Just experienced a hell of a week last week(Flood/blackouts) and now its time to rethink my setup ready for disaster.
Needing your expert opinions/help, Looking to replace the driver of a few of my budget lights with pretty bad PWM on low and looking for the best driver to replace them, Can’t buy new/expensive lights so I just have to upgrade my existing ones (It’s always fun to mod lights). :bigsmile:
Here’s what I’m looking for
For 1xAA lights
-Driver 1:Highest Output on 1xAA with multiple modes
-Driver 2: Sgl mode driver that Runs 24hrs on 1xAA(Eneloops)
For 1x18650/16340
- Driver 1: Single mode at 100mA
Driver 2: High mode: Constant regulated at 3500mA, modes(100, 10, 1%) with memory
I made a small LED boost circuit that handles 1xAA through a CR123 cell (3volts). It is not regulated - the current will drop as the battery voltage drops, but it will work until the voltage gets to about 0.8volts. Being a boost circuit, you can’t use a LiIon cell since that voltage 3.7-4.2v is above the vf of most LED’s, so the LED basically gets DD (direct drive) and you can kill the LED - as long as the cell’s voltage is lower than the vf, then you are OK. Details here in my website: Joule Thief circuit boards
Wow, those are really great drivers you got there. A bit expensive for me but they are really awesome.
I Just thought I’m asking too much geting info of several drivers I decided to set my needs to 2,
*Efficient single mode driver that has 20-30 lumen setting and has no bad PWM.
1xAA
1x18650(with low voltage warning)*
I looked around for good AA drivers as well, because there a great budget AA-lights (aka hosts…) but I really dont like their PWM, so I ended up with this one, wich seems to be just perfect, but quite expensive: EOS-Lamp AA driver at intl-outdoor
AA-drivers with modes but without visible PWM are really hard to find it seems to me…
edit: I don’t have this driver (yet?), so I cant tell you how it is, but it seems great on “paper”
Oh I edited my post too late… I dont have it (yet), so I am sorry that I cant tell you.
Though runtime and lumen can be estimated with the given currents (500mA on high, 160 mid and 7mA low), and the data of the used batterys capacity as well as the used LED’s Lumen per current.
Maybe this driver can help. It is single mode available in 350ma, 700ma, 1050ma, 1400ma. The link is for the 350ma but here is a link for all the drivers that Kaidomain lists
I Thought I need to solder two wire on 1 contact.
Will include one on my next order, at what host did you put yours? I think it will not fit on my current AA budget lights(Ultrafire C3 SS and Akoray K106).