# H6Flex 6.6Amp Adjustable Buck



## georges80 (May 10, 2010)

Finally got some time to finish assembling the protoype h6flex driver now that the h6cc is shipping and in use.

I figure as something different I'll document some of the steps involved in taking a design into production. Will (wquiles) suggested some folk may get a better appreciation of what goes into a driver design.

Given I've just started on the h6flex, it seems like an opportune time to take pictures and document some of the steps.

So, here's a picture of a prototype assembled and ready for programming and initial testing:







The prototypes are made as production boards, but to save cost and allow for quick turn and also to allow running several 'flavours' of design and other boards, they have no soldermask/silkscreen and they are also on uncut panels. One key advantage of the bare boards is the ease of making any cuts/jumps and the ease of probing any traces since there is no insulating solder mask in place.

Not having a soldermask makes soldering a little more tricky since not having the mask causes the solder to bridge more easily. But, with good quality flux (I use an RMA flux that is water soluble and washable in a $40 ultrasonic cleaner). With experience I can easily solder fine pitch IC's like the switcher IC on the board.

Once all soldered down it's a case of buzzing out key 'suspect' connections to make sure everything is good enough for power to be applied. I use a current limited supply and slowly raise voltage up from zero to ensure no shorts or high current draw.

The next step is to modify the source code from the other *flex boards and prepare to program it into the prototype board.






The programming & test jig for the h6flex. When laying out the h6flex prototype PCB I also layed out a programming & test jig. The programming part has a 6 pin ISP header to go to an Atmel Dragon (programmer/debugger) and pogo pins to mate with the needed 6 connections on the h6flex board. The test part of the jig has pogo pins that mate with the input power/LED output drive, switch inputs and STAT LED connections.






Here's a shot of the test area of my work bench. Two power supplies and a Tek 200MHz digital scope. Just visible in the lower right is a 50MHz Tek current probe interface that connects to the Tek scope. This allows me to view voltage & current on the scope.






After testing various PWM values and charting the resulting output current I have the necessary data to create the various current tables for the ui-uni2 firmware. Typical of all my flex drivers I provide the user several current tables to choose from. Given this driver is capable of up to 6.6A output I will likely provide 6 tables (tentatively):

1400mA
2000mA
2800mA
5000mA
5600mA
6600mA

Here you can see the excel spreadsheet showing PWM versus output current - very nice & linear.






I'll continue to document the process in this thread as testing continues and then the steps to finish up the design for production boards.

Here's a screen grab to show the PCB layout as it stands, with some minor changes already implemented as refinements to the prototype design are discovered.






cheers,
george.


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## wquiles (May 10, 2010)

Man - that is freaking awesome :twothumbs


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## netprince (May 10, 2010)

Interesting details. I've been looking forward to this driver for a while. Great work...


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## ma_sha1 (May 10, 2010)

yeah, I want one!


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## Al Combs (May 11, 2010)

While it's still in the development stage, could you make it fit in a Mag-D battery tube? That would be awesome.


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## georges80 (May 11, 2010)

Al Combs said:


> While it's still in the development stage, could you make it fit in a Mag-D battery tube? That would be awesome.



It is 1.3" in diameter and will fit a D mag.

cheers,
george.


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## Hill (May 11, 2010)

George,

I think many of us are drooling while waiting for this to become available. I have the host ready to go. Just need this beauty to bring it to life!

Thanks for making this a reality!

Hill


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## Mettee (May 11, 2010)

Nice work George,

I didnt see a pot for current adjustment as in the H6CC but I did notice you gave some current steps...

1400mA
2000mA
2800mA
5000mA
5600mA
6600mA

Are those going to be fixed levels or will current be programed? ETA: I read it again, where you mention current tables....didnt see that at first 

drew


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## georges80 (May 11, 2010)

Drew, no trimpot needed with the h6flex - all the current selections are 'digital' as per my other flex drivers (as you figured out...).

Anyhow, I've added a 7th current table, so my proposed choice of current tables are now:

1400mA
2000mA
2800mA
3600mA <- new one added
5000mA
5600mA
6600mA

These of course are the maximum current outputs that each table will support. Folk that aren't use to this idea can read one of the flex manuals (e.g. hipflex) on my website.

