CWF Dragon Driver mod

DrafterDan

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I purchased some of Charles Wiggins Dragon Drivers. Put it in a torch that I made last year. It works quite will, and using the secondary XQE LEDs is fun!

Finished project
qQGU1f.jpg


The driver, sitting upside down in the pill so I could solder the leads
QD1G1A.jpg


N8C6zH.jpg


SqqUo8.jpg


*edit, added a photo of the business end.
Rb8700.jpg
 
Last edited:

Ladd

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Nice looking light! What battery does it take?
It looks like you used a punch to secure the driver board to the pill. Do you have any tips for doing this? It seems a lot better than the difficult task of soldering to a "heat sink"!
 

DrafterDan

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Hi Ladd,
I've done the solder-to-pill many times, I always worry about damaging the components on the driver. This does work well, but I have a lot of hammer time in my life, so I'm quite accurate. I made the pill, so the tolerances were just where they needed to be.

I just purchased some efest 16340 unprotected for this one. My design was to make it as skinny as possible. My next version is going to be 18350 based.
 

hard_six

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Do you know where I can find instructions on programming this driver? Thanks.
 

Jchang76

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Where does one get those qxe secondary emitters. I have a dragon driver running a triple mtn without the triple secondaries. The mcpcb does have a second ground snd what look like two led pads asymmetrically positioned like yours. I am able to install if i had correct LEDs preferably red. It'd be nice to finish this install bc without those secondaries i can't program/ config (doesn't flash bc the secondaries do the flashing! )
Also the light has a convoy lit tail that causes the light to think it's always on so i get basically always wrong mode memory (aka next mode memory!!)
The driver on the button side has labeled something to do with illuminated switch. Makes me think if properly wired the ilumn switch would not cause this deal breaking glitch. I don't mind losing the lit switch for a functional light but i do need those secondaries...
 

staticx57

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Arrow, DigiKey, and Mouser all carry XQ-E. For a lighted tailswitch you need a bleeder resister from positive to negative. You need to play with the values to make it work but it typically falls in the 500-1000 ohm range
 

Jchang76

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Hi, i received and installed red secondaries. Now the potential and configuration capability has been realized ! Very cool light and agree, the secondaries are a little too bright. Also it may be spill over but they (the xqe red secondaries) seem "on" when the main emitters on. Kind of neat on ml mode.
Anybody have experience with that or know how to properly check? I will look during the day with my torch glasses.
Next i will try to salvage the lighted switch which needs the above mentioned bleeder resistor snd a spring bypass. (The spring is discolored i suppose from the high current at high modes.) Ive learned me something, thanks for the help yall.
Will attempt to post pics ( if it's like the other forum i prob can swing it, but it was hectic figuring it out! )
 

datiLED

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The secondaries do light a bit when in primary mode. I asked Charles about this and he said it was normal behavior for these Dragon drivers.
 

staticx57

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The secondaries do light a bit when in primary mode. I asked Charles about this and he said it was normal behavior for these Dragon drivers.

If you replace the 7135 regulators with higher quality ones it should fix the issue. But as CWF said it is within his tolerances that they light.
 
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