Technical driver question?

Hi,

Could someone tell me what the purpose of a set of copper windings on a driver board is for? I usually see them around what looks like a ceramic spool.

Here is an example of a board with it.
http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=6386

Thanks

That's an inductor. Its purpose is to store energy, kinda like a flywheel. Wikipedia will probably do a better job of explaining how they're used in drivers than I can.

If you search for "buck converter" and look at the wikipedia article about it, you can read about the role of the inductor in the buck circuit...which is what it is doing in that board you linked to.

Thanks guys, those articles definitely helped ( I didn't even know what that component was called to do a search).

In the first article I read in one place that the type material the coils are wrapped around will effect the EMF. So here is my next question.

The problem I am having is that the ceramic post on that driver is too tall to fit where it needs to go. Does anyone care to wager a guess what would happen if I took the ceramic part out and just wound the coils basically like they are and then potted the driver?

The material you are talking about is the ferrite that forms a CRITICAL part of the magnetic design of the inductor. Remove that material and you will have air air coil, which would be great for RF use, not so good (really BAD) for a LED driver.... Even cracking the ferrite material can render an inductor useless for its intended purpose.

cheers,
george.