The firmware of course inherits UIP, UIF and UIB since it is the same UI-UNI2 firmware as my other flex drivers.

I've decided to change the uController on the driver. Currently an attiny85 (as per all my other flex drivers), but I need an extra I/O so will use an MLF attiny861 instead.
----------

Anyhow, here's a few more pictures to keep folk in the loop as the proto goes through its paces. The h6flex architecture has digitally adjustable constant current output AND PWM capability. With the adjustable current I can reliably reach around 100mA output, though to be conservative I'll set 200mA as the lowest output current (in constant current mode). To go lower I'll use the PWM hardware to give lower 'average' current (PWM the 200mA low to go lower...).

So, here's a picture of 2 P7's (in parallel to emulate an SST50 type load) running at 20mA average output (this from a driver that can just be clicked to 6.6A output), not bad dynamic current control range 

The green lit LED on the test jig was caught as it flashed on (the voltage monitoring STAT LED) warning that the input voltage is too low (set for a nominal 14.4V li-ion pack, but the power supply is set to just under 12V).






And this image capture of my Tek scope shows the 1 in 10 duty cycle of the 200mA output - average 20mA output. As can be seen the rise/fall time of the LED pulses is excellent. PWM frequency is nominally 370Hz






I can easily go even lower than 20mA average, but I think that's more than low enough for this type of driver.

I've measured standby current with the driver 'clicked' off at about 80uA, so that's sufficiently low to not drain batteries over a few months of non-use.

I don't see any need to run efficiency tests since it uses the same switcher core as the H6CC and I've already run quite a few tests (see the H6CC thread if interested).

I have a few more tests to run with the prototype and then I'll tidy up the PCB layout with the new uController and see about doing another PCB run.

cheers,
george.


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## HarryN (May 11, 2010)

Hi George, Very nice work.

I always have been impressed by your work and products, but even more so recently as I have had to contract with a guy for a couple of boards. It is just amazing that you can keep all of that power and functionality on a small board like that.


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## ma_sha1 (May 11, 2010)

georges80 said:


> It is 1.3" in diameter and will fit a D mag.
> 
> cheers,
> george.




I didn't realize it's that big, so it won't fit mag C tube then?


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## georges80 (May 11, 2010)

ma_sha1 said:


> I didn't realize it's that big, so it won't fit mag C tube then?



Nope - a C mag would have insufficient heatsinking for any appreciable runtime at 6+ amps.

Given the design goal of this driver is to have components on one side only (for easy heatsinking) and be stable at 6+ amps indefinitely and has the full ui-uni2 firmware with voltage monitoring/warning and reverse polarity protection - you would be really pushing to have it fit in smaller area AND still be easy for a user to solder the wiring in place.

Remember, this driver has been tested with 6.6A to 3 pairs of P7's - i.e. 70+ watts driven, we're not talking an insignificant power level for a 1.3" diameter board...

The diameter was chosen to fit a D mag.

cheers,
george.


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## PCC (May 11, 2010)

georges80 said:


> The green lit LED on the test jig was caught as it flashed on (the voltage monitoring STAT LED) warning that the input voltage is too low (set for a nominal 14.4V li-ion pack, but the power supply is set to just under 12V).


Does this mean that we would need to run this on a minimum of 14.8V (4 Li-Ion cells)? I was hoping to run this on 11.1V.


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## georges80 (May 11, 2010)

PCC said:


> Does this mean that we would need to run this on a minimum of 14.8V (4 Li-Ion cells)? I was hoping to run this on 11.1V.



The voltage monitoring is configurable (read the hipflex manual).

The driver will operate from 6V to 24V. So, for one SST-50 use 2 li-ion (or more). For 2 SST-50 use 3 li-ion (or more). For 3 SST-50 use 4 li-ion.

The driver will ship configured for 4 li-ion as hipflex ships - but you can change that via the menu system, again, read the hipflex manual.

cheers,
george.


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## Mettee (May 11, 2010)

I cant wait for this board it will finish a build I am currently working on...hopefully George, you wont mind me really pushing the board hard 

drew


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## PCC (May 12, 2010)

georges80 said:


> So, for one SST-50 use 2 li-ion (or more).


