Led Driver test:: Nanjg 102, Nanjg 105c and East 060A driver.

Great info here, HKJ. Thanks for making the time to do it all! :)

You should be able to cut and paste it straight to Excel. Just tried your table and it worked on my computer.

Great work, very interesting, thank you. Is there a way to monitor the driver temperature during testing? I would be interested to see what performance drop there would be due to high temps, also the performance gains when heatsinked well. Or maybe point out which drivers are more temperature sensitive than others.

No, it would require the driver to be mounted on a heatsink.

I try to do the test rather fast, to avoid heating the driver. Looking at the efficiency you can estimate how many watts is lost in the driver.

Now I am just waiting for the drivers to arrive, the led test modules are ready:

The wires and current test resistor adds about 11mOhm resistance, i.e. at 3A I will have an error of 0.033 volt. I expect there are more variations between leds than that.

Drivers has arrived:

Any last minutes ideas, before I start testing?

Yes, check if they have modes as advertised (number and order L~~H or H~~>L)…
Thanks

While testing modes, a quick test of the memory? Some say last mode memory and actually give us next mode, which most of us can’t stand!

Thanks for doing this, will be watching closely for the results!

Do you have a Q-Lite 3.04A? This is my preferred driver at the moment, quiet, dependable, love the default modes.

PWM whine include that.

Slow mode changing, check that too.

Oohh. and please publish the KK 4200 battery review before you get your hands full with all these drivers. Im into buying some cells sooner than I though. Would be nice to see a review before I pull the trigger!

BTW, really looking forward to see these driver circuit reviews! So in advance, thank you for doing them! :)

Btw, what kind of emitters will you be testing them with?

Ok, I will see what I can do with checking the modes.

I do not believe it is on the list (See post #1).

If it is really bad I will include it. Inductor whine can also be because you have some iron close to the inductor in the flashlight!

What do you mean by slow mode change?

The review is done and will be published in the near future.

Depends on the driver, see the link when I publish the first review.

First test is up: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/21113

Of course I started with the simplest driver first.

Nice setup! I need to improve my drive to emitter wirings and this gave me an idea. :beer:

I have been improving on the linked explanation, if there are any wishes for more explanation, they can be posted here.

I did also get time to test the next driver and some of the curves are used in the explanation.

Test the 3-18V driver. Its got very slow mode change. You will probably notice it out.. With a normally fast 5 mode, you could get to the mode you wanted way faster, and without any pause. I just remember the driver as being very slow. I don't have it any longer. Not that tempted to buy it either due to the slowness and PWM whine.

Not only is it on the list, but its also on the picture.

Considering that is just another nanjg 7135 based driver its probably no surprises to be found in terms of efficiency and such. The Nanjg 105C from FT have already been tested, and the driver HKJ tested looked like it had 380mA regulators. Whatever it had, expect same efficiency.

Slight PWM on high have been measured by some on the Qlite, so output might be around 1% lower on high? In real life its the same, only nicer due to programming. :) Best single cell driver out there for the price. Only little complaint is the mode memory, which seems to be momorized after around 2+ seconds of on time. Im not sure if that is just the way all those nanjg 105C type drivers have to work, or if it can be optimized through software.

Personally, I prefer a mode memory that sets almost instantly after being off.

HKJ, would be nice if you tested how mode-memory worked on the different drivers. Does it memorize the mode after being on for a certain time, or off? How much time does it take to save the mode to the memory?

In general, would be nice to know exactly how the low voltage warning works on drivers with that feature. :)

Providing pictures to a driver, will make it easier for me to check if it is included. I have not tested any driver called "Q-Lite 3.04A", but I have one in queue called "Qlite Rev.A 7135x8 Multiple Modes"

I am checking that, but I will not be measuring it in seconds, only stuff like: fast or slow.

Any step down feature will be clearly visible in the curves, but the curves might miss fast flashes with some time between. If the description of the driver includes information about it, I will check for it.

It is still ok to post wishes for other drivers to test, but it will be some time before I will get to them. The best way to ask for a test, is to post a link to the driver in a shop.

Yes it has good default modes but they would be even better without memory effect which is not 2 second as declared(it is more like 5 seconds).

Looking forward for HKJ test.

There are 12 drivers on the picture but in second post you listed only 11.

I think the middle in the bottom row is the one missing. And I think it’s this one http://intl-outdoor.com/1a-2755v-buckboost-circuit-board-p-674.html

Some people are using to much time looking on pictures and reading lists

You are correct.

I noticed it right away. I bought 10+ pieces of 3 mode version from Shinigbeam. It’s probably one of the most efficient and best regulated budget drivers and it’s buck/boost. Unfortunatelly it isn’t being made anymore (so I’ve heard from Shiningbeam).