Of course I'm concerned with heat! I think that I'm going to go the reasonable route and keep it around 6A...should be very efficient and not as crazy. Direct drive I think it would pull around 18-20A from a single 18650, way too much heat for that board and especially for a small 18650 tube light, even with a perfect thermal path. There are vias under each of the emitters which I filled with excess solder paste when I reflowed then smoothed off the excess on the underside after I was done.
Those cells are 2900mAh NCR18650s I bought from Wallbuys last year. The cells are decent but the protection circuits aren't so hot. I bought four of them and two of them trip with anything over 4A, the other two will do a hair over 5A before tripping...I know that at least two of them will run down to 2.5v resting without tripping the protection circuit. My son left my headlamp on for about 12 hours with two of them in there, when I found it the light was barely glowing. After about an hour each of the cells measured around 2.5v.
I have no idea, but thermally the 70N02 may be getting close to the limit at 30A, it is only rated for 31A continuous at 4.5V. If I were trying to run 30A I would not run the Led+ through the driver, instead running it directly from the battery. You would also need some serious wires, springs, etc. to handle over 30A.
Maybe put the emitter in a jar of mineral oil. In the center of the jar the heated oil will rise and make a thermal current to cool off the bundle of emitters. You could make a really nice camping lantern with that and a mayonnaise jar.
did i hear my name? i’m happy to answer questions about my boards if there are any. wish i found BLF earlier, you guys seem to be way more into diy than some other light forums i’ve been on…
Hi tterev3, I generally would like to have the creators knowledge and approval before adding links to the op even though these are already posted as shared at Oshpark. That’s not always possible but glad to see you’ve registered so you can officially give your approval.
Antoninodattola, is that a board Mattaus designed for you? If so, then great. If not, then I’d like to wait on his input in case it’s for someone’s pet project.
and here’s another that’s not on OSHpark (i did it before they existed) but I’ve seen a few 4x7135 boards on this thread that would work with my code so i think it might be relevant: Everett's projects: Super RGBWUV flashlights
I was wondering where you sourced the UV leds you’ve used.
It seems the MELD will get a UV LED that fits on cree XQ pads. On the Super RGBWUV, might that be a “3535” UV led that fits cree XP pads?
Unfortunately uv tends to be really expensive. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to use some R&D parts for most of my projects but if I have to buy them the luxeon UV is a pretty good part, very high power. It will fit the Cree xq pad that I have on the led board
Welcome tterev3…there are a BUNCH of absolute geniuses and artists here (I’m just the cheerleader ), I stumbled across your build and video’s and about tripped on myself trying to find someone to invite you here to enter into the fray…with your expertise added to the pool…there is NOTHING you guys can’t whip up! I’m 100% positive on that!
I’d recommend going with v2. V1 has a flicker issue that can be solved, but it requires cutting a trace so small I needed to do it with a microscope. If you would much rather the single board solution, I could send you one of my v1 boards that I’ve fixed—I’m not really using them since I got v2 running. I’d let it go just for the cost of the components. Again v2 is a much better option though
I’ve thought about selling but I think the cost may keep most people away—there’s a lot of pricey components on the multicolor boards. If there’s interest I would certainly consider it though