Is there any chance that you guys can test the efficacy of those drivers. I am looking for the most efficient high amp driver (5Amp or more) for my maglite mods.
I received two of These Drivers today.
I just did a quickie test on a single XM-L mounted on an aluminum star with two NCR18650A cells and a bunch of cheap wires, clips and magnets.
I noticed that these drivers have a bit of heft when I held them.
Ouchyfoot, that looks pretty darn good! To bad about the 5 mode. Can you hide the strobe/sos? How hot does the driver get on a longer run? Can you try measuring amps with an XM-L2 when you have a chance?
I also wonder what this would do with 3 cells + MT-G2.
Nice, while I have been searching around for something to work good with a MT-G2, I kept coming across that driver now and then. I wonder how it would do with a MT-G2 and 3 cells or even 2 cells.
I took a chance on these. I didn’t get my hopes up so I wouldn’t be disappointed if they only hit 5A. I should have tested them with three cells, but it didn’t have three matched and charged cells handy. I only did a quick check to confirm 7A. I couldn’t really check for temp and such as my hands were occupied holding wires together, and the emitter was just on an aluminum board.
Maybe tonight I’ll try with XM-L2 on copper and three cells tonight. I did try with one cell, and just got a short flash. I’m no expert, but this driver appears to be well made. It has weight to it.
I ordered three more.
I would like to know if this driver could be connected to an electronic switch. I wouldn’t know where to look.
The driver is the same as the one in the Lustefire triple, and various other lights. I linked to one of these in OP when I started this thread (ebay link). I will update info and link.
Its regulated. It will work with two and three cells (not sure about 4). It works great with an MT-G2. Its easy to resistor mod.
Stock these seems to be doing 7 amps, some 9. Maybe some are lower. My Lustefire triple driver was around 7,6A. Its the driver I modded to do 6,4A in my ZY-T08. A bit info here.
Relic38 increased the current and was running 3 MT-G2s with it. It seems to handle a lot. In terms of output it seems to be one of the best high output drivers..
18sixfifty also have some experience with this. He seems to be pleased with it too and was the first one to put one in the ZY-T08 as far as I know.
This thread's been going so long this might have already been mentioned, dunno.
It is not a buck driver - so even with 3 cells, it won't run a single MTG2. But it does a little over 4A with a single cell*, and 4.80A with 2 and 3 cells, into a single XML2. Big, easily accessible sense resistor right there on top. Short press to turn on/off, press and hold to ramp (each alternating long press ramps in the opposite direction, so you don't have to go all the way to the end and then back). No blinkies.
*The driver works on one cell, but isn't happy about it. Everything works as it should but the driver squeals like crazy. Also kinda pointless as a driver this big doesn't make sense to use with only 1 cell.
It's a buck driver, you can even see it's got an inductor. You assume that all buck drivers have the capability to output close to the input, but many can take high inputs and output only around 5.5V max since that is a standard.
This is the IC that is uses, a step down converter, but it's limited to max 6Vout on the spec sheet.
No, sorry, I was assuming a buck driver to be one that outputs the specified current, at whatever required voltage as long as that voltage is lower than the input voltage.
Most ICs that do not integrate mosfets can do a lot of current if needed (depending on the design and mosfet) but still the voltage output range can be limited very much under the input voltage. Usually if you see an inductor there's some sort of bucking or boosting is going on.
I just installed that 7A driver in a FF STL-V2 with triple XM-L2 wired in parallel. With two fully charged NCR18650B protected, I’m getting a rock solid 8A at the tail.
I already killed one 7A driver. Now it just kills any LED it’s hooked up to without even producing light. I don’t know what I did to it, but it must of been bad.
i might have to pick up one of those drivers
Just modded a MaxToch SN6X-2X throw driver - added an R100 and R120 resistor to an existing single R056. It's a 2 cell series, 1 LED thrower light. Calculated amps to the LED (not measured) is 7.29A, based on the stock measurement of 3.6A to the LED with the one R056, and measured 5.5A to the LED with adding an R100. So for the 2S cells, the tailcap reading varied with cells from 4.55A to 4.9A.
This MaxToch driver seems very robust to be able to handle resistor modding for boosting LED amps from 3.6A to 7.3A. So far it's stable, still all 3 modes are working fine. Have more testing to do though.
I know the LCK FL-2 works fine with two cells, and was wondering if anyone has tried three cells.
It says 5.2 - 12V, and three cells are 12.6V, so would three cells harm it?
I found this thread while trying to find info on using the CNQ DRY driver (http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1349) with an XM-L2 and 2 Li-ion batteries.
I just tried this driver in an A8 clone (as host), with an XM-L T6 on Noctigon, and surprisingly, it seems to work, and I measured ~4.4 amps tailcap current. That was with 2 x Kinoko 18350 batteries.
I’m planning to try a 2 x 18650 host so that I can try 18650s instead of 18350s, as I think that I can probably get currents higher than 4.4 amps with some “good” 18650s (I have some PDs and some Efests).
This is the same driver as the IOS 4.5A driver I believe, so that's what I used for the Shockers - 3 cells, 3 LED's.
Thanks for that. I wasn’t sure if you could run the 4.5A driver with series emitters. I noticed the 5A driver at LCK now states multi emitter capabilities. It didn’t use to. The same driver on the LCK eBay site doesn’t mention this.
I’m always on the lookout for a three cell soupcan light.
Hi,
I wanted to let you all know to be careful with this one :(… I was out the other night with this light, and accidentally wasn’t paying attention and left it on turbo mode for too long (> 2 minutes) and it blinked off. After that, it’d come on in high (or turbo, not sure) only. I’m not sure if it ever stepped down.
Anyway, when I opened the light to check it, there was a “burnt” odor (you all know the one), and I eventually took the driver apart to look at it.
I noticed some black “blobs” hear the heatsink of the FET on the larger board, and when I pulled the driver apart, it looked like the whole heatsink part of the FET was blackened/burnt.
So be careful with this one!!
FYI, I put another, new DRY driver in the same light and it’s pulling > 4.6 amps at the tailcap with 2x18350s. I need to figure out how to improve the cooling on that FET?
Thanks for the feedback ohaya. So do you mean it was the FET which fails?
I had a DRY before and I used to turn it on on Turbo mode for about 10 minutes long continuously (I had the version without step down, but it doesn’t available anymore) without having any issue except that the host was too hot to hold, but the DRY is 3 cells + 3 LEDs, in your case you are using it as a buck driver, so I don’t know if that could be the difference though.