Wiring P7??

atvman29

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
18
We FINALLY got our P7s after two months of waiting from DX and now we just want to confirm the wiring.

We're hoping to run three of these so we can run it from a 12V ATV system. What is the proper way to hook these up to the P7 and be powered by a 12V battery?

Thanks!
 

atvman29

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
18
Do we do the drivers in parallel on the hot wire going to the LED, are they in series on the hot wire, or do we do them in parallel with the LED?
 

yellow

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 31, 2002
Messages
4,634
Location
Baden.at
(the DX site is somehow down/bad atm)
seems that is a driver for driving single die led.
So You might use three of these drivers in parallel for ONE P7 to drive it a max,

dunno (and dont dare to advise) if that could power three P7 that are wired in series
(but imho not: it might not work with series connected led, and if it does, the voltage drop from 12 V system is not enough)
 

atvman29

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
18
(the DX site is somehow down/bad atm)
seems that is a driver for driving single die led.
So You might use three of these drivers in parallel for ONE P7 to drive it a max,

dunno (and dont dare to advise) if that could power three P7 that are wired in series
(but imho not: it might not work with series connected led, and if it does, the voltage drop from 12 V system is not enough)

I'm only looking to power 1 P7, so do I put the 3 driver that are in parallel in series with the LED, or in parallel with the LED so all 4 components are in parallel? Are you following me?
 

atvman29

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
18
Here's an illustration, is it A, B, or neither? My guess is B because with A, the LED would have 12V across its terminals, but I want to make sure so I don't ruin the $15 LED!

P7Wiring.jpg
 
Last edited:

Fulgeo

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 7, 2008
Messages
467
Location
Michigan USA
Here's an illustration, is it A, B, or neither? My guess is B because with A, the LED would have 12V across its terminals, but I want to make sure so I don't ruin the $15 LED!

P7Wiring.jpg

I would shout "Use Illustration B"! Illustration "A" will either fry your P7 or drivers or both. I have no practical experience with this circuit board but I would say the following. It is going to be generating some heat if you drive it with 12 volts. I would also think at 12 volts it will not be very efficient. After looking at a picture of the circuit board I see it has what looks like a Schottky diode which leads me to believe you do not have to worry about any reverse feed issues from the illustration "B" set up. Go B!
 

atvman29

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
18
Alright, I tried setup B and its massively under-driving the LED @ 12V. What would happen if we tried wiring everything in series? Do you suppose we could make that work?
 

Al Combs

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
872
I think neither diagram A or B are correct. The black and the red wires in the picture of your DX driver link both go to the LED. The three black wires from your three drivers get twisted together and go to the cathode of 1 LED. That's the pair of legs on the side of the LED with a hole in one of them. The three red leads get twisted together and go to the other side of the LED. The battery gets hooked up on the other side of the driver boards. The smaller gold disk in the center is battery positive. The outer gold ring is battery negative. Just solder a pair of wires onto them. So each driver has four wires, not two.

Like yellow said, I have no idea if this is actually going to work. There are a couple of threads on DX's forum about this question regarding your driver. No definitive answer though. There were a few posts mentioning that by the time you have enough voltage to drive a single LED to full power, the driver generates quite a bit of heat. Ecotack in your original thread said he had some of this particular DX driver on order at the time of his post. Maybe you could PM him and ask if he ever paralleled them and what results he had.

Speaking of that post, I can't believe with all the mention of MaxFlex, that nobody mentioned the real P7 drivers TaskLED sells. The hipFlex is an awesome driver. There is a graph towards the bottom of that link showing 3 P7's running on just one driver @ 93% efficiency. You might also want to look at the hipCC, the Shark Buck and Der Wichtel's new driver. Any of these drivers will handle 3 P7's instead of the 9 DX drivers it will take. That's assuming of course it actually works.

Good Luck :wave:
 
Last edited:

atvman29

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
18
I think neither diagram A or B are correct. The black and the red wires in the picture of your DX driver link both go to the LED. The three black wires from your three drivers get twisted together and go to the cathode of 1 LED. That's the pair of legs on the side of the LED with a hole in one of them. The three red leads get twisted together and go to the other side of the LED. The battery gets hooked up on the other side of the driver boards. The smaller gold disk in the center is battery positive. The outer gold ring is battery negative. Just solder a pair of wires onto them. So each driver has four wires, not two.

Like yellow said, I have no idea if this is actually going to work. There are a couple of threads on DX's forum about this question regarding your driver. No definitive answer though. There were a few posts mentioning that by the time you have enough voltage to drive a single LED to full power, the driver generates quite a bit of heat. Ecotack in your original thread said he had some of this particular DX driver on order at the time of his post. Maybe you could PM him and ask if he ever paralleled them and what results he had.

Speaking of that post, I can't believe with all the mention of MaxFlex, that nobody mentioned the real P7 drivers TaskLED sells. The hipFlex is an awesome driver. There is a graph towards the bottom of that link showing 3 P7's running on just one driver @ 93% efficiency. You might also want to look at the hipCC, the Shark Buck and Der Wichtel's new driver. Any of these drivers will handle 3 P7's instead of the 9 DX drivers it will take. That's assuming of course it actually works.

Good Luck :wave:

Wow, I was way off! Thanks for this! I'm looking forward to giving it a shot tomorrow and I'll let everyone know how it works.

Of those drivers you posted, would any of them work with a 12V ATV system, or just handheld class batteries?
 

Al Combs

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
872
All of the drivers I mentioned can handle at least 20 volts. I gather an ATV's charging system is like a car. A max of 13.5-14 volts while charging, yes? Should be no problem for any of them.
 

Aircraft800

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
1,487
Location
DFW Texas.
You are Far Better Off using a quality buck driver designed for your purpose such as the hipCC Buck LED driver

It is single sided with mounting holes, you can screw it down to any metal surface to heatsink it, and can run 5 P7 LED's if you want. No stupid modes or flashing, just pure power. IF you need modes, look at George's other buck drivers.

Save yourself a headache and aggravation and spend the $24
 
Top