for a buck driver in such application.

All you need is a PWM to control modes like d2flex.


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

Mettee said:


> nice work on your amc stack! Its a monster.
> 
> The only thing I think is that it would be nice to be able to hit 5A with only two boards and no more. So that is why the OP was asking about paralleling two SB boards. This would benefit those of us trying to fit this in a really small package.
> 
> oh and Torch, I am pretty sure that the IC has the memory in it, and also the modes. I think the only way would be different programing? Maybe someone else knows different.


 

Depending on how much room you've got to work with, I have seen someone on here stack the actual 7135 chips on top of each other. I can't remember who did it, but it was pretty darn neat:thumbsup:.


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

saltytri said:


> So, ti-force, is it correct that the four 7135 boards are in parallel with one another and the SB board is in series with and "downstream" of the 7135 set? If this is the case, all of the current must go through the SB board, making me wonder how much current it can pass?


 
It's my understanding that the atmel chips on these boards don't see much current at all.

This is a better explaination than I can give:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3112794&postcount=26


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

ma_sha1 said:


> Cool stack but since 1xIMR26650 is not going to be able drive SST-90 to 9Amp even in Direct Drive,
> there's really no need for a buck driver in such application.
> 
> All you need is a PWM to control modes like d2flex.


 

I'm actually trying to figure out a good way to run both of my IMR26650's in parallel. I'm hoping that both of those batteries in parallel will supply 9+ Amps. I have some 1", shedule 40 PVC pipe that I cut to length and use to make up the additional inside diameter of the D sized mag body, (for when I use these smaller diameter batteries) and I'm thinking that I can make a parallel battery holder out of it. Any ideas?


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

Mettee said:


> nice work on your amc stack! Its a monster.
> 
> The only thing I think is that it would be nice to be able to hit 5A with only two boards and no more. So that is why the OP was asking about paralleling two SB boards. This would benefit those of us trying to fit this in a really small package.


 


ti-force said:


> Depending on how much room you've got to work with, I have seen someone on here stack the actual 7135 chips on top of each other. I can't remember who did it, but it was pretty darn neat:thumbsup:.


 


This is what I'm talking about. I had a board sitting around so I decided to try it out.


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## Mettee (Feb 18, 2010)

totally do-able I think.

With that piece of pipe.....

Batteries loaded one on top of the other, a non conductive spacer between. The negative on the bottom battery has to run up to the negative of the top battery. And the same with the positive end of the bottom battery to the positive end of the top. If you follow me....

It would be possible to run wire inside in a cut channel, but I think it would also be able to be run on the outside in a cut channel and it would be easier to cut. Run the wire up the side and into the pipe and connect it to a point on the non conductive spacer where the negative of the top battery sits...

I will just try and draw it really fast, I will be back later


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## Justin Case (Feb 18, 2010)

ti-force said:


> Depending on how much room you've got to work with, I have seen someone on here stack the actual 7135 chips on top of each other. I can't remember who did it, but it was pretty darn neat:thumbsup:.



Could be darkzero's work. Technically not 7135 chips, but close enough.


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## Mettee (Feb 18, 2010)

Ti

I was thinking that today thanks for confirming

drew


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

Justin Case said:


> Could be darkzero's work. Technically not 7135 chips, but close enough.


 

:thumbsup:

You're the man! That's exactly what I was talking about. For some reason I was thinking it was 7135's, but I was definitely wrong about that. Thanks for the help, and again, thanks for your help in the other thread.


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

Mettee said:


> Ti
> 
> I was thinking that today thanks for confirming
> 
> drew


 

No problem. Most of the time I'm just receiving help on here, so it's good to be able to give back to this great community every now and then.

Casey


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## ti-force (Feb 18, 2010)

Mettee said:


> totally do-able I think.
> 
> With that piece of pipe.....
> 
> ...


 

That's pretty darn good for a fast drawing:thumbsup:.

Do you know of any place that sells some type of contact tab or maybe just some nickel shims that I could trim as needed. My batteries are flat top so I have to have something that's protruding so my batteries will make contact in this parallel holder.


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## TorchBoy (Feb 18, 2010)

ti-force said:


> Here are a couple of pics:


Legendary! Thanks for sharing those.



saltytri said:


> So, ti-force, is it correct that the four 7135 boards are in parallel with one another and the SB board is in series with and "downstream" of the 7135 set? If this is the case, all of the current must go through the SB board, making me wonder how much current it can pass?


No, just the Vdd pins are downstream of the PWM controller. Each Vdd pin draws just 200 µA so it's a total 3.2 mA extra current through the PWM controller for the 16 extra AMC7135s. The PWM controller shouldn't use any more current itself to operate with that increased load.

