lume1 for FW3A/C/T - Constant Current Buck Boost + FET Driver with Anduril - Now for Sale!

This. Anyone going for a premium upgrade component like this will want premium components on it and is willing to spend a few extra $ to make that happen.

That’s great to hear that your design’s going into mass production. Be proud of it!

Can’t wait till I can get my hands on one.

I am going to get a few of these drivers with RGB boards to replace in all my FW3A lights, ONLY if they are produced with the matterials proposed by the designer. No cut corners for me please.

I have little faith that Neal and Lumintop won’t value engineer this into a lower-quality product eventually. I guess I’d best get mine early.

But to echo what’s been said, I’m content with a higher price if it means the components will be high-quality and consistent over time. I’d have been happy to pay more for my FW3A if it was better-made as well, and kind of wish the project hadn’t been trying for a $30 price point.

If anybody involved in the business side of things is reading this thread, know that the availability of this driver will cause me to buy an FW1A, and possibly more FW series lights.

In for 1

Edit: just noticed the update :person_facepalming:

Looking forward to when theyre available :smiley:

How much cost could we possibly be talking about? Decent FETs are around $1 in low quantities. In bulk, there can’t be more than pennies to save there.

I know integrated boost modules are more complex, and this will be one of the critical components of this driver, but even the big one I see in the GXB172 parts list is $2 in moderate quantities.

I doubt there’s a single person interested in this driver, much less a premium light like an FW3exotic, who wants the efficiency of a boost-buck driver over a linear driver, but would trade 5 percentage points of efficiency for $1-2 in cost savings.

Basically, this driver should be popular if it is well made, but if it doesn’t have the same performance as the prototype because the manufacturer tried to save a buck by substituting parts, it will ruin the business case.

Pretty sure I read in one of Lexel’s thread the FET was changed in the FW3A after only the first batch or two. People can change components for reasons other than cost as well. I agree with zak’s sentiment. Assuming they even get the first version right it’s probably going to be the most authentic one.

Good point. I would probably really like this driver with a single emitter… Especially something with low Vf. Where’d I put those Luxeon Vs…

Boost for nothing… driver is for 3v LED

My recollection is a good buck-boost driver is still more efficient than a linear driver for intermediate and low modes. Turbo should have the same efficiency.

A boost driver to enable use of higher voltage emitters in the FW3A would be pointless. 20mm direct copper triple stars for larger than XP footprint don’t exist. And even if they did, 20mm optics for larger emitters also don’t exist. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to get a custom star made, but making a custom optic is a whole other deal.

Exactly, boost when the Vin is 4.2V and LED is 2.8Vf or 3Vf.

The driver still has high resistance in direct drive, right?

You have a point, but it basically already exists (4x XHP35):

9V triple is more interesting to me but no one else seems to want it (besides LUX-RC drivers) and boards would have to be remade or old Noctigons brought back from the dead

I think the point being raised is not about the efficiency, but about regulation.

In basic theory, a good buck driver can maintain regulation until the battery voltage drops to the forward voltage. In practice, I’m not sure it tends to work out quite as expected. Also, while a forward voltage around 2.9V may be common at an LED’s standard rated current, at 3A, the forward voltage rises to typically 3.2 to 3.4V depending on the LED (the 219C is known for having a low forward voltage. The XP-L HI tends a little higher). So even with a perfectly performing buck driver, you could fall out of regulation with 1/3 of the battery charge left.

As far as efficiency, a lot of current generation LED’s have a forward voltage around 2.9V at rated current. For a battery that averages 3.7V throughout the discharge, that should yield 78% driver efficiency. Loneoceans report 93% efficiency from his driver. Of course, linear drive efficiency improves at higher currents due to the higher forward voltage, but LED efficiency decreases, so there is a net decrease in overall efficiency.buck-boost driver over a 95% efficient buck driver, and definitely over a 78% efficient linear driver.

That said, as I understand it, boost-buck circuits tend to make a small efficiency compromise compared to buck-only circuits.

And i’m reading only bla bla bla

The best BLF driver version is comin’ and i’m sure as hell buying many for other hosts i have

Hello,

the moon mode is important to me and is used often.

The moon mode at the driver is higher than the output of the stock driver. But you wrote, it is possible to reduce this even further. Do you mean by software (me) or hardware (you)?

Thank you.

I second the request for the lowest possible moon mode, one way or another.

Thirded.

I will buy at least 10 straight up

Thanks everyone for the great feedback so far, and thanks everyone for your patience.

Just a quick update - the first batch of Lume1-FW3X drivers have been produced. I am arranging to getting some shipped to me so I can validate the build.

More to come soon!

In addition, a lot of people have asked about Aux boards. Neal has produced some RGB AUX boards.

https://imgur.com/po5GYL3
Here's a very quick image of what Neal sent over. Tweaking of resistor values in progress for LED brightness. I do not know what his plans are for AUX boards but I see no reason why they cannot be offered for sale as well. Please excuse the odd effects from video to gif conversion.

It depends. The driver is running in Buck mode for most of the battery discharge curve. In fact, it is possible (though unrealistic) to have scenarios whereby the driver never runs into boost mode, for example if extremely low V_fwd LEDs are used (e.g. 2.8V), and when the cut-off voltage is set to be say around 2.9V. However, in the real world, nearer the lower end of the battery discharge curve, boost mode is typically very helpful. In your regular AMC7135 drivers, you'll notice that the LED output starts to drop significantly at the lower end of the curve especially due to the drop-out voltage of those regulators.

For example, at say a 2A drive, your LED may have a V_fwd of about 3.2V. With DCR losses in the wires, the driver needs to supply even higher than that, perhaps 3.25V. Then, you have to add the 120mV dropout voltage, and more DCR losses from the battery conduction path. So the cell voltage under load needs to be closer to 3.4 to 3.5V. Once the cell voltage drops below that, the driver falls out of regulation at the intended current. In the same scenario, the Lume1 driver continues to drive the LED at the actual set current even when battery voltage drops below 3V at the cell level, or during low temperatures (e.g. I noticed the Panasonic INR cells tend to drop in voltage much more when cold, compared to say a high drain 30Q). The Lume1 datasheet explains this in more detail. I'm not saying that this is a necessary design element - it's just a feature I wanted to have when I made the Lume1 driver.

I could also design a buck-only driver. With a 100%-duty-capable design, it's still possible to achieve excellent performance and efficiency over a standard linear driver, just that such a driver would begin to fall out of regulation once the battery is drained. If that behavior is accepted (which I think, generally should be OK since people do expect their flashlights to get dimmer as the battery is drained), then there's no issue with a buck-only driver. Hope that makes sense.