Multi-level driver for SSC P7 under $8 ?

[Megavvolt]

Thank you! I just wanted to make sure it's not a malfunction.

 

[TorchBoy]

I think it's normal, but I don't know what makes the noise. I put together a light last Thursday using one of these, and played with it in several caves over the weekend. In a quiet environment I could just hear it on low and clearly hear it on medium, but in the caves I didn't notice it much at all.

I have even heard it faintly from the higher quality boards like shiningbeams.

Don't they use the same components with similar soldering? How is the quality different?

 

[TorchBoy]

There is example diagrams for the 12F629 PIC examples, and this one for the Atmel example which is the one in this thread, See also here;

Any idea why there's no resistor in the middle of that board? What driver is it? A 2 mode?

 

[greencardigan]

Does anyone know what frequency the microprocessor on these boards use to pwm the 7135's Vdd pin?

Maybe someone with a scope could check it?

 

[TorchBoy]

Does anyone know what frequency the microprocessor on these boards use to pwm the 7135's Vdd pin?

Maybe someone with a scope could check it?

I used my multimeter on the 17 mode version and got 4.7 kHz. http://www.videofoundry.co.nz/ianman/laboratory/research/driverlist.php?price_min=3.6&price_max=3.6

 

[technology]

Hi, I'm newbie building additional light for my motorcycle with a single P7. This mod is really excellent to drive it to 2.8A.However, I'm having trouble with the driver's input Vf(~5v) since my automotive battery supplies 12.0Vf. I appreciate if you could advice me on how to supply just 4.5v-5v to the driver from 12v source by any others means instead of a resistor(i knew, It will be overkill to pass 12w of heat through a resistor).

Many Thanks.

 

[VidPro]

Hi, I'm newbie building additional light for my motorcycle with a single P7. This mod is really excellent to drive it to 2.8A.However, I'm having trouble with the driver's input Vf(~5v) since my automotive battery supplies 12.0Vf. I appreciate if you could advice me on how to supply just 4.5v-5v to the driver from 12v source by any others means instead of a resistor(i knew, It will be overkill to pass 12w of heat through a resistor).

Many Thanks.

your going to have to either regulate out a lot of voltage somehow, most of the cheap methods do so by burning it off in some sort of resistance. Like a 5v voltage regulator thing , just resistive.
somehow for stuff like that you really want to go DC-DC with the voltage and current being "converted" to the lower voltage instead of burnt-off. Especially when fitted into a Can, with the led in same can.

then you probably would prefer to switch to a WHOLE driver that does that voltage from the start, vrses trying to get this one to do what it really isnt designed to do, because you could end up with 2 regulation devices that could do harmonics and fight eachother, due to thier pulsing and sencing.

From Torchboys driver thread, there is http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1866
which at 12v input only sucks up 1 amp, which shows it at least tries to do a voltage conversion, but of course running ~3amps to led it still can heat up good.
there are many other bucking devices available some which do a good DC-DC but limited to 1Amp to led :-(

when you start with 12V (actually more like 12-14.5 or even up to 16v on some less regulated bikes) if you could pull off 2-3 series P7 , then it will be the same ammount of "AMPS" through many of the curcuit things. and the regulation from the higher voltage to the lower voltage isnt such a large differance.

also there is this http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=2545117#post2545117
driver which has a bit more juice in its parts , which might make the amp handling better.

When i put in a pair of only 50W lights and upped the amps on my headlight on my small street cruiser, hundreds of miles of road later, i wished there was a kick starter . because the stator (generator) didnt have enough output to keep all my additions going, and charge the battery too. So in vehicles we might assume that there is an unlimited gas generator in there , that provides unlimited power, then next week your trying to push start a 700LB bike. So i wouldnt advocate wasting 10-20-30Watts even if there seems to be 300Watts to use up.

if you could Team up the light set on a BAR, or have a driver pack in one location driving 2 cans with the leds in it, then you could potentially save money by having ONE of the good high amp buck drivers running 2xP7 Light cans. once you have the series going, then a hipcc or hipflex might also be usable http://www.taskled.com/techhipcc.html

 

[technology]

Thanks VidPro for the information.

Driving 3 P7s serially with these drivers are in my plans too but as of now I'm just thinking of 1x P7 which could effectively replace my 35W motorcycle headlamp(I would keep the original too in case of emergency :p) and at the same time I don't want to spend more on this setup.

I was just wondering If it possible to put two or three of these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26110 in parallel and then PWM with http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6190 after taking those AMCs off.

Further suggestions are welcomed.

Cheers!