It's the Vdd pin on the AMC7135 that allows the chip to turn on and off, and works excellently with PWM operation. If the duty cycle is 10% (it's on for 10% of the time, off for 90%) then the driver gets turned on for 10% of the time, resulting in 10% brightness.

Getting it to work is basically a matter of connecting the three pins of the extra AMC7135s to the three pins of the controlled AMC7135s on the SB board.



Justin Case said:


> Could be darkzero's work. Technically not 7135 chips, but close enough.


That's very impressive.



ti-force said:


> Do you know if anyone sells some type of contact tab or maybe just some nickel shims that I could trim as needed. My batteries are flat top so I have to have something that's protruding so it will make contact.


Use a washer under the end of a copper strip and hit the strip above the middle of the washer with the back end of a nail, thereby making a bump in the copper. Well, it's an idea, at least.


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

TorchBoy said:


> Use a washer under the end of a copper strip and hit the strip above the middle of the washer with the back end of a nail, thereby making a bump in the copper. Well, it's an idea, at least.


 

That's an excellent idea:thumbsup:. Now I just need to see if I can find some copper strips locally. Thanks for the idea.

Casey


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## vestureofblood (Feb 19, 2010)

ti-force,

What is the red POS wire coming from the 4 stack soldered to on the SB driver?

Nice job btw.


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## TorchBoy (Feb 19, 2010)

It looks like it connects to the Vdd pin of one of the AMC7135s on the SB board. That way all the AMCs will be working in parallel.


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

vestureofblood said:


> ti-force,
> 
> What is the red POS wire coming from the 4 stack soldered to on the SB driver?
> 
> Nice job btw.


 


TorchBoy said:


> It looks like it connects to the Vdd pin of one of the AMC7135s on the SB board. That way all the AMCs will be working in parallel.


 



That's correct. It's hard to see with the wires soldered in place, so I took a picture of an AMC7135 driver and a Shiningbeam driver beside each other and made sort-of a diagram:


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

Also, I should note that when soldering to the outside ring (GND), make sure the GND doesn't come in contact with any of the little stars on the Shiningbeam board. If you do this, you could inadvertently create a strobe mode. Don't ask me how I know.............

Casey


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## vestureofblood (Feb 19, 2010)

Thanks ti-force,

Those are very clear pictures and diagrams too. What is the reason for removing the pins in the center of the board an replacing it with solder?

Also it seems like I read somewhere that the chips on the slave board need to have the same numbers printed on them or it will not work:thinking:. Do you know if this is correct? If so where did you order the slaves from?


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

vestureofblood said:


> Thanks ti-force,
> 
> Those are very clear pictures and diagrams too. What is the reason for removing the pins in the center of the board an replacing it with solder?
> 
> Also it seems like I read somewhere that the chips on the slave board need to have the same numbers printed on them or it will not work:thinking:. Do you know if this is correct? If so where did you order the slaves from?


 

All of the AMC7135 boards that I have, either have diodes or surface mount resistors which drop voltage. I don't know how much they actually drop the voltage, but I don't see any need to drop the voltage at all, so I do away with them. You can see in the picture (i couldn't quite get them all in the same picture, so I had to drag the other 2 over) that I have 3 different variants. One type has 2 diodes, another type has only 1 diode and the last type has surface mount resistors. The boards with the surface mount resistors are the newest boards that I've purchased, so that's probably what they all come with now.









Here's a picture of an AMC7135 that I did about a year or so ago; you can see the wire in the center better on this one.










Anyway, when I remove either the diodes or the resistors, that breaks the Vdd circuit on the boards, so I solder a wire across to re-connect the circuit. Now, you may already know this information, but I'm going to try and explain this so that anyone who doesn't understand this, will know what I'm doing. Basically all your doing is connecting each leg of the 7135 chip, with the same leg on all the other 7135 chips. Scroll up and look at the picture above this writing or you can look at the picture below this writing. Now, looking at that picture, focus on the 7135 chip on the bottom right side of the board. You should see 3 legs coming out of the 7135 chip and facing towards the center of the board. The bottom leg is the Vdd or battery positive/led positive, the center leg is the ground and the top leg is the LED negative. What you want to do is make sure that all of the Vdd legs are connected together, all of the ground legs are connected together and all of the LED negatives are connected together.


The AMC7135 board in the picture below didn't require a wire across the center because the circuit is a little bit different than the other boards. You can see the light green colored path on the board (trace) that runs from each LED negative on every 7135 chip. That's how the connection is made inside the board. Maybe this makes sense. Also, I always check each circuit with my DMM before I supply power to the board; just to make sure I don't have any shorts and to make sure everything is connected together.


