Anglepoise CR2 beauty

[georges80]

Some of you may have seen Anglepoise's (David's) website: Anglepoise.

Anyhow, David approached me sometime back to see if I'd do a custom driver board for a light he wanted to build for himself. So, we did a trade, I would build a few drivers and he would build a few lights Three in existence...

I can't imagine how to put together such a nice host for my electronics and I think David can't imagine how to put together a driver for his host - so we had the good makings of a partnership

So, without further ado, he's a few pics of the results:

First, the lineup with a few known lights. The 'beauty' is in the middle:

Yep, quite small, a AA and CR123 for size comparisons:

The 'beauty' opened up to show what it eats for dinner - CR2 primary.

Nicely positioned TxxH Luxeon:

The 'beauty' purring along on low.

The driver is a fully current regulated boost converter. It is side switch controlled and of course uController based. Uses the standard UIF/UIP firmware common to my other drivers (nothing new for me to learn).

Low is about 20mA, and high is 350mA to the LED (8 levels with UIF or 5 levels with UIP). This was chosen to allow for a tiny board and good runtime from a CR2 primary.

Here's a picture of an early prototype of the driver. My pinky in the foreground and no I don't have a giant mutant pinky The board is 15mm in diameter.

Hope you enjoyed Anglepoise's handiwork as much as I do!

cheers,
george.

 

[kenster]

:twothumbs :bow:


Wait a minute, I don`t have one?!? :laughing:

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!:rock:

Ken

EDIT: I THINK I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS LIGHT!!!!!!oo:

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Beautiful work by both of you.

Now, George, will you be making these available to other builders also?

 

[kenster]

Beautiful work by both of you.

Now, George, will you be making these available to other builders also?

Now Fred!:scowl: I posted here first!:nana:


Ken

 

[georges80]

Glad you folk like the light. Tonight I will get to play with it where it will be better at home - in the dark.

Anyhow, no plan at this point to make more of the drivers, since they were just protopcbs and the switcher & uController are of the 'leadless' variety which makes soldering less than fun. If I was to do a production run I'd have to farm out to an assembly house and that would require a reasonable number to be made.

Not sure how popular a 350mA max output driver would be with the power nuts on CPF It is an ideal match for this custom tiny light and the CR2 power source, but would probably not find too many other appropriate hosts.

I have to say, it is very nice to have a side switch activated light when the body is so tiny. Makes using the light one handed and adjusting levels etc so easy.

cheers,
george.

 

[greenLED]

Very nice, George and Anglepoise!

 

[bombelman]

Great ! Both of you ! That thing is really small...

If this helps, I would like to show my interest in these boards with side-switches...
Soldering won't be an issue for me

 

[kenster]

George, does all the electronic stuff that I don`t understand anyway mean that this driver can only run on a CR2 or 3.0volts? If you used say a K vf emitter could it run on a Rcr2? How about on an S vf lux V. Would it work on an Rcr2 since it is a boost driver?

I`m joining the Lathe folke like Anglepoise so.......Drivers??? I do and I want!


Thank you,
Ken

 

[Darell]

Soldering won't be an issue for me

What? You were planning on this coming in kit form? :laughing: I can envision a few issues with that sort of program! (Oh, and for the record, George actually DOES have a giant, mutant finger. I've seen it and I'm still having nightmares.)

Nice little project, guys. You say there were THREE? That third one should go in the flashlight hall of fame.

 

[karlthev]

Just ask, there may be more "takers" than you thought! Nice....


Karl

 

[Kiessling]

Great guys !!! :thumbsup: :bow:
Nice to see a thread like this from time to time ... even if it is with a uC controlled light ... :nana:
bernie

 

[Icarus]

Very nice light and driver! :thumbsup:

 

[Darell]

Great guys !!! :thumbsup: :bow:
Nice to see a thread like this from time to time ... even if it is with a uC controlled light ... :nana:
bernie

Well, of course it DID start out to be a "tactical" offering where mechanical single-level tail switching would have been mandatory. But since only four-year-old children could operate it that way, it was decided at the last minute to create a *practical* light instead. Man, you've never seen a cooler keychain light than this thing!

And I do agree - CPF used to be FULL of threads like this. Bring 'em back, folks!

 

[TranquillityBase]

Beautiful light!

That's one beauty of a tiny driver too...

TB

 

[georges80]

For sure, a small light like this is an ideal use of a side switch, it makes single handed adjusting of light levels and turning it on/off so easy.

The whole tactical tail switch is wonderful if you happen to be into the macho swat scene but if you have a small light dangling on a key chain and you want to just turn the silly thing on and use it - hey a switch on the side works pretty good

I like this little driver a lot, on low it draws around 20 - 30mA from battery, so an 800mA CR2 will give around 24 hours of runtime. At 350mA output it should give close to 1.5 hours of runtime. 350mA into a decent binned modern LED is a considerable amount of light, produces low heat in the head and LED (allowing the LED to run efficiently), doesn't stress the electronics so efficiency is good and doesn't draw high current from the battery providing good efficiency there as well.

Being a boost it does require lower input than output voltage. So, a low bin LED will be limited to 3V input if you want dimming to be available (dimming is performed by lowering output current). So, CR2 and not RCR2. Given the runtime and decent a/hr rating of a primary CR2 I don't see RCR2 as in the race for this application. The driver is open circuit protected and limits at around 4.7V output, so definitely not a Lux V driver.

It uses an LT3490 switcher chip, so tuned for single primary cell or 2AA (primary or rechargeable) to drive 350mA into a single white LED.

One more 'fun' picture. To program the uC requires a 6 pin interface, but there's no room on the board for the typical 6 pin header, so I had to 'sprinkle' the 6 pads around the board where there was room. I then made a custom pogo pin adapter board to allow the pins to 'poke' the appropriate pads to provide the 6 pin programming connection.

cheers,
george.

 

[TranquillityBase]

Sounds like the perfect combo. for a small Ti light...low heat more better...

TB

 

[kenster]

So, if I have some Lux V that are well under 4.7volts at 350ma(which I have a bunch) they would work right?

I goofed I was meaning 5.7volts!


Ken

 

[Hallis]

Could the 3'rd light be offered up as a CPF benefit raffle?

Shane

 

[Erasmus]

Excellent job Georges and Anglepoise!!!

 

[georges80]

Could the 3'rd light be offered up as a CPF benefit raffle?

Shane

Yeah, right - if you didn't read between the somewhat obscure lines that Darell wrote - the 3rd light is in HIS hot little hands and I think you would have to pry it out of his dying hands

cheers,
george.