Driver position

[piesoup]

Evening all
I was thinking earlier that it may be easier in my design to locate the MaxFlex3 with my battery in the bottle cage instead of up with by light on the handle bars. Is this possibe? Or will the extra wire length affect the driver?
I'll be running 4x XRE R2 @ 1000mA from 11.1v Li-ion.
I'd just like to know all my options before I commit to any one design.
Thank you

 

[HEY HEY ITS HENDO]

Hey piesoup, ...
...yes there can be issues with long wires, from the driver to the load, and also from the driver to the switch ! .......


http://www.taskled.com/forum/

http://taskled.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=e1a04997962f43a47df7265219bfffdd&topic=120.0

Good luck with your build

 

[trout]

the issue about the switch and long leads has been addressed in the maxflex3 that is one of the upgrades from maxflex 2 .


the long leads to the leds is an interference with other electronic things
I believe.
and shielded wires may help that one out .

 

[piesoup]

Thanks peeps!
I'll give it a bash with some shielded cables. The perks of working on helicopters is that there are loads of them about! :twothumbs

 

[HEY HEY ITS HENDO]

..... if you were going just on/off
take a look at these drivers, no issues with long leads
..... i`ve got 5 of them, all good quality!


http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/teap0t42

EDIT .....D`oh, you were using a boost driver!

 

[piesoup]

Hey no worries man!!
Thanks for the link, I'm sure they will come in useful in a future project!

 

[Doh!Nut]

Hendo

Do you have dimentions of that driver?
It could be just what I need for a tail light:twothumbs

 

[HEY HEY ITS HENDO]

20 x 16mm and 6.5mm at the thickest part

 

[yellow]

driver has to be cooled --> mount in head
one driver for every battery <=> one driver in head, multiple batterys
switch at pack - worse place of using it than on light (or on an extension cable at bars from head)

not sure in what way You see a positive not to put the driver into the head.
Even if the cons/pros would egalize: inside the light head there usually is the space for driver, connections and switch, cooling is improved.

Why do You want to put it into the batt?

 

[piesoup]

driver has to be cooled --> mount in head
one driver for every battery <=> one driver in head, multiple batterys
switch at pack - worse place of using it than on light (or on an extension cable at bars from head)

not sure in what way You see a positive not to put the driver into the head.
Even if the cons/pros would egalize: inside the light head there usually is the space for driver, connections and switch, cooling is improved.

Why do You want to put it into the batt?

The reason I was thinking about doing that was too keep the light head as small and simple as possible. I will only have one battery pack and will be incorperating a headsink for the driver.
Also if I run the light on my helmet, the battery pack can go on my shoulder strap, where the switch will be in easy reach.

 

[vkan]

...

not sure in what way You see a positive not to put the driver into the head.
...

For what it's worth, I've read that the Blackburn X3/X6 lights (and maybe the current X4/X8 lights w/ Li-ion batteries?) put the LED driver in the battery pack.

When I first read about that, I thought it was an interesting idea, with the heat from the driver keeping the NiMH batteries warmer, which might be good in winter riding, and keeps that extra heat away from the LED.

 

[piesoup]

For what it's worth, I've read that the Blackburn X3/X6 lights (and maybe the current X4/X8 lights w/ Li-ion batteries?) put the LED driver in the battery pack.

When I first read about that, I thought it was an interesting idea, with the heat from the driver keeping the NiMH batteries warmer, which might be good in winter riding, and keeps that extra heat away from the LED.

Spot on! :D