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

Almost forgot about the 7135 chips with different numbers on them. I have heard of someone having trouble with certain numbers. I have a Darktort that's been modded with an MC-E emitter and Shiningbeam driver that I added an additional 7135 chip to and it works fine. All of the chips on that board, including the chip I added have these numbers at the top of the chip: L7135, but all of the chips that came on the Shiningbeam board have different bottom number than the chip that I added.

The bottom number on the Shiningbeam chips is:0704, but the bottom number on the chip I added is:0651, so I know those will work together. Also, it seems like I have, or had a board that actually came from the manufacturer with varying bottom numbers on the 7135's. I don't really know what the bottom numbers mean, maybe someone in the know can chime in and clear this up.


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## vestureofblood (Feb 19, 2010)

ti-force said:


> All of the AMC7135 boards that I have, either have diodes or surface mount resistors which drop voltage. I don't know how much they actually drop the voltage, but I don't see any need to drop the voltage at all, so I do away with them. You can see in the picture (i couldn't quite get them all in the same picture, so I had to drag the other 2 over) that I have 3 different variants. One type has 2 diodes, another type has only 1 diode and the last type has surface mount resistors. The boards with the surface mount resistors are the newest boards that I've purchased, so that's probably what they all come with now.
> Anyway, when I remove either the diodes or the resistors, that breaks the Vdd circuit on the boards, so I solder a wire across to re-connect the circuit.


 
Ok, so by removing this diode, and replacing it with wire, you get higher voltage to the led.



ti-force said:


> Now, you may already know this information, but I'm going to try and explain this so that anyone who doesn't understand this, will know what I'm doing. Basically all your doing is connecting each leg of the 7135 chip, with the same leg on all the other 7135 chips. Scroll back up a couple of posts and look at the Shiningbeam picture again. The picture where you can see the spring in the center of the board. Now, looking at that picture focus on the 7135 chip on the bottom right side of the board. You should see 3 legs coming out of the 7135 chip and facing towards the spring. The bottom leg is the Vdd or battery positive, the center leg is the ground and the top leg is the LED negative. What you want to do is make sure that all of the Vdd legs are connected together, all of the ground legs are connected together and all of the LED negatives are connected together.


 
WOW. You could not possible even know how much this helps me. I have been beating myself to death trying to truly understand the current path for this type of driver. I was assuming one very fatal thing. I thought that the center leg was the ground or bat neg in, and that BOTH of the pins on the left and right were NEG OUT. So you can imagine what a :toilet: time I have been having trying to figure this out. That has got to be the most valuable nugget I have found on this driver in a year. I have been able to use these drivers a lot, but I prefer to truly understand what I am doing rather than just copying.

One more question if you dont mind... Where does the control board fit into the equasion? Does the current flow through the chips then to the control board, or does the control board come into play after the current flows through the led?


Super thanks again.


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

These are the only places I know of for ordering the AMC7135 boards. They are both priced about the same and they're both in China, so it could take 2 weeks or 2 months to get to you if you live in the U.S. I waited on some for a few months one time. They were on backorder, but I'm not sure if they forgot about me or what. They finally showed up in the mail one day and I had to scratch my head to even remember where they came from.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1886

or

http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=6653

You can get 1.4A boards (1400ma) or 1A boards (1050ma). I always get the 1.4A boards because all you have to do is remove 1 of the 7135 chips if you want to drop the current to 1A. That's how I end up with spare 7135 chips. It's also easy to solder the 7135 back on the board if you need to.

Casey


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

vestureofblood said:


> Ok, so by removing this diode, and replacing it with wire, you get higher voltage to the led.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
Yeah, you want to eliminate as much voltage loss and resistance as possible with these drivers. Fellow CPF members Justin Case and Linger taught me that one:thumbsup:.


The ATMEL chip on the shining beam or any other multimode board is what controls the 7135's. As long as you run the battery positive and battery negative into the multimode board first and then wire the slave sandwich or additional boards to the multimode board, it will control all of the 7135's.

These guys can explain it better than I can:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3284836&postcount=29

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3112794&postcount=26


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## TorchBoy (Feb 19, 2010)

ti-force said:


> One type has 2 diodes, another type has only 1 diode and the last type has surface mount resistors. The boards with the surface mount resistors are the newest boards that I've purchased, so that's probably what they all come with now.


You'll find they're surface mount diodes, not resistors. All those little packages look the same, but in this case the arrowhead on them shows which way around the diode works.

