Decent 1xAA 17mm driver board?

sparkysko

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Apr 2, 2007
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Having browsed most of the driver boards on DX, many boost drivers for 1xAA seem woefully underpowered.

Looking for a decent 17 mm board, preferably with really high current or good regulation. Single mode preferrable, but will entertain multimodes (hi/med/low) with strobe/sos least desirable.

Alot of the DX ones claim '1 amp!' but then people test them, and get like 100 or 200mA to the LED which is lame.
 

gunga

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The 7880 board at DX outputs about 7-800 mA. It's often used for ROmisen G2 mods.

You can set it to 1 mode by installing the negative led wire to the rim (this bypasses all modes).

ARe you lookikng for anything else?
 

sparkysko

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Unfortunately it's 15.8 mm :-(

The Ultrafire C3 stainless has a very tiny 'lip' so 17 mm is pretty important.

Wondering if there were other decent vendors besides kai and dx that sold drivers? I've also seen sandwhich shoppes drivers.
 

Hack On Wheels

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I have some, it's 17 mm. Send me your address and I'll send you one to play with.

:D

Can the board be safely filed down at all (say, down to about 16mm)? You've got me curious about this driver now, I had just skipped over it previously due to the 20-modes. Have you run it with all the modes or just as a single mode? It seems awfully complicated...
 

gunga

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Filing down to 16 mm may be possible, but the compnents are pretty close to the edge.

I wired the negative led wire to the ground ring = presto, 1 mode only.
 

AlexGT

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I doubt you accidentally change modes since they are located in the low mode for a brief period of time, I haven't changed modes unintentionally ever with it, I found that the brightest setting resides in the Low, flash, low, med, high mode.

AlexGT
 

kosPap

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indeed it buzzes like a beehive...

I ahve experience with the Dx flavor/version

has many modes in 3 groups....and it outputs 350 mA only
 

gunga

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:confused:

everything I have seen reports output of about 7-800 mA. My G2 is plenty bright to prove it.

I also blow through an eneloop in less than 45 minutes, it's pulling a lot of current.

Of course I only run it in the 1 mode, bypassing all the modes, does that make a difference?
 

kosPap

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:confused:

everything I have seen reports output of about 7-800 mA. My G2 is plenty bright to prove it.

I also blow through an eneloop in less than 45 minutes, it's pulling a lot of current.

Of course I only run it in the 1 mode, bypassing all the modes, does that make a difference?

duno know...I ahve 4 bought in 3 batches from Dx and they wre all mesured 350 mA
 

AlexGT

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Here are the modes explained, I have the DX board installed in a Romisen G2.

Board
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7880

Mode 1
Super low, find me flash(blink on high, 1 every 10 seconds), Low, medium, high.
To change mode you turn it off right after it blinks on super low

Mode 2
Low, medium, high, strobe, intermtent strobe, SOS.
To change mode you turn it off right after it blinks on high.

Mode 3
Low, medium, high, strobe, intermitent strobe, Slow strobe, SOS.
To change mode you turn it off right after it blinks on high.

The board has memory and remembers the last setting you used.

I have heard some buzzing on some of the modes but it is very low, I have to have the light almost touching my ear to hear it, 1 ft away from my ear and I cannot hear it anymore. YMMV

I find that mode 1 is the brightest, I have no equipment to test but I can assure you it is very bright, I would say that it is more than 350ma to the led. IMHO.

Here is a pic of a Jet II Pro IBS Cree Q5 at half brightness on the left, and a Romisen G2 with XR-G R4 using this board on the right at full brightness in mode 1, you decide if its bright or not.

1003713.jpg



HTH
AlexGT
 
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