Hi all,
I have a sweet deal to purchase a Nitecore MT21A which does about 1A~1.1A to the LED (XPE2). Pulls 2A at the tailcap. Feels really small in hand and I want to EDC it. I do however want to find a Boost Driver that can generate 1.5A to the LED. My thinking is it will enable the XPE2 to hit 15K lux or so. I love small lights with a lot of lux and I only EDC lights that are AA or AAA in thickness.
I also am building my dad a 2C Maglite. Have the heatsink and XPE2 on 16mm star sourced and ready to go on a fresh 2C Mag. I just need to pick the right driver. If a Boost Driver does exist even if its 22mm or so it will still fit inside the 2C Tube.
If none exists I may have to settle on the 1A~1.1A driver that already exists and is rather inexpensive and available in USA.
I use the driver you listed in a 2AA build. I don’t know the amps it pulls as I’ve never checked. But it is a lot brighter than I thought it would be. I run it with an XP-G2 NW.
My only complaint would be, after a while (months, I forget how long) a component fell off the driver. Easy and cheap swap for another one, just a little annoying.
With the poor efficiency already at 900mA, I wouldn’t try pushing it too far.
All the good efficient Boost drivers I know of max at around 1Amp output, 2A input or so.
The DX SKU 25505 works well to 1A output, 1.8A input before efficiency falls apart. Efficiency is very good with 2AA, OK with 1AA.
The Drivers in my Fenix E21 and ITP SA2 are very efficient; wish I could buy those drivers. I’ve not tried pushing them. 700-750mA output, 1-1.2A input, better than 85% or so eff. (these lights have XP-L V6 3D now )
Sandwich Shoppe Nexgen is my favorite well behaved boost driver (not for 1AA though) It is limited to 1A output and about 1.5A input though….
I went ahead and ordered 2 of those Nanjg 110 drivers and will pot them heavily with Artic Alumina Adhesive mix to keep things cool and components in place.
For the Maglite 2C Build I think I will move away from using the XPE2 R3 emitter since at 1A I would be lucky to get 250ish OTF lumens.
Since I am only gonna drive the LED at 900~1A I think the XLM2 U3 would give me the most lumens, not sure what the XPL at same currents does.
There are plenty or readily available lights now that are 2xAA with XML2 emitters and they all claim about 450 lumens.
So, I wonder if they have a similar driver that pushes the LED at just 1A or so, but rely on the efficiency and low vF of the new XML2’s to get those 450 lumens (maybe 400 OTF, who knows).
Thank you for checking the current for me. I assume those NiMH AA cells put forth 2.8V input and to get 2.5A tailcap current is crazy impressive. That means its making 7 Watts of power.
The NEW 2D Maglite must be using a similar driver to Claim 524 Lumens from just 2D cells.
Now, the question is how efficient these drivers are and what OTF lumens one can expect.
Sorry to bring up an older thread and I did try to search… But Mountain is out of boost drivers and it seems they’re becoming more difficult to find. I’ve been in the hunt lately for a good driver that will work well in a 2AA, 2C and 2D configuration with modes (single mode is ok too but prefer multi) and output 700mah to 1000mah. I’ve seen a few that FT, KD and DX still have. Anyone have any recommendations?
Search here for “LDCH” but note that nobody, as far as I know, has found a consistent source — even drivers that are described as the same look different from time to time and from one source to another.
Let RMM at Mtn know you’re looking — so are others, and he’s said he has had thoughts toward making a good 1xAA-2xAA driver at some point, but no promises.
The ones currently available fry if modded to much more than 1A and you’d have a hard time getting enough current from AA’s anyway. Either the boost chip fails or the input diode does. You can upgrade the diode but boost IC’s with 2-3V input don’t seem to be made for high output current.
Well it would be great if RMM did start offering boost drivers again, hope he does decide to make a good one. The Sandwich Shoppe has always had a solid selection of drivers, but more of the old CPF ways and not so much BLF as the prices reflect small scale hobbyist rather than budget larger mass production as the parts we’re accustomed to here that are from China:
I’m not looking for particularly high output. As I said, anywhere between 700mah to 1A is what I’m going for and it seems the ones that are currently available will do that and should be fine working with 2AA nimh cells…
they CLAIM.not sure they do.wont believe anything in the chinese flashlight world without testing.
best boost driver i have seen was in a snap on 2aa.
it put 1a to the led and i figured it to be 93% efficiency.
once you try to cross 1a from 2 aa,c,d,cells its time to move to li-ion.