There are different models of AMC7135 chip, with outputs that vary from ~300 mA to ~380 mA. It may be that the bottom number has something to do with that. I don't know.

Thanks for the extra pics and explanations.


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

TorchBoy said:


> You'll find they're surface mount diodes, not resistors. All those little packages look the same, but in this case the arrowhead on them shows which way around the diode works.
> 
> There are different models of AMC7135 chip, without outputs that vary from ~300 mA to ~380 mA. It may be that the bottom number has something to do with that. I don't know.
> 
> Thanks for the extra pics and explanations.


 

Thanks for the info, I didn't know they made surface mount diodes. Like you said, they're all so small and look about the same:thumbsup:.


BTW, thanks for putting that led driver list together; it's a pile of information.


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## ti-force (Feb 19, 2010)

Anyone looking for information on drivers should go to CPF member TorchBoys site at 

http://www.videofoundry.co.nz/ianman/laboratory/research/driverlist.php

There's a HUGE amount of information here and a VERY good write up at the bottom of the page about AMC7135 drivers. I recommend to anyone who's reading this to try and learn about the AMC7135 drivers, go to the above link and scroll all the way to the botton for the 7135 info:twothumbs. Of course, check out all the other info on the way down.


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## TorchBoy (Feb 19, 2010)

FWIW there's a quicklink/jump link to it too: http://www.videofoundry.co.nz/ianman/laboratory/research/driverlist.php#AMC7135 (and then click to expand).


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## Fulgeo (Feb 20, 2010)

TorchBoy said:


> That is indeed the spec of the chip, but did you (and others) notice the "Reverse-polarity protection prevents wrongly installed batteries from damaging the circuit" claim? That means there's a diode on the Vdd pin which will drop ~0.6 V, so the driver as a whole will actually have a 3.3-6.6 V range.  As far as heat goes the thermal protection will likely cut in well under 6.6 V.


 
Hey TorchBoy as a rule I have always removed the diode(s) from my non PWM AMC7135 boards. I wanted to say that if you push these AMC7135 boards above 6.0 volts you are really asking for trouble. They will generate allot of heat and besides the efficiency at 6.0 volts is close to 60% where as at 4.0 volts it is 90%+. I usually use them with 3 D sized NiMHs. I have been playing with a stacked AMC7135 board circuit with 4 x NiMHs (4.8v - 5.6v) to drive a SST-90. When you suggested in your post that by removing the diode that upper range was 6.6 volts I was concerned that someone will try and drive these boards with two LiFePO4 lithium cells in series. Just wanted to reiterate drive these boards with 3 to 4 NiMH cells in series or 3.7 volt lithium cells in parallel. Happy Mods!


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## TorchBoy (Feb 20, 2010)

Thanks Fulgeo. I'll clearly state (again) that whatever voltage the board as a whole (not just the driver chips) might be able to cope with, the AMC7135 chips might not be able to cope with the heat from dropping all those extra volts.

However, there are ways to reduce the power dissipated by the AMC7135s, such as placing a resistor between battery positive and LED positive. All the excess volts still need to be dropped, but if some of the power gets dissipated by the resistor instead of the AMC7135s then the AMC7135s will run a little cooler. That does nothing to help driver efficiency, but that's not always a concern.

BTW, I did NOT say (in post 11) that *removing* the diode will give an upper working limit of 6.6 V. It's *including* the diode that gives that extra 0.6 V.


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## Fulgeo (Feb 20, 2010)

TorchBoy said:


> BTW, I did NOT say (in post 11) that *removing* the diode will give an upper working limit of 6.6 V. It's *including* the diode that gives that extra 0.6 V.


 

My apologies TorchBoy I misinterpreted what you said. What happened is when I read "an upper working limit of 6.6 volts" I know from playing with the AMC7135 boards they are at their best efficiency, reliability and heat well under 6.0 volts. I have built 14 mods to date using the AMC7135 boards. I run them usually with 3 D NiMH cells and they work great. I have run them with 4 NiMH cells and they work but they do generate some heat. I have a 3 D SSC P7 mod driven at 2.8 amps by two stacked 1.4 amp AMC7135 boards that I have over 100 hours on. It is very reliable so far. I used it to read by.

TorchBoy have you built a mod using the AMC7135 boards well heatsinked at 6.0 volts or above for duration? I have test benched it and I get so much heat that I do not trust it enough for a build. I figure it will be unreliable. I have not proven this thou. Also I want to say that I ask this question with no accusatory air. I have respect for you and appreciate your input.


