SafetyBob
Enlightened
I have been fighting myself for the past couple of weeks trying to figure out if MicroPucks are worth using or not instead of those tiny boards that can be a pain to solder on. For the past 3 days I have had trials here at the house with 2,3, and 4 eneloops powering a Cree Q5 with different configurations of micropucks.
Every single time as I take current measurements off the battery holder I was either significantly over or under the rated setup I was testing. Mostly over....way over at times. Boost, buck, buck/boost, parallel....you name it and it just was not close (within 200mA or so) of what the spec sheet said I should have.
Today I went to Radio Shack and got some D battery holders, new alkalines and was going to use the actual setup I was looking at for a couple of D sized m@gs I have. Hooked up the 500mA 2009-SHO Micropuck and it was drawing around 700mA of power. Then it struck me, why am I measuring at the battery holder, I need to measure it at the emitter. That's what counts anyway (for the most part).
Now it's measuring 415mA and nothing is soldered, everything twisted together and using alligator clips to keep it from coming undone. And for the record the Micropuck is noticably warm but not hot. Looks like I have around 85mA worth of resistance or loss in the system.
Thought I would let those fellow noobs know what to look for. And at least as it sits right now, I know that 300mA or so is going somewhere in my setup. (conversion and resistance losses) I will be very interested to see how long the light shines. Guess I need a light meter now so I can get really exact......
Bob E.
Every single time as I take current measurements off the battery holder I was either significantly over or under the rated setup I was testing. Mostly over....way over at times. Boost, buck, buck/boost, parallel....you name it and it just was not close (within 200mA or so) of what the spec sheet said I should have.
Today I went to Radio Shack and got some D battery holders, new alkalines and was going to use the actual setup I was looking at for a couple of D sized m@gs I have. Hooked up the 500mA 2009-SHO Micropuck and it was drawing around 700mA of power. Then it struck me, why am I measuring at the battery holder, I need to measure it at the emitter. That's what counts anyway (for the most part).
Now it's measuring 415mA and nothing is soldered, everything twisted together and using alligator clips to keep it from coming undone. And for the record the Micropuck is noticably warm but not hot. Looks like I have around 85mA worth of resistance or loss in the system.
Thought I would let those fellow noobs know what to look for. And at least as it sits right now, I know that 300mA or so is going somewhere in my setup. (conversion and resistance losses) I will be very interested to see how long the light shines. Guess I need a light meter now so I can get really exact......
Bob E.
