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

Still waiting for parts and PCB’s to arrive.

I did some light load bench tests, before I fried my driver. The most I did was 8W for 15min in free air, with an XHP35.
No problem for the driver at all. The XHP35 was a few centimeters next to the driver, and was shining on it a bit (when I blocked the light shining on the driver with my hand, it got pretty warm). Even with that, the driver got just a bit warm. If I had to guess, it was around 40°C (with 24°C ambient).

The board that I used was the first revision and had bad thermal properties. The newer boards should do better.

I hadn’t seen it mentioned but would it be possible to use 1 or 2S input to output 12v in lights with extension tubes?

Yes it will be possible

Will this driver be able to be programmed to supply 12v 700ma and lower currents?

There are multiple ways of doing this (3 I can think of right now), so yes.

When the 17mm boost driver is ready, where can it be purchased with firmware already installed? (ready to use)

Noob type question I’m sure… I’ve not previously dealt with newly released BLF designed drivers.

I guess Lexel will build them so it would be like here.

OK thanks didn’t know he sells them directly.

Done:

Awesome, so this allows you to change firmware without removing or soldering anything right?

Yes, very easy to operate and reliable. Using this for a couple of weeks, no failure up to now. Soldering the pogo pins was a challenge though.

BLF Q8 2S/2P and 4S combinated driver 10 or 20A regulated output
XPL, XHP35, XHP50

MF01/MT03 20A regulated 4S Input 2S Output 10 or 20A

Is there a blf style buck driver (good, customizable UI ), that can do 2s input and have 8-11A output for 3v led?
The MTNmax buck stops at 5.5-6A.

With some of the newer leds they dont really stand out from the crowd till they hit 7+A.

I have such a driver in 30mm based on BLF GT design, the boards arrived yesterday

shrinking it to 22mm wont be possible with the limited choice of the MOSFET

I have a small problem reading this OpAmp datasheet here: https://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/MAX9617-MAX9620.pdf

To be precise it’s the “Output Voltage-Swing”.

There are multiple values given in the table with various resistor values, but when you scroll down to the graphs, there are two called:

  1. OUTPUT-VOLTAGE SWING HIGH vs. TEMPERATURE
  2. OUTPUT-VOLTAGE SWING LOW vs. TEMPERATURE

Now these values from the graphs are much lower than those from the table. For the “table values”, there is a resistor RL connected to the OpAmp, but I don’t know how it is connected.

Is RL connected between the output and VDD/2, to show how near the OpAmp can get to the rail with a load on it, and the graphs, when there’s no load?

I am far from an expert in data sheets but I have learned that the graphs generally do show better numbers then the official ratings. This is due to the built in error margin that the companies build in the way I understand it. Also most of the official ratings are max ratings, so what they guarantee the components will not go over.

Thus the real world specs can generally be a fair amount better in most cases and these are what you see in the graphs.

In “real” manufacturing they design off the max ratings and then just get a nice bonus if the parts preform better.

Also I noticed this at the top of the graphs page :

So looks like it has some resistance connected in the graphs as well.

But there is such a huge difference, 11-12mV compared to ~0.3mV

Yeah, I am not sure this is the case, just my best guess. I have seen pretty big differences before and the ratings are listed as max ratings. But that is a bit extreme I admit.

The new 17mm high-power boost driver will open up some interesting possibilities for triple lights. It will be possible to use high-Vf LEDs like the Cree XP-G2 and Osram Black Flat in a triple configuration with a high current through each LED.