Shark Buck 1A or Shark 3A for MC-E?

Hi Wayne, I am designing a new build with 3x MC-E and would like to know your recommendations for which Shark to buy.

Option 1
3 X 2S2P MC-E. Wired parallel to Shark Buck 1A with Remora. Powered from 3 X IMS RCR 123

Option 2
3 X Serial MC-E. Wired parallel to Shark Boost 3A with Remora. Powered by 3 X IMS RCR 123 or 2 X 17650

Option 3
3 X Parallel MC-E. Which way to wire? serial or parallel to which shark board?

I am having problems figuring out option 3.
Wayne, which would you recommend? Also, which option would be better to run?
Any help is greatly appreciated

Cheers mate
Des

I am not a big fan of any LED being in parallel.

My recommendation would be to drive each MCE (series configuration) with one Blue Shark for each MCE and wire the control of the three boards together.

As we have seen with the Luxeon V even if the dies are pefectly matched when it leaves the factory the dies do change over time and the dies don't stay matched no matter what people say. Therefore, any parallel connection is only asking for trouble over time and wiring externally two in parallel is even more risky.

If you had to use a parallel configuration the 4 dies mounted together is more preferable than externally.

Since there is no 3A Shark Boost you'll need three 1A Blue Sharks.

The next best option is to wire each MCE in parallel (all 4 dies) and then wire the three MCE in series and use a Shark Buck 3A driver. You'll need a battery voltage that when drained is still ~2V above the Vf of the three MCE LEDs.

Each MCE wil be ~10W of power. I don't know where you are mounting these but you will need some serious heat sinking. That's ~30W in the LED and some 6W in the driver.

Wayne

Hi Wayne, thanks for the advice.
I have a heatsink that fills the entire KT-4 head. I have removed the stock reflector.
I was aiming for a build similar to the one done by LED Zeppelin with 3x p7 but with MC-E
With your setup recommendations, I wonder if i should proceed with P7s or MC-Es.
I will definitely order the Shark 3A with Remora.
I am now wondering if i should go with 2 x P7s or 3 x MC-Es as the MC-Es have a lower rated lumen than the P7
Thanks again wayne.
Des

Hi Wayne one more question. With 3 X paralleled MC-Es in series, using a Shark Buck 3A,
each MC-E die is getting 1 A to each emitter, so its overdriving each die.

Would a shark buck 2A be better? that way, only 700mA is going to each die, driving it at spec?

Thanks for your time wayne, this is my first multi emitter build and any help is very much appreciated

Best regards
Des

Isn't there 4 dies in a Cree MCE?

3A would then be 3/4 or 0.75A per die.

The datasheet shows 700mA per die max. That's 700mA * 4 or 2.8A.

Wayne

Wayne, sorry mate, I had a temporary moment where I couldnt count.
Thanks for clearing all that up, I am going to go order the shark 3A now from the store.
Cheers for all the help mate
Des

Hi Wayne, paypal sent, but I did something stupid, i didnt go back to theledguy.com from the paypal page, so the payment was sent successfully but the order was not updated as being completed on theledguy.com website.
Sorry about that.
Is there anything I can do to update the order?


my order
Invoice ID: 16109
1 x Assembled SHARK Buck - Shark Buck 3A
1 x SS Krytox 50/50 - 3cc
I choose USPS first class international mail
total 80.65
paypal transaction 49B48494V51824700

my address
Desmond Chin
102 Excel Nakagami-B
3-9-14 Asahi-cho, Akishima-shi
Tokyo, Tokyo 196-0025
Japan

Again, sorry for the confusion, I remembered we had to go back from the paypal site but I had forgotten.
Sorry again mate.
Des

Shark Buck 1A or Shark 3A for MC E

Im thinking of getting FC whats it like under windows 7 ? Ive also got Black Shark so am wanting to run that on windows 7 however i only have 2GB RAM on a Q6600 will that be enough to run it? I can OC it to 3Ghz no probs, the only problem i have is that my ram is impossible to buy now it is the GSKILL DDR2 PC8500HK which you cannot buy anymore.