Review/Test of 9A 3-Mode 5.5-12V Circuit board

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
2

I would never believed efficiency was that bad on low and medium, not very impressed with high either. No wonder it has low voltage protection and that some have experienced issues with overheating..

Im not too impressed by the driver, but in some cases it may be the only high output option for its size and output..

Extremely valuable review! Looking forward to more of the driver circuits reviews! :)

Thanks!

When that is said, I don't think many people are into the SST90, so these numbers are more valuable for those wants to power up 1-3 XM-L2s. Especially one XM-L2 (if the driver is resistor modded for a bit lower output). Would you say that is correct? (that these numbers should be quite similar for an XM-L2.)

As far as I can see/guess with my limited knowledge, efficiency would probably be much better in combination with an MT-G2, especially on low and medium. Any thoughts?

btw, looks like intl-outdoor have stopped selling this driver now..

3

This driver looks like it is easy to adjust output current on and it will probably increase the efficiency significantly if the current is reduced.

I do not know how it will handle a MT-G2, due to the higher voltage, but 3 x XM-L2 in parallel would work.

I do not hope to many of the drivers I test, goes out of production, before I publish the review. Doing reviews takes time, also because I do not want to publish a lot of "same product type" reviews, just after each other. I prefer to mix the review types a bit.

4

I am go to test one with MT-G2 on copper and see if it works.
How can I reduce the current so I can use it with XM-L2 on copper?

5

It has six R200 resistors, remove some of them will probably do it.

6

Several people have used it with MT-G2. Some reports of overheating issues..

Current can easily be decreased (removing resistors like HKJ said), which probably makes it into one of the most compact 6,5A drivers for say an XM-L2 with the right resistor value.

Its also one of the few drivers that can output 3x3amps to XM-Ls from 2 cells in series without any driver modifications. And that is without any blinky modes, with decent mode spacing and with low voltage protection.

It may not be the best, but I think it deserves to be sold..

The driver (or basically the same driver) can be bought from LCK-LED, but its slightly more expensive than what intl-outdoor sold it for.

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Nice review HKJ. Thanks for sharing your work with all of us. :slight_smile:

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I have two of these, supposed to be the same, but one does 9A and the other only did 6.5A. The 9A one came with nine resistors - 3 on one side, and 6 on the other, double stacked. The 6.5A one only has 3 and 3.

(I changed the inductor-thing on the one on the left for space reasons, it didn't affect the output)

9

You are correct, they are stacked, mine has 9 resistors. If you look very careful on my photos, it can also be seen there.

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Look at this 9 amp driver I found from KD, 14,79$... Not the same resistors though..

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They look the same (R20 and R200 is the same).

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Yupp! (and you are correct)

Its also sold as a 3A, 5A, and 7A version..

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The 3A and 5A doesn't look like the same driver.

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Yes, nine R200. I was wondering if the chip 5241a has been changed somehow. It should have 0.2V sense voltage. I = 0.2/R where R is 0.03333Ohm (9 times R200 in parallel). With 6 resistors R200 you would get 6A. I’ve seen 5241 chip in quite some bicycle lights including famous Magicshine.

So anyone who wants to mod it’s current can simply calculate it from the formula above.

15

whoops, my fault..

They are not the same, just very similar. Lower current and single mode.. And instead of wires between the boards, there is two metal rods..

16

Thermal image would be very nice for all driver tests.

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The problem is that I cannot do it in my test setup, I will have to make another setup for that.

What you will get from a thermal image it not the temperatures (They are meaningless), but what components get hot.

18

TY :-)

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Not quite true :slight_smile:

Im a certified thermographer and I can tell you within 1% what the temperature of a said component is easily, provided I take the image hehe

Chris

20

That is not the point. When taking thermal images, I would not have the same cooling as when mounted in a flashlight, i.e. the temperature will not be the same. That is the reason I call the temperature meaningless.

You have to know a bit about what you are measuring on and how it is used, when using the result from a thermal imager.

21

Ah I see :slight_smile:

Far from meaningless, but might be a translation issue

Chris