[in Design process] Astrolux FT 03 CC FET white flat driver

Definitely interested. I have 3 of these light and would love to mod one for a little more throw just to show off to my friends.

Interested!

Lexel,
Where does one go to purchase drivers for other items that you have built?

Will this include the usb charging ?

Actual ready to sell items are in the different sales topics

if you found a fitting board just PM me

its designed to fit the original charging board
still transplanting it is not so easy those brass rods are a beast if you try just with an iron
I found out iron plus Hot air workst best

the first prototype will get on my next board order within the next days
it will be usual 1 Oz copper to do first function tests and see if it fits the light flawless as I made manual measurements of the original driver

this will take about 3-4 weeks from China

also if thats done the final production board in 2 Oz will take also some time

Hey Lexel,

I thought that you could already swap the white flats into the FT03 without any other mods.

I’m planning this mod for my DOA FT03 host I have kicking around. Can you help me understand what the need/benefit is of this?

I’ve never built a driver and I’m wondering if I would be able to simply salvage all the parts off the FT03 SST-40 driver and re-install them on this one?

IIRC white flats start going “pop” at 5A and above; the stock FT03 driver hits ~9A on turbo (FET and all that).

that would do it alright if that’s the case.

lol ok I want one. but how do I build an all new driver :person_facepalming:

No idea, I’m just going to wait until it’s complete :wink: I still need to chip in to his gofundme.

why there is LDO?, isn’t this is 1 cell flashlight?, you could use 2*26350, but it makes no sense to me

and btw, how can you controll current with MCU.

why are people always thinking too much?
a LDO is just a thing that puts out a constant voltage it is not a magical 2S or 4S conversion part
on 2S/4S builds the cell voltage would be above 6V absolute maximum voltage rating of an Attiny MCU, so you need to bring the voltage down (z-diode or LDO)

.
totally different story here it remains 1S—>3V driver(could be as well used for 2S—>6V LED)
the LDO is there because it is needed on a CC build
reason:
Attiny MCU puts out a PWM signal, the operation amp needs a DC level
so this PWM signal gets filtered to a DC signal using a low pass
if the MCU voltage is not stabilized then the CC set voltage would vary depending on battery charge(like 2.5A with emtpy battery and 4A with full)

who says you have to build it?
I am developing and building it
when its ready it will be sold

so far I am close to order the prototype of it as design looks good
function got tested on 22mm prototype so it should work

You mean the 2mm WF?
Does it hit ~9A on a low drain (10A rated) 21700?
A local modder here offers FT03’s with the 2mm white flat so I assumed it’s safe for the 2mm.

It is not that simple. A fet driver max output current depends on led forward voltage a lot. An XP-L HI draws like 5A but a 3V XHP50.2 can draw 14A from the same driver. in my L6 a White flat 2mm hit 10A with Liitokala 26650.

Ah, I meant the 1mm on the 5A. Pretty sure people have had 2mm at 10A no probs (as per ZozzV6’s comment).

I needed to lower the turbo because 2mm white flat turned blue at full power.

On those currents you already are beyond max lumens and output is dropping, not healthy for the LED

It is better to stay a bit below max test bench output current and have regulation on a high drain battery not only when it is full

DD is no real option for those ultra low forward voltage emitters

Definitely agree - finding the best regulated output (4.5A?) as a maximum is a good idea. I figure you know what you’re doing, so I’ll just wait patiently :slight_smile:

My tries of white flat 1mm version showed that 4,5A is good for this emitter. Worth the bump from 4A but over that nothing significant output increase happening. Just more heat and turning angry blue over 5A