The underwhelming performance is not caused by the driver, the Ant Man is direct drive so nothing to win there, it is caused by the high voltage of blue lasers, 14500 cells can not deliver that. But some Antmans have much better performance than others because the voltage of blue lasers happen to vary a lot: if you are lucky your laser has a lower Vf than others.
These things really should have a boost driver.
No reason a 14500 cell couldn’t deliver much higher output with a boost driver.
Forgot about that, a boost driver could make it better.
Boost driver (one mode) and a 16mm lens for v2. Please and thank you
About the buck-boost driver just above, I realised some time ago that the converter I selected can only output 2.5-3.6V, I didn’t even think to check that because usually buck-boost converters have a wide output range, this one is peculiar, maybe that’s why it has been spared by the shortage.
So I replaced it with the MPQ28164, which according to Mouser should be available in February, one thing I’m not sure about is the Enable thresold which doesn’t seem very precise, which could maybe cause problem for LVP, I’ll have to test. I also changed the constant current circuit because the previous one would have been wildly inaccurate.
I’m going to put jumpers on the back in order to select different current settings, maybe 2 or 3 different current.
ID30209 sent me his Antman so I have the right measurements, I should also plug the head to my PSU to check the Vf at some point.
Anyhow I need to wait for MPQ28164’s availability to test it.
I love the jumper idea.
Would using 2 14250 cells in series give any better results with the higher voltage? Or would that kill it?
Sure death
Also you already asked this question previously 
Oops :person_facepalming:
Sorry, my brain isn’t working today.
@ the free man. Did you manage to make a functioning driver? Would love to but one from you if possible! 
I made a driver indeed, but it doesn’t work properly 
, it’s strange because this a fairly common type of circuit, I’ll try to do some troubleshooting and see if it can be fixed, on first look it seems the buck-boost IC has trouble starting up, maybe using another IC would work, unfortunately TI BB IC aren’t available until next year. (I used a MPS one).
Hope you’ll get it working. Could prove to be a quite popular mod. The more powerful version seems to cost almost 200usd! O_o
Quick post since it’s a bit late.
I made a new version with the TPS63802, I thought this one wasn’t working as well until I realised that put two wrong resistor values 
.
I set it 1.5A, does 1.48A, I used Cheule’s 1.45A will full cell as reference since that was the highest current from measured samples. As stated previously the Ant Man I have currently is from ID30209, originally his pulled only 0.4A. The Vf at 1.5A is 4.5V, no wonder the current was so low.
That said I only get ~72kcd (5m indoors) while Cheule measured 100kcd, maybe the performance is also inconsistent at the same current…
There is two solder jumpers on the back, one for 1.75A and another for 2A, I haven’t tested yet though.
Edit : I get 300mV oscillations at ~80kHz, not exactly ideal for a laser diode, though it doesn’t seem to cause problems.
Thx freeman! It will be properly working after your magic.
Real shame Lumintop did such a bad job on these drivers...
I solved the instability issue, now something like 15mV ripple at 1.5Aout.
If there is enough interest I could have it produced, being one sided makes it affordable in not so large production run.
I’d love to make my little antman more useful. If there’s a driver offered, sign me up.
Quick efficiency measurements :
I need this driver in my life. I just ordered an ant man, somehow coupon stacking got it down to 50€ which is nice. Still feeling bad for giving lumintop money for something they didn't even bother putting a driver in.
Anyway, I think this driver will need a group buy in a new thread. I doubt people who initially lost interest in the ant man due to poor performance will check this thread even if there are new posts.