Nice! I was hoping to use this for 3 Li-Ion and one SST-90. Yes, under driven but that should be okay, too, right? Now I'm thinking of using one of these with 2 Li-Ion and a single SST-50 in my old 2D Mag instead of the hipFlex and P7...


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## pepko (May 12, 2010)

350mA (super low mode)
1400mA
2800mA
4000mA
5000mA
5600mA
6600mA


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## georges80 (May 12, 2010)

pepko said:


> 350mA (super low mode)
> 1400mA
> 2800mA
> 4000mA
> ...



You are confusing current tables with levels. The super low will be 20mA as per the tests above.

You will have a choice of 7 current tables as outlined in my previous post. i.e. you will choose (you can change it via the menu system) one of the following current tables that will correspond to the maximum output current:

1400mA
2000mA
2800mA
3600mA <- new one added
5000mA
5600mA
6600mA

For each current table you will have a choice of 5 (UIP), 8 (UIF) or 2/3/5 (UIB) levels from 20mA UP to the max for the chosen current table. Levels will be roughly a doubling of current per step for reasonably linear 'eyeball' changes of intensity.

PLEASE read the hipflex manual to see how current tables and levels interact...

cheers,
george.


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## ednspace (May 12, 2010)

As an electronics tinkerer I was interested in your testing and programming jig. It looks like you have some spring loaded pins that contact the main driver board for programming and test points. 

Is this whats going on, or could you explain a little bit more about your development process? How did you go about making your test jig?

I have some RGB LED boards I have been developing and have been programming my surface mount microcontroller with a 3M chip clip. It works but is very finicky with the contacts. I am hesitant to add a full on programming port, as once I get the code down these should be quick flashed with the firmware and done.

Thanks for the inspiring post!
I really love seeing the design side of the electronics for these drivers.


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## SmokedCPU (May 12, 2010)

making these level of devices from a single guy, not from a big corporation nor a butching factory, all Quality checked before shipment, it is mesmerizing !

Congratulation !


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## Tedfs (May 13, 2010)

I'm going to hold off on a Mag 3D build until this is done. 

This sounds perfect for that kind of application.


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## georges80 (May 13, 2010)

ednspace said:


> As an electronics tinkerer I was interested in your testing and programming jig. It looks like you have some spring loaded pins that contact the main driver board for programming and test points.
> 
> Is this whats going on, or could you explain a little bit more about your development process? How did you go about making your test jig?
> 
> ...



Yes, they are called pogo pins and are available with different style tips and have internal springs. They were developed specifically for testing boards etc. I chose a conical sharp tip style so that I have a few thruholes (input power, output etc) that some of the pogo pins key into to 'center' the jig. The rest of the pogo pins can then just hit small pads that are only on one side of the board - so I don't give up anything on the other side of the board.

A closer picture of one of the jigs next to some drivers from yesteryear:







When I lay out a board to send to a prototype PCB house I also lay out a test/programming jig PCB and send that on the same panel. I use a proto PCB house that allows panelization of different designs on a single run - that way I can test a few different designs and also run the jigs at the same time. Works out pretty cheap and for $60 - $80 I can get a few different layouts/designs on the same panel.

The jigs make it so easy to program and test boards versus trying to use chip clips (which are pretty hopeless) and also allow the use of QFN packages that have no 'pins' to clip to.

And, as you say, with the pogo pins and jigs you don't have to have the cost of programming/test headers on each board you ship - which is something I did on my earlier driver boards (the original uFlex and early nFlex drivers).

cheers,
george.


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## SUBjohan (May 13, 2010)

Sweet, I have been waiting for this one!
I will need at least 4 of these (I asume you don´t take reservations:candle.

If you like I can do some extensive efficiency measurements with all calibrated meters ofcourse.

Greetz Johan


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## Mettee (May 13, 2010)

george that is so cool to see how to develope the boards, thanks for sharing.

What are those old boards from yesteryear? Just curious 

drew


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## georges80 (May 13, 2010)

Mettee said:


> george that is so cool to see how to develope the boards, thanks for sharing.
> 
> What are those old boards from yesteryear? Just curious
> 
> drew



The old boards are the bbflex drivers that were used my Mr Bulk in the Chameleon lights. Basically a single li-ion buck/boost driver for a single LED. It could drive up to 1.2A. It provided the UIP feature set back before the larger capacity attiny25/45/85 series was available. The firmware in the bbflex was all assembler code - versus with the attiny85 all my code is in C - much easier to debug and add features etc.

