flickering GD1000

Hello,

im new here and say Hello to all.
I have ordered some GD1000 drivers and they have been working for a short time.
Then i wanted to measure the current which is going through the LED.
I have connected the multimeter in series to the LED -> nothing.
I took the next GD1000 i couldnt believe it and too the third one. Nothing.

Then i have done the Multimeter away and now the LED is flickering. I checked my multimet and saw that is not doing any current measuring. Have i toasted 3 of the GD1000 drivers ? I think i have used them wit open load.
When yes, can i repair them ? Have i roasted the IC or something else when the LED is only flickering very fast ?

DarkSide72 said:

Hello,

im new here and say Hello to all.
I have ordered some GD1000 drivers and they have been working for a short time.
Then i wanted to measure the current which is going through the LED.
I have connected the multimeter in series to the LED -> nothing.
I took the next GD1000 i couldnt believe it and too the third one. Nothing.

Then i have done the Multimeter away and now the LED is flickering. I checked my multimet and saw that is not doing any current measuring. Have i toasted 3 of the GD1000 drivers ? I think i have used them wit open load.
When yes, can i repair them ? Have i roasted the IC or something else when the LED is only flickering very fast ?

Click to expand...

Hello DarkSide72. Welcome to CPF.

When you used the multimeter in series with the LED you more then likely fried the GD board if the LED did not light up. The GD board does not have open load protection and it sounds like you did not have the multimeter hooked up properly to measure current and presented an open circuit to the GD board.

The board will kill itself instantly when this happens.

The method I recommend to measure current is to solder a 0.1 ohm resistor in series with the LEDs. You can then measure the voltage drop across the 0.1 ohm and compute the current flowing through the resistor. This is safer as all connections are soldered and no chance to slip and cause an open circuit. The key is to solder all output connections so that it will never come loose even when testing the board or checking the board out.

The other method is to use the input current as a rough idea of output current. If you have a power supply or a battery with voltage roughly the same as the Vf of the LED then the input current will be nearly the same as the output current. For a GD1000 if you are drawing a little over 1A from the battery everything is good. If you battery is 4.2V then the battery current should be slightly less than 1A and on a CR123 primary it should be around ~1.3A - ~1.5A under normal operation conditions.

Wayne

poop, is there a way to repair them, or do i have to order new drivers ?

The IC needs replacing and they are leadless IC's with thermal pads underside making them very difficult to change without proper tools and equipment.

If you place another order for more GD1000's and add in the notes section of the order what your CPF user name is and add that I would add one free one with the order Cindy when she processes it will give me one extra to have resistors soldered on.

Better yet...

Copy the following line and add it to the notes section of the order. Also, include you CPF user name.

"Wayne said he would add one free GD1000 if I ordered more GD1000's."

It must be in the order and not in a seperate email, text message or IM as Cindy won't see it.

Wayne

OK. Thanks thats very nice. And now i will take care of them ...:twothumbs