Emisar D3AA driver technical information

jon_slider · 2024-07-22T13:19:11.919Z

Comparing TS10 to D3AA Voltage and Output change Overnight

I started with two freshly charged Wurkkos 14500 batteries.
Both lights set to as close to 15 lumens as possible.
The lights were On for 13.5 hours.
Voltage readings are from my inexpensive DMM.

Conclusion:
The the TS10 battery voltage dropped to 2.90V, the D3AA dropped to 3.55V

The TS10 dropped to 0.09 lumens, the D3AA sustained the 15 lumen output

Screen Shot 2024-07-22 at 7.07.26 AM2880×883 185 KB

disclaimer, I do not know if the results differ due to the two batteries being non identical. I dont have any way to determine that. Maybe someone with better equipment can produce a more controlled test.

Henk4U2 · 2024-07-22T15:43:39.256Z

Just switch batteries and look if the results are similar.

jon_slider · 2024-07-23T14:08:41.104Z

Can someone tell me if my lumen estimates (green box) are in the ballpark?.. iow, does the 0.8 lumen level have 34.3% efficiency?

Henk4U2:

switch batteries

I switched the batteries for this next test, at 5 lumens.

TS10 stepped down to sublumen after 34.5 hours, the battery reached 2.90V and triggered LVP.

The D3AA battery is at 3.54V… and holding near 5 lumens still

Screen Shot 2024-07-23 at 8.33.52 PM1750×548 32.8 KB

jon_slider · 2024-07-24T19:49:28.146Z

I then ran the D3AA for 3 more hours, still at 5 lumens, for a total of 37 hours, when it suddenly stepped down to less than 0.01 lumens, with the battery at 2.99V

a note of caution
When the TS10 and D3AA step down from long runtimes at 5 lumens, it happens suddenly. Essentially giving the operator no warning that the battery is getting low.

There is no gradual dimming, no series of steps down, nor any blinking output that will warn the operator before the light goes dark, and leaves you stranded.

So… monitor your battery level… When it gets below 3.5V, the remaining runtime at 5 lumens is about 2 hours…

here is an output and runtime chart thanks to data from 1lumen

run544×1058 25.8 KB

master-of-disaster · 2024-07-25T20:01:48.631Z

Could this driver could be used to drive a lower voltage output, that is, two 3V LEDs in series?

I would really love a KR4 dual channel with an efficient driver. I don’t require both channels to be active at the same time, so a single driver that switches between the channels would suffice …

Mco77 · 2024-08-08T07:30:03.877Z

Just an update for those interested. I finally managed to track the voltage drops using a multimeter across a few days.

Day0 is 4.14V with Day7 at 3.648V. I noticed the voltage drops of around 0.04V from Day0 to Day4 then a spike to 0.1V from Day5 (around 3.85V reading) and onwards.

Asked Hank about it and he said it’s normal and recommended to loosen the end cap a bit to remove any parasitic drain, which I’m now doing.

thefreeman · 2024-08-08T08:16:27.261Z

It’s not normal of course, the parasitic drain is a bit higher than with li-ion only lights due to the always on system boost converter for dual fuel support, but it’s nothing noticeable in practice.

Chris100575 · 2024-08-08T10:55:53.017Z

If that’s just the voltage dropping without usage I agree that that’s not normal.

thefreeman · 2024-08-08T11:53:08.580Z

It’s about 40~45uA at 3.6V. About 2.5years with a 1000mAh cell.

ebastler · 2024-08-08T12:03:58.299Z

That’s pretty good for dual fuel! That small boost converter is really nice. Is it higher on a T1616 equipped driver, or are avr32dd and T1616 similar in terms of quiescent current in sleep?

thefreeman · 2024-08-08T12:15:48.836Z

It’s similar I think, maybe AVRDD slightly higher than T1616.
I wouldn’t use the same boost IC again because I realized too late that it can’t passthrough, and when Vin is higher than target coutput voltage it has a very high ripple voltage (depends how much higher), thus I had to raise the target voltage to 4.1V, which increases the MCU and main boost IC power consumption a bit (aux leds too).
The ideal target voltage would be about 3.6V, as the main boost IC starts to power itself from Vout below 3.5V which significantly increases its power consumption. (9V to 3.3V burned in the internal LDO)

Chris100575 · 2024-08-08T17:21:22.344Z

With the disclaimer that I understand pretty much nothing about electronics, is this why the aux lights are so bright on low?

thefreeman · 2024-08-08T17:25:59.364Z

It makes the high and low modes a bit closer in brightness, but mainly they are bright in low because the resistor values chosen for a very bright high mode (not my decision).

ebastler · 2024-08-08T18:53:35.939Z

Does that affect the low mode though? Iirc people usually use something between 300 and 1k for high mode, while the chip internal pull-ups are between 10k and 50k depending on the chip. I wouldn’t expect the <1k resistors to make a huge difference there.

thefreeman · 2024-08-08T18:58:37.367Z

Those values are for like Lume1 drivers that uses a 2.5V LDO, barely above green and blue LEDs Vf.
For a non regulated VCC (4.2-2.8V) or here 4.1V the value are much higher and affect the low mode brightness.

ebastler · 2024-08-08T19:56:22.571Z

Interesting, my only AUX led capable light is a HD10, and iirc that one had 300R on all channels (it is indeed pretty bright on “high”), and all channels having the same resistor means the color mixing is ass and everything is just green.

thefreeman · 2024-08-08T20:07:12.921Z

Well Wurkkos is notoriously bad at choosing aux resistor values.
With unregulated VCC the brightest configuration I use is 3.3k/10k/4.7k, for dual fuel AA I usually chose higher values like 6.8k/22k/7.5k or sometimes more.
(pull up resistors are ~30k)

jon_slider · 2024-08-08T20:14:39.561Z

ebastler:

HD10… color mixing is …just green.

I not sure I understand… are you talking about standby Aux colors?

ebastler · 2024-08-08T22:01:06.891Z

Orange (Red+Green) is just green. Turquoise (blue + green) is just a different shade of green as well. White is a strange turquoise. The green LED is way too strong in the HD10, leading to bad aux RGB colors. Would need a way larger resistor to get it back in line.

jon_slider · 2024-08-08T22:12:06.460Z

ebastler:

Orange (Red+Green) is just green…

thanks for explaining,

agree, mixed colors on RGB dont work to make Orange, Turquoise nor White, on a TS10 either…

Im just happy to use Red on low, so I can find the light easily in the dark…