AMC7135 1050mA Regulated Circuit Board for DIY Flashlights 10-Pack

Pros: Regulated 1A output from 3xD sized alkaline cells in my MAGLite. Current draw from the batteries was approx 900-1000mA.

Cons: Only supports up to 4.5V. Would be great to have a circuit that output 1A and could take a supply of 9V or greater.

Other: Does the job quite well.

Pros: Rugged well protected against ubuse, polarity protected via "idiot diodes", cheap, can be configd. for 350/700/1000ma with modification. very fiddly tho.

Cons: Took me a while to sort out a fault with using one particular LED. see comments & questions. tiny to solder if you are not used to it.

Other: keeping input voltage about 4+v will give very good efficiency & no need to heatsink boards. Very good purchase recommended.

Pros: Cheap regulator.

Cons: no modes. cable not soldered tp the board.

Other: need a good soldering hand. Better if cable is soldered to the board.

Pros: Great little low priced regulators. Cheaper than many other boards that perform similar tasks.

Cons: They only come in 10 and 20 packs. These require mid range input voltages.

Other: These boards are a great deal if you know what your getting and if you are better than me at planning out your projects.

Pros: -Inexpensive -Can disable/remove 1 or 2 of the 7135s if a lower current is desired -Thermal protection works

Cons: -one of the boards had a mis-alligned 7135 soldered on
-contact pads could be better marked

Other: A good value

Pros: Dead simple to use and they seem to work fine. They dont get very warm while in use. I only noticed a slight temperature increase.

Cons: I had to guess the pin out. Fortunately I guessed correctly.
The center connection is GND for both power in and the LED.
The outer ring is + for power in.
The positive terminal for the LED is on the missing IC's place and is a large round circle on the PCB.

The wires arent soldered on out of the box.
Its a trivial thing though and its easy to solder them on.

Other: I've had no problems with them.
If you have a few high powered LEDs you need to power then grab them.

Pros: These units are small (17mm diameter, 3mm (approx) height) and easy to use if you have a good soldering iron.
They provide good efficiency if Vin is close to Vout (4*NiMh with a 3.5 to 4.0Vf LED, for exemple).
Reverse polarity protection is efficient and does not reduce performance (only the current needed by the chip itself flows thru the diode. The diode Vdrop is +/-0.5V while the AMC7135 regulates down to 2.7V, so it will regulate down to 3.2V which is enough for most power LEDs)
Price is low.

Cons: These circuit boards require proper heat dissipation.
They are inefficient if the input voltage is much higher than the output(under 75% afficiency) and run hot in this case.
10% output accurency may be a problem in some cases (1000mA Imax LEDs for exemple).

Other: The way they work (linear regulator) can be a problem at high input voltage (more than 5V), but in fact it is not, because with 4*1.2V NiMh you have 3.6V to 5.6V Vin.
Buying 4*AMC7135 boards can be a better choice, so you can remove some chips to have the desired current (and also some spare chips for some mods...)

Pros: Well made standard sized 17mm driver, works great with a single 18650 battery. Thanks to 3 AMC7135 chips, runs very bright all the way down to 3.4V or so before I could detect much dimming and still quite bright. In even a thin walled light does not make the emitter produce excessive heat. Drives R2, Q5, and Q2 emitters with amazing results. Easy install with only minor sanding of the edge and soldering is a snap. Only $1.66 per driver!

Cons: None. Zip. Zero. Some state that the number you need to buy is a con but I disagree. They just don't have enough places to put them.

Other: BUY SOME. As far as I know, this is the only true 1000 mA, 1 mode driver offered by DX. If you want to break free of the dependance on CR123's (expensive, ecologically unsound), or RCR123's (short runtimes, inconsistant voltages between cells) now is your chance. I'm sure if DX offered this driver in smaller amounts (say, 3-5) they would sell a lot more. I am converting every light that will take 18650 or 17670 batteries as I find the time.

Pros: -great and simple mod to fix direct drive lights
-small size
-does not get to hot at 4.5v
-does not flicker like a $20 driver i bought recently

Cons: -gets very hot at 6v (max component ratings)
- i blew one board doing a test (to see if it could handle 7.5v-it can't!)

Other: very good and cheap ass buying in bulk - will probably save money in the long run