I’m not taking it the wrong way, you are helping me to produce something accurate and helpful to others! So thank you.
I corrected the mistakes you pointed out.
I feel like there is too much text. I just installed Matlab and KiCAD. I’ll try to make some nice graphs to explain the same things with less words… But not today.
Nice explanation, I think it is a good introduction for folks who are new to building flashlights, but I guess someone who is completely new to this should judge that :-)
If you want to redo it with less text that’d be cool but I urge you leave everything already up. Make a new post with the shortened version, you should never remove reference material.
I somehow never found this article on your website, even though I looked through it many times.
Anyway, I added a link to your article at the bottom of the OP.
That article was only posted on CPF and I wanted to update it before posting it on my website, but has never gotten around to do that. Maybe you can use some ideas from it (I might still update it and post it sometime in the future).
I might do a separate in depth topic on this. I don’t want this to be so long that it scares newbies.
On a side note, I have a doubt about my title. Would it be better to say:
“Understanding the difference between Linear, Buck, Boost and Direct Drive drivers”
Instead of:
“Understand the difference between Linear, Buck, Boost and Direct Drive drivers”
?
applaud the topic: it’s an instruction, ‘do this’ (works fine in your title, as “you can do this”)
applauding the topic: it’s a description, ’we are doing this” (also works fine in your title)
When I was working with buck and boost circuits we simply called them DC-DC inverters which was basically just an oscillator (square or sawtooth) driving a toroidal transformer and operated at 20khz and above if I remember correctly. It’s been many, many years.
Higher frequencies allowed smaller components but usually lower efficiencies. That’s part of the buck/boost drivers used here.
You have to have AC, in one form or another, to transform voltage, so DC-DC converts DC to AC, changes voltage up or down, then converts to DC again.
The L/C portion in these drivers looks like part of the regulation circuit and operates at audible frequencies.
Your explanation is a lot easier to understand.
What we, the end user, care about is:
Voltage range usable for input.
Usable voltage and current out and stability.
Overall efficiencies at various voltage/current levels.