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)
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.
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.
The hot parts are the mosfet & two diodes(?) on the top surface of the top board. In a light, those have to be in good contact with something substantial or else you get about 5-8 minutes runtime on high before it starts giving the overheat warning. Or, at least the version I have that runs at 9A does. It seems they are highly variable in the output they leave the factory with.
Thanks for the review! I was betting these things were not efficient and therefore creating a lot of heat. Looks like I will wait for another board to come out. Sooner or later someone is going to make a board just for the MT-G2.
This driver is the Only 9A 3 mode driver for 3x18650.
I used it for my FM3X UT with CBT-90 build, which is one of the few lights I kept. It’s not just big power, long throw, it also have the best beam and tint of all the lights I’ve ever built. It’s very rare to see solid core zero donut on big die.
Unfortunately, the driver just died, This is the 2nd time it happened, and I had copper heat sink made just for the driver. I am not trying it for the 3rd time, unfortunately, still no other 3 mode 9A driver out there.
Assuming that the CBT-90 can take rough treatment (high voltage spikes) you could probably consider the HX-1175b1. Driver Info: HX-1175b & HX-1175B1 (Pic Heavy) (EDIT: with a piggybacked ATtiny13A for 3-mode & etc)
Basically it works, but I am thinking about changing the firmware (if possible)
Does anyone know what kind of controller is it?
There are two 8-pin chips. One of them is an EEPROM memory (24c02).
So, the other IC would be the microcontroller.
I don’t think it is a Atmel ATTiny, because that has already an EEPROM integrated.
Does anywone know the controller? Is there a chance to change the firmware?