catapult v1 only 2.6amps at led!!!!!!! need stronger driver

[661randyg]

hi everyone, just recieved my new catapult v1 today, tried it tonight, yea it was good only because of the size of the reflector.

popped out the plastic led spacer/protector, removed one of the wires on the led and only 2.6 amps. im so frustrated, this light has such potential with this great reflector and the sst-50. i allmost want to remove the driver and resist it down to 4 or 5amps with 2 18650s and have a super light. but then it wouldnt be practical. i sure hope some 4 or 5 amp drivers with a couple different brightness levels will come out soon. of course not to run it a long time at 5 amps but for a few minutes at a time.

i run my aurora sh40 every day over 4 amps(single 18650) no problem, and if it wasnt for the auroras led color being a little warmer and the beam wider it does very good against the cat. considering the reflector is twice the size.

himmm, wanting to do something but not sure. randy

 

[jsr]

You can try searching for a LDO that provides near 5A or possibly find a fairly high current one and parallel them together as they do with the 7135 LDOs (8x per driver board to achieve 2.8A drive). But you'd need to make your own board. If you do, you may have a product that garners good interest on CPF.
At least you're in Palmdale where a thrower comes in handy. My area usually has too much light pollution.
Good luck.

 

[661randyg]

thanks jsr for the reply, it would seem if i put them in parallel i wouldnt be able to get it with high low and medium, make them work properly.
this really sucks, its like the perfect tease, create a perfect led (powerfull,no donut) but not create a driver strong enough to power it at max potential.

ALSO FOR ALL YOU CATAPULT OWNERS-- this led is not mounted to the heat sink. i read in some reviews not to tighten head too tight. be carefull and make sure led is snug, its the only thing keeping the led against the heat sink.

if your listening ThruNite this is a bad short cut, even the cheaper chinese budget lights have 2 screws keeping the led tight against the heat sink. to me this is a nice light but this one thing should keep it from being tactical, or for emergency use. a little looseness in the head and led could fry. this is my opinion, i dont want to sound too negative but this is what quality is all about.

two more tips, if your led isnt centered and you want the best beam now you know what to do. and also just like thrunite says in the v2 as a improvement, remove the led and scratch and emery cloth the paint off the heat sink. paint is like soot build up on boiler tubes, it helps insulate it makeing a bad heat transfer.


so i guess i will wait untill a 5amp driver will come out, one that will fit in such a tiny space. and if it takes too long, i will go back to the old fasion 3 way clicky switch and dust off the old packages of resistors i have.:thumbsdow


i did see a driver in kaidomain that said it was for the sst-50 so i will order that as soon as my pay pal account gets working again. they just canceled it on me for no reason, its been 3 weeks now. really sucks, sent a dozen emails too them.

 

[661randyg]

jsr, i work in the valley, and your right there is more junk in the air. randy.

 

[jsr]

If you're adept at some board layout and minor circuit design, you can make a driver that runs multiple LDOs in parallel (like the drivers that use multiple 7135 LDOs) and use a MCU to turn each LDO (or set of LDOs) off allowing you to make multiple levels. That's how the multi-7135 driver boards work. Their low is usually 350mA (1x 7135 on), high is 2.8A (8x 7135s on), and medium is whatever you want in between (2x to 7x 7135s on). This is quite a bit of work for you though and to make only a handful of drivers would cost you a lot due to the low volume.

 

[661randyg]

thanks jsr,

If you're adept at some board layout and minor circuit design, you can make a driver that runs multiple LDOs in parallel (like the drivers that use multiple 7135 LDOs) and use a MCU to turn each LDO (or set of LDOs) off allowing you to make multiple levels. That's how the multi-7135 driver boards work. Their low is usually 350mA (1x 7135 on), high is 2.8A (8x 7135s on), and medium is whatever you want in between (2x to 7x 7135s on). This is quite a bit of work for you though and to make only a handful of drivers would cost you a lot due to the low volume.

no, im not that good working with small circuts, ive just made simple bigger ones. and besides there are drivers out for the mce and p7 with different modes at 3 amps.

am i misunderstanding you? what you are talking about is still under 3 amps on high, right? i need 5 amps. probaly not possible in such a small space and the high heat demands. thanks, randy

 

[HKJ]

It is not a good idea to use LDO's or 7135 chips with the Catapult when it is using two LiIon batteries. The voltage will be above what 7135 are rated for and the power loss in the driver will be very high.

 

[jsr]

I wasn't saying to use 7135 chips, just suggesting to find a driver chip that you can stack in parallel to achieve your desired drive current. I was mentioning the 7135 chip because that's a popular chip and design to use to achieve higher drive currents. Each 7135 is only capable of 350mA, but stack enough of them in parallel and you get more current capability. I'm just suggesting the paralleling method as an option, but you would need to find a driver chip that would add up to your 5A requirement without having to use too many of them. HKJ is correct that on 2x LiIons, an LDO would waste a lot of heat, so you may need some more innovation to make an LDO deisgn work.

 

[HKJ]

HKJ is correct that on 2x LiIons, an LDO would waste a lot of heat, so you may need some more innovation to make an LDO deisgn work.

A LDO design or any linear design is not going to work with two LiIon batteries, you would loose about 50% of the power in the driver, what is needed is a good buck driver that will have less than 10% loss.
This is very important with a led flashlight, because the largest problem is getting rid of heat and minimizing heat is the best way to solve that. Some other advantages of a buck driver is longer runtime (Nearly twice) and lower load on the batteries.

 

[661randyg]

thanks hkj, but i guess the 5amp buck driver with different speeds still isint availble? i suppose when they design the higher power lights the company builds a special circut for it and probally a lot larger than 17-19mm in diameter by about 10mm in thickness. i could be wrong but i think this is where thrunite dropped the ball on the catapult. right now we could be enjoying a cat v2 with the low and high but at 5amps it could have been another high(did that make sence?) low-1amp, mid-3amps, high-5amps. that light would rule this size class with 2 18650s probally even when newer lights come out.(are you listening thrunite?)

i was just checking some of you reviews, cool. also so simple, a 18650 battery, 18mm wide 65mm long. that just too simple and also makes too much sence. now figureing out the different size batts. will be easier. thanks. randy

 

[jsr]

A buck driver (type of SMPS) is great, but I doubt you'll find one that offers 5A output. That's one of the main problems with higher power...the supporting electronics aren't available yet.

 

[661randyg]

yeah, i guess some of us (me) are never satisfied. but wait isnt this why things keep improveing?

i guess its time to go back to the aspherics thing