LED drivers and Accessories you want, but don’t exist

The Luminus LEDs which I mentioned are rated for a max of 28A. They will probably be able to take a bit more. So 30A is the absolute minimum here to make a driver interesting in this case!
The new Luminus CFT-90 is the one that is really interesting. It is much more efficient compared to older models. It is as bright as an XHP-70, but it’s factory de-domed and the DIE is only 9mm^2, the XHP-70(.2) should be around 14mm^2 when de-domed and 28mm^2 with dome). It also probably doesn’t have the 3D-Die of the Cree LEDs and will probably have a very high luminance (so very high throw with very high lumens). There is nothing on the market that matches it.

Please tell me more about your 30A project. You can PM me if you like.

5s buck driver. I have some black+decker 5s2p 4ah packs I would like to use to drive 12v leds, but can’t find a suitable driver that will accept 20+ volt input. :frowning:

Easy! The German company pcb components offers this. There are different variants. Two for up to 3A LED current:

https://pcb-components.de/led-abwaertswandler-buck-step-down/micro-2800ma-5v-28v-detail.html

https://pcb-components.de/led-abwaertswandler-buck-step-down/black-power-v3-2800ma-3000ma-5-5v-50v-detail.html

and one for up to 11.5A:

https://pcb-components.de/led-abwaertswandler-buck-step-down/ampere-5000ma-oder-9000ma-7v-25v-detail.html

The US company TaskLED also has some: http://www.taskled.com/

quite pricy LED, but like 6000 OTF lumens from 9mm² might be possible, which would even beat a very hard driven XHP35

Interesting, never heard of the Luminus CFT-90. The last gen models were so inefficient I wrote them off. This latest version is still inefficient but it is not that far off of what we drive other LED’s to here.

Still going to be a tough job to make a buck driver for that, it will need to be quite large to fit the components needed, even a 46mm driver could not be big enough for everything depending on what components are used.

The project is kinda floating right now, not gonna say too much till I know if it is going forward or being dropped.

Basically it is a 6s6p input that needs to provide 18V at ~30A output to some LED’s.

Some math can give you an idea of what the results might be.

This maybe?
http://www.international.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=67_115&product_id=846
2-4S input.

Luminus LED are 3-4v and use 30A+ current.
Take a look at some of the datasheets, it’s insane.
As with most LEDs you can drive them at even higher currents for more output as long as you give them enough cooling.

Let’s assume one wants to drive it at max allowed Tj (150C)
They rate Vf vs temp up to 120 degrees, let’s use that.
27A (this is the max, not 28) * 3.52 V = 95W.
Thermal resistance between PCB and junction is 0.45 C/W.
Let’s assume 30 degrees max ambient temperature. You need your host to have under 0.8 C/W. So even stock output will not be thermally sustainable in a passively cooled flashlight. Which is not always a problem. :wink:

The LED has a build in thermal resistor, so you can ramp down when it gets too hot
you can do it smart so that the ramp down also calculates the thermal difference to Tj which gets lower with less current

there are no thermally sustainable flashlights in that power range so far, the X9 might get 100W thermally stable

Not with that U.I.
I want all the nice features some of the BLF drivers have ;).

Regarding CFT-90:
When you a driving an LED with 95W you can add a fan. It makes no difference in the runtime in practical terms. The light needs to be big anyhow. You need lots of batteries, a big heatsink, large driver, large reflector or optic (only a thrower makes sense).

Boost driver for xhp and mt-g emitters with firmware adjustment of current limit and pwm for fan speed control so the higher the output the faster the fan spins. Sized for 3p or 4p 18650 or 26650.

I would be fine with a single mode UI for my flashlights tbh… :stuck_out_tongue:

To me 3 modes 10% - 30% - 100% is enough for lights up to 10 Watts.
for more powerful lights an extra ‘lower low’ is a must too.

I maybe look into building a buck-boost driver with the TPS63027, so 2A max output.
Another topic: looking at multiple posts about fans for cooling, I can’t quite get it. Where should the fan get air from to cool the components?

Air could be ducted from outside the light and blown across the fins of a heatsink allowing the emitter to be cooled in a manner similar to a computer cpu or gpu.

[quote=The_Driver]

Thanks for the info & links. I was hoping for something a little less expensive than $30 each, though.

Mine gets it from the back and exhausts heat near the head of the flashlight:

+1

I probably don’t know what I’m talking about but here goes

9v MT-G2 to 3S

we all hate pwm and we all want the efficiency I love ramping but it seem like the D4 is (dear I say it) too much of a hot rod for getting more lumens for longer time. (yup most lumens its great) but I keep waiting (and I think some lights can do it now) but 3k-4k continuous in a nice tint. Yes I know that the heat dissipation of the material is/can be a bottleneck even in lights larger then the D4.

Love the BIG floody MT-G2 when can we make them in triples?

XHP to me has too many artifact issues and unpleasant tint (never heard of a 4C tint in an XHP 35, 50, 70)

Again not up on the latest but what about progress for us guys who want say the smallest light possible that will run three MT-G2 at 3000 lumens continuously with out getting too warm. don’t care if turbo is 5k or 6k or ?k the peak numbers are almost a game because they don’t address what it take to keep belting out big lumens.

Love the D4, but its a case in point, it can run over 4k lumens but struggles to constantly run over 400-600 depending on emitter. again not an expert and not up on the “latest” but it seems like something is missing in the “improvement” trend over time of technology.

And yes I am thinking every day use (not necessarily carry but at least use) the BIG MONSTERS just don’t seem to get actually used.

I know its a jumble and thanks for listening

P.S.

There also a 36v MT-G2 that we never get to use.

6v
9v
36v

If we were starting from scratch with would be the smartest voltage to run?

Should we be specifying drivers in watts?

I so badly want a 2S current controlled buck driver that will output 5 to 6 amps at 6 volts! And then, a single cell boost driver for use with good 18650’s or 26650’s that will run the XHP50.2 as it should be.

2S to 6V would not be a buck driver… that would just be simply a 7135/linear driver.