2 Li-ion 3 amp Driver Super Output Current Mod "Now with Larger Toroid driving a MT-G2"

This 3 amp 2 li-ion driver is from lightmalls, http://www.lightmalls.com/super-output-ssc-p7-led-driver-board-low-high-middle-5-5v-15v-2, it can be modified by changing the sense resistor value for more or less current. From the current readings I got, I’am assuming sense resistor formula is this .3 divided by total resistance (.1 ohms) equals output current (3 amps). The driver uses 2 R200 (.2 ohm) resistors wired parallel for current sense. I added a 1 ohm resistor and got 3.275 amps to the led and the driver seemed perfectly happy. So I thought, lets just see how far this driver can go. I remembered ImA4Wheelr’s DST 10 ohm pot mod he did here. Then I could just turn the pot and watch the current climb, so why not try it.
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Worked great with one exception. The FET at 5 amps is to hot to touch within 30 seconds. It runs fine at 5 amps it just gets extremely hot, heat sinking might allow it to run that current for extended periods. With out heat sinking I’am pretty sure it will not last long. 4 amps maybe doable without heat sinking, not sure didn’t test it. Might be a good option with smaller lights that use 2 li-ions if a 19mm driver will fit. Will not work with a single li-ion.

Nice work and report. Thank you. I may get a couple. Website says the driver is 90 to 95% efficient. Medium sounds like it might be tad high, but it looks like it has a nice low and no blinkies.

I have to pass the credit for the trimpot idea to RaceR86. I learned it from Post 167 of this thread.

Nice.
I have one of these on the way…

The driver is almost the same as the IOS 4,5A, LCK-LED 5A, FT 3A, etc driver...

But this 3A one have the smaller torroid, no contact board, and seems to maybe have one different part or more... It would be interesting to hear if this did direct drive if its got 3 cells in series and 3 emitters in series like the larger torroid versions...

Medium says 35% but I measured almost 1500ma and low at 250ma if I remember correctly. I’ll check the numbers I have wrote down when I get home.
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Update; I had wrote down 1485ma in med and 275ma in low.

Thanks 007. I’m always interested reasonably priced drivers made for series battery configurations. That way you don’t have to have the best batteries to get 4 amps. I have a similar driver coming that I intend to mod the same way. Once I settle on the current it’s going to be potted to help the cooling issue.

Looking at the driver I’m thinking it may be the same “super P7” driver sold by DX & KD in the past. That driver had reliability issues related to proper heatsinking. I’ll follow this thread ’cos I’ve been looking for a quality buck driver for some time. Thanks for your work M007.

It appears to be the same driver as the KD super. But the led output side has a FET marked PHD45N03 LTA as seen in the pic.
http://www.lightmalls.com/super-output-ssc-p7-led-driver-board-low-high-middle-5-5v-15v-2
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Its possible KD maybe shipping the same driver with the FET but haven’t updated the pics. :~

There was a lot of talk about similar drivers in another thread, that had to do with the current being higher with the larger toroid drivers, like the LCK-LED 5amp driver. As far as I can tell its the same driver with a different toroid and sense resistors as this driver in the OP, the lightmalls 3 amp driver.
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I just happen to have a bare small toroid laying around that I had salvaged from something, I thought I’ll try that. So I set in and wired the toroid up with some wire and used about the same number of turns for the coil as the LCK-LED 5 amp driver. This is it setting on top of the original 3amp lightmalls driver.
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This is the new coil on the right compared to the LCK-LED 5 amp coil on the left.
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I then unsoldered the small toroid on the lightmalls driver.
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Then I soldered on the larger toroid that I just made to the lightmalls 3amp driver and added the pot mod back to the sense resistors so I could turn the current up. Started with 2 laptop pulls Panasonic 2900mah cells with the pot turned to all it would do, going to a copper board MT-G2 on a Maglite heatsink with copper rod insert. The copper board was soldered directly to the mag heatsink.
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I then tried 2 Samsung 20R’s, with the pot turned all it would do.
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I then tried 3 2900mah cells.
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I don’t have but 2 20R’s so I can’t try that. The funny thing about replacing the smaller toroid with a larger one like on the LCK-LED 5 amp version is that the FET never seemed to get hot like it did when I upped the current on the smaller toroid. Everything seemed normal as far as I could tell, but I did notice the pot was heating up quite a bit. Couldn’t run it to long because the MT-G2 was smoking hot on the Maglite heatsink. Needed to be mounted on a much larger chunk of aluminum.
So are these drivers the same with just different current sense resistors and a larger toroid, from what I seen, I believe so. All current readings are done with a MT-G2 so what could a XM-L2 do.

Thanks for sharing..

I have used one of the small 3A versions (small torroid) modded to 5A. So far so good. :)

Hi RaceR86, did you pot or heat sink the driver at all? Using the larger toroid did seem to make the FET run much cooler just by touch.

I got one of the last, maybe THE last, 4.5A version from IOS. Planning to do the same thing with it - MTG2 3D Mag, with MNKE 26650s (when I win the lottery).

When I keep looking around for drivers for a MT-G2 I keep getting those dead links to no longer available drivers at IOS. Why in the world did they quit selling them anyways.

Supposedly something about a new lineup of state of the art drivers in the works that will make the old ones obsolete... if it were anybody else I'd just laugh and shake my head, but Hank seems to be on a roll recently, so who knows.

I hope his got a real monster driver J) for a MT-G2 up his sleeve, I just can’t get over the amount of light they put out at over 7 or 8 amps or the heat either. I just don’t want to settle for anything less. I’m addicted. :Sp

Interesting. So, over-driving a 6V MT-G2 already resulted in early severe losses. Seems upgrading the inductor is the way to go from a performance/efficiency(?) standpoint.

I’ll get one of these in a nearby future, 3A version, to drive an XHP50. I’d like to step-up the current a bit, I have both 0’43Ω & 0’47Ω spare resistors lying around. Maybe I should also think on winding me up some sort of handy custom inductor made out of an old low voltage AC transformer’s windings. :innocent:

Well, I know the thread is pretty old but the driver is readily available (and good).

Cheers fellas :slight_smile:

We like old threads around here.

Bummer. Just cancelled my “warm white 80+CRI” XHP50 order at Aliexpress, seller told me only “blow white” was available. :smiley:

FastTech is stocking M2-7A XHP70 emitters, I’m waiting for their feedback to know if they are 80+CRI units .

Does someone have this driver at hand? Are these current feedback resistors of 1210 imperial units size?

Cheers

Well, I published a thread on this product’s page at FastTech a week ago, and about a little while I’ve expanded it with my findings:

Information on current delivery modifications and efficiency

Briefing: three 1210 ½W three ¼W 1206 0’2Ω sense resistors are onboard, total combined shunt resistance is 0’06͡7Ω, sense voltage is 200mV.

Cheers

Well, going to get a unit of this stuff finally, aiming at around 4’2-4’8A of current delivery. Good to see these toroidal inductors, cos I’ll end up custom tailoring one for my driver. Hope it’s not too hard to desolder the onboard one. Thanks fellows.

Cheers :partying_face: