The only problem i see here is a chinese company copying your design and offering it for much less $.
I’ve open sourced every idea I’ve had here but nobody’s bothered to copy me :_( but I’ve also sold a few things that I put many hours into. If more people asked me to make them a light I would certainly sell them one but I’d make more per hour washing dishes than making lights. It’s the same for many of those I’ve dealt with and even with this driver there’s no way that price is going to pay a wage so I hardly think it any different than the rest.
this was the most recent one before I posted, I think there was one before that (more of a guestimate I guess):
“Price predictions are guesswork as it is so dependant on volume.
But a guess from me would put it in the 12,5-15,5 USD for 1 and then dropping to ~10,5 for any number above 5 but below 50.
And I have nothing to back that up at all. Basicaally just hoping the price will not be so high that it is out of my range.”
I think that to be truly competitive at a $15 price, being able to program at least light levels would be a deal sealer, at least in the US where you can get the fully programmable Lflex for$30 inc. shipping, although $15 would still be good value for a 5A driver. I wouldn’t even know where to start on how to program such a thing, but both George at Taskled and DrJones have done it with an e-switch.
Open sourced or not, drivers is something I can’t do. If I have a light that I’d like fitted with this driver I’ll buy it.
This is why I was saying “open source” some will go to the expense of buying components and building the drivers, but most wont and are more than willing to pay a fee to get them pre-made, the community coming together to produce, tweak, and improve. The people are paying for the labor not the R&D because everyone that gives to the development freely, maybe with the hope of a pat on the back or kudos or whatever…sure maybe a little bit of bling in the pocket but not to make fat bank for the most part.
Either or, a new innovative driver just proves the cree flashlight is a growing industry…and we always appreciate pushing things
I´m in for 5 pcs.
There are a lot of projects going on here in BLF lately, and some of those overlap. I find the work you’re doing, Comfy, to be very appealing for some of the super intense lights I have and a few I intend to build. That work is and has been indispensible for me and probably many others. My M8 that I just love could not be without your help and open guidance. Because of the FET work on a 17mm driver, I’m seeing start outputs over 4000 lumens, hadn’t even imagined it!
This little 5A driver has it’s own place, and while I can see a few places I might use it there surely wouldn’t be need for any real quantity in what I do. I like it’s potential and would use it to replace a couple of drivers I’ve stacked chips on, in an effort to make them more efficient. Again, work here on this front is groundbreaking and much appreciated.
Matt, TexasPyro, PilotPTK, a great many folks have done a lot of work to help many people here get a leg up, and I for one greatly appreciate it.
Were it not for Justin and his work, his challenge, I’d probably not be modding at all.
FWIW, I understand the budget feeling 100%, as I only made a bit over $2500 last year myself. My wife is driving a 2012 Ford Escape, the first new car either of us has ever had, necessary when the car she was driving got totalled by a driver with no insurance. It’s difficult to pay the car payment month to month (not made easier by my addiction to lights). So yeah, I understand. And no, you’re not a chump for being helpful.
I’m going to need a stock of these in the next couple of months.
hi guys 8)
Hi gords, haven't seen you in a while, welcome to the latest developements on budget driver forum ;-)
:bigsmile: I’ve been embarrassed to post tbh. and quite tied up with some other stuff so torch modding has been on the back burner.
I’ll try not to drop off the planet so much in future. :bigsmile:
sorry for the thread derailment, I will want some of these in stock.
Thats two of us, on the same continent. We can GB to get to the req’d 5 minimum.
Hi Gords.
So I'm the fool. All this time I should of been washing dishes. For once the wife was right. Thanks for setting me straight RBD not that I have sold any lights.
That doesn't sound fun.
It only makes you a chump when you then turn around and complain about other people making money off of their efforts.
There's a difference between having fun developing something for yourself and then sharing it with the community (which we all love to do), and developing something with others in mind and only applying the effort because there will be some reward at the end. If you're sacrificing your time for the sake of the community then you have it all wrong, and there's no wonder why you get upset when someone doesn't return the sacrifice.
I’d like to hang on to 2 maybe 3 for myself so if you’re fine with that?
question: how low is the lowest mode? Which 2 “stars” out of the 3 on the back of the pcb control the modes? could you add a mini dip switch or two to change modes without pulling out a soldering iron (a la njang)?
the njang with the right firmware gets awful low, but you have the chip stacking problem at high amps, so this might be worth sacrificing a moonlight mode for me.
Actually,it should be possible to get moonlight mode with stock hardware on at least 50% drivers,but problem is you must do it manually for each driver.Sense voltage at 5mA is 50uV,lower than opamp input offset and that's the problem.For example if you set 1/1023 mode(that's 5/1023Amp or close to 5mA,theoretically),and do that for 20 random drivers,you'll get moonlight currents from 0-20mA,so some of them will be good,others can be "fixed" by setting 0/1023 or 2/1023,3/1023,depending on offset.
Two ones that are closest together,but this is not final pcb version,so this is not important now.Dip switches are too bulky,and unnecessary.
Im OK with 2.
Well if these do make it to “production”. At $12-14 definitely put me down for 5pcs.
one last question (I think): could ramping be easily implemented?
Easy as any other "style". Will do that in the next few days, currently I'm focused on final pcb redesign and driver testing.Then,I'll have some time for programing part while I'm waiting test pcbs from factory.