Subjohan. No, I don't take pre-orders or pre-pays, never have, never will etc etc.

For efficiency, it will run VERY similar to the H6CC given the switcher core is directly pulled from the H6CC. You can see the efficiency curves in the H6CC thread in this subforum.

cheers,
george.


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## ednspace (May 14, 2010)

george,

Thanks so much for your description and photos of the pogo pin setup and the programming pads. I get it!!! Its a friggen revelation.

Oh pogo pins where have you been all my life. Oh, right here in my desk drawer in my office. No really, I work in an engineering school and the pogo pins have been floating around since day one. It just never really completly clicked until your post. I think these things just may very well change my life, seriously! Thanks.

For anyone else who is interested, I did find this great article on using the pogo pins to construct some fancy test jigs over on the sparkfun website. Its definately worth looking at if you are intrested in using these pins.

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=138


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## dan1million (May 22, 2010)

any updates on this one George 

Massive fan of the previous work hipflex in particular. cant wait for this one !


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## georges80 (May 22, 2010)

dan1million said:


> any updates on this one George
> 
> Massive fan of the previous work hipflex in particular. cant wait for this one !



The proto is working well. I have to do one more proto run to test a change in ucontroller (due to needing an extra pin for controlling the power management).

I have a few other protos I need to test so within a week I'll do a proto run.In about 2 weeks and I'll have confirmed the new layout and then be ready to run production boards.

So, I'd say about 4 weeks before production h6flex boards are available.

I've been busy working on a wireless LED warning system for motorbike racing the past few weeks (was at Infineon Raceway last w/end running a demo and doing tests during the event there). So, that's taken priority over other projects...

cheers,
george.


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## dan1million (May 22, 2010)

Thats great news. hope the other project goes well also.


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## Mettee (May 23, 2010)

georges80 said:


> I've been busy working on a wireless LED warning system for motorbike racing the past few weeks (was at Infineon Raceway last w/end running a demo and doing tests during the event there). So, that's taken priority over other projects...
> 
> cheers,
> george.




Lucky dog!


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## PCC (Jun 6, 2010)

Any updates as to when these will be available?


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## georges80 (Jun 6, 2010)

Soon, soon 

I sent out for another protopcb run last week, should have boards in hand in the next few days (likely Tuesday). I already have the parts on hand to assemble the prototype.

So, by the end of this week I'll have tested the new layout and uController and at that point will kick off a production PCB run that will take about 2 weeks to deliver.

I'll keep this thread updated as I run the v2 prototype through its paces.

If all goes to plan (and it should, given the testing so far), the h6flex should be available by the end of this month (June).

cheers,
george.


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## georges80 (Jun 10, 2010)

Ok, prototype boards arrived yesterday. Got one assembled and had a bit of time to port the code to the new uController I'm using for this board.

Little bit of debugging to fix a few porting errors and I've got the board running on the lowest current table (1.4A). Low runs around 20mA. More testing to do to verify the standard flex features (voltage monitoring/warning, temperature monitoring etc).

First picture shows the new prototype and two jigs (top left is the test jig, top right is programming jig).






Closeup of the lastest prototype sporting the new uController. The main reason for going with the new uC (still an Atmel AVR device) was that I needed one more i/o pin and this unit provides lots of i/o's and in a smaller physical package. The extra i/o was needed to provide PWM control for reliably achieving the lowest current levels (<200mA) with decent tint control. On my previous drivers I could use a single pin for power management and PWM control, but the switcher IC I'm using on the h6flex (and h6cc, hyperboost and hyperbuck) has a dedicated PWM pin that provides some impressive control. So, now I needed one more i/o pin - so that's the story...

Bit more of a challenge to solder this tiny package, but fortunately a hot air tool and quality solder paste makes the job reasonably easy even without the soldermask of a production PCB.






The bottom of the PCB has the thermal interface (no components) as per my other high power drivers.

cheers,
george.


