Connecting driver boards to heatsinks

Sorry to be ignorant, but I am an electronics noob and constantly have problems understanding how to connect these driver boards.

I understand that some boards have separate VIn and GND ports (eg. SOB), some have
VIn/GND in one single location, some have LED-/GND in one location, while others have no GND (eg. GD).
How should these boards be wired to heatsinks?
Must all boards be grounded? What's the reason for grounding the boards?
In the case of GD, how should it be wired in a custom sink w/ground screw?
And for SOB, how should it be wired? Does it have anode pad at the bottom? If the anode pad is used, should the VIn port be ignored?
I need some answers soon.

The SOB has an anode pad on the non-component side. As a concrete example, you can put down a solder pad on the anode and attach a small conical spring as the contact to top terminals of batteries.

My DMM shows continuity between the anode pad and Vin, so presumably, you don't need to do anything further with Vin if you use the anode pad connection.

Have you looked at the Shoppe's web page for the image for wiring the SOB?

There is a pair of LED- holes near J6 and a pair of LED+ holes near J5. You can use either LED- hole to solder a wire lead that connects to the negative connection of an LED. Similarly, you can use either LED+ hole to solder a wire lead that connects to the positive connection of an LED.

There are two LED- and two LED+ holes available to allow you to make a "sandwich" out of a stack of parallel SOBs to get more output current. See for example, https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/221244

You need to connect to ground eventually to complete the electrical circuit. Whether you do that by soldering a ground wire to the "GND" hole on the SOB and connecting that wire to some custom heat sink, making a solder bridge between the custom heat sink and the outer contact trace on the non-component side, or using some other method is up to you.

What is your application?

Justin Case said:

You need to connect to ground eventually to complete the electrical circuit. Whether you do that by soldering a ground wire to the "GND" hole on the SOB and connecting that wire to some custom heat sink, making a solder bridge between the custom heat sink and the outer contact trace on the non-component side, or using some other method is up to you.
What is your application?

Click to expand...

I know how the LED+/-should be connected, my concern is the VIn and GND.
With the SOB it's easy, but what about the GD and BBNG? No separate GND ports on these, so how should these be connected and grounded?

BTW, types of applications depend on what custom sinks I can get hold of.

For the BBNG and GD, GND and LED- are tied together. Did you see the wiring diagram for the Nexgen on the Shoppe web site? CPF search function also gives answers for both boards re: GND. Solder a ground wire to either LED- hole, solder a small ring terminal to the other end of your ground wire, and screw it into the ground connection on your heat sink.

BBNG and GD info on the Shoppe web site state "Battery anode pad backside".

Justin Case said:

For the BBNG and GD, GND and LED- are tied together. Did you see the wiring diagram for the Nexgen on the Shoppe web site? CPF search function also gives answers for both boards re: GND. Solder a ground wire to either LED- hole, solder a small ring terminal to the other end of your ground wire, and screw it into the ground connection on your heat sink.

Click to expand...

So are you saying two wires are to be soldered to the LED-/GND hole, one connected to the -ve contact of the LED and the other tied to the ground screw?

Correct. Solder one wire to one of the GND/LED- holes. Solder another wire to the other GND/LED-hole. Pick either of the two wires and connect it to LED-. Connect the remaining wire to your ground screw.

Justin Case said:

Correct. Solder one wire to one of the GND/LED- holes. solder another wire to the other GND/LED-hole. Pick either of the two wires and connect it to LED-. Connect the remaining wire to your ground screw.

Click to expand...

I've been having problem looking at the board diagram of the GD for years, until now.
I've had a difficulty figuring out the positions of J5 and J6.
So are you saying that there are actually TWO J5 holes for LED+ and TWO J6 holes for the LED-, and that for grounding purposes, both J6 holes simply get used (one wired to the real LED- and the other to grounding screw)? And the same applies to the BBNG, which apparently has a pair of J5s and J6s, is that correct?

For both BBNG and GD:

1. Solder a wire to either of the two holes for GND/LED-/J6. Both holes are exactly the same.

2. Solder another wire to the other hole for GND/LED-/J6.

3. Connect one of the wires to your ground screw.

4. Connect the other wire to the LED- terminal of your emitter.

5. Solder a wire to either of the two holes for LED+/J5. Both holes are exactly the same.

6. Connect the wire in #5 to the LED+ terminal of your emitter.