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

With the current MLCC shortage, I can’t get the capacitors that I want for the boost driver, they’re all sold out. I will order from mouser soon though, and get the best capacitors they currently have.

I think a user (Jensen) here managed to get either the H1-A or H2-C driver from into an s2+ by somehow mounting it behind/under the pill and, perhaps, grinding down the PCB to get it to fit.

H1-A is, I think, 20mm and boosts to 6v. H2-C is 22mm and boosts to 12v. I think, but I’m not sure, that the H1-A can be modded to higher compliance voltages.

I think I remember something like that, but all I could come up with a quick search was him building an S2+ into a MT-G2 with a H1-A. But yeah, he mounted the driver behind the pill instead of in it:

“BOOSTING” this thread to the top again in hopes of some life.

Remember that time we had 3-4 different people concurrently working on boost drivers then nothing panned out from any of them?

Good times :sunglasses:

LOL, both of the boost drivers are still in the works, just on hold at the moment. Schoki is waiting for some components to get in stock at Muser last I heard and LoneOceans just got busy with life but still plans to do more work on it when he gets more time.

I still have a box for of components for prototyping whenever another prototype design is ready.

I think Lexel and Richard (MtnE) also had something in the works. Ah well whats another 6 months at this point

Lexel was using Schoki’s design.

Interesting, I was not aware Richard was working on another boost driver.

See below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcggNd2Dbm0/?hl=en

Very interesting, looks to be based on the same basic setup as the other drivers but impossible to say without seeing the other side.

I am guessing he ran into similar issues to the rest of us or it would be released already. It is proving very hard to get a stable driver in this form factor that can provide enough power for us.

Even 20W 17mm boost driver would be great for us, so we can finally get our Convoy Nichia 144AM S2 ready.

Honestly im just as interested in 20-22mm as 17mm and everyone seems to be going to larger drivers in lights that can take the heat anyways

20mm would be much easier to do, as there already exists a good 20mm driver from Kaidomain.

+1.

I need a driver for my 30+ v Soraa 95cri emitters.

30+V. Damn.

Alphanumeric display displays menus, remaining battery voltage, LED drive current, CCA temperature, operational mode. The ability to define the number of presets and the intensity of each preset. A small uP could do this with ease, along with driving the power MOSFETS and other housekeeping chores… Instead of a timed interval for high power operation, have the processor look at heatsink temperature to keep the emitter and drive circuitry safe.

How about the display backlight changing colors to indicate remaining battery voltage?

Wi-fi and an app. Configure your light over wi-fi, using your phone or PC. Even easier, use a micro-USB cable.

Painlessly flash in new firmware

The possibilities are endless.

Cheers

(My emphasis above)

I’m just curious, what is it that makes this type of small boost driver so difficult to produce? I’ve tried to read through this thread, and I think I understand that high current inductors are large and inefficient and get hot. But what is so special about the approaches Zebralight and Nightcore take to solve this problem, for example, with their xhp35 lights running on a single 18650.

Please understand, I’m not being critical at all; I’m in awe of the electronic wizards here on BLF. But I’m genuinely curious. Look at these images of a Zebralight SC600 mk 3. What is the magic here, and why have other companies and individuals been unable to do this?

I stole these images from a cpf thread, thanks Tachead:

Basically it is an unfair comparison. The highest power production single cell XHP35 boost driver I have heard of to date is around 1.5A.

The drivers we are working on are designed to deliver 2-3x that power

A 1.5A boost driver is fairly simple. That is only about 6A input. We are doing closer to 20A input.

Far as what makes it difficult, when you get to these power levels EVERYTHING matters, particularly in such a small space. Electromagnetic fields are created everywhere and play havoc with the circuit.

Plus finding components that can handle the power and fit on a 17mm driver is very hard.

For example the last design works fine if we stick a big capacitor on it but then it won’t fit in a flashlight.

Factor in that each prototype costs around $20 and it adds up quick.

Everything is correct what Texas_Ace said. Developing something with this kind of power density makes it hard. The main problem always was the voltage sag on the input, or not enough output capacitance, both problems can be solved with more capacitance. The problem then is that I don’t have the right capacitors here that could be soldered on the board, and still fit in a flashlight. The 50€ minimum order for free shipping (otherwise I pay 20€ shipping) on Mouser makes it even worse.

Getting input and output capacitors that meet the requirements and that are small enough for the 17mm, isn’t easy. Especially with the high-value ceramic capacitor shortage right now. Basically every capacitor with high capacitance isn’t available. And it seems, that won’t change in the near future.

But of course, the main problem is cost, and time. I paid a lot of money for parts, and invested a lot of time as well. That’s why I changed my approach for this project. Rather than making a lot of prototypes and testing, I now invested just time and no money for a few months. The last months I didn’t have a lot of time for the project, but I finally have a (from my point of view) really good board in EAGLE, and found the necessary parts on Mouser. For me, it’s not budget lightforum anymore, it’s rather candlepowerforum level, and I hope I need just one more prototype. Please understand that this project is pretty expensive, but it will get finished.

I do think that a lower power boost 17/20mm boost driver with NarsilM would be very welcome already.