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## dan1million (Jun 10, 2010)

Wow H6flex is really starting to look good !

Will this have all the features of the Hipflex ?

-Dan


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## wquiles (Jun 10, 2010)

Looks awesome George - loved that close-up picture


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## georges80 (Jun 10, 2010)

dan1million said:


> Wow H6flex is really starting to look good !
> 
> Will this have all the features of the Hipflex ?
> 
> -Dan



Yes, it wouldn't be called a h6FLEX if it didn't have all the standard FLEX features of my drivers. i.e. it will have the exact same UI functionality, menu structure etc etc.

That imho is the one of the beauties of my flex drivers, doesn't matter whether it's a bflex,d2flex,hipflex or h6flex, the end user sees the exact same interface, nothing new to learn.

cheers,
george.


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## georges80 (Jun 11, 2010)

*Re: H6Flex 6.6Amp Adjustable Buck - video added*

Have done more testing on all current tables and all is looking good on the proto. Tested the voltage monitoring hardware and that seems to be running within 1-2% setting accuracy which is in spec.

I've taken some video that shows the driver in action on the 6.6A current table. I'm controlling the driver via a small microswitch soldered to some flying leads to the h6flex proto.

First part shows 2 parallel P7's with the h6flex set to UIP (5 levels). I'm switching through various levels from 20mA up through the levels to high (6.6A on the 6.6A table). You can see the output current on the meter (in series with the LED output).

The second part shows 3 series sets of 2xP7 (emulating a total Vf of around 11V) and doing similar tests to the first part. That's 11V x 6.6A = 72.6W running to the LEDs :devil:

I think my camcorder was screaming for some sunglasses during the test 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xssW3AI1qk

cheers,
george.


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## wquiles (Jun 11, 2010)

Very cool video :twothumbs


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## georges80 (Jun 11, 2010)

I have 7 current tables implemented on the h6flex.

These are the output currents measured on the proto for the 7 tables for UIP and 5 level UIB:

L1_____L2_____L3____L4_____ L5
22mA 220mA 362mA 732mA 1430mA
22mA 280mA 534mA 1018mA 2030mA
22mA 364mA 734mA 1440mA 2825mA
22mA 477mA 932mA 1835mA 3625mA
22mA 621mA 1120mA 2364mA 5040mA
22mA 734mA 1418mA 2350mA 5654mA
22mA 818mA 1618mA 3374mA 6580mA

I've set L1 to a very low level (1 in 10 duty cycle of 200mA nominal so 20mA average). All levels above 200mA are fully current regulated (no PWM).

My thinking is a rough halving of current per drop in level, with L1 being the ultra low for extended runtime. 22mA is still quite a lot of light from a high power LED. Halving current at each level from L5 to L2 gives reasonably nice linear intensity steps, but of course that means quite a huge jump from L2 to L1. I could make the L2/L3 current steps have a larger delta to more 'even out' the jump from L2 to L1 - I'm open to suggestions. 

The one thing I won't change though is UI scheme, so no programmable current values etc - the steps will be fixed based on a consensus and of course my own thoughts on the step sizes.

cheers,
george.


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## aurum (Jun 11, 2010)

> The one thing I won't change though is UI scheme, so no programmable current values



:mecry:


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## netprince (Jun 12, 2010)

Hey George,

About how tall is the driver? I'm trying to work out the spacing with some heatsink ideas... (sorry if I missed it)

Thanks!


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## georges80 (Jun 12, 2010)

netprince said:


> Hey George,
> 
> About how tall is the driver? I'm trying to work out the spacing with some heatsink ideas... (sorry if I missed it)
> 
> Thanks!



Same as the hipflex (basically the PCB thickness + inductor height) - info on that driver on my website.

I sent off for production boards yesterday, so should be available around the end of June.

cheers,
george.


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## dan1million (Jun 13, 2010)

nice work !!!! be interested to see this one for sure !


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## greencardigan (Jul 4, 2010)

July is here. Any production boards yet?


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## SUBjohan (Jul 8, 2010)

Hi George,

Any updates??

Because I want 4 I want 4 I want 4 I want 4 I want 4 I want 4 I want 4 I want 4 I want 4 I want 4.... 

