Litemania "Wonder-cuits" - anyone try these?

I was wondering if anyone had experience using the wonder-cuits from Litemania. It's small 17mm diameter and ability to drive an MC-E at fixed currents would work nicely in a RC-C3 MC-E mod I am working on.

Hill

I can just picture them using the motto "The driver for your Valentine" to sell them.

hi, it is "only" a pwm controller with current limiting. so you will get no constant current about the complete batterylife. it is like a direct drive.

markus

That explains why it's so inexpensive. I am really looking for a board that is small (~16 mm dia) and provides constant current of ~1500 mA.

Try the KD ProductID=1640, SKU S002982 driver. You will have to change out the sense resistors to go from 1A out to 1.5A out. I have one with sense resistors R250 and R560 to give a nominal 1445mA out. The driver works well running a 2S2P MC-E using 2x18650. Mine runs in regulation when Vin > 7V. Above 12V, there seems to be some odd instability, so I would run the driver with 2xLi-ion up to 4xLi primaries. Maybe 3xLi-ion, depending on the amount of voltage sag.

Justin Case said:

Try the KD ProductID=1640, SKU S002982 driver.

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The Kennan 3 is 17 mm diameter. There's a picture of it (slightly modified) in this post. Your call on whether you could trim it (if needed).

Here is a much better picture:

Thanks for the suggestions. I've read so many mixed reviews about DX/KD boards that I'm not sure I want to take the risk. Problem is, there is not much available in the small diameter size I need. The Shark buck 2A/3A would be nice, but I don't think it will fit, and trimming may not be possible.

I'll keep looking.
Hill

The Sharks are 19mm diameter. I think you'd be hard-pressed to file it down to ~16mm or even 17mm. Which diameter do you need? You first mentioned 17mm in Post #1, then "~16mm" in Post #4.

I've had excellent results with the mod'ed KD driver I mentioned earlier, as long as I keep Vin < 12V.

What does your RC-C3 mod involve? Can you use a 4xAMC7135 driver and 1x16340, giving you 1400mA?

I've got a custom heat sink made from soldering pennies together, then filed on the edges for a snug fit into the RC-C3 body (pill was removed by unscrewing). The diameter is slightly larger than a 16340 cell, so it is probably not much bigger than 17mm. In terms of height, I have not yet decided to go with the stock reflector with the hole enlarged, or a aspheric lens pirated from another light. If I go with the aspheric, I should have ~10mm of head space for the driver. Using the stock Al reflector, I won't really have any room at all and will be going DD.

I might first try the DD approach, then depending on the result, do the driver mod that you described.

thanks for the help!
Hill

A two board AMC sandwich driver is about 5.7mm thick from bottom face of board to top of AMC chip. So you could make a 5xAMC7135 sandwich to get nominally 1750mA if a single board, 1400mA driver isn't enough. The AMC boards are definitely sandable to less than 17mm diameter.

justin, instead of piggybacking amc boards, is it possible to just piggyback the chips? Thanks

Sure.

Hill said:

I've read so many mixed reviews about DX/KD boards that I'm not sure I want to take the risk.

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The Kennan board is fine, unfortunately KD's web site is crap.