 

[TorchBoy]

If you haven't already bought the Seoul P7, a Cree MC-E would be easier to use because you could drive the four dice in a 2S2P arrangement. That would give you a wider selection of drivers because you could drive each series pair with its own driver (at up to 700 mA).

 

[VidPro]

Thanks VidPro for the information.

Driving 3 P7s serially with these drivers are in my plans too but as of now I'm just thinking of 1x P7 which could effectively replace my 35W motorcycle headlamp(I would keep the original too in case of emergency :p) and at the same time I don't want to spend more on this setup.

I was just wondering If it possible to put two or three of these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26110 in parallel and then PWM with http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6190 after taking those AMCs off.

Further suggestions are welcomed.

Cheers!

sure if you want driver wars :-) what is wrong with paying a few bucks extra , vrses 3 of these things kludged together , trying to pull off the amps? i dont get it. you could try and do some additional parts added to attempt to get them to quit fighting eachother, and at least have exacting similar resistance to/from each.

yes any of the PWm board, can be used as a PWM controller thing, as long as the mosfet can handle the amps, and if it cant put a good mosfet on with some good heat syncing instead.

 

[TorchBoy]

I was just wondering If it possible to put two or three of these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26110 in parallel and then PWM with http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6190 after taking those AMCs off.

Those boards can sort of be run in parallel... but only because they can cope with twice the load anyway. If you have two in parallel, because the drivers aren't perfectly identical one ends up doing most of the work. They use a set resistor to set the current they regulate, and with two drivers in parallel you have two set resistors in parallel, which means half the set resistance, and twice the current they try to provide. It's better to just change the set resistor, add a heatsink if necessary, and check all the other components can cope. (The Schottky diode is an SS24, so 2 amps is fine for it.)

The PWM chip for the second board doesn't like more than 6 V.

 

[VidPro]

If you haven't already bought the Seoul P7, a Cree MC-E would be easier to use because you could drive the four dice in a 2S2P arrangement. That would give you a wider selection of drivers because you could drive each series pair with its own driver (at up to 700 mA).

Then in his idea of using many low amp drivers :duh2: , each driver item could be running one of the Emitters in a MCE package too.

best of both worlds, get series going for, high voltage low amp drivers with ability for multiples in series, and use them as seperate emitters for multiple drivers.
multiplicity.

Here is a weird one, after 50,000 shocks from riding on a motorcycle , how many of them boards do you think are going to still have all thier flow soldered parts on them :-)
less is better, and some "Potting" might be usefull too.

 

[TorchBoy]

Then in his idea of using many low amp drivers :duh2: , each driver item could be running one of the Emitters in a MCE package too.

That would be awesome for redundancy! :) I was actually thinking of just two drivers, though, each driving a couple of dice in series. Those $1.99 ones would do perfectly if they were tweaked down to 700 mA. (That's a 0.36 ohm set resistor, right?)

I haven't had a problem with buck boards coming unsoldered, but an old Kennan driver I used in a car did go dodgy. But I think that was because of heat, not spikes.

 

[kingkong]

hi,

I have some of these drivers.. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1885.
can i use 3 to drive the ssc P7 bin C or D? the driver is rated at 1050ma x 3 = 3150ma. it is safe?

kong.

 

[Lumencraft (Matt)]

hi,

I have some of these drivers.. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1885.
can i use 3 to drive the ssc P7 bin C or D? the driver is rated at 1050ma x 3 = 3150ma. it is safe?

kong.

Hi Kong,

The short answer is yes. However thermal transfer and heat sinking are extremely important in this situation. I have driven MCE/P7 type emitters harder than this but if you dont get the the thermal transfer to the heat sink right you will lose dies in the emitter.

I recomend using a THIN layer of Arctic Silver Epoxy to attach the emitter to the sink.

 

[freeloader700]

Hey okay so I have been reading through the different postings and I want to make sure my facts are straight.


My project: 2D mag P7 (or even XM-L)
Run 2 x 18650

I would like modes. 5 would be good. I am looking at this driver http://www.dealextreme.com/p/5-mode-...-emitters-6190 to control the modes

and then two of these http://www.dealextreme.com/p/amc7135...s-20-pack-3201 sandwiched together.

Now...is my input voltage too much for these drivers? (seeing as they are 3.7-4.2 Vin) I am guessing that because all three board are going to be in series that it can take essentially 11.1 -12.6 Vin. Is this correct?

I am also planning a direct drive 3D P7, will the 5- mode driver work with that without restricting the led's output?


Please educate me on what I am missing. I would really appreciate that.