Greetz Johan


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## georges80 (Jul 8, 2010)

Yes, I have production boards on hand. Just haven't had time to run all the verification tests on the firmware etc - YET...

Just returned from a camping trip with my sons, so still digging myself out of a backlog of stuff...

I'll post pics of the production boards - maybe later today.

cheers,
george.


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## georges80 (Jul 15, 2010)

So, finally, here's a picture of a h6flex production board. I have to verify the firmware that was running on the prototype before I start shipping drivers, but that should happen within the next few days.

Top view of the driver, components only on the top side to enable the bottom to be mounted with thermal tape or pad material to a heatsink.







cheers,
george.


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## Mettee (Jul 15, 2010)

yes!


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## wquiles (Jul 15, 2010)

Very nice looking board - nice work George


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## dan1million (Jul 16, 2010)

that is a work of art george 
cant wait for the release of this one into the wild.


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## Al Combs (Jul 16, 2010)

It didn't occur to me until I just looked at your h6flex production board (a real beauty BTW), but how do you mount it with no mounting holes? I was under the impression the TGF120K thermal pad was just thermally conductive rubber. Does it have adhesive properties as well?


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## georges80 (Jul 16, 2010)

Al Combs said:


> It didn't occur to me until I just looked at your h6flex production board (a real beauty BTW), but how do you mount it with no mounting holes? I was under the impression the TGF120K thermal pad was just thermally conductive rubber. Does it have adhesive properties as well?




That's why I mentioned thermal tape.... 

cheers,
george.


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## SUBjohan (Jul 23, 2010)

Any updates?

Greetz Johan


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## georges80 (Jul 24, 2010)

Yep, it's working well. Just back from a short business trip so over the next couple of days I'll finalize the last of the testing and open up for sales by mid week - but heading out on business again towards the end of the week - so realistically it will be one more week before it's really available for general purchase.

When it appears in the order page of my website, it's ready to order 

cheers,
george.


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## greencardigan (Jul 25, 2010)

George, can we in Australia order these through your website? Or do we have to wait until Cutter stock them?


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## Lumens Industry (Jul 25, 2010)

Excellent work George!! Cant wait to get my hands on some


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## georges80 (Jul 26, 2010)

greencardigan said:


> George, can we in Australia order these through your website? Or do we have to wait until Cutter stock them?



For the initial while I'll ship direct since I need to get them out to the field and handle any teething issues directly (like the new manual that I'll have to put together).

After that it'll depend on whether Cutter stocks them or not.

cheers,
george.


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## dan1million (Jul 26, 2010)

Keep us posted on price and availability please 

we are all looking forward to this one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## georges80 (Jul 26, 2010)

Ok, I have a batch programmed & tested and ready to ship.

I'll put tech info up later today onto my website, but basically all the features of the standard Flex drivers with various current tables up to 6.6A.

Pricing will be up on my website order info page in the next little while.

cheers,
george.


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## SUBjohan (Jul 27, 2010)

georges80 said:


> Pricing will be up on my website order info page in the next little while.



You have got my order in your mail box 
Thank you for making this great driver possible!

Greetz Johan


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## PCC (Jul 30, 2010)

George, would you recommend this driver to power a red Luminous SST-90 emitter powered by two 18650? Yes, I'm planning the mother of all bike tail lights.


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## irv_usc (Jul 30, 2010)

PCC said:


> George, would you recommend this driver to power a red Luminous SST-90 emitter powered by two 18650? Yes, I'm planning the mother of all bike tail lights.


 
his site lists the operating voltage is from 7-21V. Not sure if 2 18650s will give you very much runtime if you are running at the max 6.6A.


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## georges80 (Jul 30, 2010)

For a single Red LED the h6flex will likely work fine to about 6V (maybe lower given my tests with the h6cc). I assume you would be running it in strobe mode, so in that case runtime would not be too bad given the on/off duty cycle AND the lower Vf of Red's.

** politically correct hat on **

Don't aim the Red LED at the rear driver's eyes - he/she/it may get sufficiently distracted/irritated to veer into you....

** hat off **

cheers,
george.