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## TorchBoy (Feb 20, 2010)

Fulgeo said:


> I know from playing with the AMC7135 boards they are at their best efficiency, reliability and heat well under 6.0 volts.


All true.



Fulgeo said:


> TorchBoy have you built a mod using the AMC7135 boards well heatsinked at 6.0 volts or above for duration?


Nope! Like you I normally use 3x AA (or AAA) NiMH, since there's really no point to go with higher voltage with the Vf of the LEDs I use them with. All I'd get is extra heat. So I've never pushed an AMC7135 to its limit to see if I can get it to slide off the board.

For 4x AA NiMH there are buck boards that suit very nicely, and their better efficiency at those voltages is preferred for my caving uses, what with runtime and all.


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## Mettee (Feb 20, 2010)

Torchboy,

My first time looking at your site, looks good...lots of good info there.

Tiforce,

If you need any help with spacers or anything let me know I can blast some out for you, or even make the entire thing for you. I have made a few so it would not be much trouble.

Drew


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## ti-force (Feb 21, 2010)

Mettee said:


> Tiforce,
> 
> If you need any help with spacers or anything let me know I can blast some out for you, or even make the entire thing for you. I have made a few so it would not be much trouble.
> 
> Drew


 
Drew,

Thank you very much for the kind offer. I may need to call on you if I can't get this thing done. What material do you normally use for the non conductive spacers?

Casey


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## Mettee (Feb 21, 2010)

Delrin, with a brass, copper, or Al plug, Then I either solder to the copper or I use a small set screw to hold the wire. If I was making this pack I would use hobby noodle wire in as heavy a gauge as I could. 

I have been trying to figure out the best way to load batteries if the individual person has to remove them for charging, but I am still in the same place. I use a triton most of the time so I just keep them loaded, but some people may not be able to.


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## 420light (Feb 22, 2010)

TorchBoy said:


> FWIW there's a quicklink/jump link to it too: http://www.videofoundry.co.nz/ianman/laboratory/research/driverlist.php#AMC7135 (and then click to expand).


 
That is very helpful. I saved your chart into my Favorites. Thanks.


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## TorchBoy (Feb 22, 2010)

I'm glad you folk find it useful (or at least interesting). I just remembered that I made a short path as well. http://www.videofoundry.co.nz/driverlist


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## ti-force (Feb 22, 2010)

Mettee said:


> Delrin, with a brass, copper, or Al plug, Then I either solder to the copper or I use a small set screw to hold the wire. If I was making this pack I would use hobby noodle wire in as heavy a gauge as I could.
> 
> I have been trying to figure out the best way to load batteries if the individual person has to remove them for charging, but I am still in the same place. I use a triton most of the time so I just keep them loaded, but some people may not be able to.




PM sent.


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## wildstar87 (Feb 24, 2010)

FYI, if you look at the spec sheet, the absolute max voltage of the AMC7135 chip is 7v I believe, the only reason I know this, is I am running a multimode slave setup, running off a 5-cell NI-MH battery pack. It's from a previous bicycle light system, and it's still working, so I decided to use it. I have been able to run this light for a good length of time. HOWEVER, they chips are definitely well heatsinked, otherwise there is no way they would take the heat. The body of the light, which they are transferring the heat into does get quite warm, so I know that they are putting off a lot of heat, and unlike Alkaline, they will stay at 6v or above for most of the runtime, so I had to be sure that they had a way to get rid of the heat. 

When the battery pack finally dies, I will just run it with 4 cells instead, but this allows me to use a perfectly good bicycle battery setup with the modded light.


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## SteveoMiami (Oct 13, 2010)

Ti-Force or anyone that knows... I saw how you stacked 7135 chips directly on top of eachother and that worked.. Are there any disadvantages doing it that way instead of stacking the entire boards? It looks like it would save a lot of room.


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## ti-force (Oct 13, 2010)

SteveoMiami said:


> Ti-Force or anyone that knows... I saw how you stacked 7135 chips directly on top of eachother and that worked.. Are there any disadvantages doing it that way instead of stacking the entire boards? It looks like it would save a lot of room.



The only disadvantage I can think of is heat dissipation, and I'm not sure that would actually be a problem unless your input voltage is considerably higher than the led's voltage forward. The higher the input voltage is over vf, the less efficient the driver becomes because it has to burn off the excess voltage.


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## ti-force (Oct 13, 2010)

BTW, if anyone's interested in changing a Shiningbeam 1.4A, 3- mode driver into a single mode driver, all you need to do is remove the ATMEL chip, then solder a jumper wire and you will have a 1.4A, single mode driver :thumbsup::

Here's a picture:


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