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.
right now, a driver that can drive the 6 and 12v xhp70s to 6000 lumens so i can put 3 of them into my chunky monkey. that should be about 8-10A an LED…
Noticed most of the wishlist are for the XHP variants.
The dream driver is for the battery omnivore for say the XM, XP leds as below…
- Constant Current (or extremely high PWM if not possible)
- Voltage input: 0.8V ~ 6.0V (AA/18650/2xCR123a)
- Max Amp: 3A at least (with DD option would be nice)
- Modes: Programmable with selections as currently available (from Moonlight to Max)
- Diameter: Small enough to fit an E-series LE
But if the above can cater for the 6V LEDs as well (highly unlikely) then all the more the better!
Why the 1617? I don’t get it. The 1616 is much more attractive with it’s smaller size. How many pins do you need?
And why sit around and wait? Start with the 1634, and when the 1616 is widely available, port the firmware and make a new driver version.
I had not heard of the 1616. The 1617 offered several features that were important for next gen drivers such as 3 voltage references, 16kb rom ect.
Personally I don’t see much use for the voltage references that the 1616 and 1617 offer. You still need voltage dividers to utilize them to measure the full range of voltage levels a cell can have. To use the 4.3V internal reference, VCC has to be at least 4.3V anyway.
The size of the 1616 interests me though, but other than that it won’t do much more for me than the easily available and widely supported 1634.
Maybe, I did not say that correctly. I would like to deliver 6 volts to the led, not something around 8 volts falling off to 6.something volts. And I would like to do it at a constant current as long as possible. The big thing for me would be regulation and not direct drive. Gives battery life stability if all of the modes are regulated. Currently I am using 2S FETs and a very old constant current from the BTU Super Shocker (I think) but it only delivers around 3 amps to an XHP50.2.
My understanding is that if it regulates current and voltage, from a voltage source above the rated LED voltage that it would be a buck driver? Correct me if that is wrong, have been building 1S lights for a good while, but 2S+ are more recent builds for me.
Both of you are right, although a linear driver for 2S voltages would be very inefficient and would be at risk of overheating.
Depending on the size of the driver there are already buck drivers for the xhp70 that do what you want. The FX30 in the convoy L6 does 5A from the factory, same for the driver in the S70 but those are both 30mm drivers.
I am looking for something in the 17 to 19mm range for my convoy M1 (MT-G2) and Nightfighter (XHP50.2) that will deliver more with out getting stupid with a full on FET.
The mtnbuck is about the closest thing I know of, not sure what it was capable of with 2S voltage but it was round 5A IIRC.
6V LEDs use closer to 7 or 8v especially when driven at higher currents, so you won’t get stable output for very long using a 2S battery unless you had a special buck+boost driver that will keep a constant current even when the battery voltage drops below the LED voltage.
A buck driver would be something like 3S or 4S to 6v LED, 2S+ to 3v LED, or 4S+ to 12v LED.
Thanks for the info, makes sense. So, I am really wanting a good low loss buck/boost. Makes sense.
Right now i would like to have boost driver with 2S input and output of about 100-150W and output voltage for 6 x XM-L2 in series, or maybe 12 in series. I have that 12xXM-L monster but can’t find good driver for that. Leds are now 3S2P x 2 and 2S input with FET just won’t work. 
Any ideas? 
Well, it certainly needs to be rather large for this much current.
This one is already very powerful, but only does 48W input at 6V input voltage:
https://pcb-components.de/led-aufwaertswandler-boost-step-up/led-senser-xtreme-200-2050ma-6v-30v-detail.html
Do you need a real flashlight driver or any driver? Maybe there is one on Ebay.
A good 1S driver to drive a 6 Volts LED would certainly sell.
Nearly ordered a H1-A from Kaidomain, but it has PWM at a clearly audible 3.6 kHz.
I don’t want PWM at all actually…
Flashlight driver yes, it is same than here:
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/21505/37
Driver diameter is 26mm but i can use original as contact plate for smaller driver if needed.
And that over 100W would be only “turbo mode”, this really won’t last long for such high power. 
one cell boost driver for xhp35 that gets at least 2.5 amps.
I now made a PCB for a 1S 2A max buck-boost converter, but somebody needs to write some code for it. It works pretty similar to loneocean’s gxb20: Oshpark Link
would take one for my UV light, a high, medium, low without memory
with tailswitch would be enough