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## PCC (Jul 30, 2010)

Thanks for the replies. My idea was to put a somewhat large, thin translucent dome over the LED to give the impression of a larger light. The end result should be a less bright but larger lit surface compared to a tiny but super bright point-source of light that most bike tail lights are these days. I felt that no existing red LED would have enough output to make this system bright enough to stand out so I never did anything with it. Now that Luminous has their red SST-90s and George has the hip6Flex, this can become a reality.


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## morelightnow (Jul 31, 2010)

I put an aftermarket taillight on my street bike that consisted of about 15-20 5mm red leds. It was plenty bright and could be seen for way further than the original bulb. I don't think it takes much led power to been seen. You have a good idea of covering it up since that led will be serious overkill in your application. I'm not saying don't do it, just that you will have more light than you need. 

Have fun with your project.

George, I bought a h6cc from you because I either didn't know this was in the works or thought it was going to be pwm like the d2flex. Now I have one more component to use for my home led projects which is a good thing


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## kkara4 (May 1, 2011)

georges80 said:


> Finally got some time to finish assembling the protoype h6flex driver now that the h6cc is shipping and in use.
> 
> I'll continue to document the process in this thread as testing continues and then the steps to finish up the design for production boards.
> 
> ...


 
Your bench is starting to look like my room! We engineers behave in the same way! Fantastic piece of engineering here, I will be buying a h6flex and analysing it thoroughly for my own improvements!


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## cdrake261 (Aug 19, 2011)

So you can attach a low power led to tell you if your battery pack is dipping below your configured set point?


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## georges80 (Aug 19, 2011)

cdrake261 said:


> So you can attach a low power led to tell you if your battery pack is dipping below your configured set point?



Yes, read the h6flex tech section and manual -> follow the link in my sig. All my currently shipping flex drivers (except the lflex) can drive an auxiliary low power led for battery level warning.

cheers,
george.


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## cdrake261 (Aug 19, 2011)

Awesome, just one other question about the mag switch and the switch solder points on the h6flex...I have three wires coming off of my momentary mag switch (pos, neg, and green signal wire), am I suppose to wire the signal wire and a ground to swa and swb? If so, which wire to which port? Thanks in advance!


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## georges80 (Aug 19, 2011)

cdrake261 said:


> Awesome, just one other question about the mag switch and the switch solder points on the h6flex...I have three wires coming off of my momentary mag switch (pos, neg, and green signal wire), am I suppose to wire the signal wire and a ground to swa and swb? If so, which wire to which port? Thanks in advance!



The mag switch needs to be electrically isolated from the battery +ve and obviously modified for momentary action. Once you have the switch isolated it doesn't matter which end of the switch goes to SWA or SWB....

Here's a link to modifying the D mag switch and wiring things up by Sway: http://taskled.com/forum/index.php?topic=314.0

cheers,
george.


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## cdrake261 (Aug 19, 2011)

I already modded my switch, but now that it makes sense that it doesn't matter which one goes where as lone you attach the signal wire and ground, and isolate the power side. Thanks George...


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## cdrake261 (Aug 20, 2011)

Hey George, is it considerated safe and ok to power on without being attached to a thermal spreader? I got my driver soldered up but want to test functionality before I continue any further... I'm so stinkin' excited about this driver and my flashlight, it's not even funny!


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## georges80 (Aug 20, 2011)

cdrake261 said:


> Hey George, is it considerated safe and ok to power on without being attached to a thermal spreader? I got my driver soldered up but want to test functionality before I continue any further... I'm so stinkin' excited about this driver and my flashlight, it's not even funny!



As shipped the h6flex outputs a maximum of 1.4A (until you configure it via the menu system). As shipped it would be more than safe to run the driver without it being mounted on a heatsink. It would likely run continuously with no heatsink at 1.4A max output.

cheers,
george.


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## cdrake261 (Aug 21, 2011)

georges80 said:


> As shipped the h6flex outputs a maximum of 1.4A (until you configure it via the menu system). As shipped it would be more than safe to run the driver without it being mounted on a heatsink. It would likely run continuously with no heatsink at 1.4A max output.
> 
> cheers,
> george.


 
Thanks again George, much appreciated


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## cdrake261 (Aug 23, 2011)

Quick question about the led and the voltage monitor, when using the formula to find what resistor you need to light your led, do you use the voltage the batteries rest at full charge to input into the formula or figure what the approximate voltage of your batteries about when you want the voltage monitor to illuminate the status led?


