rufusbduck
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2009
- Messages
- 81
I've looked around for a thread to attach this to but no luck(or skill?)
This driver attracted my attention since I was looking for a unit capable of driving 3 q5's for low$ but couldn't find anything cheaper. I use them to drive the leds in parallel which is supposed to be a problem but so far(over a year) hasn't been. The problem I have had is I like to use a remote switch (bike light on handlebars under stem is hard to reach) and the driver seemed to be sensitive to the length of wire between the switch and the driver. With the driver in the lamp head and the switch by my thumb the unit would switch back and forth from high to low as if it were sensing a low battery condition even with fresh cells.:thinking: I first tried placing the driver in its own pill halfway in between and this worked well but was not the elegant solution I had been hoping for. Epiphany came when I was testing out a new battery setup for a hipflex driver for another light. :candle: The Kd drivers are supposed to have an input range of 5.5 -15 v though they recommend no more than 12 v and I was using Vistalite nightstick 6 v batteries. In the new cell arrangement, I removed the 5 old sub-c cells and replaced them with 7 - 4/5 sub-c cells to up the stick voltage to 8.4 v nominal. Just for kicks I tried this stick with the driver in the lamp and the switch by my thumb and it worked great. Tried it again with a 6-cell arrangement and that worked too.
New setup, 2 nightstick batteries reloaded with 7 - 4/5 sub-c cells for 4Ah at 8.4 V on frame holder wired to switch by my thumb to light under stem(things attached above the bars suffer when I endo). Run time is hard to figure as I switch from low to high with terrain changes but the old 2 stick 6V arrangement kept me lit up on 4 hour rides and this should be better yet!:twothumbs
Lesson, these drivers work well but you have to do some testing or read someone else's to find the optimum arrangement for your light.
This driver attracted my attention since I was looking for a unit capable of driving 3 q5's for low$ but couldn't find anything cheaper. I use them to drive the leds in parallel which is supposed to be a problem but so far(over a year) hasn't been. The problem I have had is I like to use a remote switch (bike light on handlebars under stem is hard to reach) and the driver seemed to be sensitive to the length of wire between the switch and the driver. With the driver in the lamp head and the switch by my thumb the unit would switch back and forth from high to low as if it were sensing a low battery condition even with fresh cells.:thinking: I first tried placing the driver in its own pill halfway in between and this worked well but was not the elegant solution I had been hoping for. Epiphany came when I was testing out a new battery setup for a hipflex driver for another light. :candle: The Kd drivers are supposed to have an input range of 5.5 -15 v though they recommend no more than 12 v and I was using Vistalite nightstick 6 v batteries. In the new cell arrangement, I removed the 5 old sub-c cells and replaced them with 7 - 4/5 sub-c cells to up the stick voltage to 8.4 v nominal. Just for kicks I tried this stick with the driver in the lamp and the switch by my thumb and it worked great. Tried it again with a 6-cell arrangement and that worked too.
New setup, 2 nightstick batteries reloaded with 7 - 4/5 sub-c cells for 4Ah at 8.4 V on frame holder wired to switch by my thumb to light under stem(things attached above the bars suffer when I endo). Run time is hard to figure as I switch from low to high with terrain changes but the old 2 stick 6V arrangement kept me lit up on 4 hour rides and this should be better yet!:twothumbs
Lesson, these drivers work well but you have to do some testing or read someone else's to find the optimum arrangement for your light.