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## georges80 (Aug 23, 2011)

cdrake261 said:


> Quick question about the led and the voltage monitor, when using the formula to find what resistor you need to light your led, do you use the voltage the batteries rest at full charge to input into the formula or figure what the approximate voltage of your batteries about when you want the voltage monitor to illuminate the status led?



Doesn't make much difference. You'll probably only need 10mA to light up the 3mm/5mm LED brightly enough. Choose the fresh off the charger voltage to do the calculation if you want to be conservative.

So, if you use a red LED, it'll have a Vf of around 2.5V.

Resistor = (Battery_voltage - 2.5)/0.01 in ohms

cheers,
george.


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## cdrake261 (Aug 23, 2011)

So (14.8-2.5)/.01= 1,430 ohms or something close by?


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## georges80 (Aug 24, 2011)

cdrake261 said:


> So (14.8-2.5)/.01= 1,430 ohms or something close by?



Yep, simple formula/math (V = I*R, or R = V/I). You could use a 1.5k resistor, close enough, good enough (for ~10mA).

cheers,
george.


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## cdrake261 (Aug 24, 2011)

I got a blue led, 3.2v typical at 20mA with 16.8v battery pack...680ohms sounds right?


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## georges80 (Aug 24, 2011)

cdrake261 said:


> I got a blue led, 3.2v typical at 20mA with 16.8v battery pack...680ohms sounds right?



Sure, simple math 

cheers,
george.


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## cdrake261 (Aug 24, 2011)

georges80 said:


> Sure, simple math
> 
> cheers,
> george.


 
Phew! Didn't have any blue LEDs in 3mm at radio shack except square shaped ones at 20mA.

Thanks again George!

Caleb


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## cdrake261 (Sep 7, 2011)

Hope you don't mind another question but came across an issue with my build, this won't mount to my heatsink unless I cut a lot of mass off of my heatsink(which I don't want to do). I was going to mount my driver sideways on a separate heatsink but was wondering if there's a way to modify the driver to monitor heat on the main LEDs/heatsink and not on-board the driver?


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## georges80 (Sep 8, 2011)

No, the h6flex temp sensing is done INSIDE the microcontroller versus an external thermistor etc.

cheers,
george.


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## cdrake261 (Nov 11, 2011)

I finally got my flashlight together and working... However, when light is on low, the light blinks every so often and when on high, it cuts off at random times. 

Each of my cells are in the 4.02-4.03v range with four in series powering the h6flex and three xml's.

Any ideas what could be going on here? Thanks George!

Caleb


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## simplec6 (Jan 11, 2012)

I've seen people wire both the SWA and SWB (each side of the momentary switch, totally isolated from the battery of course). 

And I've seen people just wire one side of the momentary to SWA and run the other side to the Battery (-) down by the mag switch and have nothing connected to SWB.

Which is the right way? Wire both SWA and SWB or just need one side of the momentary and the other side can be wired to the battery negative?


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## georges80 (Jan 11, 2012)

SWB is electrically the same as the IN- on the driver, so wiring to the battery negative is electrically ok.

THE issue, is that with longer leads they can act as an antenna and spikes in the battery- wiring (due to transient load changes in the driver) can cause a misread at the SWA connection point. I provide SWB as a dedicated an electrically quiet point to wire a dedicated ground path to a remote switch.

So, in summary, using SWB is up to the end user and may be necessary for reliable operation depending on lead lengths from battery to driver, for momentary switch to driver. Since how folk wire things is out of my control, I've provided options for the end user.

My blanket recommendation is to wire the momentary switch to SWA and SWB - not everyone finds that to be necessary. Some folk using long lead lengths to the switch and running the switch leads close to power or LED output leads fine it necessary to add a capacitor (0.01uF would be sufficient) in parallel with the SWA/SWB connection points to perform as a filter for spikes that could cause the firmware to think the button has been clicked.

This is also applicable to all by flex drivers.

cheers,
george.


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## simplec6 (Jan 12, 2012)

Thanks for the great explanation George. I will be ordering my h6flex drivers from TaskLED soon.


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